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Limiting the size of Time Machine backups

M

macizcool

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 4, 2010
148
170
I hope this isn't an overly-asked question. After searching, I have found that many people have a Time Machine partition, so I'm guessing that's the only way to limit the size of a backup.

I'm getting ready to help a friend setup Time Machine, as I believe it will be an easier solution for regular backups. However, I personally stopped using Time Machine a long time ago, in favor of ChronoSync, due to the lack of options offered by Time Machine. It just seems to keep backing up indefinitely, until the drive is full, and has no settings to delete outdated backup.
 
Just curious,

I am constantly amazed at the thought of wanting to limit backups. HDDs are essentially free... my latest look had them at about $40/TB in larger sizes (2-4TB).

What is the point?

/Jim
 
macizcool said:
So the only way to prevent the backups from using the entire disk is to partition?
Click to expand...

Pretty much at least that is what I always do make a partition on the backup disk the size I want to give to time machine. Now if you wanted you can still use some of the space on an entire drive dedicated to time machine, I have done this in the past when moving stuff around and was in need of some extra space to put the files being moved.
 
macizcool said:
It just seems to keep backing up indefinitely, until the drive is full, and has no settings to delete outdated backup.
Click to expand...

As for the constant backup, install TimeMachineEditor. It's a free program that allows you to schedule when time machine runs. I use it on all my macs and it works great!
 
flynz4 said:
Just curious,

I am constantly amazed at the thought of wanting to limit backups. HDDs are essentially free... my latest look had them at about $40/TB in larger sizes (2-4TB).

What is the point?

/Jim
Click to expand...

I suppose you're right, but I don't need 2TB of computer backups from my laptop. Plus, it's hard enough convincing a layperson to have an external drive with a backup of their computer... Asking them to have two external hard drives because Time Machine doesn't have a setting to limit the size is a stretch.
 
Given that disks are dirt cheap, especially compared to a Mac, why not let Time Machine have an entire drive?
 
macizcool said:
I suppose you're right, but I don't need 2TB of computer backups from my laptop. Plus, it's hard enough convincing a layperson to have an external drive with a backup of their computer... Asking them to have two external hard drives because Time Machine doesn't have a setting to limit the size is a stretch.
Click to expand...

In my POV, its simpler to just partition the disk and be done with it. TM takes care of sizing automatically. You may not want your layperson tinkering around with time machine or any other backup solution preferences anyway.
 
ColdCase said:
In my POV, its simpler to just partition the disk and be done with it. TM takes care of sizing automatically. You may not want your layperson tinkering around with time machine or any other backup solution preferences anyway.
Click to expand...

I'll have to ask my "layperson" friend :p if she's okay with backups taking over her entire drive. If not, I'll partition it for her. I just think Time Machine would be a good, automatic way for her to backup.
 
macizcool said:
I suppose you're right, but I don't need 2TB of computer backups from my laptop. Plus, it's hard enough convincing a layperson to have an external drive with a backup of their computer... Asking them to have two external hard drives because Time Machine doesn't have a setting to limit the size is a stretch.
Click to expand...

It's totally automatic. Time Machine saves hourly backups for 24 hours - daily backups for a month - and weekly backups for as long as the drive will allow. It automatically prunes the oldest weeklies. It doesn't matter if the disk gets full or not.

I can understand (not necessarily agree with) partitioning a drive so that it can back up two separate machines, give it a certain amount per machine. But that's a rare need.
 
It looks like it is possible to limit the size of time machine backups via the MaxSize key in:

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
 

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  • time machine plist.png
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sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize 768000

will set a maximum backup size of 750GB (750x1024=768000)

enjoy
 
murri said:
It looks like it is possible to limit the size of time machine backups via the MaxSize key in:

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
Click to expand...

stormychel said:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize 768000

will set a maximum backup size of 750GB (750x1024=768000)

enjoy
Click to expand...

Very interesting! This is new to me. I'm guessing you two are running Yosemite? I'm still on 10.8.5 Mountain Lion, and my com.apple.TimeMachine.plist does not currently have a "MaxSize" key, and my PreferencesVersion is "2", not "4". Perhaps this a new TM feature in Yosemite?
 
MacUser2525 said:
It deletes the oldest backups automatically when the volume/disk you are backing up to becomes full.
Click to expand...

that is not true (on mavericks I dont know in yosemite) I stop using time machine because I was sick of see how time machine DONT delete automatically older backups when the disk is full, so Im not on yosemite, now is fixed? Im good with time machine BUT!!! again the problem is that dont delete older backups, I need delete manually?

I use CCC (carbon copy cloner) but if time machine delete older backup on yosemite maybe I back to time machine.
 
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