Can you limit the files to backup with Time Machine specifically for a particular drive rather than globally for all backups?

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Can you limit the files to backup with Time Machine specifically for a particular drive rather than globally for all backups?

I use Time Machine to backup to an external USB drive on my iMac as well as to an NAS external drive (specifically the Western Digital My Cloud Pro PR4100). I've excluded some things such as downloadable software that is easily replaced.

I'd like to create a backup of just Photos and Movies for an external USB drive, so I'd need to exclude just about everything except for two folders to do that, but it appears that there is no way to have the folders to back up differ from one Time Machine disk drive to another.

Unless there's some feature I'm not aware of?

Otherwise, I'm stuck doing a drag and drop copy which doesn't keep track of changes of course.

If not, I'll submit this as a request to Apple.

Posted on Nov 25, 2019 9:52 AM

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Answer 1

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Tesserax

Level 10

148,703 points

Nov 25, 2019 10:45 AM in response to mvgossman

Although you exclude files with Time Machine, these exclusions would affect all TM backups, regardless of which drives you use. Configuring unique backup sets for each drive is not something TM is designed to do ... at least, not natively.

It sounds like you may be better served using another backup solution for your USB drive, like Carbon Copy Cloner.

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Answer 2

Nov 25, 2019 10:59 AM in response to mvgossman

Time Machine has always been the backup for people who know nothing about setting up backups. Very little configuration was allowed to make sure Joe Blow could not mess up his own backup.

The product you want is Carbon Copy Cloner .. or one of the other backup software eg superduper is still popular. So it does incrementals properly of just select folders to a target. You can also setup multiple jobs. CCC is free to use for a month.. download it and give it a try.

The plan is a good one btw. People so easily lose their photos and multiple backups with offsite/cloud additional is well worth it. All stuff Time Machine was never designed to do.

edit.. Tesserax beat me to the punch.

As a btw, I now trust CCC and relegated Time Machine to doing TESTS.

After the Annual

Became BiAnnual or more.. I realised having a trustworthy backup was more useful than bells and whistles one.

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Answer 3

mvgossman Author

Level 1

15 points

Nov 25, 2019 1:51 PM in response to LaPastenague

I have had that terrible dialog myself. What I like about Time Machine is just what was stated above, being stone simple and while being for the uninitiated to do the task pretty well, I'm far from uninitiated and welcome the opportunity to have more sophistication - such as the ability to set the backup folders for the specific backup partition or external device in question. The most attractive feature of Time Machine is that it remembers when you don't. Every time you plug into the Wifi, it starts the backup and saves your bacon when the day comes.

I just inquired with Carbon Copy Cloner whether you can have fixed sizes partitions on an NAS like mine for multiple computers, limited in size so the backup history doesn't hog the entire disk. I assume it does just that.

Thanks very much...

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Answer 4

Nov 25, 2019 2:37 PM in response to mvgossman

CCC has all the things TM is missing but is not as good with incremental. Time Machine algorithms to preserve file versions is unsurpassed and the ability to go through and pick the ones you want restored is excellent. CCC has always been a CLONER with a store of incremental files up to set volume.

BTW the KB of CCC is excellent. There is not much that you cannot find with a suitable google search.

https://bombich.com/kb/ccc5/backing-up-tofrom-network-volumes-and-other-non-hfs-volumes

Might be a good start. Especially as there are problems with MyCloud.

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Can you limit the files to backup with Time Machine specifically for a particular drive rather than globally for all backups?

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