I tried the new Carbon Copy Cloner on my new Mac to save new files to an external “HD” and did not like it. Too complex and full of confusing and hidden commands. I do not need a clone. I just want to backup the changes to my large video collection folder (daily). There has to be a better app. Suggestions? (I already use Time Machine to a separate drive for the whole system drive BTW.)
If not, I am just going to sort the folder I want to back up and drag the most recent changes over. If that does not work, I’ll drag the whole folder over.
If you hadn’t already rejected CCC, I would suggest using it. Create a task where the source is your video collection folder and the destination is where you want to send the backups. Either run it manually each day or configure it to run on a schedule (if your destination volume is always on line).
But you tried that and didn’t like it.
If a command-line solution is acceptable, the rsync command is a very good tool for synchronizing two locations. This should work:
Assuming your source directory is /Users/Me/MyVideos and the destination is /Volumes/Backup/Videos, you could use this command:
Note, however, that rsync has a lot of options. You should read the manual page and make sure you understand what you’re doing before relying on it for your backups.
Another option, that many people like, is Chronosync ($50) which is a native Mac app and will be a lot easier to use than rsync.
Some web searching found several GUI wrappers around rsync. I have no idea if any of these are any good.
You might want to take a look at Folders Synchronizer. It can synchronize two folders so that every file in either folder is copied into the other so they are identical, or it can copy in one direction only, so that all changes in one folder are duplicated in the other folder (which is probably what you want done). Here is a link:
I suggest giving Superduper! a try. I use Carbon Copy Cloner and set it up for relatives to run when their back-up drive appears. For myself, it runs on a schedule. However I also use SuperDuper! for friends. It has been on my hard drive for decades.
As @shamino suggests, above, I do use ChronoSync. Very flexible. Also allows two-way or one-way sync, archiving of deleted or changed files (you can pick how many versions to keep) and a lot of other flexibility. In non-expert mode, it’s pretty easy to set up a basic backup of changed items on a drive or in a folder.
For my own systems, I use it to back up and archive changes from a network of about 5 macs onto a central server (which runs ChronoSync). The remote macs all run ChronoAgent, which isn’t functionally necessary, but does provide higher throughput.
It’s simple and powerful. And it’s very versatile too thanks to remote capabilities and scripting options.
If you want, you can set it up to behave a bit like TM (minus the snapshotting) even with an exclusion list and network backup. Only that unlike networked TM, this actually reliably works.
To exclude a folder projects/ just do rsync -avE --delete -exclude=projects /Users/Me/MyVideos /Volumes/Backup/
To exclude everything under /Users/Me/MyVideos/wherever/oldJunk do rsync -avE --delete -exclude-from=/Users/Me/MyVideos/wherever/oldJunk /Users/Me/MyVideos /Volumes/Backup/
And finally, to get networked backup just use something like rsync -avE --delete /Users/Me/MyVideos remoteUsername@targetHost:/Volumes/Backup/
where targetHost is some other Mac you have ssh access to as user remoteUsername.
It’s as simple as that.
Added bonus: you can invert the last command so instead of “pushing” the backup to a remote destination, you “pull” a backup from a remote source to your local destination. rsync -avE --delete remoteUserName@remoteSource:/Users/Me/MyVideos /Volumes/Backup/
If you want to script this so it’s fully automated, make sure to use public/private keys in your ssh setup. That way remote rsync will just do its thing automatically without authentication prompt. If you set up a cron job to do this every hour, you have recreated a basic TM (minus snapshotting of course).
Added bonus 2: and if you want to merge 2 directories just run the rsync command twice, once in each direction. rsync -avE /Users/Me/MyVideos /Users/Me/MyVideosDup rsync -avE /Users/Me/MyVideosDup /Users/Me/MyVideos
Well, yes, there are many options under the hood, but there is (or was; I’m still using version 5) a Simple Mode (under the Carbon Copy Cloner menu). Maybe that would make it acceptable.
Do you ever run into this long-standing rsync error?
2024/11/05 02:44:48 [13658] deflate on token returned 0 (16360 bytes left)
2024/11/05 02:44:48 [13658] sent 657818060 bytes received 1558562 bytes total size 90404007930
2024/11/05 02:44:48 [13658] rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at token.c(481) [sender=3.3.0]
I’ve tried finding a solution but it doesn’t appear to be fixable. This prevents me from trusting my automatic backups because some of the largest files aren’t completed until I manually copy them.
Is the destination volume anywhere near full? That seems to be rsync’s wastebasket message for being unable to write the destination file (permission errors, directory doesn’t exist, insufficient space on device, etc.).
Spot on…Simple mode hides all the hard stuff and you setup source and destination volumes or folders and turns Safety Net on. Pretty simple…but really, even in Advanced mode the options are a lot less inscrutable and easy to understand than SD is for anything other than a full disk clone. I was shocked at the comment that it was too hard to use.
Sorry. I have an old brain, started with a Mac+, still tend to think that way, and don’t want to change any more. I should be dead and out of the computer business in about a dozen years any way. ;)
No. But I don’t use any command line things anymore. I used to use them when I started coding in 1964 and gladly gave them up when the Mac operating system came along.
Nothing to be sorry for…we are all friends here but CCC setup in Simple mode is pretty easy…and the help screens explain the more complicated options pretty well.
