Filed under: Rumors, Software, .Mac
Apple testing new Backup update
We got word from a tipster that Apple is about to seed a software update for their Backup application to select users, who are being notified by invitation-only to participate in the super-exclusive AppleSeed program. No word yet on what improvements or enhancements are being tested, but we'll let you know as soon as our mole gets back to us. We're guessing it has something to do with making Backup's .Mac features not suck so much and having it work more than 40% of the time. At least that's what we're hoping for.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jon Niola said 10:38PM on 11-08-2006
Oh PLEASE let it have encryption AND secure login/transfer. I have too much stuff I don't trust sending over unencrypted connection with cleartext passwords.
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Scott Rose said 10:39PM on 11-08-2006
Hahaa!! Love the TUAW commentary!!
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John Gaskell said 10:53PM on 11-08-2006
At least it doesn't suck as much as your spell check. ;-p
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Thayne Miller said 10:57PM on 11-08-2006
I don't know how you can make a claim that it only works 40% of the time. It works 100% of the time if you follow the instructions.
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Trish M. said 11:07PM on 11-08-2006
Well it didn't work for me when I had to do an Erase & Install a few weeks ago. I had used BackUp faithfully every day and when it was crunch time it wouldn't cough up my data. I had to go back about eight months to get a usable restore....eight months is a lot of lost stuff. Do better on this Apple... please.
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Jerry Jones said 7:35PM on 11-10-2006
@ Thayne
I wish your statement was true. I got the ".mac password not setup" error when it was obviously set up right, I gave up. Backup is a horrible piece of software. Too many other quality products that are much better, even if you have pay.
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mike m said 11:28PM on 11-08-2006
The backup has worked 100% of the time for me. It's the restore part that sucks.
If anyone knows how to mount a corrupt sparseimage, I'd be grateful.
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remslie said 12:33AM on 11-09-2006
Jeepers, it works for me 100% of the time. Saved my bacon when my Macgourmet database became corrupt for various reasons.
It has been set it and forget it for me. I especially like that it does it the next morning if the machine gets shut down before it's set ti run.
Encryption would be nice.
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Todd said 12:56AM on 11-09-2006
Mine always runs scheduled backups 3-5 hours late despite being on and all volumes connected at its start time.
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Chris said 2:26AM on 11-09-2006
Yep. It would be great if they can fix this latest bug shifting backup times or even cancelling backup plans at all. It worked fine 'til 10.4.8 came, since then it's a mess and reading the Apple forums it seems a lot of people have same probs.
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Brian Fantana said 3:45AM on 11-09-2006
They say 60% of the time, it works every time.
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Jonathan Allen said 9:02AM on 11-09-2006
Does any one else find it strange that they are launching new Backup software when Leopard with TimeMachine is on the horizon? Will there be a functionality difference?
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Eric Lakin said 9:05AM on 11-09-2006
Has anyone had any success with other backup offerings besides this one? I've tried a few others and Backup seems to be the most straightforward. But I have to admit I have not had to do an emergency restore yet, so I always wonder if my data really is there when I need it.
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Kitty said 9:16AM on 11-09-2006
It has always worked for me 100% of the time. I've done Erase and Install too, about 2 weeks ago and it worked like a charm. Is it maybe that the prefs file hs to do something with that? Anyway, I have it to backup to an external FW drive.
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Sherman Homan said 10:10AM on 11-09-2006
I agree it is painfully slow and sometimes flaky. But it does work, I have recovered accidentally deleted files. Security encryption would be nice if it doesn't slow down even more.
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anon said 10:49AM on 11-09-2006
@ Jonathon Allen
Backup and Time Machine are different solutions. Time Machine will require an additional, locally connected hard drive --at least at this point-- to backup incremental data of your entire system, while Backup is an internet-based solution for copying user selected data and one that can be accessed for any web-accessible Windows or Mac computer.
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thomas said 12:02PM on 11-09-2006
Backup works perfectly for me. Your posts suck more.
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Ryan Bailer said 12:24AM on 11-10-2006
"while Backup is an internet-based solution for copying user selected data and one that can be accessed for any web-accessible Windows or Mac computer."
Jon, thanks for your comments. However, I'm not sure if this is completely accurate. While Backup will back up to one's iDisk, it also will backup to a hard drive, CDs, DVDs, network storage, or pretty much anything else you want. Though it didn't always do these things, it has done them now for many years. I therefore wouldn't call it an "Internet-based solution".
Also, I'm not sure what is meant by "that can be accessed for any web-accessible Windows or Mac computer." If you're talking about backups to an iDisk, well, yes, that's true to a degree. However, it's not in any way what Backup was intended for. Although you can access anyone's iDisk froma Mac or Windows machine, that feature wasn't really included with the intention for people to be able to restore a Backup file/set to a Windows machine. The Backup set is stored in a disk image, which I do not believe is readable on a Windows machine, which would make that impossible. Windows users can access file stored on your iDisk, but just not files that are in that disk image.
The iDisk solution is really a separate utility from Backup, which was intended so that people could access important info from any machine (Mac or Windows). However, Backup is really not a part of that solution (even though Backup will backup info to your iDisk...again, it's in a disk image).
I hope this is helpful, and feel free to point out anything that I've missed, or if I'm uninformed!
Ryan
mgoblue
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M said 1:55PM on 11-09-2006
Backup to iDisk does not work well.
When it reaches the iDisk capacity, you have to mess around deleting files manually.
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Thayne Miller said 2:51PM on 11-09-2006
"Backup to iDisk does not work well.
When it reaches the iDisk capacity, you have to mess around deleting files manually."
hahaha! So... you would rather have backup somehow magically create disk space that isn't there? Or perhaps would you rather have backup just delete old version of files? Backup to iDisk by default only does personal settings and small preference files. If you want your backups to go that far back that you need so much space, then why are you doing it with the small iDisk anyway? Simple solution: delete your iDisk backups and do a new full backup.
THIS IS WHY PEOPLE THINK BACKUP SUCKS: They delete the incremental files thinking that if they delete just the last one, it will effectively cancel the last backup. THIS IS FALSE! If you delete even a SINGLE incremental file, your whole backup is blown. You must then do a full backup to start over. This is stated clearly in the documentation! So when you go to restore from a backup and it doesn't work, maybe you should have followed the instructions.
It's funny that the people that set-and-forget are the ones that have the most success with this software. It's the people that don't follow directions and then blame apple that are at fault here.
I have been using backup for 6 months every single day to backup various things to iDisk, CD/DVD, 2 hard drives, and a network drive. I also use it in combination with an rsync script to take backups of remote files on a fileserver at school. I have restored probably about 20 or 30 times without a hickup. I have blown away my machine and done a complete reinstall many times and I am fully confident that backup is a reliable piece of software. I don't need to wait for time machine because backup is already perfect.
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