Time Machine icon no longer animates to show when it is active in OS X Mavericks

Yes, that's normal. When it's backing up there are two arrow heads on the icon in the menu as opposed to just one at other times. Not very obvious.

Send a feature request to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

OT

I have added my request to bring back the motion. On the smaller screen of my Macbook Pro, it is nearly impossible to see those small arrows. I can never tell when Time Machine is active without checking the external disc itself.

I check the Time Machine menu bar indicator too, but the question is worth asking: Why is it so important to know if Time Machine is active? Apple designed Time Machine so that we don't have to think about it. If Time Machine is in the middle of a backup and I close the lid and take it out of the house (away from my Time Capsule wifi network), nothing tragic happens. Time Machine gracefully and silently recovers, switches over to local mobile backups (which have no indicator at all), and when I return home and plug in the Mac it picks up again where it left off.

The way Apple changed the icon seems to be in line with Apple's general philosophical trend of wanting to help users focus on what they are accomplishing with the computer, not on the computer itself. Kind of like how in iOS where the exact battery percentage readout in the top status bar is not turned on by default. Apple seems to want to get away from encouraging people to micromanage their systems, especially when it is not necessary.

And I'm talking as someone who sometimes opens the Time Machine preference panel to see the entire backup progress bar and stats and will often wait for it to complete before sleeping the Mac. Even though that behavior is not necessary in the slightest. Yes, micromanaging a modern Mac is a little silly and I am a prime example of that sometimes.

I use an external portable drive for my backups and I like to know when it has finished before I disconnect it. That icon is so small that I have to get up to within inches to see if it is still running. Yes, the light on the drive flashes when it is writing, but I want to be sure it is finished because the light continues to flash some as long as it is connected.

Yes, I have caught on to that trick, but old habits die hard and it was really easier when a quick glance told me that it was through. You probably would have enjoyed watching me trying to figure out why my backup was not working when I first got Mavericks--another classic comedy of errors!

Not at all 🙂. I've only been using macs since last december. I got it with a magic trackpad. I was aware of how "usable" Apple stuff is meant to be I looked at the trackpad box to make sure I knew how to work it, there's no text, just drawings... well, I dodn't want to break it; but it took me a full 30 mins to realise that to "click", the whole front of the pad clicks down!!! I was tapping gently etc... how did I feel 😉

P.S. this ain't a rant - I'm perfectly happy with my screamer of a mini and Mavericks.

frazzm737 wrote:

I use an external portable drive for my backups and I like to know when it has finished before I disconnect it. That icon is so small that I have to get up to within inches to see if it is still running. Yes, the light on the drive flashes when it is writing, but I want to be sure it is finished because the light continues to flash some as long as it is connected.

OK, now that's a legitimate example I didn't think of because I use Time Capsule. But if I used an external drive with Time Machine and wanted to make sure the external was up to date before disconnecting, I would be a lot more concerned about the menu bar icon.

But, a question... I wasn't around for the versions of OS X where the icon did animate... when a TM backup failed (for any reason), did the icon show differently to when it successfully completed? Because if it showed the current icon on pass and fail, the only way to quickly check pass/fail back then, as now is to open the preferences from the icon anyway.

It does, I just think it's always a good idea to open TM preferences to see the result, good or bad (failures show up there, I've had them as a result of a locked sparse bundle because my TM disk is a NAS) 🙂

One thing we can all agree on, whether we like the new icon or not is the need to use Time Machine or some form of back-up. A great many of us have tales of salvation thanks to Time Machine. It is there for a good reason--use it!

Then, as Network 23 suggested, you can open Time Machine Preferences from the icon and it will show you either a progress bar, or when the last backup was completed.

Let me try,

Yes, that's normal. When it's backing up there are two arrow heads on the icon in the menu as opposed to just one at other times. Not very obvious.

They basically made it a little less distracting.