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Start Backup.app backups immediately Apps
When Apple's Backup.app runs a scheduled backup plan, it pops a dialog with a 120 second timeout. You could just ignore the window and Backup would function normally, but I get annoyed by it just sitting around doing nothing for two minutes.

The following shell command lets you set the timeout to however many seconds you prefer:
defaults write com.apple.Backup 'Backup Timer' -int '1'
[robg adds: I haven't tested this one...]
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Start Backup.app backups immediately | 8 comments | Create New Account
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Start Backup.app backups immediately
Authored by: mmouse on Jan 04, '06 08:57:25AM

I'm assuming this hint is for when you're not at the keyboard and don't want the dialog box around, but don't forget that just clicking 'OK' or hitting return will dismiss the dialog and begin the backup immediately.

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--mmouse



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Start Backup.app backups immediately
Authored by: ever on Jan 04, '06 05:00:06PM

Personally I wish the dialog didn't display at all, it breaks my concentration. Setting the timeout to one second minimizes this interruption.



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Start Backup.app backups immediately
Authored by: jomy on Jan 04, '06 09:18:52AM

Thank You! I needed that.



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Start Backup.app backups immediately
Authored by: adrianm on Jan 04, '06 10:29:14AM

I'd like to be able to specify timeouts per plan.

My "backup to iDisk" plan can just do its thing straight away, but my "backup to iPod" plan needs to give me time to mount the iPod first.



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Start Backup.app backups immediately
Authored by: ever on Jan 04, '06 05:03:32PM
You could set cron (or cronnix) to adjust the timeout setting before each plan executes. (assuming they execute at different times)

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Start Backup.app backups immediately
Authored by: osxpounder on Jan 04, '06 12:57:39PM

I did some reading over the holidays about OSX backup topics, and I found this, claiming that Apple's Backup software is useless [i.e., not 100% reliable, which, for backup software, makes it 100% useless, I suppose]. I'm not sure if the probs cited here would affect you, but as for me, I'm taking no chances. I'll stick with Retrospect for now.

http://tinyurl.com/dkt6v

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osxpounder



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Start Backup.app backups immediately
Authored by: ever on Jan 04, '06 05:09:34PM

Thanks for those links, that's interesting stuff. I'll keep using Backup for now, it's just really convenient and offers some protection where I had none before. When I'm not so cheap I'll look at replacing it.



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Start Backup.app backups immediately
Authored by: GlowingApple on Jan 05, '06 12:21:25PM

Are there any good open-source apps out there for this sort of thing? I've been using my own scripts and cron for some time now, but it would be nice to have a general purpose GUI backup app that was open-source.

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Jayson --When Microsoft asks you, "Where do you want to go today?" tell them "Apple."



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