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oldhifi

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 12, 2013
1,494
748
USA
Do you leave your time machine OFF ?. I keep mine off, I don't need daily backups.
 
Leave it on. There is no reason for it to be off, ever. You're defeating the purpose of having Time Machine by keeping it off.
 
I leave it on most of the time - but I do turn it off when I'm converting movies with Handbrake to import into iTunes. If I don't, it ends up grabbing the temporary copies from the desktop before I've imported them, and makes my backup larger.

For those not using it, the attached describes how Time Machine automatically archives backups.
 

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I leave it on most of the time - but I do turn it off when I'm converting movies with Handbrake to import into iTunes. If I don't, it ends up grabbing the temporary copies from the desktop before I've imported them, and makes my backup larger.

For those not using it, the attached describes how Time Machine automatically archives backups.

I had the same issue and just excluded ~/Desktop from Time Machine to avoid it. I never keep anything permanent on the Desktop I would want backed up anyway.
 
Not everyone wants the hourly backup. I keep my external TM drive off and turn it on at the end of the day and rather backup daily.
 
When at home, I backup to my server. When traveling for long periods,I use a portable drive. Only connect it periodically, depending on what I'm doing. If I import a lot of photos, I back it up. I never turn TM off, just dismount the drive.
 
Always off.

Don't need daily system backups. If I'm working on a project, it's either via Google Docs or it is on Dropbox.

I do a manual rsync of my home folder once a week to my NAS.

Setting up a new copy of OSX in so simple compared to Windows that in my opinion there is no need for a system restore (via Time Machine). Enter some credentials, download a couple of apps, modify some settings. Done.
 
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