I want to use time machine to backup an external drive (holding photo library). How do I remove it from the list of excluded drives in time machine options?

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I want to use time machine to backup an external drive (holding photo library). How do I remove it from the list of excluded drives in time machine options?

Time machine appears to ignore external drives unless you remove them from the excluded list (fair enough). But my drive is grayed out in the Options dialog and so I cannot do that.

Do I need to re-format my drive, copy the photo library back onto it, then set up time machine for backup by removing it from the excluded list?

If so, what format should I choose?

Mac mini, macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 28, 2020 6:33 PM

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Answer 1

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Top-ranking reply

Barney-15E

Level 10

118,890 points

Dec 28, 2020 9:57 PM in response to markgsaunders

By default, external drives are backed up unless you do exclude them. Or, that has been my experience.

How is the drive formatted. Since it holds a Photos library, I would imagine it is in the correct format. It should be either Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or APFS. Time Machine won't back up any other format.

Does it have a Backups.backupd folder on it? Time Machine backup drives are excluded.

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Answer 2

Dec 29, 2020 9:20 PM in response to markgsaunders

It is ExFAT and it does not have Backups.backupd folder. So it is not a backup drive itself (as expected) and is formatted incorrectly to be backed up. Looks like I am going to spend a few happy hours saving the photo library, reformatting the drive, copying the photos back on, running the Photos application to do its library update, telling Time Machine to include the drive, and then letting TM do its thing. None of that is a big problem but I'll do it when I have all day to babysit the process.

Thank you, Barney, for the advice. Very helpful and reassuring. I'll post anything else I find out on the way...

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I want to use time machine to backup an external drive (holding photo library). How do I remove it from the list of excluded drives in time machine options?

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