How do I schedule Time Machine Backups?

Question

How do I schedule Time Machine Backups?

How do I schedule Time Machine Backups to occur overnight? I want to back up at night and not slow my iMac down during daytime use

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS Sierra (10.12.4)

Posted on May 25, 2017 5:30 PM

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Answer 1

May 26, 2017 7:49 AM in response to etresoft

EtreCheck version: 3.3.2 (395)

Report generated 2017-05-26 15:09:41

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 8:59

Performance: Below Average

Click the [Lookup] links for more information from Apple Support Communities.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Problem: Beachballing

Description:

Beachballing often occurs, especially when iTunes is running or Time Machine backups are taking place

Hardware Information: ⓘ

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2

1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-3210M) CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 987

Video Information: ⓘ

Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD 1280 x 800

System Software: ⓘ

macOS Sierra 10.12.5 (16F73) - Time since boot: about one hour

Disk Information: ⓘ

APPLE HDD HTS545050A7E362 disk0 : (500.11 GB) (Rotational)

[Show SMART report]

EFI (disk0s1 - MS-DOS FAT32) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Recovery HD (disk0s3 - Journaled HFS+) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

OS X Base System (disk1 - Journaled HFS+) / [Startup]: 498.88 GB (256.10 GB free)

Encrypted AES-XTS Unlocked Failed

Core Storage: disk0s2 499.25 GB Online

HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS31N ()

USB Information: ⓘ

USB20Bus

hub_device

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

USB20Bus

hub_device

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

USB30Bus

Thunderbolt Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper: ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers

System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] 7 Apple tasks

[loaded] 182 Apple tasks

[running] 93 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[not loaded] 41 Apple tasks

[loaded] 173 Apple tasks

[running] 102 Apple tasks

Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[loaded] com.klieme.TMSHelper.plist (Stefan Klieme - installed 2017-05-26) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.klieme.TimeMachineScheduler.plist (? a806c779 a7d02e42 - installed 2017-05-26) [Lookup]

[running] com.klieme.TimeMachineScheduler.wake.plist (? 4043eebc 31ab8a2 - installed 2017-05-26) [Lookup]

User Login Items: ⓘ

iTunesHelper Application (? 0 - installed 2017-05-15)

(/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2017-05-16)

3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

None

Time Machine: ⓘ

Skip System Files: NO

Mobile backups: OFF

Auto backup: NO - Auto backup turned off

Volumes being backed up:

OS X Base System: Disk size: 498.88 GB Disk used: 242.78 GB

Destinations:

Data [Network]

Total size: 0 B

Total number of backups: 10

Oldest backup: 16/05/2017, 03:11

Last backup: 24/05/2017, 02:05

Size of backup disk: Too small

Backup size 0 B < (Disk used 242.78 GB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

5% WindowServer -daemon

1% DuetHeuristic-BM

1% coreduetd

0% fontd

0% distnoted agent

Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

156 MB Safari

111 MB WindowServer -daemon

98 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

94 MB Finder

86 MB storeassetd

Top Processes by Network Use: ⓘ

Input Output Process name

621 KB 60 KB mDNSResponder

31 KB 5 KB netbiosd

15 KB 16 KB apsd

672 B 672 B ntp.drift

0 B 224 B SystemUIServer

Top Processes by Energy Use: ⓘ

8.18 WindowServer -daemon

0.06 distnoted agent

0.06 CalendarAgent

0.04 com.apple.iCloudHelper

Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

1.64 GB Available RAM

56 MB Free RAM

2.36 GB Used RAM

1.59 GB Cached files

0 B Swap Used

Diagnostics Information: ⓘ

2017-05-24 00:00:36 /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/quicklookd_2017-05-24-000036_[redacted].crash

/System/Library/Frameworks/QuickLook.framework/Versions/A/Resources/quicklookd. app/Contents/MacOS/quicklookd

Application Specific Information:

quicklookd seems struck trying to quit, crashing

abort() called

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Answer 2

babowa

Level 9

78,580 points

May 27, 2017 11:19 AM in response to Herbert_Treefrog

My knowledge of FileVault is lacking as I have never used it, so I can't contribute anything there. Did you use Internet recovery? That usually works. Take a look at these instructions (different key combo with Sierra):

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

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Answer 3

May 25, 2017 6:02 PM in response to etresoft

I am already backing up my data to a Time Capsule but only want backups to run at night or when I manually enable them. However, I have found a handy application which allows me to do this at: http://www.klieme.com/TimeMachineScheduler.html

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Answer 4

etresoft

Level 9

57,212 points

May 26, 2017 4:40 AM in response to Herbert_Treefrog

I wrote a little diagnostic program to help show what might be causing these problems. Download EtreCheck from https://www.etrecheck.com, run it, and paste the results here. EtreCheck is perfectly safe to run, does not ask for your password to install, and is signed with my Apple Developer ID.

Disclaimer: Although EtreCheck is free, there are other links on my site that could give me some form of compensation, financial or otherwise.

Reply

Answer 5

babowa

Level 9

78,580 points

May 26, 2017 8:11 AM in response to Herbert_Treefrog

Just as an additional note: I have the same model MBP and you are running Sierra on the absolute minimum amount of RAM and have a slow 5400 rpm hard drive (which is 33% slower than the stock 7200 rpm drive in an iMac). I upgraded mine immediately to an SSD and added more RAM - a remarkable difference. Yours is the last model which can be upgraded by the user. I'd check out OWC (macsales.com) for RAM and a different hard drive. This should certainly help with your slow/beachballing issues.

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Answer 6

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,624 points

May 26, 2017 9:08 AM in response to Herbert_Treefrog

Herbert_Treefrog wrote:

Thank you - That's what I was thinking - would just upgrading the RAM make much difference?

It will help, however if you really want to transform the machine's performance take the advice of installing an SSD too.

Reply

Answer 7

etresoft

Level 9

57,212 points

May 26, 2017 10:29 AM in response to Herbert_Treefrog

Hello again Herbert_Treefrog,

I second babowa's recommendation. Your hard drive has already reported a failure with FileVault. EtreCheck just reports the FileVault status, so I don't know any details about the failure. I know that those 2.5" hard drives in older notebooks tend to fail after 2-3 years. Your machine is already double that. It should be running at least twice as fast as it does. If you installed an SSD, it would run twice as fast again.

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Answer 8

babowa

Level 9

78,580 points

May 26, 2017 10:31 AM in response to Herbert_Treefrog

Just adding RAM will help, but the hard drive is a very important part - if it does everything slow such as read and write and it can only go as fast as it is meant to go, no matter how much RAM you want to throw at it. If an SSD is too expensive, you could go with a 7200 rpm drive which will speed up all the read/writes by about one third. I'd recommend an SSD though. My 5 year old MBP is running great with the SSD and added RAM and has a pretty much immediate response to most everything I do.

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Answer 9

May 26, 2017 12:19 PM in response to etresoft

I've just had the MBP hard drive reformatted, but it's had some hammer over the years. I'd completely forgotten about the FileVault ... doh!

Major family funeral in the next week, so will upgrade the hardware ASAP...

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Answer 10

May 27, 2017 12:32 AM in response to babowa

Unfortunately, being in the UK, prices for components are considerably more than on the suggested website. Any hints from the UK community on cheap reliable suppliers? Am wary of online auction sites for this sort of thing.

Chris

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Answer 11

babowa

Level 9

78,580 points

May 27, 2017 7:57 AM in response to Herbert_Treefrog

There are only two RAM vendors that are always recommended here: macsales.com and Crucial - Crucial sells in Europe. You have to remember that Macs are very finicky about their RAM, so getting cheap or value RAM will most likely not have the desired results. As for SSDs, I like OWC's, but I've heard that the Samsung EVO is good and Sandisk may be ok as well.

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Answer 12

May 27, 2017 8:36 AM in response to babowa

As an aside, I've been investigating whether part of my problem may be the FileVault issue - it seems to be frozen after about a week of trying to encrypt the hard drive. I tried to run a disk repair from Recovery Mode with instructions from MacIssues, but this seems to be for an older version of the OS. I managed to ascertain that there may be an issue with partitions and permissions but could get no further...

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Answer 13

etresoft

Level 9

57,212 points

May 28, 2017 5:29 AM in response to Herbert_Treefrog

Hello again Herbert_Treefrog,

You have a MacBook Pro, a backup, and a hard drive that isn't completely dead yet. I strongly suggest you purchase a new 500 GB SSD, some additional RAM, and a 1.5 TB external backup drive for that machine. And soon.

That will solve your Time Machine problems. You can dump the Time Machine editor. Your machine will run about 6 times faster.

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Answer 14

Jun 18, 2017 3:25 PM in response to etresoft

OK - I have now got hold of a Crucial SSD and Boosted by MBP's RAM up to 16 Gb. I have managed to clone the old HDD and have also a Time Machine backup. The old HDD seems to have failed, so what is the best way to migrate the info over to the new SSD?

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Answer 15

etresoft

Level 9

57,212 points

Jun 18, 2017 4:32 PM in response to Herbert_Treefrog

Hello Herbert_Treefrog,

Once the SSD is installed, you can do an Internet Recovery to install the OS. Part of that process should ask if you want to restore from backup. You can also manually run Migration Assistant at any time to restore from a Time Machine backup or clone.

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