Can I schedule a Time Machine backup at a specific time?

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itsrich Author

Level 1

8 points

Can I schedule a Time Machine backup at a specific time?

Can I schedule a Time Machine backup at a specific time? I'd like it to backup at a specific time overnight.

Can it be done without using a third party app?

Thanks!

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.4

Posted on Jun 23, 2023 7:56 AM

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Answer 1

itsrich Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 23, 2023 8:35 AM in response to Owl-53

Time Machine settings does not allow you to schedule a specific time.

The choices are manually, or automatically every day, hour or weekly.

You can't schedule a time, say 3 a.m. daily.

I was wondering if there is a work around to schedule a specific time.

Maybe by doing a manual backup at the time I want and then scheduling it to backup daily at that time?

Thanks.

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Answer 2

Owl-53

Level 10

102,505 points

Jun 23, 2023 8:04 AM in response to itsrich

Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support (CA)

Excerpt from above link

" Backup frequency and duration

Time Machine makes hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months. The oldest backups are deleted when your backup disk is full.

Beginning with macOS Ventura, you can change the backup frequency: Open Time Machine settings, click Options, then choose a setting from the “Back up frequency” menu. "

Whether this will allow setting a Specific Time - I do not know

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Answer 3

xnav

Level 5

7,113 points

Jun 23, 2023 11:08 AM in response to itsrich

itsrich wrote:

Maybe by doing a manual backup at the time I want and then scheduling it to backup daily at that time?

Thanks.

This works for me. The daily's aren't exactly 24 hours apart, but close. If you're comfortable with Terminal take a look at 'man tmutil'

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Answer 4

dialabrain

Level 10

135,851 points

Jun 23, 2023 9:03 AM in response to itsrich

itsrich wrote:

Maybe by doing a manual backup at the time I want and then scheduling it to backup daily at that time?

You could try it. Sounds feasible.

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

215,346 points

Jun 23, 2023 10:19 AM in response to itsrich

Remember, to start you'll have to stay up till 3 AM or get up a littler before 3 AM. You're young so that probably won't be a problem. For me I'll stick to the hourly. 😉

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Can I schedule a Time Machine backup at a specific time?

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