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Apple Prepping New Backup Update

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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TUAW claims that Apple is about to begin seeding a software update for its Backup application to select testers. While unable to pin down what enhancements or features may be in the update, the site speculates that the release may be reliability-related.

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.
Click to expand...

Backup may be deprecated by Mac OS 10.5 Leopard's Time Machine, which promises to automatically backup and restore files corrupted or accidentally deleted or overwritten by the user.
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2006/11/09/apple-prepping-new-backup-update/
Yeah, I can't really see the value of the backup app when Leopard comes out. Yet another feature of .Mac NOT worth paying for.
 
Works for me

BornAgainMac said:
I wish specific information was provided on why it doesn't work more than 40% of the time.
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I use it everyday and I've never had any trouble with it. In fact, I haven't been able to get Retrospect, SuperDuper or CCC to complete a backup since I got my Intel iMac, but Apple's Backup works flawlessly. If I should be pissed about anything, it's paying for licenses to Retrospect and SuperDuper, and then not being able to get them to complete even a single backup.
 
Mine is flakey...

BornAgainMac said:
I wish specific information was provided on why it doesn't work more than 40% of the time.
Click to expand...

Good Point. Actually I have a question for y'all. Ever since I updated to 10.4.8, backup does not check it's scheduler and automatically launch and start backups - I have to manually run my backups. Does anyone know the solution to this problem? thx :confused:
 
tjwett said:
Yeah, I can't really see the value of the backup app when Leopard comes out. Yet another feature of .Mac NOT worth paying for.
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Time Machine is going to be real useful when your hard drive dies. :rolleyes:
 
Squonk said:
Good Point. Actually I have a question for y'all. Ever since I updated to 10.4.8, backup does not check it's scheduler and automatically launch and start backups - I have to manually run my backups. Does anyone know the solution to this problem? thx :confused:
Click to expand...

Hm, mine launches fine on its own. It's scheduled to run during the night but once and a while I forget to turn on my external drive so the Backup program is still waiting for it in the morning when I wake up.
 
"We're guessing they'll make it not suck so much and work more than 40% of the time"?!?!?! What an outstanding observation! Honestly, people wonder why bloggers and websites aren't considered "real" journalists. Sheesh.
 
mechamac said:
"We're guessing they'll make it not suck so much and work more than 40% of the time"?!?!?! What an outstanding observation! Honestly, people wonder why bloggers and websites aren't considered "real" journalists. Sheesh.
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My sentiments exactly.
 
Don't know what the fuss is about

I...

[Well, that was frustrating. I just wrote a big rant, and the forum software seemed to fart when I submitted it, and it's all gone. I couldn't be arsed to sit here and write it all again. Oh well. It was all about how great I think Backup and .Mac is anyway]
 
i really hope that .mac just gets a revamp that will allow us to use time machine to backup an entire machine to .mac i'd pay $99/year for that. but backup is useless when the storage you have is so little.
 
tjwett said:
Yeah, I can't really see the value of the backup app when Leopard comes out. Yet another feature of .Mac NOT worth paying for.
Click to expand...

I think they need to combine the two. Time machine is just automated incremental backups. Nothting new there except the user interface for restorring from a set of incrementals. I'm sure the reason the average user does not use incremental backup is that he doesn't understand it. Time machine makes it easy. Apple got this one right.

What .mac gives you is OFF SITE storage. You can backup to a local hard drive but what happens if there is a fire, theft or a power surge due to lightening? Your backup will be detroyed along with your system. OK we all know we should rotate backup sets through an off site loaction. but I wonder how many people do? The idea of .Mac is great what's not is the pricing and the very small amount of storage. It needs to be priced closer to the cost of local storage which is about $1.00/GB per year. If .Mac were $50 for 50GB I'd go for it. They need good integration with Time Machine and reasonable pricing.
 
At one time, i considered using .Mac, but when i saw Steve Jobs introduce Time Machine on the Quicktime vid, that consideration flew straight out the window. But i agree with the post above about the seriously ineptitude of this pseudojournalism. the moment i read the word "sucks" and then was deprived of a reason why i just thought.."Man this article sucks".

Now i wonder how many people will stick to their .Mac subscription after buying Leopard.
 
maxplanar said:
I...

[Well, that was frustrating. I just wrote a big rant, and the forum software seemed to fart when I submitted it, and it's all gone. I couldn't be arsed to sit here and write it all again. Oh well. It was all about how great I think Backup and .Mac is anyway]
Click to expand...

You should have backed it up. Sorry I couldnt resist.
 
BornAgainMac said:
I wish specific information was provided on why it doesn't work more than 40% of the time.
Click to expand...

aranhamo said:
I use it everyday and I've never had any trouble with it.
Click to expand...

Same here, it always backs-up to .mac perfectly fine and whenever I need to do a backup to a external drive it handles that flawlessly too. I didn't realize there were problems out there with it, but from the comments so far in this thread it looks like there aren't...

TUAW must just have a grudge against .Mac...
 
Ummm....

Guys, I am sorry but there are some truly idiotic things being said on here.

First of all, when did Apple ever sell the .Mac service as a full service offsite backup solution? Never is when. The ability to Backup files is one of a list of things people can use the service for currently.

And concerning their pricing, for all I get and all I use my .mac service the price is quite reasonable. I keep to systems sync'ed, I have clients and friends and family easily uploading files to my idisk via the web interface. I host a personal website and 2 business sites on it and keep a backup of my main preferences, contacts, calendar, etc as a just in case...in addition to my local backup cycle.

Concerning Time Machine and Leopard hurting .Mac service...not likely. In the betas they have actually increased Leopards use of and options with .Mac

And concerning the person who stated .Mac storage should be priced like a hard drive one goes down and buys....ummm, a hard drive costs what it costs due to what it takes and the expenses involved in making it. No web storage whether it is .Mac or your favorite web host charges the same as the cost for purchasing a hard drive. Their is a whole infrastructure that must be contained for something like .Mac...which is far more involved and requires constant maintenance. And this idea that you would buy 50 gigs of storage to back up your whole computer??? My friend with current DSL and Broadband internet speeds...do you have any clue how long it would take someone like me with 80Gig of information on my hard drive to back up over DSL?? My current upload speed is 303kb a second. Hmmm. Well gee a backup would only take me DAYS to complete.

There are a number of great things the .Mac service offers with it...I use the majority of them and like the service immensely.
 
My Backups to .Mac rarely happen as scheduled during the night -- I leave my Intel mini in Sleep mode.

But the other night, I shut it down, and guess what? The next morning the mini was on, and the Backup had taken place as scheduled. How does that happen?

Since then it's gone back to its usual behaviour, i.e unreliable.
 
Problem too w/ random Backup schedules

Squonk said:
Good Point. Actually I have a question for y'all. Ever since I updated to 10.4.8, backup does not check it's scheduler and automatically launch and start backups - I have to manually run my backups. Does anyone know the solution to this problem? thx :confused:
Click to expand...

I'm having the same problem. Backup just takes it upon itself to initiate a scheduled backup at the wrong time. I've deleted the setups and started from scratch, I've deleted the preferences, I've used different backup methods and sources, but all to no avail. I've even had it run a backup (at the wrong time), and then 2 or 3 hours later, ask to do it again!

Not sure what the issue is but my setup is MacBook Core Duo on 10.4.8 w/ latest Backup version.
 
BornAgainMac said:
I wish specific information was provided on why it doesn't work more than 40% of the time.
Click to expand...

Oh dear, well I can be one to fill you in on that. I backed up my home folder using Backup 3 onto an external hard disk. 189GB. After I was done, I checked the image to make sure it was the right size. 189GB. After I formatted my hard disk to reinstall OS X I tried to use Backup to restore my home folder. Nope. I lost everything. 10 years worth of documents, email, videos, etc. Yes the image still said it was 189GB, but as I examined further, Backup had only backed up the folders and not the files. For whatever reason it happened, I will never trust another backup program EVER it doesn't matter what I'm told and I will NEVER use Time Machine. I will manually copy my home folder over to another hard drive.
 
bdkennedy1 said:
Oh dear, well I can be one to fill you in on that. I backed up my home folder using Backup 3 onto an external hard disk. 189GB. After I was done, I checked the image to make sure it was the right size. 189GB. After I formatted my hard disk to reinstall OS X I tried to use Backup to restore my home folder. Nope. I lost everything. 10 years worth of documents, email, videos, etc. Yes the image still said it was 189GB, but as I examined further, Backup had only backed up the folders and not the files. For whatever reason it happened, I will never trust another backup program EVER it doesn't matter what I'm told and I will NEVER use Time Machine. I will manually copy my home folder over to another hard drive.
Click to expand...

All I can say is OUCH! :eek:
 
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