Backups and times

4. Backups started and completed successfully. T2M2 counts the number of log entries reporting that an automatic backup is starting, those for any manual backups, and the number reporting the backup has been completed successfully. These numbers are given here as

Started 6 auto backups, and 1 manual backups, completed 7 backups successfully,

Provided that there is no backup being made at the moment, these numbers should be equal, or occasionally you may see more completed than started. Any unexplained inequality - particularly when the number completed successfully is less than the number started - should alert you to a potential problem. This could mean that some of those backups failed.

If no automatic backups are logged during the period, you will see instead the message

No auto backups started in the period, completed 1 backups successfully,

for example. Try increasing the period to capture more backups if that is the case. If none are started or completed, this makes it likely that backups have become very irregular: again, increase the period to over 3 hours to investigate further.

⚠️ High Sierra and Mojave don’t appear to make a distinction between automatic and manual backups, and record all backups as being auto, including those initiated using the Back up now button. In Catalina, initial backups made when you enable backing up are counted as being manual, as they’re not scheduled in the way that automatic backups are. Those ‘manual’ backups may also not be completed with the same messages, so manual backups may not be counted in the total of backups completed successfully.

5. Time in minutes since the completion of the last successful backup. When run automatically, backups should occur roughly every hour. However, they are scheduled flexibly and this may rise to 70 minutes or so. It should never exceed 90 minutes, and if it does, T2M2 will give you a red light in warning. This should appear as

last backup completed successfully 60.0 minutes ago,

but if no backup has completed successfully in the period, you will instead see

no backup has been completed successfully in the period,

Note that this period is given for the last successfully completed backup, whether automatic or manual. If the period since completion of the last successful backup is more than 90 minutes, T2M2 should automatically run checks of the systems which schedule backups.

6. Backups still in progress. If a backup is still apparently in progress, you will see

currently still making an auto backup,

or

currently still making a manual backup,

as appropriate, which will give you an amber warning, as T2M2 cannot be sure whether this is going to end happily, or with problems. If you can, wait until the current backup completes, and run the check again.

Of course the current backup could have hung or got into other difficulties: you should then see error messages at the end of the report, and a red light.

7. Time since start of last manual backup. If any of the backups started during the period analysed was a manual backup, then you will see the time from the start of that backup:

last manual backup started 9.0 minutes ago,

If all backups were automatic, then this is not displayed.

➜ Amount backed up

➜ Interpret result

The Eclectic Light Company – https://eclecticlight.co