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Time Machine Excludes External Drive

I am attempting to backup my Mac Air as well as the external HDD connected to USB-C. This EXTERNAL drive shows up on the "Exclude" list but doesn't get removed when I hit the "-" symbol.


I was using this (external HDD) as my TimeMachine backup previously but now I want to use my (recently repaired) Time Capsule for the backups. I selected this drive for a new backup and It is doing the backup correctly for the internal SSD, but not including the external HDD.

MacBook Air (2018 – 2020)

Posted on Mar 21, 2023 10:41 AM

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Posted on Mar 21, 2023 10:44 AM

You will have to erase and reformat the external drive. If it's a rotational drive format it as Mac OS X Extended (journaled) with Ownership set to be ignored so that all traces of it having been used for Time Machine have been erased.


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Time Machine Excludes External Drive

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