I think Time Machine is antiquated software that really hasn’t been maintained by Apple.
It has a complicated backup structure that seems to depend on the hard drive being formatted as a certain file system in most cases, and the backup “images” are extremely volatile and aren’t resistant to data corruption.
I’ve fallen victim to failed Time Machine backups time and time again, and I’ve travelled down rabbit holes trying to repair or validate prior backups. Quite often Time Machine would tell me that I would have to start fresh, as the existing backups were unsalvageable. Usually once or twice a year.
I wiped my macOS with a clean install of the latest is multiple times in the past and started fresh backups under various configurations, but none of the structures maintained their integrity.
Even starting fresh with brand new Macs and brand new hard drives hasn’t prevented the problems from resurfacing.
In the meantime, Microsoft Windows has a reliable “File History” backup solution that maintains the directory structures within the backups themselves; no special software is technically required to restore archived files from the backup, you can just browse through the backup with the file manager of any OS.
I wish Apple would build a new robust local backup system, preferably one that maintains the file directory structure and can backup on a file-by-file basis rather than through a strange convoluted imaging process.
Clearly Apple are aware of the inherent problems with Time Machine because they never migrated the software over to iPhones or iPads. But they should provide a solution for those devices. I think it would be more responsible of them to remove the software from macOS entirely rather than have users blindly trust their software.
So for the past several years I’ve entirely abandoned Time Machine and stored almost everything in my Microsoft OneDrive cloud. It works great, but I am at the mercy of their systems not failing or being compromised (i.e. I want my own physical backup).
Am I alone in this disappointment? Do others believe Apple has neglected a fundamental backup feature in the OS?
It has a complicated backup structure that seems to depend on the hard drive being formatted as a certain file system in most cases, and the backup “images” are extremely volatile and aren’t resistant to data corruption.
I’ve fallen victim to failed Time Machine backups time and time again, and I’ve travelled down rabbit holes trying to repair or validate prior backups. Quite often Time Machine would tell me that I would have to start fresh, as the existing backups were unsalvageable. Usually once or twice a year.
I wiped my macOS with a clean install of the latest is multiple times in the past and started fresh backups under various configurations, but none of the structures maintained their integrity.
Even starting fresh with brand new Macs and brand new hard drives hasn’t prevented the problems from resurfacing.
In the meantime, Microsoft Windows has a reliable “File History” backup solution that maintains the directory structures within the backups themselves; no special software is technically required to restore archived files from the backup, you can just browse through the backup with the file manager of any OS.
I wish Apple would build a new robust local backup system, preferably one that maintains the file directory structure and can backup on a file-by-file basis rather than through a strange convoluted imaging process.
Clearly Apple are aware of the inherent problems with Time Machine because they never migrated the software over to iPhones or iPads. But they should provide a solution for those devices. I think it would be more responsible of them to remove the software from macOS entirely rather than have users blindly trust their software.
So for the past several years I’ve entirely abandoned Time Machine and stored almost everything in my Microsoft OneDrive cloud. It works great, but I am at the mercy of their systems not failing or being compromised (i.e. I want my own physical backup).
Am I alone in this disappointment? Do others believe Apple has neglected a fundamental backup feature in the OS?
