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User profile for user: cards01pots
cards01pots Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Using Time Machine to back up an EXTERNAL drive

My understanding is that Time Machine automatically excludes external hard drives in a backup. I keep my Photos library on an external drive and would like to have a backup of my photos. I have gone in to the Options for Time Machine and that external drive is not listed as excluded. I have to assume that it is included, although that goes against all the Time Machine rules I've seen. Is there a circumstance under which an external drive would not be excluded ?

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Jul 30, 2019 3:42 PM

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User profile for user: John Galt
John Galt
User level: Level 10
146,516 points

Posted on Jul 30, 2019 7:34 PM

It's the opposite: by default TM automatically includes all mounted volumes, including internal and external drives, with the one exception of the Time Machine backup drive itself. It can't be backed up.

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Using Time Machine to back up an EXTERNAL drive

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