Why does Time Machine not backup /Applications/Utilities in Ventura

Because it's part of the signed system volume and not changeable by customers; if it gets lost because of a problem, it'll be reinstalled with the OS.

Time Machine also won't back up items in the Trash, the Spotlight index, and some other system-level areas not intended for user data.

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rbpeirce wrote:

Why does Time Machine not backup /Applications/Utilities in Ventura?

Because that folder is empty by default. There is nothing there to backup.

What you see in the Finder does not necessarily exist on the file system. One commonly misunderstood location is the Trash. Since Apple starting making the system file system ever more complex, the Applications folder now also qualifies. What you see in the Finder under /Applications/Utilities is a combination of what is at that location and what is at /System/Applications/Utilities.

It does backup the applications. It's just that the folder on the Time Machine drive does not show them. But if you select an app and enter Time Machine via the menu bar and go back in time you'll see the backups.

Time Machine view

Actually there are two Applictions folders: 1 - in the root directory of the Macintosh HD - Data and 2 - in the Users/Home directory. #2 is what is seen on the Time Machine drive with the Finder but #1 is what is seen when you enter TM via the menu bar and navigate to Applications.

Finder View

If you're not getting the apps in the Applications folder #1 via Time Machine check the TM settings in the System settings for Time Machine and make sure the Applications folder is not excluded.

Starting around macOS 11 Big Sur and above, Time Machine will only backup the User Account ( Home Folder ) unlike in previous versions of macOS including Mojave macOS 10.14

Apple has decided to Protect the Operating System from intentional or unintentional opening, deleting or modifying the Operating System by the User or Third Party Software

That means, the Operating System resides in a Sealed and Read Only Volume that can not be opened by the User nor by Third Party Applications.

The only Entity that can open and modify or alter this Volume is Apple.

That would occur when a update or UpGrade is performed.

As the Utilities Applications, which reside in this Sealed and Read Only Volume will not and could not be included in any type of a TM Backup

To achieve what appears to be what the user wants - Full Functional and Bootable version of Ventura on an external Drive.

May consider installing Ventura to a good and reliable External SSD drive.

Then, migrate your User Account from TM Backup to the newly installed Ventura on the External Drive

rbpeirce wrote:

It is my understanding, perhaps wrong, that an M1 Mac cannot be booted from a backup if the system drive fails. Consequently, I don't even worry about that. I'm mostly interested in recovering files I inadvertently delete. I only discovered the Utilities thing in passing and got curious.

From what I have Only Read About - Yes an M1 or M2 machine will not boot into anything if the Internal Drive has failed.

Though, if ones personal Data is that Important one should have a Rescue Plan in place and used frequently

The 3 - 2 - 1 Rescue Plan consists of 3 Backups, using 2 Different Methods and 1 TM Backup Off Site incase of Natural or Un-Natural Disaster

Q - " cannot be booted from a backup if the system drive fails " Technically, a Time Machine Backup Drive is Not Bootable though the User maybe mixing Backup with Clone.

The Two are very different in that TM Backup is a Builtin Apple Utility and Cloning Software is Third Party Software

rbpeirce wrote:

Previously I used two 1Tb partitions, each on separate drives, which is about 8x the size of what is on my main drive. I'm using smaller partitions now because why waste the space if they are likely to fail before running out of space?

I'm not sure what you are saying. If you only have a 120 GB hard drive, then you could back that up with one or more cheap 250 GB SSDs. You don't really need Time Machine for that. You could literally just drag your home folder to an external every day.

I'm not sure what you are saying about "likely to fail". I was talking about people trying to backup 1 TB hard drives with another 1 TB hard drive. It will work until the drive fills up and then doesn't have enough working space. If the backup drive is 2-3 TB, then it should run fine for 5-6 years with no problem.

If your experience is different, then something is very wrong.

As for partitions vs. dedicated drives, I'm old school and unless the definition has changed a computer sees a partition as a separate drive. In APFS terms it is a container with one Time Machine volume.

The definition has been completely changed.

We're far afield of the original question, which has been answered. People have had different experiences with Time Machine and mine were good until they weren't. Consequently I've tried to put myself in a position where I can benefit from Time Machine where possible but I'm not dependent on it.

Your logic is sound. No technology is 100% perfect. However, I also suspect that you have something deeply, fundamentally wrong. That is what caused any failures in the first place. Whatever that was will likely continue to cause problems with other backup systems as well.

Apparently you are having these kinds of problems with only 120 GB of data. Usually I don't see people having these kinds of problems until they have 20-30 times more data.

You haven't said anything about any what your original problem actually was. That is a common problem. People have some problem. It plagues them. For years. At some point, they show up here, deep inside a rabbit hole, asking some innocuous question that, by itself, isn't a big deal. It takes an industrial-strength crowbar and the strength of Hercules to pry any information out of them.

The Finder automatically merges the contents of the /Applications folder and the /System/Applications folder. But you won't see that consolidated behaviour if you are looking at a backup. Instead, you will see the file system as it really is.

The user can reconsider the usage of SD and CCC to make Bootable Clones

https://bombich.com/kb/ccc6/cloning-macos-system-volumes-apple-software-restore

Excerpt from above Link " Copying Apple's system is now an Apple-proprietary endeavor; we can only offer "best effort" support for making an external bootable device on macOS Big Sur (and later OSes). "

Even this method is iffy at best

How To Clone Your Mac Using ASR - Apple Community

rbpeirce wrote:

I said backup, not Time Machine backup. Because I have an M1 I don't even worry about bootable backups using SD!

My rescue plan has become increasingly complicated because my TM backups keep failing. I now have two small TM partitions on different drives I can use as long as they last. I also do a daily SD! backup of my Data and cascading prior backups on alternating separate drives: quarterly [3rd month], 2nd month, last month [4th week], 3rd week, second week and last week. Last week gets today's daily backup at the beginning of the week and holds that for the week before pushing it to W-2, and so on. If I need anything older than a quarter I'm out of luck but I can't see that happening.

I also do a monthly backup to a drive in an off-site location.

I'm pretty paranoid about backups but I think I've got it covered. Unfortunately I relied too much on TM and it cost me.

Thank you for clarifying your definite of backups that are outside the Normal Understanding of Backups using the Builtin TM Backup Utility.

As the Third Party Service or Application used to make backups is the user choice, generally, in TM Backup Utility, TM will what 100% control of the Entire Drive marking the drive Read Only

Having Several Small Partitions using a Third Party Service or Application I can not and will not comment on.

Do not use these types of Service or Application - My Personal Choice

If you what additional assistance to trouble shoot the issue - I unqualified to help any further on that specific issue for reasons already outlined earlier.