Time Machine "exclude these items..": external hfs+ hard disk greyed out

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MT2020 Author

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6 points

Time Machine "exclude these items..": external hfs+ hard disk greyed out

Hi there,

Big Sur, Time Machine is working fine backing up the internal Macintosh HD to a newly formatted APFS external hard drive.

But I have an additional external USB 'data' drive that I want to include in the Time Machine backup.

In System Preferences->Time Machine, when I click options to remove it from the "Exclude these items from backup" list, it is grey.

The external 'data' hard drive is HFS+ formatted.

I understand to an extent that there's big changes in how Time Machine backs up in Big Sur.

I suspect TM will no longer backup HFS+ volumes. Can anyone confirm that this is the case?

Many thanks in advance.

iMac 27″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Apr 8, 2021 10:32 AM

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Answer 1

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MT2020 Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 16, 2021 2:03 AM in response to MT2020

The problem was, the drive had been formatted / partition mapped as Master Boot Record, instead of GUID Partition Map.

I copied the data to another hard drive, repartitioned / reformatted it as GUID / Mac OS Extended (Journaled), before moving the data back on the drive. Time Machine was then happy to back it up.

Sincere thanks for the replies.

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

210,603 points

Apr 8, 2021 11:19 AM in response to MT2020

MT2020 wrote:

I suspect TM will no longer backup HFS+ volumes. Can anyone confirm that this is the case?

No. I have several external SSDs formatted as OS X Extended (journaled) that get backed up to my Time Machine. However, the TM drive is a standard rotational HD formatted OS X Extended (journaled). I don't know if the rules change if the TM drive is an SSD drive formatted APFS.

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Answer 3

PRP_53

Level 10

91,747 points

Apr 8, 2021 11:07 AM in response to MT2020

Logic tells me, Big Sur will only install on APFS formatted Drives. Apple States Time Machine Backup requires the Drive to match Disk Format APFS to function. Extend that thinking to your question and . . Type of Drive it will back from . . . APFS.

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Answer 4

MT2020 Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 9, 2021 3:02 AM in response to Old Toad

I just ran a quick test:

I have an SSD that's formatted as HFS+ (Mac OS Extended, Journaled), GUID partition map. This allows me to remove it from the "Exclude these items..." list, and TM will back it up.

I suspect the problematic hard drive is using a different partition map, e.g., Master Book Record, which is why TM won't back it up.

The problematic hard drive is at a different location so, I'll check it in the coming days and report back.

Many thanks for your responses.

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Answer 5

PRP_53

Level 10

91,747 points

Apr 8, 2021 10:37 AM in response to MT2020

Yes, Big Sur will only do Time Machine Backups to drives formatted to the new Apple File System ( APFS )

Types of disks you can use with Time Machine on Mac

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Answer 6

PRP_53

Level 10

91,747 points

Apr 8, 2021 2:15 PM in response to MT2020

An other with similar issue as yours https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252643834

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Answer 7

MT2020 Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 8, 2021 10:40 AM in response to PRP_53

Thanks P.Phillips. Yes I assume this is the case, but that article only seems to state what format time machine will backup to, not what drive formats it will backup.

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Time Machine "exclude these items..": external hfs+ hard disk greyed out

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