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Time Machine Backup frequency

How do I change the frequency of backups within Time Machine in Big Sur? I do not want the hourly frequency.

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 11.1

Posted on Dec 22, 2020 12:03 AM

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Posted on Dec 22, 2020 1:58 AM

Time Machine keeps:

Local snapshots as space permits

Hourly backups for the last 24 hours

Daily backups for the past month

weekly backups for all previous months


The oldest backups are deleted when your disk becomes full.


I don't recall there ever being any other options.


The simplicity of Time Machine is its best asset. Apple says in their support page Back up your Mac with Time Machine "Time Machine immediately begins making periodic backups—automatically and without further action by you."


The only way to change the frequency is to perform a backup, dismount your backup drive and mount it again when you want to perform another backup - continuously, which is somewhat tedious compared with the set and forget method of always having a backup drive connected.

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Dec 22, 2020 1:58 AM in response to elchad

Time Machine keeps:

Local snapshots as space permits

Hourly backups for the last 24 hours

Daily backups for the past month

weekly backups for all previous months


The oldest backups are deleted when your disk becomes full.


I don't recall there ever being any other options.


The simplicity of Time Machine is its best asset. Apple says in their support page Back up your Mac with Time Machine "Time Machine immediately begins making periodic backups—automatically and without further action by you."


The only way to change the frequency is to perform a backup, dismount your backup drive and mount it again when you want to perform another backup - continuously, which is somewhat tedious compared with the set and forget method of always having a backup drive connected.

Feb 27, 2021 8:31 AM in response to InTooDeep

I tried opening the file apple.backupd-helper.plist and it is locked. So there is that.


But I found a workaround for my specific issue. Specifically, I want to backup every day at midnight. I used Automator in conjunction with Calendar.


Open Automator

Click on Calendar Alarm for the type of automation you want

Click the Record button (red circle at top left of window

Perform the 3 following actions

Click on the Time Machine icon on the header bar

Click on Backup Now

Click on the Time Machine icon on the header bar (necessary to stop the automation)

Click on the Stop button on the recorder

You can now look at what you've created, the three lines describe exactly what you just did.

You can even Run it if you want to see how it works if you'd like.

Next, Click File>Save

Give it a name

Calendar will open and the Alarm will be inserted into your calendar at the current time.

Edit the Calendar event to your purposes (I used run 11:58-11:59 PM, every day, Never end)

Done!

Dec 22, 2020 5:06 AM in response to elchad

you cannot make changes to the frequency of the time machine automatic backups. you can, however, disable automatic backups and start a backup as you see fit. in my case, i have disabled auto updates and manually start a backup once a week. but note that my mac is only a part of my home entertainment system, and i keep very little on my internal drive anyways. and since mine is an iMac, i leave the time machine drive connected to my mac at all times. when i shut down, the time machine mounts by itself upon restart. but i would like to add that if you are using the mac for work purposes, i would leave the time machine set to perform automatic backups.

Feb 26, 2021 10:10 PM in response to macTATAAbox

I've just upgraded to Big Sur and Time Machine wants to back up every hour. I know I had set it for once a day at midnight under an earlier OS. I'd like to do that again, thus my question on this thread.


Earlier submissions said you could edit apple.backupd-auto.plist, changing the interval from 3600 (sec) to whatever (86400 for a day for example). There is no such file I could find under Big Sur.


There is a file apple.backupd-helper.plist that contains 3 different intervals:

Find <key>com.apple.backupd-auto.dryspell</key>, <key>Interval</key>, <real>86400</real>, etc

Find <key>com.apple.backupd-auto.dryspell.test</key>, <key>Interval</key>, <integer>9223372036854775807</integer>, etc

Find <key>com.apple.backupd-auto</key>, <key>Interval</key>, <integer>3600</integer>, etc


Does it make sense that these represent three different intervals for performing a backup? The first after a 'dryspell', say the computer has sat idle, the second is a test mode (value is incredibly large), and the third is the normal backup interval?


Any thoughts? Anyone game to try it and see?


Thanks

Mar 28, 2021 1:33 PM in response to InTooDeep

Here's what I did. Go to system preferences, then Security and Privacy, then Accessibility. Then will need to click on the lock at the bottom of the screen to make changes. Put in your password. You will need to give permission to Automator and also to the actual event in Calendar. In both cases, you will receive a notice that this needs to be done.

Time Machine Backup frequency

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