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User profile for user: Carlos Perez2
Carlos Perez2 Author
User level: Level 1
34 points

Incomplete initial TM backup...

Just rebuilt a MBP with a new hard drive and a fresh install of the Mac OS up to 10.8.2


After I loaded all my data and apps onto it, was ready to enable TM.


Plugged in a freshly formatted (Extended, Journaled) external drive, do the initial setup for TM and off it went.


However, it is only backing up my user folder and not the rest of the OS and applications. No exclusions are listed in the TM options other than the TM drive itself (default setting).


Have searched all over these forums but have not found this specific issue.


TM does not return any errors.


Machine Specs:


MBP 2.2 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo

4 GB RAM

Mac OS X 10.8.2


Any help wouldbe appreciated.

Posted on Dec 3, 2012 12:20 PM

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4 replies
User profile for user: Linc Davis
Linc Davis
User level: Level 10
209,541 points

Dec 3, 2012 2:49 PM in response to Carlos Perez2

If you have more than one user account, you must be logged in as an administrator to carry out these instructions.


Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:


☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)


☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.


☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.


Triple-click the line below to select it, then drag or copy into the Terminal window — do not type — and press return:


sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine SkipSystemFiles


You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command.


Reboot and run a backup. Check that the previously excluded files are now included. The backup may take much longer than usual.

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User profile for user: Carlos Perez2
Carlos Perez2 Author
User level: Level 1
34 points

Dec 3, 2012 8:26 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks for the suggestions... (had already seen them on other threads). The articles do not address this issue at all as they deal with basic setup and with TC (Time Capsule) issues not Time Machine issues...


Issue is not that the backups are interrupted or that they stall.. Time Machine says backups complete succesfully.. It's just that TM is ignoring everything but the contents of the Users folder.


Did the Unix command, but that did not solve the problem either.


Removed the TM backup and reformatted the external drive (Extended (Journaled) to see if re-setting it up from scratch would fix it.. still only backs up the "Users" folder completely skipping the OS and Applications.


I have worked with MANY Macs and with many Time Machine backups on my own Macs and on those of my clients... This is the first time I have ever seen anything like this and I am unable to find a similar situation out on the web or on these discussions.

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Incomplete initial TM backup...

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