Time Machine and renamed files

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Level 1

9 points

Time Machine and renamed files

Hi. Stupid question time. External HD for TM, set up for once a week.

I have multiple gigs of video files, for which I'm considering changing my naming convention. If I rename the files but don't make any other changes, will Time Machine back them up as new files next time? As in, the backup HD would have duplicate full-size files, one with the old name in an old backup and one with the new in the new backup.

I suspect the answer is yes, but I thought I'd ask. Space is not an issue at the moment, but obviously if I made a habit of doing this it would be. (In which case, I'd hope to do it with one re-backup and move forward.)

iMac Core 2 Duo/3.06/4GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Feb 10, 2011 4:20 PM

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Answer 1

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Feb 10, 2011 6:48 PM in response to jeffdm

jeffdm wrote:
Hi. Stupid question time.

No such thing (only stupid answers.)

External HD for TM, set up for once a week.

Why? Why not let Time Machine work as designed, to protect you best, by doing hourly backups? Since all but one per day are deleted after 24 hours, they don't take up much space, but can really save your bacon if you accidentally change or delete the wrong file (I occasionally get distracted and click "Save" when I mean to click "Save As," for example).

I have multiple gigs of video files, for which I'm considering changing my naming convention. If I rename the files but don't make any other changes, will Time Machine back them up as new files next time?

Yes.

As in, the backup HD would have duplicate full-size files, one with the old name in an old backup and one with the new in the new backup.

Yes.

I suspect the answer is yes, but I thought I'd ask. Space is not an issue at the moment, but obviously if I made a habit of doing this it would be. (In which case, I'd hope to do it with one re-backup and move forward.)

The same thing will happen if you move files or folders; they'll be backed-up again. If you move a folder, all the sub-folders and files inside it will also be backed-up again. But of course only once; if they're not changed, moved, or renamed, they're not backed-up again.

If space does become a problem, you can delete all the backups that were made from the old location, per #12 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

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