1

I want to know if a mac user uses Time Machine so I can tell him it's a good habit to do backups. So I need to detect if either:

  • user never activated Time Machine
  • last backup is very old so it's like they are not a regular Time Machine user

I've looked into tmutil but I'm not sure which command would be the most reliable for me to use.

  • tmutil latestbackup doesnt seems to be a good source of truth for that

  • tmutil listbackups doesnt seems to be a good source of truth for that

  • tmutil destinationinfo maybe? I can't test on a Mac that never used Time Machine to see the output

bmike
  • 235,889
merstar
  • 11
  • Why aren't tmutil latestbackup/listbackups "a good source of truth?" – Allan Apr 03 '19 at 20:32
  • because output is different if the external drive is connected to computer or not. I need to know if the user uses Time Machine even if the drive is not currently connected to the computer. – merstar Apr 03 '19 at 20:57
  • I've linked this to a general answer how to read the defaults database to get all sorts of information. If you want to edit this to be more narrow or specific or attack one specific item in the larger list - @ ping me here and I'll see about releasing the hold / close and also likely have an answer. – bmike Apr 03 '19 at 21:17
  • You can see this info in the system.log. Use console and search for "backup" – Allan Apr 03 '19 at 21:18

0 Answers0