Tag Archives: Apple

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HOWTO: Re-Index the Spotlight Index on a Mac

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The file search tool Spotlight on Macs is a fast flexible way to find files, except when it isn’t.  Occasionally Spotlight does not find files I know are on my Mac and the index needs to be repaired.  

To force Spotlight to delete an old index and create a new one:

  1. Click the Privacy tab.
  2. Drag the folder or disk that you want to index again to the list of locations that Spotlight is prevented from searching. Or click the Add (+) button and select the folder or disk to add.
  3. Choose Apple menu () > System Preferences, then click Spotlight.
  4. To add an item to the Privacy tab, you must have ownership permissions for that item. To learn about permissions, choose Help from the Finder menu bar, then search for “permissions.”
  5. From the same list of locations, select the folder or disk that you just added. Then click the Remove (–) button to remove it from the list.
  6. Quit System Preferences. Spotlight will reindex the contents of the folder or disk.  This can take a long time.

How to Free Up Space Used By Time Machine’s Local Backups on Your Mac

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Time Machine doesn’t just back up to external drives. Enable Time Machine on your MacBook and it will create “local snapshots,” too — potentially taking up over 100 GB of disk space on its internal storage.
These local snapshots appear as “Backups” when you look at the visual overview of storage in the About Your Mac window.CHRIS HOFFMAN has written a good article about  how you can free up that space and get more room on your Mac.

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Protecting Macs from Viruses and Malware

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March 11, 2016

For many years, computer viruses and malware were mostly the concern of Windows users.  Mac users faced very few threats. This has been atributed to the Mac’s sibgle digit market share and, some have argued, a more secure product.  One common misconception was that Macs were somehow imune from viruses and malware.  While the number of threats may pale in comparrisln to Windows, Macs are indeed suseptible to attack and more and more are appearing.  The time has come for Mac users to make secutity a priority.   

In the last few weeks, researchers have found the first Mac Ransomware malware in circulation.  Ransomware is software that encrypts the files on a computer making them unuseable to the owner.  The person controllling the malware then demnads a ransom to unencrypt the files.  In most cases, the victim has only 72 hours to pay or the ransom or the malware author threatens to eraswe the key that is needed to restore the files.  Regardless of the size of your business, the loss of data can be davastatiung.  

Add these new threats to hardware failures and theft and the need for a well thought out and executed computer protection plan is more important then ever.

You can find my Mac security recomendations here.

 

 

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How To Delete Files or Folders from a Time Machine Backup – Update

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Feature no longer available.

Apple has removed this capability.  For the reasons in the original post below it can at times be necessary to remove files not just from the current active drive but from all backups as well.  Now that this capability is no longer available on Time Machine,

In modern versions of macOS (Big Sur and later), Time Machine drives are formatted as APFS, which uses “snapshots.” By design, these snapshots are read-only and immutable.

This means you can no longer delete individual files (like a specific large video or a sensitive document) from a Time Machine backup without deleting the entire backup for that specific date.

Recommended Solution

Remove the Time Machine  drive with sensitive information and lock it away.

Format a new Time Machine drive and start fresh using method 3 below.

Alternative

Exclude a folder from ™ backups and use a non Time Machine backup method that allows for file deletion for just that one folder.

Here are the only working methods to achieve your goal, ranging from “Specific” to “Nuclear.”

Method 1: Delete the Specific Backup “Instance” (Terminal)

If you know which specific backup dates contain the file you want to remove, you can delete those entire backup instances. This keeps your other backup dates intact.

  1. Open Terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal).

  2. Type the following command to list all your backups: tmutil listbackups

  3. Find the specific date/timestamp of the backup you want to remove.

  4. Run this command to delete that specific backup: sudo tmutil delete -d /Volumes/[YourBackupDriveName] -t [YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS] (Replace [YourBackupDriveName] with your drive’s name and the timestamp with the one you found in step 2).

Method 2: The “Nuclear” Option (Start Fresh)

If you need to ensure a sensitive file is 100% gone from all history, or if the file exists across hundreds of snapshots, the only practical way is to wipe the drive and start over.

  1. Open Disk Utility.

  2. Select your Time Machine drive.

  3. Click Erase (Format as APFS).

  4. Set it up as a new Time Machine drive.

    • Note: This deletes your entire backup history.

Method 3: Prevent it from happening again (Exclusion)

To ensure this specific file or folder is never backed up again in the future:

  1. Open System Settings -> General -> Time Machine.

  2. Click Options.

  3. Click the + button and select the folder or file you want to permanently exclude.

Why was this removed?

In older versions of macOS (HFS+ format), Time Machine used “hard links,” which allowed users to delete a file’s link without breaking the file system. Modern APFS backups are block-level snapshots. If Apple allowed you to delete a single file from a snapshot, it would break the cryptographic integrity of that snapshot (and potentially the chain of backups following it), risking total data corruption.

Why (original post)

Mac OSX Time Machine software is my favorite method for backing up data.  If you use a Mac there is no excuse for not using this built in utility that keeps a backup of your data on an external drive, another Mac, a Apple Time Capsule or, with some tweaks, a network storage server.

Like any back-up software from the dawn of back-up software, deleting a file on your computer will not delete the file from your Time Machine back-up.  A good  back-up solution allows you to recover from an entire disk drive failure as well as  recovering one file or even one email that you accidently deleted.

There are times when you really do want to not only delete a file or folder or email but to purge it from your back-ups.  For example, you work on a project that involves material covered under a confidentiality agreement that requires all material to be returned or destroyed at the end of the project.  Just deleting the files and folders on your computer will still leave copies on your back-up drive leaving you in breach of the agreement and potentially liable for damages if the drive is stolen and the information disclosed.