Syncing with Time Machine

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Level 1

19 points

Syncing with Time Machine

We have 2 iMacs in 2 dofferent locations.

I backed up one to Time Machine (MAC1), then when I got to the other IMac(MAC2), when I connected the ext drive with the backup, it updated the files on MAC2 with what was on MAC1, without removing what was already on MAC2 - in other words, pictures that were in the picture folder on MAC1 showed up on MAC2 in the picture folder, along with the pictures that were already on MAC2.

Now we've headed back to use MAC1, and we have a TM backup of MAC2. Connected the Ext drive to MAC1 and it is not updating MAC1 with what was now on the MAC2 backup.

So how do we get the files & folders from MAC2 onto MAC1 without actually dragging each file or folder individually? It seems that if we drag/move, not only will it take forever, but it will result in lots of duplication of files that are already on MAC1 being added again from MAC2.

I presume I'm missing some easy step here.

Thanks

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Dec 9, 2011 11:34 AM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,958 points

Dec 9, 2011 11:55 AM in response to LIPhotoman

I presume I'm missing some easy step here.

Yes I think you are, while you can backup two or more Macs with TM onto the same physical drive you cannot sync the backups because the computers are independent of one another. Please look at the the Time Machine FAQs item #4.

Another thing is you shouldn't move Time Machine files around as that will probably corrupt TM. If your goal is to sync the two computers data files then I'd recommend using a tool such as DropBox or upgrade to Lion 10.7.2 and begin using iCloud.

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Answer 2

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

Dec 9, 2011 11:57 AM in response to LIPhotoman

Look in the Backups.backupdb folder of the Time Machine drive. You should see a separate folder named for each of your two Macs, & within each of those two folders an alias file named "latest" & a lot of time-stamped folders.

Each of these two named folders contains the backups for that Mac only. There is no syncing between the two;they are completely independent of each other & Time Machine will not sync them.

If you want to move items from one Mac's backup to the other Mac, do not use the Finder. Instead, click on the Time Machine application in the Dock & choose "Browse other Time Machine disks" (or if you have the Time Machine icon in the main menu bar, hold down the option key, click on it, & select the same thing)

From there you can choose the other Mac's backups, navigate to what you want to copy in the TM "space" interface, & use the TM tool to "restore" it to some loaction of your choosing on the other Mac.

BTW, things are not as they seem in Finder views of the time-stamped folders. There is actually only one copy of each unique file for that Mac's backups in the entire set. It only looks like there is a separate copy in each time-stamped folder because of a clever trick TM uses.

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