You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Time Machine does not automatically create local snapshots

Hi guys, I received my new MBP several days ago, and have been trying (unsuccessfully) to have Time Machine create local snapshots without an external SSD so that things don't get lost before I get my hands on some. Any help is much appreciated!


Problem:

Time Machine does not automatically create local snapshots despite "Backup up automatically" being checked. No periodic backups are seen in Time Machine itself or in Disk Utility "show[ing] APFS snapshots".


Things I've tried:

  1. in Time Machine preference, turn on "Back up automatically", which obvious didn't work because an external disk is required (per Apple's official doc).
  2. in console:
    1. run "tmutil enable" to turn on automatic backup. This seems to have worked since the "Back up automatically" box was checked in the preference GUI after running the command (reference).
    2. run "tmutil localsnapshot" to create a couple of ad hoc snapshots. This also worked as evidenced by output of "tmutil listlocalsnapshots /".


System specs just in case:

  1. Monterey 12.0.1 (21A559)
  2. M1 Max MBP, 10 CPU, 32 GPU, 64GB RAM, 1TB storage


Disclaimer:

  1. System disk space is nowhere near full


MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Dec 29, 2021 4:00 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 29, 2021 6:19 PM

The purpose of local snapshots is to supplement an actual backup, not to make backups without an actual backup.

If your backup disk is not attached, it will make local snapshots until the drive is connected, then it will merge them with the next backup.

tmutil will turn them on since that's what you told it to do. The Time Machine System Preferences didn't tell it to turn them on because you never set up a backup disk.

There is nothing in that article that says it will start making local snapshots.

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 29, 2021 6:19 PM in response to lliu_mds

The purpose of local snapshots is to supplement an actual backup, not to make backups without an actual backup.

If your backup disk is not attached, it will make local snapshots until the drive is connected, then it will merge them with the next backup.

tmutil will turn them on since that's what you told it to do. The Time Machine System Preferences didn't tell it to turn them on because you never set up a backup disk.

There is nothing in that article that says it will start making local snapshots.

Time Machine does not automatically create local snapshots

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.