Q: I don't see [Preferences] or [Change Disk] when I click on Time Machine

Hello,

Have you tried turning OFF TM 1st?

Don't know if it helps, but TM usually looks like this when viewed through either the button at the top right of your screen or through system preferences. Are you seeing a different view?

edited to add: the button at the top right of the screen is to the left of the clock and looks like a circular arrow. There are no separate preferences, only the "change disk" and "options" that appear in the image above.

Sorry Sharon, there aren't any separate preferences, only the change disk and options that you can see on the image above. Have you got an external drive connected to your mac? If you have, and it's mounted on your desktop when you open TM, both of those two buttons should be clickable within TM. Change disk needs to be highlighted and then you can select your external hard drive in there.

If you see that, unlock the lock by clicking on it & providing your Password

Did you then click it to OFF?

SharonLee123 wrote:

. . .

it's already backing up, but not the right folders, etc.

 

So, how to I change the folders to backup?

 

And yes, i can unlock the lock by clicking on it & providing your Password

In your first post, you said you wanted to change the backup volume. That's the destination -- where the backups go.  When you unlock the TM Preferences window, the first button should say Change Disk or Select Backup Disk, depending on what version of OSX you're on (and of course will be different if you're not using English).

But above, you seem to be saying it's not backing-up the right folders.  That's an entirely different thing.  Normally, Time Machine backs-up everything on your internal HD.  You can exclude things if you want.

Please clarify what you're trying to do, or what isn't getting backed-up.

SharonLee123 wrote:

 

As I stated, I'm not a mac person, so sorry about that.

Not a problem.  That's what we're here for. 

It's currently backing up a sub folder onto an external drive (my backup drive). This is why I looking for [change].

 

I am trying to backup everything on my data/application Drive, from the Root, so it gets everything on the drive.

By default, Time Machine will back up your entire system.  If you're sure it's only backing up one folder, you (or someone) must have excluded all sorts of other things.  Click the Options button on the Preferences window to see the exclusion list.

It should look something like this: 

But with lots and lots of exclusions.

I suspect your whole Mac really is getting backed-up, but you're just not seeing them.  What you see in the "Star Wars" display depends on what's on your screen when you Enter Time Machine.   If you have a Finder window showing just that sub-folder, when you Enter Time Machine that's all you'll see. 

If you start with a Finder window showing, say, your home folder, that's what you'll see in the "Star Wars" display.  If your Finder windows have sidebars, once in Time Machine you can select other things in the sidebar to display.

You might want to review the Time Machine Tutorial, and perhaps browse Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #15A.

Don't hesitate to post back if you still have questions or problems.