Is this Time Machine change with Big Sur correct?

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Level 4

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Is this Time Machine change with Big Sur correct?

I have a new MacBook Pro with Big Sur. I use an external drive for some documents and up to now Time Machine was backing up my external drive without problems. I could not get Time Machine with Big Sur to backup my external drive. I called Apple Support and they told me that Big Sur has changed Time Machine and that now it can only backup the internal hard drive.

This sounds to me a little incredible, that is, that the new OS would set such a limitation to a good functionality of the previous one. I just want to verify that in your experience this reply by Apple Support is correct and that I now need to use a third party backup application.

Thanks for your time.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jan 20, 2021 7:32 AM

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Answer 1

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mulberry58

Level 6

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Jan 20, 2021 7:40 AM in response to Rojmer

TM can still include an external drive when backing up. Open a backup file and you'll see the external drive appears as a back-upped element. If not: go to SystemPreferences, TimeMachine, Options and check if the external drive isn't excluded

New is that it is advised to format a new backupdrive in the APFS format. If you keep using a backup drive that is already formatted in MacOs Journaled extended, it doesn't cause a problem.

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Answer 2

Rojmer Author

Level 4

1,678 points

Jan 20, 2021 7:46 AM in response to mulberry58

Thank you Mulberry58. I will try what you say. The new backup drive that I bought from the Apple Store is already the APFS format. I will try with an older backup drive that I have which I believe is MacOS Extended and see if that solves the problem.

Thanks again for your help.

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Answer 3

mulberry58

Level 6

10,237 points

Jan 20, 2021 7:50 AM in response to Rojmer

You're welcome. I just tried it with a new drive (formatted in APFS) and it works.

A backup with an older drive formatted in MacOs Journaled did the job too

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Is this Time Machine change with Big Sur correct?

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