How to force a backup to run immediately in Time Machine ?

Question

Level 1

1 points

How to force a backup to run immediately in Time Machine ?

Hello,

I've the following problem: When I connect my external USB HD to my Mac Book Pro, and if there is more than 1 hour than the previous Time Machine backup was run, I would expect the backup to start immediately (that's the reason why I connected the HD in fact).

But instead of that, the next backup is scheduled about one hour in the future... This means I have to let the drive connected to the laptop until the backup eventually starts. This is quite an odd way of working !

Is there a way to force the backup to start as soon as the HD is connected ?

Thanks for your help !

Thierry.

Mac Book Pro, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Oct 28, 2007 4:05 AM

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Answer 1

Egil-H

Level 1

104 points

Oct 28, 2007 4:13 AM in response to pthierry

My work-around (while experimenting with Airdisk support) is to add a new file or folder to the "exluded" list...

Doing that triggers a new backup in 120 secs...

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Answer 2

Oct 28, 2007 4:35 AM in response to pthierry

Think I answered this last night in another post, but the way to do it is make sure you have the Time Machine icon on your dock (you may need to drag it from Applications).

Once it's there you can right-click the icon and select 'Backup Now'

Hope this helps.

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Answer 3

siu-85

Level 1

8 points

Oct 28, 2007 3:40 PM in response to Martin Dolphin

Tried right clicking on the time machine app and it brings up a menu to do an immediate backup. Thanks! FYI: I had to change the preference in for my Apple mighty mouse to have right click as a "secondary button."

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Answer 4

Nov 26, 2007 12:14 AM in response to Martin Dolphin

Bingo!

Thanks for your help. As obvious as it seems now that you've informed us, I would not have looked there without reading your post.

Cheers,
Robert

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Answer 5

Jimbo67

Level 1

0 points

Nov 26, 2007 6:24 AM in response to siu-85

I'm just getting started with 10.5, Time Machine and don't see a "right click" option in the system preferences for the Mighty Mouse control. IF you can direct me, I'd appreciate it.

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Answer 6

Nov 26, 2007 7:23 PM in response to Jimbo67

Just "ctrl" click for a right click...

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Answer 7

Nov 29, 2007 4:55 AM in response to Baitfinger

You can also click and hold on the TM icon until the menu pops up.

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Answer 8

VEM2

Level 1

16 points

Dec 1, 2007 2:24 PM in response to pthierry

I did this procedure successfully (back up now), but now TM doesn't show a time for the next scheduled backup? I've tried creating a new file thinking that maybe it was smart enough to recognize that nothing had changed as of yet, but that didn't help. I'm hoping if I wait out and hour it will start backing up on its own, but has anyone else had this problem???

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Answer 9

Russa

Level 4

1,343 points

Dec 1, 2007 2:27 PM in response to pthierry

RIght-click the TM icon on the DOck and select "Backup now".

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Answer 10

Russa

Level 4

1,343 points

Dec 1, 2007 2:28 PM in response to Jimbo67

The Mighty Mouse is touch sensitive. Just press it where you normally would have a "right button" on your old Windows mouse.

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Answer 11

VEM2

Level 1

16 points

Dec 1, 2007 2:37 PM in response to pthierry

It's not an issue of backing up "now" but rather the fact that after I did that, TM no longer seemed to want to schedule backups, which I do depend on.

It just so happens that I had something else going on, completely unrelated but because the only thing (I thought) that was different was that I had manually forced TM to back up. As I kept going through the forum looking for others with similar problems, I learned what I was doing wrong, and that it has nothing to do with the manual backup:

If you are using a laptop, it MUST be plugged in for TM to schedule automatic backups.

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