Good alternatives to Time Machine

[Essel]

I'm having the same problem with Time Machine on my 2015 MBP. It was ok'ish up until a few weeks ago, I back up to a HDD via an Airport Extreme, TM backups used to be hourly and circa 60mb. Now they are 300-600mb and take hours.

TM seems to just hang, the process is: Preparing Backup, Backing Up, then as if that didn't take long enough there is a Verifying Backup stage that can take forever. As an example on Wednesday the system only showed one successful backup over the whole day. My MBP setup is very basic, I have the 128GB model with MS Office installed, I use it all day for work, connected to AC. I only use Outlook, Safari and Excel with small spreadsheets.

I also have a 2012 Mac Mini, again basic spec, connected to the same network as my MBP, the TM backups are of a similar size but they backup up in minutes, no hangs or delays. I can't work out why that would be the case....

Very frustrating as it's a good feature.

 

[BigJohno]

I've been dealing with some TM issues + my Drobo this last week. I think it could be something to do with Sierra since I didn't have this issue before. It has been giving me an error that it cannot backup. Even changing some permission so I can't even write to the disk. Having to use Disk Warrior to fix the drive.

Does anyone know if CCC can copy two drives? I would like to back up my 6tb raid + my local iMac hard drive.

 

[oneMadRssn]

Doesn't Sierra now support Time Machine backups to nearly any network drive over SMB?

 

[vexorg]

Not had any issue with time machine ver the years. I only use it in manual backup mode, hook up a USB 2TB drive every week or two and tell it to back up after work.

 

[Weaselboy]

Doesn't Sierra now support Time Machine backups to nearly any network drive over SMB?

I have not read that anywhere, so I don't think there was a change.

The Apple support article still says it requires AFP.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202784

 

[oneMadRssn]

I have not read that anywhere, so I don't think there was a change.

The Apple support article still says it requires AFP.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202784

Interesting. This other Apple support page says SMB works:

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25585

 

[Weaselboy]

Interesting. This other Apple support page says SMB works:

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25585

Oh thanks... I had not seen that before. So looks like it does support SMB now.

 

[Zaroff]

OP wrote:
"Ideally, I'd aim for something that backups more or less continuously"

Unless it's mission-critical for business, why does one really need "continuous backup"…?

Just wonderin' ...

My bad. Continuous, probably not, it was meant to reflect something like once every hour or so as TM, which does helps to be on the (very) safe side, which is always good. TM, on paper at least, is exactly what's needed, it's just a pity it works so bad, at least for me.

I shall add that the situation grew notably worse since the switch to Sierra. I had less problems with it under El Capitan.

 

[sibcc]

Oh thanks... I had not seen that before. So looks like it does support SMB now.

They can claim all they want, but it fails when connecting to my REL servers over SMB. I certainly wouldn't rely on TM for the data security.
[doublepost=1475747407][/doublepost]

Thanks for the suggestion. Ideally, I'd aim for something that backups more or less continuously, as TM theoretically does, incrementally.

You could use CCC to make a bootable copy of the boot drive and use Chronosync for backing up your data. OTOH, if you're familiar with Unix, you could script the whole thing with dd and rsync. Having a bootable clone is rather handy IMNSHO.

 

[RiderX]

Rsync is the way to go. But don't use the ancient one which comes bundled, but install a later version.

 

[Essel]

Just an update. I stopped using Outlook last week and went back to Mail.

My Time Machine Back Up's are smaller and I have no more problems.

TM Back Up's are now being done in minutes instead of hours.

Essel

 

[ManuCH]

I always excluded my Outlook database from Time Machine. It solved all my problems.

 

[lexvo]

Since Sierra I also have problems with Time Machine. And there are more people who encounter problems after upgrading to Sierra:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7677444
Before Sierra, Time Machine work reliably for 7 years. But the last week I spent too many hours trying to get Time Machine to work.

I have switched to Carbon Copy Cloner as I can't trust Time Machine anymore. I didn't know this program before but it turns out to be a very nice backup solution.

 

[baccusapp]

Have a look at Baccus - we designed it to be a Time Machine alternative. Fantastic when you have multiple destinations, and it's optimised for NAS and modern SSD based Macs.

www.baccusapp.com

 

[cynics]

Since Sierra I also have problems with Time Machine. And there are more people who encounter problems after upgrading to Sierra:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7677444
Before Sierra, Time Machine work reliably for 7 years. But the last week I spent too many hours trying to get Time Machine to work.

I have switched to Carbon Copy Cloner as I can't trust Time Machine anymore. I didn't know this program before but it turns out to be a very nice backup solution.

Since Sierra my backup has failed a verification twice now which causes it to delete the previous back up and rebuild it from scratch. Not sure if its my NAS, the HDD's in the NAS (they test out perfectly), Sierra, or what.

It seems to get stuck on "Preparing backup". However in my case its because my backup is 2 terabytes and the "Preparing backup" process is also the purge process which takes easily over an hour itself. Then the actually preparation and then other stuff 30-45 minutes. Then finally the actual backup.....

My problem with this is the entire process from start to finish will easily take over 24 hours. So thats over 24 hours I don't have a full backup. And knowing my luck.....

Last time this happened the guys over in the Sierra forum (edit: just realized this is the Sierra forum) helped me out and helped me realize I need to have another backup for very important stuff.

So now I'm using TM to my NAS. Another manual backup on my NAS of important stuff. And an external HDD for very important stuff that I keep in a safe. So even in the worst case scenario it be a minor annoyance but nothing too critical.

I appreciate this verification process because it would suck to have a backup and it not work when you need it most. And when I check it even though it fails that verification it "seems" fine but better safe then sorry. Just wish I knew what the issue was. I went 2 years with the same TM back up now it seems its to be going to a monthly replacement schedule.

 

[Wando64]

Hanging mid-backup, freezing, plain not starting, getting stuck on preparing backup even though the last one was one hour ago, the works. I'm just fed up wasting time troubleshooting it over and over again.
Extreme solution is regularly wiping out the backup disk and starting from scratch. Maybe I'm unlucky but TM has, for me, always been a piece of crap.

Mostly ,people are very happy with TM, me included, and not experiencing any of the problems you are describing.
I am sorry it is not working for you and I would suggest you take a close look at your hardware set-up and ensure that something in there is not causing the issues.
This might sound obvious and I don't mean to be patronising if you have already tried all of this, but a good start would be to buy a new external drive and connect it directly to your Mac, without any hub or routers in between.
Good luck.

EDIT:
I have just read the comments about Sierra. I was not aware of TM issues on Sierra as I still run El Cap on my two Macs. Even so, it doesn't seem to be a widespread issue.

 

[willmtaylor]

Hi all,

Anyone knows of a viable, practical and efficient alternative to TM?
This is THE worst piece of backup software I've ever had the displeasure of using, and I'm basically fed up wasting so much time with it. I don't mean only the snail pace of the backup itself -that is, when it works, but I can't keep count of the times it got stuck, frozen, or basically not working at all. What a piece of crap.

Any suggestions welcome...

Thx

Here ya go:
http://iphone.appleinsider.com/arti...versus-three-local-backup-utilities-for-macos

 

[bigcat]

so none of these alternatives let you go back to a specific day in time like time machine does, is there anything out there that offers that functionality.

 

[lexvo]

so none of these alternatives let you go back to a specific day in time like time machine does, is there anything out there that offers that functionality.

Carbon Copy Cloner keeps copies of deleted and altered files (they call it Safetynet). So you can retrieve a file you deleted in the past for example. I don’t know if this is what you are looking for.

 

[bigcat]

Carbon Copy Cloner keeps copies of deleted and altered files (they call it Safetynet). So you can retrieve a file you deleted in the past for example. I don’t know if this is what you are looking for.

Thanks. You know how a file can change throughout its life. With time machine I can go back to September 15 and see what the file looked like then. That's kind of what I am looking for. Does CCC have that?

 

[lexvo]

Thanks. You know how a file can change throughout its life. With time machine I can go back to September 15 and see what the file looked like then. That's kind of what I am looking for. Does CCC have that?

No, you have to search several dates then. If for example the file is modified on September 12, time machine will see it on September 12, 13, 14, 15 and later. With carbon copy cloner you will see the file in the directory of September 12 only. But you can do a Spotlight search.

 

[Ebenezum]

so none of these alternatives let you go back to a specific day in time like time machine does, is there anything out there that offers that functionality.

QRecall has that feature. In my opinion it is what Time Machine should have been, much more feature rich while been reasonable easy to use.

 

[shazzzy]

if a cloud solution is an option (edit: apparently it also works with a local NAS or SFTP), i can highly recommend https://www.arqbackup.com
it supports a variety of cloud providers (i personally use google drive) and fine grain control over schedules, network usage, storage budget, thinning of backups and so on. backups are encrypted and the whole thing works totally transparently in the background once set up correctly.

i have it running on two macbooks and even on the 2010 model it still performs great.

 

[paul.bounds]

You can build a home / personal file server for a few hundred bucks (or with spare parts if you happen to have them lying around), run something like FreeNAS or RockStor on it, and install as many hard drives as you want in a RAID config (you can have 2, 3, 4+ drive redundancy if you want). Then you can simply work directly off the server from any computer in your house, and everything is saved instantly / you're always backed up.

This provides you with all sorts of additional options / functionality as well. For example, you can setup periodic snapshots of all your data / files, so you can retrieve a file / your data as it was at some point in the past. You could also install something like Plex and use the server to stream movies, TV shows, music, to any device on your home network (i.e. like your own personal Netflix).

Anyway, just something you might want to check out, as it's a far more robust solution for data backups, and you can do all sorts of additional cool stuff as well.

[doublepost=1512657020][/doublepost]The Smartest idea yet. I have to agree with the forum person here who has heard the phrase, 'TM always works for me...'. That is until one of your users deletes a file off his local MAC book drive, and requests you 'go back in time' and restore it. My experience in the past has always been less than 50% success with Time Machine.

At my home I've always depended on a Ubuntu files SMB.NFS file storage server, for both Windows, MAC, and my security video storage backups. This after three MACs, and numerous Windows PCs. Aside from the Raided Ubuntu storage, I also maintain offsite cloud storage, should the house burn down to the slab...

Primarily EDUCATION is the key...Users will inherently/notoriously save files locally, and then expect a brother, cousin, in law, or support tech to somehow magically restore a file, or files, that were majorly important to that same user...I rest my case....

 

[370zulu]

I use TimeMachine, Carbon Copy Cloner 5.x (for Vmware Fusion VM's) and BackBlaze. I also take a monthly full copy to a USB hard drive and take it offsite.