News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

October 31, 2007

tips

Force a Time Machine backup

Posted Oct. 31, ’07, 2:23 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi
Category | Tips

backupnow1.jpgI was getting frustrated: I had just plugged in my brand new 500GB external hard drive, and I desperately wanted to play with Time Machine. Not for the backups or whatever it does, but for the cool space effects and flying windows. But it wouldn’t do anything: “Next Backup: 7:15 PM” it said. It was 7:01PM.

Now, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not an impatient guy — but 14 minutes?! C’mon now. Not to mention all the time it needs to actually back up my computer. But I wanted it to start now. Alas, I found no method of triggering a backup…and so I waited.

Of course, I’m a complete idiot. Apparently all you gotta do is right-click (ctrl-click for you one-buttoners) the Time Machine dock icon and, sure enough, there’s a “Back Up Now” option. Not sure how I missed that, but I’m comforted by the fact that I’m not the only one who did.

And since I’m not, I figure perhaps some of you missed it too — hence this post. So. There you go.

[via DaringFireball]

5 Comments

Matt Hoult said:

You can also right-click the icon for the drive (from anywhere, I choose to use the Finder Sidebar, but whatever) which you use as the Time Machine drive and choose the same option. Just for the record.

October 31, 2007 3:21 PM
Moe Author Profile Page said:

Don't be so hard on yourself... you are not an idiot... maybe you need to backup your "mental files" so you don't forget. Next time, when you get a brain fart, you can "go back in time" and get the data you needed.

November 1, 2007 6:39 AM
iDanSimpson Author Profile Page said:

I was looking for this, myself. Thanks so much!!

November 4, 2007 10:27 AM
Anonymous said:

This drove me nuts after the announcement that you shouldn't run Time Machine while using Aperture and that you should run Time Machine manually instead. Turning off automatic backups was easy enough but there is absolutely NO documentation on how to perform a manual backup (I should have known better than to consult the no-help Help). So, no, you're not an idiot but the person responsible for documentation at Apple is.

November 5, 2007 3:47 AM
Chinarut said:

hey thanks for this tip!

curiously enough, i took the time machine app out of my dock and when I right click it in my /Applications folder - it does not have this contextual action `Backup Now`

I need to drag the app back to the dock for it to show up.

any way around this?

I can`t say I use Time Machine *that* frequently compared to other apps - i`d be dwelling in the past all the time! :D

November 15, 2007 4:47 AM

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