Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Miqs

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 22, 2013
87
2
Bedfordshire, UK
I have 2 backup volumes linked to my iMac. Usually they are both coloured yellow on my desktop but I have noticed one now has changed to green. What does this mean?
Icons.jpeg
 

mj_

macrumors 68000
May 18, 2017
1,618
1,281
Austin, TX
Because Time Machine volumes have a separate icon. The green one is your currently active Time Machine volume, the orange one is a regular external volume with no particular significance to macOS.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Weaselboy

mj_

macrumors 68000
May 18, 2017
1,618
1,281
Austin, TX
They do as soon as the system identifies them as currently active Time Machine volume. In other words: they're orange when first plugged in but change to green once they've been properly identified, which usually takes a few minutes.
 

fivenotrump

macrumors 6502a
Apr 15, 2009
660
450
Central England
They do as soon as the system identifies them as currently active Time Machine volume. In other words: they're orange when first plugged in but change to green once they've been properly identified, which usually takes a few minutes.
Not always. I have a Time Capsule always connected and an external disk that I connect weekly. The latter always had the generic orange icon until I manually copied the green one.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.