Why are my Time Machine backups happening at irregular intervals, sometimes only minutes apart?

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Why are my Time Machine backups happening at irregular intervals, sometimes only minutes apart?

I have recently purchased an External Hard Disk and have begun to make Time Machine backups. After the initial backup, which was excruciatingly long (over 48 hours), my Time Machine is now making many, small regular backups, (as it's supposed to be doing). However, when I go into Time Machine, I notice that instead of making hourly backups, it's making irregular backups, sometimes only minutes apart. Here is a typical log of backups from today: 9:32am, 9:44am, :10:28am, 10:49am, 11:42am, 11:46am, 12:27pm, 12:35pm. There seems to be no pattern to when these backups are made. I've tried to look in the internet, but haven't found any mention of a similar issue. Does anyone know what may be happening?

MacBook Air

Posted on Aug 21, 2020 8:47 AM

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Answer 1

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John Galt

Level 10

142,286 points

Aug 23, 2020 11:40 AM in response to LusoCan

Briefly stated those are Time Machine local snapshots: About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support. It creates them even while your Mac sleeps (in some cases).

They are fully restorable Time Machine backups indistinguishable from those stored on the external drive. They are routinely deleted, and eventually the time differences you see will go from minutes to hours to days to (eventually) weeks. The idea is that recent backups are more valuable than old ones, and illustrates a fundamental TM concept: it retains an absolute minimum of one and only one complete, restorable system backup.

You're not wasting my time. I enjoy helping here.

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Answer 2

LusoCan Author

Level 1

17 points

Aug 21, 2020 12:32 PM in response to John Galt

I'm getting the log times from the times that appear next to each desktop,

when I enter time machine. I also forgot to mention: I didn't start from

scratch. I had a smaller, external hard disk, which didn't have much capacity

and which didn't have enough room for new backups. So, I purchased a new HD and

then copied over the Time Machine files to the new HD. After this is when I began backing up to the new HD and when this problem started to happen.

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Answer 3

John Galt

Level 10

142,286 points

Aug 21, 2020 12:45 PM in response to LusoCan

Those times are not log excerpts. They represent restorable versions of items that may be stored locally. It's unrelated to the new hard disk drive.

There is no problem. Time Machine is working properly.

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Answer 4

LusoCan Author

Level 1

17 points

Aug 23, 2020 7:29 AM in response to John Galt

Thank you. Your answer gives me a better sense of security. I don't want to take up more of your time, so you don't have to answer this; but, I still don't understand why Time Machine will show these small and irregular backup increments (i.e. I don't know what you mean by "restorable versions of items that may be stored locally.") I last tried deleting and reformatting the entire external drive, then starting time machine from scratch. This got rid of the old time machine files, from the previous hard drive. The first backup ended overnight and, since then, I didn't touch my machine. However, it is now showing the following times associated with each desktop: 4:25; 5:04; 6:45; 6:47; 7:47; 7:50; 8:57; 8:57; 10:08; 10:11; 10:42; 10:42. As you can see, there are even duplicate times among these. If I didn't touch my machine all night, what is it duplicating at such irregular times, if it is only supposed to back up every hour?

As I mentioned above, if you're busy, please don't feel the need to answer this question, as I don't want to take up too much of your time. Best regards.

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Answer 5

John Galt

Level 10

142,286 points

Aug 21, 2020 8:50 AM in response to LusoCan

Post the contents of those logs if you would like someone to examine them.

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Why are my Time Machine backups happening at irregular intervals, sometimes only minutes apart?

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