Time Capsule Chosen as disk for Time Machine but storing Backups on Mac HD

You have accidentally set the wrong hard drive and are backing up to your internal drie .Not the remote Time Machine.

Go back to system preferences and the time Machine Set up pane and Click the elect disk radio buton make you choose the Time Capule drive as the destination and restat back up.

Once completed delete that folder on your desk top to recover the fre space.

Easy mistake to make.

have you empted the trash ?

Placing in trash alone will not recover disk space.

Empty trash and reboot.

johnabenna wrote:

. . .

However, I just noticed on my MBP that it's showing as having 318GB of backups stored on the Mac internal HD.

Those are your "Local Snapshots," entirely different from the actual backups on an external HD or Time Capsule.

They're automatically reduced to one per day after 24 hours, and deleted after a week, plus if your internal HD gets more than 80% full, they'll be deleted automatically.

So in most cases, don't worry about them.

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

johnabenna wrote:

. . .

So after a week has passed, they should start to go down?

That depends on how much you change or delete. Space permitting, it makes a new snapshot every hour while your Mac is awake, so the total size can fluctuate greatly.

Is that because I moved and changed around large amount of data and deleted some

Yes. For both Local Snapshots and backups to your Time Capsule, anything that's moved or renamed is considered as changed. That includes the entire contents of a folder -- all sub-folders and files.

- it keeps copies as backup in case I want to 'go back'?

Yup. Since you have a portable computer, you may not always be in range of your Time Capsule, so you have the same backups available on your Mac (again, space permitting) as the last week of backups on your Time Capsule.

Any ideas why on the MBP that 'Time Machine Backups' logo appears on the desktop, but doesn't with my MBA?

That's probably your Finder Preferences. Make sure the External Disks box is checked on the General tab. It should appear only while a backup is in progress, or while you're using the Time Machine browser (the "Star Wars" display).

johnabenna wrote:

. . .

I was going to buy an airport extreme so I could plug in my extrernal HD to the USB, but when I got to Apple the sales guy pointed out it was only an extra 4000 Thai baht which is about 80 UK pounds, so thought for 2TB may as well go for it.

Unfortunately, a lot of the sales folks don't realize that backing-up that way is unreliable and not supported by Apple. See: Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk.

Didn't actually really get what Time Machine does haha. I just thought if my computer breaks it'll just put it back to how it was. I will read your link to get 'clued up.'

Yes, that's the main function, but you can also recover previous versions of files you've changed or deleted.

You might want to review the Time Machine Tutorial, and perhaps browse Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

johnabenna wrote:

. . .

Thanks again, really kind of you. One last thing, you mention Air Disk not supported at the Capsule thorugh an APE...

No. Backups to a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme are not supported.

Backups to Time Capsules, or USB drives connected to Time Capsules, are supported.

I have the Time Capsule 2TB with all my media on

That presents a different problem: 😟 How are you going to back that data up? Time Machine can only back up your Mac's internal HD and directly-connected external disks, not the TC's internal disk.

The actually backups from Time Machine are stored on the 1.5TB External HD connected to the Time Capsules USB... is this supported?

Yes.

The Airport Extreme apparently has different internal hardware, that isn't as reliable for backups as the hardware in a Time Capsule.

johnabenna wrote:

. . .

I shall naivly put my faith in (for now) the Time Capsule never failing.

They do fail. 😟 All disk drives do, sooner or later. A few fail in the first weeks or months, a few live for many years, but TCs often fail after 3 years or so.

It's a bit more of a hassle with a Time Capsule, since the disk is internal. You can't use the same tools on it (heavy-duty disk repair and/or data recovery) as a normal external HD. You need to physically remove the drive (which voids the warranty) and install it in an enclosure, converting it to an external HD.

You can "archive" the contents to a USB drive (or partition) connected to the TC, but it's the entire contents each time. See #Q6 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule.

Or, there are some 3rd-party apps that can back it up. CarbonCopyCloner and ChronoSync are probably the two most popular. For best results, back it up to a separate partition on the USB drive. That will be fairly slow, since (unlike the archive above) the data has to go from the TC to your Mac and back to the USB drive.

I'll try to forget I live in Thailand where it's 35 degrees and we have power spikes reguarly 😮

Consider getting a U.P.S. (battery back-up) for it, your modem, and the disk drive.

I live in central Florida, lightning capital of the U.S. (had a series of thunderstorms just tonight, complete with an hourlong power failure). I wouldn't dream of connecting anything electronic directly to the utility power -- surge protectors are fine for some things, but don't protect you against power loss or dips.