How do I turn time machine off temporarily?

Question

Level 4

2,582 points

How do I turn time machine off temporarily?

When I watch films from my NAS via wireless I need to turn off time machine because once it kicks in there isn't enough bandwidth for them both and the film stops and starts.

I assumed that I could go to Time Machine preferences and turn it off using the big switch - but it doesn't stop it. The icon in the menu bar goes grey, but the time machine will still do backups. A bit of internet research indicates that when it is doing this it is keeping local snapshots on the Mac's hard disk, but this is not the case for me. Today, although time machine was turned off a couple of days ago, there was the greyed out icon spinning away telling me it was backing up 4GB of 6GB. I turned wireless off and after a few minutes got the error message that time machine can't access my time capsule. A quick check with Time Machine Buddy shows that it was, indeed, backing up to my Time Capsule over WiFi. What's going on?

I didn't turn off the time machine when it was half way through a backup - I turned it off a couple of days ago. Is there a reliable way to temporarily stop time machine when I'm doing bandwidth-heavy stuff?

Thanks in advance for any help.

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.4), 2GHz Intel Core i&, 8GB RAM

Posted on Dec 1, 2013 5:58 AM

Reply

Answer 1

LowLuster

Level 6

12,105 points

Dec 1, 2013 6:06 AM in response to Zurarczurx

System Preferences, Time Machine, Move the On Off Slider to OFF.

Reply

Answer 2

Zurarczurx Author

Level 4

2,582 points

Dec 1, 2013 6:10 AM in response to LowLuster

Thanks for the reply.

The slider is off. I turned the slider off two days ago. The Time machine icon in the meny bar is grey. The Time machine still backs up. It's doing it now - grey and spinning away merrily and backing up over the network to my time capsule.

Reply

Answer 3

LowLuster

Level 6

12,105 points

Dec 1, 2013 6:18 AM in response to Zurarczurx

Go back into time machine and select the use disk option and remove your time capsule. Also what you might be seeing is the local snapshots being taken. They are taken every hour but if you turned time machine off that shouldn't be happening.

Try turning it back on then off then restart your Mac. See if the TM icon in the menu bar still spins.

Reply

Answer 4

Zurarczurx Author

Level 4

2,582 points

Dec 1, 2013 6:21 AM in response to LowLuster

When I turn wireless off Time Machine (in its turned-off state) gives an error telling me it cannot find the backup disc. It is backing up to my time capsule via WiFi. It is not doing local snapshots.

Reply

Answer 5

LowLuster

Level 6

12,105 points

Dec 1, 2013 6:38 AM in response to Zurarczurx

Then something is wrong with your install of OS X. Once you turn the slider to off in the Sys Pref Time Machine applet it should not be backing up anything. Do as I suggested and turn it back on, Then Off again, Then restart your Mac. then go in and see if it is on or off. If it still backs up then something in the OS is broken.

Reply

Answer 6

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Dec 1, 2013 8:15 AM in response to Zurarczurx

If you installed "Time Machine Editor" or some such hack to change the behavior of Time Machine, remove it according to the developer's instructions, then reboot and test.

Reply

Answer 7

Zurarczurx Author

Level 4

2,582 points

Dec 1, 2013 10:20 AM in response to Zurarczurx

Thanks Linc and Low for the help. In digging around I've discovered that local snapshots are turned off. I can't imagine why - it can only be because some idiot messed around with the settings in the dim and distant past (that would only be me!). Given the amount of time I spend on the road this would be a splendidly stupid thing to to.

So before I try your kind suggestions I'm going to turn local snapshots back on, verify the Time Capsule backup, let the Mac go through a couple of days of normal backups and then a couple of days local backups while I'm travelling to see if this helps. If it does I'll post and if it doesn't I'll try your suggestions and come back.

Thanks again.

49

Reply