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I can't get tmutil compare to give me a full list of changes between two Time Machine backups.

When I run

tmutil compare > ~Desktop/Changes_since_last_backup.txt

I get a full list of changes between the last backup and the current state of my system:

- 423.7G                        /Volumes/TimeMachineBackups/Backups.backupdb/HomeMacMini2/2023-01-28-094420/Macintosh HD
+ 713.7K                        /System/Volumes/Data/.PreviousSystemInformation
+ 277.9M                        /System/Volumes/Data/boot
!         (mtime)               /System/Volumes/Data/Applications
- 15.4M                         /Volumes/TimeMachineBackups/Backups.backupdb/HomeMacMini2/2023-01-28-094420/Macintosh HD - Data/Applications/Remote Desktop Connection.app
! 8.0K    (xattrs, size, 
           mtime)               /Applications/.DS_Store
! 0B      (mtime)               /Applications/.localized
!         (xattrs, mtime)       /Applications/GarageBand.app
!         (mtime)               /Applications/GarageBand.app/Contents
!         (mtime)               /Applications/GarageBand.app/Contents/Frameworks
!         (mtime)               /Applications/GarageBand.app/Contents/Frameworks/MAAccessibility.framework
!         (mtime)               /Applications/GarageBand.app/Contents/Frameworks/MAAccessibility.framework/Versions
!         (mtime)               /Applications/GarageBand.app/Contents/Frameworks/MAAccessibility.framework/Versions/A
! 361.3K  (mtime)               /Applications/GarageBand.app/Contents/Frameworks/MAAccessibility.framework/Versions/A/MAAccessibility
etc...

But when I give the command two paths, as per the man documentation:

tmutil compare 2022-10-16-160537 2023-01-28-094420 > ~/Desktop/Changes_between_two_backups.txt

All I get is a six line summary:

+ 374.6G                        /Volumes/TimeMachineBackups/Backups.backupdb/HomeMacMini2/2023-01-28-094420/Macintosh HD - Data



Added:         374.6G
Removed:       0B
Changed:       0B

How do I get the full list?

I'm running Monterey 12.6.5 on a Mac Mini. My Time Machine backups are on an external drive hooked up locally. The TM drive is formatted as MacOS Extended (journaled).

Thanks for any advice or suggestions

slondike
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  • BTW I made sure Terminal has access to all files via System Prefs > Security & Privacy > Full Disk Access as per this post (i.e. tmutil listbackups works fine) – slondike Jun 01 '23 at 16:15
  • Does this answer your question? Find Differences between Time Machine backups. The question doesn't really match yours but some answers can be valuable and could answer your question. – Thinkr Jun 01 '23 at 16:55
  • Thanks @Thinkr I did check out that post and made sure Terminal had proper access (see my previous comment). Haven't tried the perl script mentioned in the post, since it doesn't list deleted files. – slondike Jun 01 '23 at 17:13
  • This doesn’t appear to be a dupe. That question is about how to compare backups while this one is asking why isn’t compare working the way it should. You shouldn’t need a. Perl script to get the correct output from a CLI tool. – Allan Jun 01 '23 at 17:21

0 Answers0