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Time Machine Silently Excludes Critical Data

2013-01-19 • SEND FEEDBACK •

Related: Apple, Apple Core Rot, backup, How-To

Status 2013-01-19: extant in OS X 10.8.2, probably earlier OS versions also

Apple’s Time Machine is a valuable feature which I recommend, but definitely not as the only backup. See the articles on Time Machine.

Time Machine silently excludes critical data volumes from backup, leaving data unprotected, which means that weeks or months can go by without detection or protection.

As shown below, I was lucky— there was nothing left to backup. But sometimes there is, so the user gets no warning clue at all, unless one is “lucky” enough to have no volumes left to be backed up— then this dialog appears, which is a warning clue.