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This is bad. - Just recently I broke my system badly. So I decided to erase my system and re-setup from time machine. After several unsuccessful attemts I reali

This is bad. - Just recently I broke my system badly. So I decided to erase my system and re-setup from time machine. After several unsuccessful attemts I realized that my Time Machine backup (1.45 tb) exceeded my ssd capacity (1 tb). I did research, and learned not to prune my Time Machine backups. As that may corrupt it. So after several days and failed attempts to restore from time machine and after some research and finding out that indeed it was still possible to boot from external ssd, I decided to buy a 2 TB ssd, restore to that ssd, boot from it, clean up excessive data, and migrate from that ssd to my Macbook. It took me three days to solve it. As each failed attempt and investigation took hours to complete. In the meantime I called Apple support to get help. I said right away that I am an IT professional who worked as sys admin in the past and that I would like to talk to experts. And they forwarded me to „experts“. The first said: „Forget about full restore, won’t work. Create a fresh install and manually (!) copy individual files from time machine to your mac.“ Second person told me to buy a new Mac with 2 tb ssd and restore to that. I asked her if it was possible to restore to an external ssd via Carbon Copy Cloner? As I did in the past half a dozen times. She told me she definitely does not recommend that path as she cannot recommend third party apps (?!?). I did not try that option immediately as I heared a few years ago that latest MacOSes do not support booting from external ssds. And so I didn’t think of this option. But some research and I found out that indeed it is still possible, but you have to go some extra steps. So if this wouldn’t have been possible I would have had spent two weeks to restore my machine. Or bought another machine with 2 tb just to restore from backup. PS: I spent almost 5k Euros for this maxed MacBook Pro with 64 gb. Plus Apple Care. I didn’t want to buy another Mac just to restore from backups. PPS: All of this was shortly before a very important presentation. So I was stuck with my work laptop (windows machine), and I am 90% less productive with it as it lacks my tools. Yeah, shouldn’t have screwed my main machine just before a super important milestone. Lessons learned.

wetpaws 2y ago
[dead]
redmajor12 2y ago
Sounds like the lesson learned here from reading your travail is not to invest in an ecosystem that makes it difficult to do a standard operation.
- submeta 2y ago
  Maybe. But what are the options? Windows? Not really. Linux/Debian/Ubuntu is great, in theory, but it lacks tools: Acorn, Keyboard Maestro, OnniGraffle, Alfred App, MS Office, MS Teams, and a dozen more. Plus Apple silicon. I test LLMs locally.
  - deaddodo 2y ago
    This isn't me trying to convince you to use Linux, but the listed reasons (other than LLM testing) aren't real deterrents (and there are plenty that exist for many people, no use pretending not): > Acorn GIMP (or Glimpse, if you want a more modern UI) or Krita can definitely do pretty much anything Acorn can. > Keyboard Maestro GNOME and KDE have been able to do this out of the box from pretty much the beginning. The OSes are still mostly terminal-first (one of the big complaints, actually), and that translates into the DEs and Applications. A keyboard automation is just a sequence of commands. This is probably one of the few areas where Linux almost definitely beats macOS or Windows. > OnniGraffle There's a large swathe of diagramming tools in Linux. > Alfred App Yep, both KDE and Gnome are able to handle this task as well as Alfred. Like automation, this is probably an area Linux will be able to shine above macOS. > MS Office LibreOffice would be the common alternative. > MS Teams They used to have an official client. They now recommend you create a PWA, and there are some unofficial clients that do pretty much that: https://github.com/IsmaelMartinez/teams-for-linux https://github.com/IsmaelMartinez/teams-for-linux This seems to be the route they'll be going all around, similar to slack (web + an electron app). > I test LLMs locally. LLMs run fine on Linux, but you will be limited to about 16GB on the VRAM side. Though, you could technically use Asahi + Apple Silicon as the support matured if you want. Most of these are open source applications, with cludgy UIs/warts and all; and aren't really designed by teams with UX masters, so operate oddly and require relearning. But if you were interested in making the move, they're options.
hmottestad 2y ago
When I last restored from Time Machine it allowed me to select which folders I wanted to restore. Then I could just restore the most important bits and leave anything big behind on the backup drive to restore manually later. https://support.apple.com/en-us/102551 https://support.apple.com/en-us/102551
- submeta 2y ago
  I only was offered to select top level folders. Nothing below them.
  - hmottestad 2y ago
    Did you try to reinstall the mac and use migration assistant to restore from the Time Machine backup?
    - submeta 2y ago
      Yes I did. But the time machine backup was way larger than my macbook‘s ssd. The reason was this: I had only 600-700 gb of data on my Mac. Installed OneDrive, did not know that I had configured my NAS to do 800gb of cloud backups to OneDrive. And Time Machine downloaded that data into its backup. Although I had configured OneDrive not to download that folder to my Mac. So time Machine screwed up.
alexeiz 2y ago
> Second person told me to buy a new Mac with 2 tb ssd and restore to that. Or you can just upgrade the SSD as you would do with any normal laptop. Oh, wait...
kstenerud 2y ago
I've really been noticing how Apple software quality has been on a slow decline since Snow Leopard. I look at some of their older source code and it's a joy to read! Nowadays, my daily travails with restarting Xcode multiple times a day to work around bugs (package blahblah is not available) have really worn thin (I mean, Xcode has always had problems, but not THIS bad). Add to that the fact that the "system data" on my mbp now takes up 80% of the space on my SSD (800GB of system data! Even after manually deleting caches and derived data)... It's like they don't even care about code craftsmanship anymore. And yet their culture of not putting in useful debug messages (because "it just works") persists. My latest and greatest headache? Some parts of AppKit now directly call [NSApplication _crashOnException:] regardless of the "NSApplicationCrashOnExceptions" setting, and WITHOUT even calling [NSApplication reportException:]. So now you lose the exception entirely and good luck figuring out what caused the crash. Ugh...
- tonyedgecombe 2y ago
  I don't use Xcode so maybe it is an exception but in general I would say the opposite. For me it has been getting better over time. People talk about Snow Leopard being stable but it was riddled with bugs, just take a look at the release notes for all the updates it received over the next year.
- T4iga 2y ago
  I have had a similar experience after i shared my MacBook with my girlfriend for a while. Turned out even after uninstalling her cloud file sharing software thing, there were still over 100GB of cached files left on disk. MacOS didn't make the obvious identify or find in the storage overview. I ended up finding it through a disk space visualizer that showed a large folder (the stolen 100GB) in some cache directory. I can highly recommend trying that out. MacOS' inbuilt tools are in my experience inadequate to find what is stealing your disk space (on top of applications being unable to clean up after themselves).
- raverbashing 2y ago
  Yeah Let me guess, the best engineers are working on iPad/iPhone apps today and MacOS is relegated to code fixes and people building for the "common user" that doesn't know what a drive is
khana 2y ago
[dead]
hilux 2y ago
> I didn’t want to buy another Mac just to restore from backups. And then presumably one more Mac to backup your backup Mac. It's Macs all the way down!
throwaway48476 2y ago
You chose the walled garden.
super_mario 2y ago
How did you end up with TM backup larger than original source? Sure, total storage consumed on TM drive can be larger than source, but that is because older versions of files are stored as well. But restoring most recent versions of files should be equal to source in size.
- submeta 2y ago
  I had only 600-700 gb of data on my Mac. Installed OneDrive, did not know that I had configured my NAS to do 800gb of cloud backups to OneDrive. And Time Machine downloaded that data into its backup. Although I had configured OneDrive not to download that folder to my Mac. So time Machine screwed up in the first place.
  - super_mario 2y ago
    Ah, ok, that's a nasty bug/scenario. I long for the good old days one could just rsync the internal drive and bless it and you have a bootable clone, or make compressed disk image. Those were the days.
prmoustache 2y ago
I don't know time machine, but why would a full restore take more space than the original drive? Wouldn't a full time machine restore by default restore the last state of the system being backed up (and not full history) by default like any half decent backup solution?
- submeta 2y ago
  I had only 600-700 gb of data on my Mac. Installed OneDrive, did not know that I had configured my NAS to do 800gb of cloud backups to OneDrive. And Time Machine downloaded that data into its backup. Although I had configured OneDrive not to download that folder to my Mac. So time Machine screwed up in the first place.
vachina 2y ago
Apple doesn’t care. They want you to subscribe to their iCloud plans and “abstract” away backups so that you lose the ability to own your backups.
- fauigerzigerk 2y ago
  I wish they did abstract it away. But iCloud is the only widely used cloud storage service that doesn't have file versioning. So as an iCloud user you really do need a backup and they're telling you as much every step of the way.
  - vachina 2y ago
    To most Apple users, the most important version is the latest version. My experience with Apple backup is, please turn every backup on so you’ll max out your iCloud storage. There’s no way to tell iOS or MacOS to backup to a self hosted target.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
nunez 2y ago
I don't have a dog in this fight, but I just want to say that it is extremely refreshing to see a good ol' fashioned Linux vs Win vs Mac debate in 2024. The Internet isn't dead. I lied; I actually do. GIMP sucks!
rsync 2y ago
"Create a fresh install and manually (!) copy individual files from time machine to your mac.“" This is, and always has been, the only sane answer. If you value your time, energy and sanity you do not upgrade your OS - you wipe it clean and install from scratch. It is as true today with OSX as it was going from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95.

wetpaws 2y ago

[dead]

redmajor12 2y ago

Sounds like the lesson learned here from reading your travail is not to invest in an ecosystem that makes it difficult to do a standard operation.

submeta 2y ago
Maybe. But what are the options? Windows? Not really. Linux/Debian/Ubuntu is great, in theory, but it lacks tools: Acorn, Keyboard Maestro, OnniGraffle, Alfred App, MS Office, MS Teams, and a dozen more. Plus Apple silicon. I test LLMs locally.
- deaddodo 2y ago
  This isn't me trying to convince you to use Linux, but the listed reasons (other than LLM testing) aren't real deterrents (and there are plenty that exist for many people, no use pretending not): > Acorn GIMP (or Glimpse, if you want a more modern UI) or Krita can definitely do pretty much anything Acorn can. > Keyboard Maestro GNOME and KDE have been able to do this out of the box from pretty much the beginning. The OSes are still mostly terminal-first (one of the big complaints, actually), and that translates into the DEs and Applications. A keyboard automation is just a sequence of commands. This is probably one of the few areas where Linux almost definitely beats macOS or Windows. > OnniGraffle There's a large swathe of diagramming tools in Linux. > Alfred App Yep, both KDE and Gnome are able to handle this task as well as Alfred. Like automation, this is probably an area Linux will be able to shine above macOS. > MS Office LibreOffice would be the common alternative. > MS Teams They used to have an official client. They now recommend you create a PWA, and there are some unofficial clients that do pretty much that: https://github.com/IsmaelMartinez/teams-for-linux https://github.com/IsmaelMartinez/teams-for-linux This seems to be the route they'll be going all around, similar to slack (web + an electron app). > I test LLMs locally. LLMs run fine on Linux, but you will be limited to about 16GB on the VRAM side. Though, you could technically use Asahi + Apple Silicon as the support matured if you want. Most of these are open source applications, with cludgy UIs/warts and all; and aren't really designed by teams with UX masters, so operate oddly and require relearning. But if you were interested in making the move, they're options.

hmottestad 2y ago

When I last restored from Time Machine it allowed me to select which folders I wanted to restore. Then I could just restore the most important bits and leave anything big behind on the backup drive to restore manually later. https://support.apple.com/en-us/102551 https://support.apple.com/en-us/102551

submeta 2y ago
I only was offered to select top level folders. Nothing below them.
- hmottestad 2y ago
  Did you try to reinstall the mac and use migration assistant to restore from the Time Machine backup?
  - submeta 2y ago
    Yes I did. But the time machine backup was way larger than my macbook‘s ssd. The reason was this: I had only 600-700 gb of data on my Mac. Installed OneDrive, did not know that I had configured my NAS to do 800gb of cloud backups to OneDrive. And Time Machine downloaded that data into its backup. Although I had configured OneDrive not to download that folder to my Mac. So time Machine screwed up.

alexeiz 2y ago

> Second person told me to buy a new Mac with 2 tb ssd and restore to that. Or you can just upgrade the SSD as you would do with any normal laptop. Oh, wait...

kstenerud 2y ago

I've really been noticing how Apple software quality has been on a slow decline since Snow Leopard. I look at some of their older source code and it's a joy to read! Nowadays, my daily travails with restarting Xcode multiple times a day to work around bugs (package blahblah is not available) have really worn thin (I mean, Xcode has always had problems, but not THIS bad). Add to that the fact that the "system data" on my mbp now takes up 80% of the space on my SSD (800GB of system data! Even after manually deleting caches and derived data)... It's like they don't even care about code craftsmanship anymore. And yet their culture of not putting in useful debug messages (because "it just works") persists. My latest and greatest headache? Some parts of AppKit now directly call [NSApplication _crashOnException:] regardless of the "NSApplicationCrashOnExceptions" setting, and WITHOUT even calling [NSApplication reportException:]. So now you lose the exception entirely and good luck figuring out what caused the crash. Ugh...

tonyedgecombe 2y ago
I don't use Xcode so maybe it is an exception but in general I would say the opposite. For me it has been getting better over time. People talk about Snow Leopard being stable but it was riddled with bugs, just take a look at the release notes for all the updates it received over the next year.
T4iga 2y ago
I have had a similar experience after i shared my MacBook with my girlfriend for a while. Turned out even after uninstalling her cloud file sharing software thing, there were still over 100GB of cached files left on disk. MacOS didn't make the obvious identify or find in the storage overview. I ended up finding it through a disk space visualizer that showed a large folder (the stolen 100GB) in some cache directory. I can highly recommend trying that out. MacOS' inbuilt tools are in my experience inadequate to find what is stealing your disk space (on top of applications being unable to clean up after themselves).
raverbashing 2y ago
Yeah Let me guess, the best engineers are working on iPad/iPhone apps today and MacOS is relegated to code fixes and people building for the "common user" that doesn't know what a drive is

khana 2y ago

[dead]

hilux 2y ago

> I didn’t want to buy another Mac just to restore from backups. And then presumably one more Mac to backup your backup Mac. It's Macs all the way down!

throwaway48476 2y ago

You chose the walled garden.

super_mario 2y ago

How did you end up with TM backup larger than original source? Sure, total storage consumed on TM drive can be larger than source, but that is because older versions of files are stored as well. But restoring most recent versions of files should be equal to source in size.

submeta 2y ago
I had only 600-700 gb of data on my Mac. Installed OneDrive, did not know that I had configured my NAS to do 800gb of cloud backups to OneDrive. And Time Machine downloaded that data into its backup. Although I had configured OneDrive not to download that folder to my Mac. So time Machine screwed up in the first place.
- super_mario 2y ago
  Ah, ok, that's a nasty bug/scenario. I long for the good old days one could just rsync the internal drive and bless it and you have a bootable clone, or make compressed disk image. Those were the days.

prmoustache 2y ago

I don't know time machine, but why would a full restore take more space than the original drive? Wouldn't a full time machine restore by default restore the last state of the system being backed up (and not full history) by default like any half decent backup solution?

submeta 2y ago
I had only 600-700 gb of data on my Mac. Installed OneDrive, did not know that I had configured my NAS to do 800gb of cloud backups to OneDrive. And Time Machine downloaded that data into its backup. Although I had configured OneDrive not to download that folder to my Mac. So time Machine screwed up in the first place.

vachina 2y ago

Apple doesn’t care. They want you to subscribe to their iCloud plans and “abstract” away backups so that you lose the ability to own your backups.

fauigerzigerk 2y ago
I wish they did abstract it away. But iCloud is the only widely used cloud storage service that doesn't have file versioning. So as an iCloud user you really do need a backup and they're telling you as much every step of the way.
- vachina 2y ago
  To most Apple users, the most important version is the latest version. My experience with Apple backup is, please turn every backup on so you’ll max out your iCloud storage. There’s no way to tell iOS or MacOS to backup to a self hosted target.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

nunez 2y ago

I don't have a dog in this fight, but I just want to say that it is extremely refreshing to see a good ol' fashioned Linux vs Win vs Mac debate in 2024. The Internet isn't dead. I lied; I actually do. GIMP sucks!

rsync 2y ago

"Create a fresh install and manually (!) copy individual files from time machine to your mac.“" This is, and always has been, the only sane answer. If you value your time, energy and sanity you do not upgrade your OS - you wipe it clean and install from scratch. It is as true today with OSX as it was going from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95.