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Alternative to Time Machine

...Could also be that it sees the Library as a single file...so any changes mean the whole thing gets rewritten. A common problem with databases...which can include email clients, etc.

Hopefully not.
 
Quick update: ChronoSync has been a complete and utter failure so far. It constantly loses connection to mounted Synology drives, no matter if those are on the Synology main drives or on USB3-connected external drives, also no matter how those external drives are formatted (HFS+ or EXT2).

Using Finder I can copy the same data to the same mounted network drives and into the sparse images on those drives with no problem whatsoever.

I am extremely surprised about how this hasn't worked out at all so far and disappointed for wasting hours for this.
 
workerbee said:
Quick update: ChronoSync has been a complete and utter failure so far. It constantly loses connection to mounted Synology drives, no matter if those are on the Synology main drives or on USB3-connected external drives, also no matter how those external drives are formatted (HFS+ or EXT2).

Using Finder I can copy the same data to the same mounted network drives and into the sparse images on those drives with no problem whatsoever.

I am extremely surprised about how this hasn't worked out at all so far and disappointed for wasting hours for this.
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Sorry to hear that. I used it for years on a production server, and never any issues with drives or shares unmounting or disappearing. If you have the paid version, might be worth asking their support for help.

I will say that over the years, I have seen a handful of USB 3 drive docks that would not keep an external drive mounted reliably...pretty sure it was Apple's implementation of USB 3 on some older Macs. This was consistent in the Finder, and all other apps. Definitely a USB specific issue...not any one app or process. Does not sound like what you describe.
 
While I still think ChronoSync is great for certain cases, I'm not so sure about it being a TimeMachine replacement anymore.

Copying my entire ~320GB photo library over WiFi in full for each and every backup (and making a copy on thetarget medium and only overwriting to original when all is done) when at most 3 or 4 photos have been added seems… less than ideal.

And since the author himself says "Archiving is a poor performer when backing up to Cloud Services." I'm wondering why I should use CS to backup to the Cloud at all, since archiving stuff I don't need anymore would surely be one of the best use cases for cheap online cloud space.
 
Bump. Any of the alternatives mentioned here can backup and encrypt for multiple operating systems?
After 4 days of manually deleting huge TM 2 year old files I didn't need, I agree with the OP that Time Machine is unquestionably the worst software ever produced by Apple. My previous backup software was a Maxtor Seagate little program that came with an external hard drive. It would backup so easily and quickly my files and basic computer settings of both Mac and Windows. Sadly it got obsolete.

Will get rid of Time Machine as soon as my trash can gets finally empty and I find a good replacement.

I'm super angry at the loss of time dedicated to this 💩. Lol.
 
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What you fail to realize, the first time you use Time Machine it backs up every bit of data on that device. It can take hours. After that, it is much shorter because it takes snapshots of any information that may have changed, not a full back up. If you keep your EHD attached to it, it will automatically back up every 24 hours.
 
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chrissomos said:
You might like TM more if you use a faster drive.
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I agree.

I use both Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner.

For both Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner, when backing up my MacBook Air with 256 MB SSD internal storage, I had moved from a 4TB 5400 rpm 2.5" external, to a 1TB 3.5" external HDD, to a 12TB RAID 0 external 7200 rpm HDDs, and then to a 1TB external SSD.

The speed increased from small HDD to big HDD to RAID 0 to SSD. The fastest was obviously with the SSD of course; finished each task in a few minutes. The 2.5" external HDD was painfully slow. The 3.5" external HDD was okay, the RAID 0 was better, but backing up to an SSD was blazing fast.

But, if you had to back up say a 1TB, getting a 2 or 4 TB SSD for Time Machine may be a bit, of an overkill.

However, if you're intending to have clone to boot from, using say Carbon Copy Cloner, then, I think SSD is the way to go.
 
Alameda said:
My backup drive is a 5-drive Drobo ISB Type-C array. It clocks around 170 MB/sec.... but heaven knows Time Machine won’t backup anywhere close to that rate!
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Nothing will with small files. I use a Thunderbolt 4 disk Promise box for my TM. It's backing up right now so I took a look at the transfer rates. Sometimes it's well over 200 MB/s. Often it's not. This is the same as it would be if I were just copying files.
 
I uses Time Machine the first time to restore my new Mac. I did not like it. It took nearly an hour to restore and I had to set up all my security settings.

After which I tried to backup and it was stuck on preparing. I had to format the backup drive and do a fresh backup which took about an hour.

I miss Macrium Image Backup from Windows which use to take me about 5 minutes to backup and about 10 minutes to restore an backup exactly the way it was. Is there anything like that for macos.
 
tonyr6 said:
I uses Time Machine the first time to restore my new Mac. I did not like it. It took nearly an hour to restore and I had to set up all my security settings.

After which I tried to backup and it was stuck on preparing. I had to format the backup drive and do a fresh backup which took about an hour.

I miss Macrium Image Backup from Windows which use to take me about 5 minutes to backup and about 10 minutes to restore an backup exactly the way it was. Is there anything like that for macos.
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The first backup is whole startup drive! Any backup after that is the changes between that snapshot and changes to the system! So I usually made a direct connection for the initial backup and left it on wireless (laptop) on the quickest wireless AC or better!
 
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tonyr6 said:
I miss Macrium Image Backup from Windows which use to take me about 5 minutes to backup and about 10 minutes to restore an backup exactly the way it was. Is there anything like that for macos.
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I use SuperDuper to image my system before installing a yearly OS upgrade (like Mojave).

If you have a native BootCamp boot of Windows-10, you might be able to image not only that partition, but the whole machine. You would not be able to browse the Apple partitions, but Macrium Reflect might be able to image/restore them like any-other non-DOS/non-NTFS partition.
 
For those using synology NAS for backup, how do you deal with things like a large iTunes or iPhoto library? Do you only back up user files/folders like documents or do you have a reliable method of dealing with those huge libraries?
 
bigfatipod said:
For those using synology NAS for backup, how do you deal with things like a large iTunes or iPhoto library? Do you only back up user files/folders like documents or do you have a reliable method of dealing with those huge libraries?
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I keep files like that (music, video, pics, archived docs) on my Synology 4-bay NAS itself. I can access the media files via Plex and/or Kodi. I use SHR (RAID-5 with 1-disk fault protection). Local machines can be backed-up to a local-USB-drive or to the NAS itself (via network). I also occasionally backup the whole NAS to (high-capacity, inexpensive) USB drives (that can be stored/rotated off-site if I wish). I think some people just backup their NAS to the cloud (off-site) instead.

So, I keep 2 copies of everything (as that is just a basic backup). 3 copies of critical files (and at least one of those is off-site). That should protect against normal drive-failures, as well as fire/flood/theft.
 
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I use TM to backup my Photo library, but it's only 35 GB. iTunes is kept on a separate 4 TB 2.5" drive. The Macs are also cloned using CCC and each one has its own 2.5" drive. All documents are stored on OneDrive and all code is kept in gitlab or github. Another copy of the photo library is kept at the mother in law's place.

The TM for everything is a Promise R4 thunderbolt enclosure. I also occasionally copy the contents of the iTunes drive onto it, but I am now using Apple Music and all of the video media can be redownloaded from iTunes anytime as well. I only purchased a few series that I love, such as The Sopranos. I sold my entire collection of DVDs and most of the BR discs, apart from what I consider classics. I had a large collection and it was just clutter because streaming. The only reason I back up iTunes is purely for convenience because redownloading everything would take quite a bit of time

I have a Synology 5 bay NAS that is currently not plugged in, since I no longer have a need for it in the house. I used to use it for TM and as an XBMC server. If you are in the UK and not in a lockdown region, then I can sell it to you.
 
I wish apple would actually put any effort into maintaining Time Machine, way too many stories about failed backups. I rely on TM and can't really buy an external HDD or SDD at the moment.

All the other apps feel too complicated to use but will research CCC.
 
Natzoo wrote:
"All the other apps feel too complicated to use but will research CCC"

There's nothing complicated about CCC.
Just launch it and use it.

I back up to an SSD.
An incremental backup of my boot partition takes about 3 minutes.
An incremental backup of my main data partition takes 2 seconds.

It's not much more than "child's play on the Mac".
 
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theSeb said:
I have a Synology 5 bay NAS that is currently not plugged in, since I no longer have a need for it in the house. I used to use it for TM and as an XBMC server.
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How well did it work with Time Machine? I have tried both QNAP and Synology TM backups of a 4 TB drive and found:

1. Terribly slow, even incrementals can take up to a day
2. Have never been able to use for more than a few months. Eventually get corrupted, and have to start from scratch.
 
I am done with Time Machine. It was again stuck on preparing backup. I am trying Carbon Copy but all it does is boot from the external drive which is slow. How do I go about restoring the drive. I really miss Macrium which was perfect.
 
If you have a bootable clone on an external drive, you simply erase the internal drive and clone the external back to it. I have done this a number of times and it couldn't be simpler. If you want speed, then use an external SSD for your backup disk, that's what I do.
 
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tonyr6 said:
I am done with Time Machine. It was again stuck on preparing backup. I am trying Carbon Copy but all it does is boot from the external drive which is slow. How do I go about restoring the drive. I really miss Macrium which was perfect.
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I don't understand your question. In CCC there is a Source field and Destination field, choose the drive with the backed up data in the "SOURCE" and choose the drive you want to transfer the information to in the "DESTINATION".

CCC is one of the best software out there. It does what it says no issues, continuous updates, responsive support from developer, and great guides on their site for anything you need to do. Can't get better than that. For saving you digital life, the asking price of $40 is very measly amount.

The only other software I know that works in the same way is SuperDuper but I don't trust that one, seems sketchy and not as PRO as Bombich(CCC developer).
 
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