Filed under: Terminal Tips
Terminal Tip: Change Time Machine backup interval
Sometimes you want your Mac to be backed up more frequently than usual. If you want to instantly back up using Time Machine, you could click on the menu bar item and select "Back Up Now," but what if you want to change the backup interval indefinitely? With this Terminal Tip, you can do just that. Time Machine is set to automatically back up every hour, but if you would like to change it to every half hour, you can use the following Terminal (/Applications/Utilities) command:
sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 1800 You will need to authenticate as an administrator, since this command is run under a "sudo." The time interval is measured in seconds, so you can enter any time you wish there; just make sure it is in seconds. By default, Time Machine backs up every 3600 seconds (every hour). If you wish to revert to the original, just replace "1800" with "3600."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Noob said 9:46AM on 12-08-2008
You can also (ode to mac murphy) edit the file named com.apple.backupd-auto.plist. Open it in your favorite text editor, and look for this section:
StartInterval
3600
Change the 3600 number to some other time interval in seconds, and you'll have changed Time Machine's backup interval.
Another way ( : ) is to use a GUI time machine scheduler such as http://www.klieme.com/TimeMachineScheduler.html
There are many others.
Macosxhints.com also noted Apple now recommends that you set your machine to manual Time Machine backups if you use Aperture.
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Matthew Hillyer said 10:22AM on 12-08-2008
Was just going to post that - it's a pretty good app.
Flunky Carter said 1:12PM on 12-08-2008
Do you have the macosxhints page re: aperture/time machine?
Le Big Mac said 4:11PM on 12-08-2008
Looks like a good app--control frequency and have times when it doesn't do it (I never computer between 1 and 7 am, so why bother then?
Do any of the problems in the developers notes actually exist?
Noob said 9:01PM on 12-08-2008
@Flunky Carter
One of the apple KB articles:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1878?viewlocale=en_US
says, "Time Machine is a good way to maintain a backup of your Aperture library. Keep the following points in mind:
Mac OS X v10.5.3 Leopard or later is strongly recommended. Earlier versions of Leopard did not provide full compatibility between Time Machine and Aperture.
Do not perform a restore operation while Aperture is running. You may lose data from your library if you perform a restore while Aperture is open."
May 2008
Maybe they have resolved most issues. They other thing I read a while back was that having time machine back up while aperture was open caused "unnecessary and duplicate backups" and a note from robg on osxhints reminded me of that.
The macosxhints post here:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=200710291721156
I figured I'd back up at night to be safe.
Le Big Mac said 9:48AM on 12-08-2008
Any reason you can't do it less frequently (e.g., 7200=2 hours)?
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Noob said 9:54AM on 12-08-2008
I set all my machines to back up less frequently. A LOT less frequently, like every 12 or 24 hours. But I have various reasons (like Aperture and large video files) for doing so.
I personally like this App:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/26704/timemachineeditor
With it you can schedule backups as well as set intervals.
serenity said 10:05AM on 12-08-2008
Nope, less frequently works great! I use 7200 secs (2 hours).
Christophe Bismuth said 10:46AM on 12-08-2008
Thank you for this great tip!
I'll set it up to every 12 hours ;o)
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Gerrit said 4:18PM on 12-08-2008
Am I supposed to restart my Mac after setting the interval? I just set it to 7200 but the next Update is still scheduled for in about an hour according to Time Machine's preference pane.
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J Hendrix said 4:44PM on 12-08-2008
No, a restart isn't required, but you should log out and back in to force the system to load the new plist file. Alternatively, you could run a killall command in the Terminal to force Time Machine to reload, but I wouldn't recommend it so much that I'm not going to write out the code here. Logging out and in is the stablest solution.
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yones said 4:18AM on 1-22-2009
please send me time machine code
my emai:m_father131@yahoo.com
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