I would like to back up specific folders to multiple removable drives

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Level 1

5 points

I would like to back up specific folders to multiple removable drives

Hi. I am coming from a PC where I used SyncToy to back up various flash drives and microSD cards to specific folders on my computer. I keep a flash drive in my backpack that I like to have synced with my photos, documents, music, etc. I also have a digital audio player with a microSD card that I keep synced with my music folder.

By "synced" I mean I want adds, changes, even deletes, all copied over. Is this something I can do with automator? Or Time Machine? Or do I need a third party app?

Thanks.

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.2

Posted on May 20, 2025 6:39 PM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

123,008 points

May 28, 2025 7:34 AM in response to MattL2

MattL2 wrote:

Can someone supply instructions to do this using automator? It is a very frustrating piece of software.

I followed instructions I found in these forums that goes "get specified finder items" to > "copy finder items" along with "replace existing files" selected" but every time I sync it takes several minutes, as if it re-copying everything!

It is copying. The Automator Action is not “sync” but “copy.”

PS Carbon Copy Cloner is $50 which seems silly when the computer comes with software that can supposedly do this.

I’m not sure what built-in software you think can do this? rsync is built-in, but it takes some amount of learning. Sequoia now uses openrsync, so if you search for rsync tutorials, you might find some features that are not supported in the openrsync version.

There were quite a few syncing apps on the App Store at one time, and some of them used rsync, essentially a GUI wrapper. They may be cheaper than CCC, but it certainly has much better features.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

250,379 points

May 20, 2025 7:30 PM in response to MattL2

Likely you can do it with Automator, but I’m going to recommend Tri-Backup or Carbon Copy Cloner.

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Answer 3

MattL2 Author

Level 1

5 points

May 28, 2025 1:33 AM in response to MattL2

Can someone supply instructions to do this using automator? It is a very frustrating piece of software.

I followed instructions I found in these forums that goes "get specified finder items" to > "copy finder items" along with "replace existing files" selected" but every time I sync it takes several minutes, as if it re-copying everything!

I also tried a somewhat different approach based on google results and YouTube videos with "find finder items" to > "copy finder items" and again "replace existing files" selected. But this method never copies my entire music folder and it seems to put things in the copied folder in the wrong place.

PS Carbon Copy Cloner is $50 which seems silly when the computer comes with software that can supposedly do this.

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