Multiple Time Machine Backups

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Level 1

45 points

Multiple Time Machine Backups

I have an external drive set up as the target for Time Machine backups for my internal SSD. I recently added a new external SSD to offload a large volume of photos. To back up this new drive I have a separate external SSD. I added the new back up drive to Time Machine and initially excluded all but the External Photo drive from the backups. This worked perfectly. Until I noticed that the changes I'd made to the Excluded From Backup list on the new setup had been mirrored on the existing setup.

Is there a way to define unique Excluded list for the 2 time Machine setups?

Thanks,

Kyle

iMac 24″, macOS 15.1

Posted on Jan 17, 2025 2:11 PM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

148,086 points

Jan 17, 2025 3:05 PM in response to kjwsr

Sadly no. The exclusions list applies to all backups.

Exclude files from a Time Machine backup on Mac - Apple Support

(The word files in that title really ought to read items, as the content of that document explains.)

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Answer 2

kjwsr Author

Level 1

45 points

Jan 17, 2025 4:56 PM in response to John Galt

That’s what I was afraid of. It seems odd that I can back up the same data to 2 different drives, but not back up different data to different drives. I’m looking at creating one TM back up and including the external drive. I’m hoping it will allow me to restore files from the external back to the external drive.

Thanks

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Answer 3

Jan 17, 2025 7:53 PM in response to kjwsr

One suggestion would be to use Time Machine for one backup and a utility like Carbon Copy Cloner (https://bombich.com/) for the other backup. Then you can have different selections and exclusions.

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Answer 4

kjwsr Author

Level 1

45 points

Jan 18, 2025 3:11 AM in response to FishingAddict

Can CCC backup one external drive to another?

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