How can I see Time Machine activity in Console with macOS Sierra.

I created an Automator workflow for getting time machine info without directly using the Terminal. I changed the shell script so that it doesn't require user input and saves its output.

This workflow collects logs for the current date, saves them to a file, then opens the file in Console.app to show you the result. You can easily save this workflow as an Automator application.

Over time this file could get pretty big. I'm not sure if the built-in macOS maintenance scripts will act upon it. I'd recommend trashing it periodically. The next time you run the workflow a fresh copy will be created.

PS. No damage from the storm. My dog, a 3-year-old German Shepherd named Apollo, and I stayed with friends and returned home yesterday!

I'd be interested in knowing how to do this.

If Time Machine was taking an, unreasonably, long time, I liked being able to search for "backupd" in Console to see if TM was, actually, doing something or if it was stuck. Now, I have no idea what it's doing when it's running.

Also, the Time Machine Buddy widget no longer appears to work as a result of this change.

I have been using the following

log show --predicate 'subsystem == "com.apple.TimeMachine"' --info | grep 'upd: (' | cut -c 1-19,140-999

Needless to say any non-Apple "anti-virus" garbage including "Sophos" should be uninstalled.

Thank you for these terminal commands! Time Machine info used to be easily extracted from Console. I'm hopeful that there will be an easier method for getting Time Machine information in the near future but for now this works!

I created a shell script called "tm_info.sh". It resides in a directory with other homegrown scripts. That directory was added to my bash PATH.

This script takes one variable: the date in YYYY-MM-DD format. The script is run in Terminal.app like this:

tm_info.sh 2016-10-06

It takes about 15sec to output today's Time Machine info.

------------------

#!/bin/sh

if [ -z $1 ] ; then

echo "usage: tm_info.sh YYYY-MM-DD"

exit 1

fi

DATE=$1

log show --start $DATE --predicate 'subsystem == "com.apple.TimeMachine"' --info | grep 'upd: (' | cut -c 1-19,140-999

------------------

I created this script for use in the terminal but I suppose one could create an Automator workflow that asks for the date, runs the "log..." command, write the output to a text file, then display the file. That might be a cool little project to work on!

RIght now I can't do it. I'm near ground zero for Hurricane Matthew! I'll check back in a couple of days. For now I'm packing up a few things, getting my dog, and heading west (inland from the coast).

So for the complete beginner, what should I enter in Terminal. None of the other suggestions in this thread work and all return something like:

log stream --style syslog --predicate 'senderImagePath contains[cd] "TimeMachine"' --info

-bash: log: command not found

This a company machine and I'm not getting help from IT - they don't deploy/support Time Machine. I can't disable Sophos (IT won't permit) but it appears to be set for Cloud Scheduled scans at midday, every day so shouldn't interfere with TM overnight..

In Console, looking for backup I get this:

And this:

This a Macbook Pro Retina running 10.11.6; directly connected to TimeMachine.

As far as I can see the issue began with / was coincidental the Sophos update of 4 October 2016.

All advice gratefully received.

Graham

Graham -

The terminal command you posted is not complete. The information you want is returned by the command you entered but there is so much more stuff (that you don't want) that it's difficult to see. Try this instead:

log show --predicate 'subsystem == "com.apple.TimeMachine"' --info | grep 'upd: (' | cut -c 1-19,140-999

NOTE: The command above is copied and pasted from an earlier post in this thread.

Here is a slight variation of the command that filters the result to logs for a certain date:

log show --start 2016-10-20 --predicate 'subsystem == "com.apple.TimeMachine"' --info | grep 'upd: (' | cut -c 1-19,140-999

I added "--start 2016-10-20" to retrieve logs for a specfic date. If you copy and paste this modified command, the date must be changed to the current date each time you run the command.

Thanks Curtis. The query was in fact about Time Machine (although my sense is that the presence of Sophos is unhelpful). I tried the command you suggested and it was returned thus:

MAC13124:~ cosgxc$ log show --start 2016-10-21 --predicate 'subsystem == "com.apple.TimeMachine"' --info | grep 'upd: (' | cut -c 1-19,140-999

-bash: log: command not found

21 Oct 16: In the Activity monitor, in 10h53 minutes only 7.68GB of the required 52.21GB requiring backup has taken place (the problem has been going since 4 October at which time, apart from a Sophos update, my Outlook 365 profile was renewed). Not helping is the IT department has inexplicably closed off the ability to look further back than today in Console. So it looks like the last resort: CarbonCopyClone the drive to another removable and wipe the sparse bundle in Time Machine and start again. Thanks for your help anyway. Really appreciated. Graham.