Time Machine - Change 15 day reminder?

[Demigod Mac]

I keep an offsite backup disk that I occasionally bring home to run, and then take it back and store it away until next month.

Time Machine nags me after 15 days that it can't backup to this drive.

Any way to change it to nag every 30 days or something more specific like the first of every month?

 

[benwiggy]

Can you explain this a bit more? What OS version?

Are you saying that you use Time Machine to do an "occasional" monthly backup to an external drive?
And TM flags an error every 15 days that it can't backup to that drive? Is this when you plug the drive in, or when the drive is not there? What is the exact wording of the message?

TM is designed to take hourly incremental backups to an external drive that is usually, if not always, connected. If you are not using it in that way, then my advice is to use different backup software, because you will run into problems.

 

[satcomer]

Could you change Time Machine interval using the free utility Time Machine Buddy?

 

[switon]

RE: TM warning...

Hi,

Yes Demigod Mac, I've been having the same trouble...for me it occurs because I backup to multiple TM volumes, one of which I store offsite. TM warns that the offsite volume has not been backed up to in xxx days.

I've looked through the "tmutil" documentation and also all of the various property lists associated with TM that I could find, but nowhere did I see how to turn off or reset the time interval for this warning. I'm sure it must be somewhere, but I haven't found it yet. Perhaps someone in the know, knows how to do this? It would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Switon

P.S. It is not the TM backup interval that needs to be changed. This I know how to do. Rather it is the warning that a particular destination has not been backed up to in the last xxx days...it is the xxx that needs to be changed.

 

[Demigod Mac]

10.8.2

I run three Time Machine backups: an internal drive, an external stored near the computer, and one off-site external drive.

What I'm trying to adjust the interval on is the nag message that appears when Time Machine was unable to backup to a drive (because the drive's been disconnected for 15+ days).

The message pops up every day I don't bring the offsite drive home for a backup.

Would like to adjust it to every 30 days if possible.

I'm imagining it needs some Terminal voodoo command, like when I changed it to backup every 30 minutes instead of an hour.

 

[switon]

Demigod Mac,

I also run multiple TM backups as well as clones, some of which are swapped offsite. And I am bothered by the same warning about not backing up to the offsite volumes. As I mentioned, I read through all of the documentation I could find for tmutil, but I didn't see how to alter this warning's time interval. I also looked through as many of the TM related plists as I could find, again without success. So, if you ever figure out how to stop this warning, please let me know.

Switon

 

[satcomer]

10.8.2

I run three Time Machine backups: an internal drive, an external stored near the computer, and one off-site external drive.

What I'm trying to adjust the interval on is the nag message that appears when Time Machine was unable to backup to a drive (because the drive's been disconnected for 15+ days).

The message pops up every day I don't bring the offsite drive home for a backup.

Would like to adjust it to every 30 days if possible.

I'm imagining it needs some Terminal voodoo command, like when I changed it to backup every 30 minutes instead of an hour.

Then use the Terminal program tmutil. You can read about at the articleControl Time Machine from the command line with tmutil. It will show you how to show the commands line for time Machine in the man help files.

 

[switon]

Then use the Terminal program tmutil. You can read about at the articleControl Time Machine from the command line with tmutil. It will show you how to show the commands line for time Machine in the man help files.

Satcomer, thanks for the tmutil suggestion. Do you know the specific tmutil command that works in this case?

I already use tmutil for a number of tasks, but I could not find anyway to get tmutil to alter this warning's time interval. I also tried finding this time interval in the various TM plists, but I didn't locate it in any of the property lists either. I'm sure I've somehow missed it, but I've been unable to figure out how to alter this time interval or switch off the warning totally.

Thanks,
Switon

 

[satcomer]

Sorry I don't know. I just used the Time Machine Editor but I do know one has to edit a System Launch file described in the article Change the Time Machine Backup Schedule.

Edit: Just remember if you do edit the Launch file you have to reboot to make it stick.

 

[switon]

Sorry I don't know. I just used the Time Machine Editor but I do know one has to edit a System Launch file described in the article Change the Time Machine Backup Schedule.

Edit: Just remember if you do edit the Launch file you have to reboot to make it stick.

Yes, those were the plists that I looked through, but I couldn't find any reference to this warning or to its time interval in any of these TM plists. I even looked through a number of the system plists on the thought that some of the TM properties may be initialized in system plists. I'm sure I'm missing where it is initialized somehow, but I couldn't find it (I hope it isn't hard-coded into the TM code).

Switon

 

[satcomer]

Yes, those were the plists that I looked through, but I couldn't find any reference to this warning or to its time interval in any of these TM plists. I even looked through a number of the system plists on the thought that some of the TM properties may be initialized in system plists. I'm sure I'm missing where it is initialized somehow, but I couldn't find it (I hope it isn't hard-coded into the TM code).

Switon

Well you could ask the developer of the application and write/ask him if knows the Terminal commands and he might tell you. That's all I think of, sorry.

 

[jhfrontz]

I'm sure I'm missing where it is initialized somehow, but I couldn't find it (I hope it isn't hard-coded into the TM code).

I'd like to adjust the interval as well and stumbled on this thread. On a lark, I did a strings on tmutil. One of the interesting ones that popped out was timeIntervalSinceDelayedBackupWarning

It's not clear if this is a tag for a plist setting (to configure the interval) or a field in some state database that keeps track of the last time a warning was given. The same string also occurs in /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/backupd-helper

Anybody tried setting it?