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Time capsule backup sizes: Always large on MBA but tiny on desktop

BenTrovato

BenTrovato

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 29, 2012
3,067
2,255
Canada
Hey guys,

Just wondering if anyone has any insight on why this happens. Anytime I backup up my MBA after a day or two of no backups, the size is always between 5-6gb even if I didn't turn on the laptop in those days. Conversely, the desktop backup sizes are always between 4-500mb, even if I don't turn it on for a week.

Both systems are backing up 128gb SSD's with pretty much the same software on both so I don't understand what's going on. Sometimes all I do is turn it on and surf the internet or reply to emails and the backup is over 5gb on the laptop. If I do the same activity on the desktop, it's much smaller. Any ideas?
 
priitv8 said:
Maybe some of the hints here help to pinpoint what exactly is backed up in both cases?
http://pondini.org/TM/D4.html
PS Does your laptop powernap? Does it keep local backups?
Click to expand...

It doesn't powernap. I'm going to go ahead and say yes to local backup. I thought Time Machine takes local backups as long as there is more than 20% free space on the main drive?
 
BenTrovato said:
It doesn't powernap. I'm going to go ahead and say yes to local backup. I thought Time Machine takes local backups as long as there is more than 20% free space on the main drive?
Click to expand...

Even local backups would not explain that with the usage (non-usage) you described. All that goes in there is things you have deleted. So for example if you downloaded a 2GB video then deleted it, that would go into local backups.
 
priitv8 said:
That's why I keep my Downloads folder excluded from TM backups.
Click to expand...

I'm not talking about actually backing up the deleted video, what I mean is anything you delete goes into the hidden local backups folder (/.MobileBackups), even if the folder is excluded from TM backups.
 
Weaselboy said:
I'm not talking about actually backing up the deleted video, what I mean is anything you delete goes into the hidden local backups folder (/.MobileBackups), even if the folder is excluded from TM backups.
Click to expand...
Actually, this logic remains obscure to me! The idea of excluding folders from backup set is to keep them excluded also from local backup (/.MobileBackups), right?
 
priitv8 said:
Actually, this logic remains obscure to me! The idea of excluding folders from backup set is to keep them excluded also from local backup (/.MobileBackups), right?
Click to expand...

One would think so yes... but that is not how it works for some reason. You can test it yourself and you will see. Anything you delete gets put in /.MobileBackups even if the folder is excluded in the TM settings. Lame I agree.
 
Weaselboy said:
You can test it yourself and you will see. Anything you delete gets put in /.MobileBackups even if the folder is excluded in the TM settings.
Click to expand...
I don't see my ~/Downloads being backed up into MobileBackups:
Code: 
Priits-MacBook-Pro-2:~ priit$ ls -ld /Volumes/MobileBackups/Backups.backupdb/Priit’s\ MacBook\ Pro/Latest/Macintosh\ SSD/Users/priit/D*
drwxr-xr-x   9 priit  staff   306  9 mai   22:54 /Volumes/MobileBackups/Backups.backupdb/Priit’s MacBook Pro/Latest/Macintosh SSD/Users/priit/Desktop
drwxr-xr-x  36 priit  staff  1224  4 nov    2013 /Volumes/MobileBackups/Backups.backupdb/Priit’s MacBook Pro/Latest/Macintosh SSD/Users/priit/Developer
drwxr-xr-x  97 priit  staff  3298  8 apr   18:55 /Volumes/MobileBackups/Backups.backupdb/Priit’s MacBook Pro/Latest/Macintosh SSD/Users/priit/Documents
 
priitv8 said:
I don't see my ~/Downloads being backed up into MobileBackups:
Code: 
Priits-MacBook-Pro-2:~ priit$ ls -ld /Volumes/MobileBackups/Backups.backupdb/Priit’s\ MacBook\ Pro/Latest/Macintosh\ SSD/Users/priit/D*
drwxr-xr-x   9 priit  staff   306  9 mai   22:54 /Volumes/MobileBackups/Backups.backupdb/Priit’s MacBook Pro/Latest/Macintosh SSD/Users/priit/Desktop
drwxr-xr-x  36 priit  staff  1224  4 nov    2013 /Volumes/MobileBackups/Backups.backupdb/Priit’s MacBook Pro/Latest/Macintosh SSD/Users/priit/Developer
drwxr-xr-x  97 priit  staff  3298  8 apr   18:55 /Volumes/MobileBackups/Backups.backupdb/Priit’s MacBook Pro/Latest/Macintosh SSD/Users/priit/Documents
Click to expand...

You are correct and I was wrong. I have ~/Desktop excluded and I would swear when I checked this it was dumping things into Mobielbackups. I just checked again and it does not. Sorry for the confusion.
 
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