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Does TimeMachine backup second user?

Hi, two questions actually:


Does TM backup all files of a second user (if I have no exclusions in TM settings)?


More importantly, and this is a bit hard to explain...


I am a first time user of two accounts. Both are mine, I merged two machines into one machine with 2 accounts. I want TM to backup both accounts (all data) constantly. I don't know which account to run TM from. Obviously both accounts (both are admins) can see the TM backup drive attached, but which one 'runs' the backups?! Bit confusing. I also can't work out whether, IF only one account manages the backups, it will backup while I am using the other user account. I don't know if that means the other account is "sleeping", or still active or...


Any advice greatly appreciated as I am mightily confused! thanks


MacBook

Posted on Mar 17, 2021 5:10 AM

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Posted on Mar 17, 2021 5:07 PM

Time Machine runs at the system level and backs up all users, as dialabrain indicated.


It does not matter whether you are logged in as one or the other user, if any administrative user has set up Time Machine to run, from the System Preferences Time Machine Preference Pane, it runs automatically every hour ad everything (except things explicitly excluded) is backed up.

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Mar 17, 2021 5:07 PM in response to tentoseven

Time Machine runs at the system level and backs up all users, as dialabrain indicated.


It does not matter whether you are logged in as one or the other user, if any administrative user has set up Time Machine to run, from the System Preferences Time Machine Preference Pane, it runs automatically every hour ad everything (except things explicitly excluded) is backed up.

Mar 19, 2021 4:59 AM in response to steve626

Thanks very much Steve. I have got very confused (until reading your message at least!) as I turned TM on in both users, I am very concerned with data loss. I was even going to buy another drive and run TM from both users to two separate drives!!

I have finally completed the first backup, it was run from one user but looked like progress was shown in both, which was great as it seemed to confirm exactly what you said above. However after the 1.7 TB backup completed this morning, I noticed the other user TM prefs showed backups not running and that worried me. So I browsed the backup drive from both users. What I found made me a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to restore the data if needed (whole machine).


If i browse the backup on TM drive from User1, User2's home folders (movies, documents etc) all show the no entry sign and if i double click it says I don't have permission to view. Same vice versa if I browse from User2, User1's folders show the same.


Of course I know the password to both user accounts, so am I right in thinking that, if the machine blew up and all I had was this TM drive (I will do a clone as well to keep in firesafe, once I have TM fully set up), I could restore ALL data AND ACCESS it all

properly?!!


Sorry for re-asking, just want to be 100% sure as this is new to me and I think my situation is quite rare, i.e. using two accounts both as admin. Thanks again

Mar 19, 2021 8:29 AM in response to tentoseven

When you inspect the files in the Time Machine backup, as you were doing, those files retain the same permissions/restrictions as the user account files. So you won't be able to see into folders/files that are owned by another user, when logged in as a different user. If you log in as that other user, then you should be able to see and inspect that user's files in the Time Machine backup. You can restore any of user A's files when logged in as user A, and you can restore any of user B's files when logged in as user B. But user A cannot see into user B's folders, either on the main drive nor on the backup drive, and vice versa.


If you need to restore the entire disk, or migrate all users to a new machine, then all files can be copied/restored/migrated when those actions are taken because those actions are taken at the system level, not at the individual user level. But again, when logged in as a specific user, the user account permissions apply to looking at individual files/folders.


If you use "clone" backup software, such as CCC or SuperDuper, you will notice the same handling of user permissions on the backup drive.

Mar 26, 2021 11:28 AM in response to tentoseven

I just found a spare 2TB backup drive. I am going to leave two connected to my iMac, with one user running TM pointed at one drive, the other using running TM pointed at the other. That way I have two copies of everything, in case one dies, but also I should get more regular backups as sometimes I may only log into one user for a day or two. Does that make sense, and can you think of any potential for it not working or causing problems somehow? I don't think so, if TM runs at the user level (for scheduling anyway) but just in case I thought I would ask the question :)

Mar 26, 2021 11:37 AM in response to tentoseven

Time Machine does not run at the user level, it runs at the system level. Each user has access to backed up files according to their permissions. The best way to restore files for a given user is to log in as that user and enter Time Machine to retrieve those files. I would leave things the way Apple has them as defaults, changing permissions around can cause problems if you make an unintentional error. Connecting two Time Machine disks is good practice, the backups will alternate between them and it makes no difference which user was logged in when those Time Machine backups were set up or activated. So what you are suggesting will work but you are adding unnecessary complexity and modifying permissions is not recommended.

Does TimeMachine backup second user?

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