Time Machine Pink and White Labels

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Level 1

4 points

Time Machine Pink and White Labels

I just took a look at my Time Machine that I set up way back in Leopard (OS X 10.5), and now when I see the space flythrough, the date labels on the right side of the screen are pink! There's also a few white labels, clustered near the latest backups. Is this a bug, or a feature? I can't find any mention of it in the documentation, and I can't tell why the heck they would change the labels to pink! (They're pretty hard to read against the pink galaxy background)

Can anybody deduce what a pink date label on the right-hand side of Time Machine is supposed to mean? Also, a few of the white labels are a bit more transparent than others; I swear their color coding makes no sense.

Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 23, 2011 9:37 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Colin Robinson

Level 6

8,324 points

Jul 23, 2011 9:38 AM in response to elstgav

I think the white labels are local backups i.e. those automatic backups made on a laptop when the Time Machine is out of range.

Regards,

Colin R.

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Answer 2

Jul 23, 2011 9:43 AM in response to Colin Robinson

Yup, just confirmed it by looking at the excellent information written up by Pondini (Hi James) here:

http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/15A.html

Regards,

Colin R.

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Answer 3

elstgav Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 23, 2011 9:48 AM in response to Colin Robinson

Awesome; I figured there was some new meaning to it. I agree with the site you linked to, that Apple needs to do a better job of documenting this, it's not mentioned anywhere in their help. Common users are going to have no idea what those labels are supposed to mean.

Also, in terms of accessibility, those pink labels are hard to read on the pink/black background - they seriously need to reevaluate the design choice they made there.

To summarize, in case that link goes dead:

Pink/Purple labels = backups saved to an external drive
White labels = "local snapshots" - backups saved to your internal drive. This is only available on portable machines.

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Answer 4

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jul 23, 2011 11:49 AM in response to elstgav

elstgav wrote:

. . .

it's not mentioned anywhere in their help.

It's mentioned in a very obscure place, but says they're green, not pink (a leftover from early versions).

Sigh 😟

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Answer 5

Jul 23, 2011 11:50 AM in response to Pondini

Thanks for getting your pages updated JP 😎

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Answer 6

Oct 8, 2012 12:14 AM in response to elstgav

hi

i have troubles with my tm:

last week, tm didnt open at all, but it backups regularly.

today tm opened its star wars window again,

and all labels are pink (2 years backups)

how can i repair tm please?

i am on 10.7.5 with mac pro quad 2010 and a internal TM Backup volume in my mac pro

thanks

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Answer 7

Oct 8, 2012 12:34 AM in response to peppermint

edit: i can restore files now, nevertheless i wonder why all labels

are pink now? i guess a month ago, it was all white?

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Answer 8

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Oct 8, 2012 7:43 AM in response to peppermint

peppermint wrote:

edit: i can restore files now, nevertheless i wonder why all labels

are pink now? i guess a month ago, it was all white?

Actual backups, to an external drive, are shown in pink; the white ones are "Local Snapshots" on your internal HD. Those are made only on laptops, when there's enough space, and kept for a week at the most.

Most likely, your internal HD is over 80% full, so Time Machine has deleted them all and isn't making any new ones.

See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #30 for details.

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Answer 9

Oct 8, 2012 9:19 AM in response to Pondini

all right pondini, thx.

i just wondered why the labels are all pink, and last week, nothing happened

as i clicked on the TM icon in the dock, it wont start. but it starts this week again.

i use a internal 2TB drive as TM backup (500GB are free) from my other internal SSD and HD´s

in my MacPro, so its no external drive. the backups are exactly 2 years old.

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Answer 10

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Oct 8, 2012 10:02 AM in response to peppermint

peppermint wrote:

all right pondini, thx.

i just wondered why the labels are all pink, and last week, nothing happened

as i clicked on the TM icon in the dock, it wont start.

Hard to tell, now, since it's working. If it ever stops working again, see #E4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

i use a internal 2TB drive as TM backup (500GB are free) from my other internal SSD and HD´s

in my MacPro, so its no external drive. the backups are exactly 2 years old.

Sorry, I didn't notice that you were on a Mac Pro. 😟

Did you recently upgrade from Leopard or Snow Leopard? If so, that's the difference. Backups on Leopard and Snow Leopard are shown in white.

Effective with Lion, they're shown in pink. The reason is, effective with Lion, Local Snapshots are also made (on laptops only), so Apple changed the color of regular backups to pink, and shows Local Snapshots in white.

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