Lion's Local Snapshots/Time Machine

[maflynn]

So what's the consensus on Time Machine's local snapshots?

I'm concerned that its nota true backup since my my snapshots are stored on my internal drive. I know I can disable local snapshots via the terminal command: sudo tmutil disablelocal

Still do people use them, think they're a good idea?

 

[robgendreau]

The idea is that they are there because you cannot do a regular backup.

The scheme under Lion, with autosave, etc, is that you are going to be able to unwind to other versions, and that you are saving stuff so that it can be sent to your regular backup when you choose to do that. All in all, more safe. But yeah, still not as good as backing up offsite as often as possible.

Rob

 

[Goldfinger]

So, if you're on the road for a week, you create a few files and you edit them during that week. Time Machine saves a "version" of each file every time you edit it (every hour).
After you get back home you connect your real time machine drive and you let time machine run. Does it then copy all the new files and changes to the TM drive and does it then delete the local snapshots? Or do the local snapshots keep on existing and wasting space? I hope it's the former.

 

[talmy]

So, if you're on the road for a week, you create a few files and you edit them during that week. Time Machine saves a "version" of each file every time you edit it (every hour).
After you get back home you connect your real time machine drive and you let time machine run. Does it then copy all the new files and changes to the TM drive and does it then delete the local snapshots? Or do the local snapshots keep on existing and wasting space? I hope it's the former.

Unfortunately it's the latter. But if you toggle TimeMachine off and then on again the local backups are deleted.

In any case I've found this a valuable feature, having just returned from a weeklong trip where I would otherwise not have TimeMachine.

 

[Goldfinger]

That's unfortunate. I've activated it right now on my MBP, we'll see how it goes. I'm just a bit concerned about extra wear on my SSD because of it, altough I know that the impact won't be that big...

 

[Winter Charm]

That's unfortunate. I've activated it right now on my MBP, we'll see how it goes. I'm just a bit concerned about extra wear on my SSD because of it, altough I know that the impact won't be that big...

Actually, considering that my local snapshots fluctuate between 10-40GB at any given time over a 2-3 day period, I would be pretty concerned about SSD wear.

There is a terminal command to disable local snapshots, but first, I would remove the space it's taking up on your mac buy turning OFF time machine, so existing local snapshots are deleted. Then, turn it on, run the command, and you're good to go.

sudo tmutil disablelocal

 

[TheStorey]

Can't get "other" space to go away...

I am using an iMac with 10.7.4. I have a 1 TB hard drive with 502GB of other and only 24GB free. I have turned off Time Machine and see no new free space or reduction of "other" space. I have tried sudo tmutil disable local but get a permission denied response. Do I need to be patient with TimeMachine to start deleting the local snapshots? It has been only an hour so far.

 

[talmy]

I am using an iMac with 10.7.4. I have a 1 TB hard drive with 502GB of other and only 24GB free. I have turned off Time Machine and see no new free space or reduction of "other" space. I have tried sudo tmutil disable local but get a permission denied response. Do I need to be patient with TimeMachine to start deleting the local snapshots? It has been only an hour so far.

The local backup space appears as "Backups" and not as "Other" so with TM turned off it should show Zero KB for Backups. That's all the savings you will get. The space saved is virtually immediate. The tmutil command should not give you permission denied unless you didn't give your password or you are not using an account with administrators privileges.

I recommend the free program "Disk Inventory X" to see how your disk is being used. It gives a very ingenious graphical display that not only shows what folders have the most contents but also the types of the files contained within.