View what Time Machine is backing up?

[benmrii]

Is there any way to view more details about the processes of Time Machine (a la the activity window in Mail)? I know that clicking the menu icon shows how far it is into backing up whatever amount it is backing up and that the same is true for Time Machine Preferences, but very often I'm curious and I check how much it is backing up. I'm almost always surprised.

Today, for example, the latest backup was made at 8:09a. The computer has been asleep since then, on only for 5-10 minutes for some webbrowsing. As soon as I wake it back up at home it begins backing up... 1.72 GB. I'm really curious what that 1.72 GBs is made of.

 

[dirt farmer]

Time Machine Buddy

 

[sammich]

Time Machine Buddy

Neat, but I'm also looking for something that gives me the 'filelist' of things being backed up. Ever since installing SL I've noticed that every TM backup seems to run at least 60 MB, regardless of how much I use the computer. Before SL, I'd have 20KB backups because I barely used the computer. Now under similar usage it's like 60MB.

 

[benmrii]

Time Machine Buddy

Thank you, but as sammich said, this widget doesn't give any details about what is actually backed up.

 

[netnothing]

TimeTracker:
http://www.charlessoft.com/TimeTracker.zip

From CharlesSoft (http://www.charlessoft.com/)

-Kevin

 

[benmrii]

Perfect. Thank you, Kevin.

 

[benmrii]

... for what it's worth, I wouldn't suggest using this app. Or use it to find out what you're looking for and then remove it.

At least for me, following it's install Time Machine couldn't back up, reporting that "the device was already in use," whether Time Machine Buddy was active or not. It required its removal and a restart, and I'm back up and running again.