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I want to exclude external hard drives from TM back ups, but can't add them to the list. I store 16TB data on EHDs which I don't want backed up to TM. How can I exclude them, i.e. add to the list of discs to exclude?
[Re-Titled By Moderator]
iMac 24″, macOS 15.1
... I get a message that it doesn’t have enough space.
Post a screenshot of that message. As Barney-15E wrote its wording is important, and easily misinterpreted.
Hi, it might be that the issue is solved. I'm posting two screenshots, one of the exclusions and one of Time Machine running a back up. On the exclusions shot you'll see two Toshiba drives, just one running. The other is the drive I erased when I had the error message. I think the erasure and resetting has solved the problem, thank you both for your help. But if you know how I can remove that drive 'not connected' that would be fantastic.
Hi again Barney, I think you posted a response about deleting the 'ghost' back up disc, seems to be a left over from when I deleted and reloaded. I've set the 'genuine' disk to manual back up, just do it when I finish for the day, works fine and the disk has plenty of room. You'll see in the screenshot how that ghost appears, and I would be grateful for your advice once again on removing it. Have a great weekend!
Can you not remove it the normal way by selecting it in that list and clicking the remove (-) button at the bottom of the list?
Thanks Barney, I have now excluded all the EHDs through preferences etc. fine once I followed through carefully. I have four EHDs, backed up outside Time Machine, all I need to do is to back up the Mac and the relatively small amount of work I do on it as such, just a bit of admin really. I’ve connected a 3TB EHD as Time Machine, but I get a message that it doesn’t have enough space. So I erased it, encrypted it and reconnected, same message. Perhaps I’ve confused it! I’ll try later and see what it says then. Meantime thanks again for your input.
but I get a message that it doesn’t have enough space.
Are you sure it says the backup drive and not your source drive. Based on your usage description, I would guess not, but if the source is too full, it cannot make a snapshot and you will get an error stating that the drive you are trying to back up is too full. Many have confused the two.
Are you sure they are being backed up? If you can't add them to the Exclusion list, maybe they aren't being backed up.
Thanks, I’ll check.
Thanks, I’ll do that once I get on the Mac.
did you select it and then click the minus button?
if that doesn’t work, you can try resetting Time Machine by deleting the com.apple.timemachine.plist from your main library/preferences folder.
Thanks again Barney, you've been a great help in combo with John Galt. All sorted now, going for a lie down in a dark room, looks like getting the Christmas brandy out early!
Hi Barney I’ll try again to remove the ghost, meantime I’m just using manual back which works fine. I just spotted your other link, I’ll check that too. Small issue, irritating, probably me!
Excluding external hard drives from TimeMachine back ups on my iMac running macOS Sequoia
