The link to the earlier hint appears to be broken; it should be http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031103155828117.

[ Reply to This | # ]

"If you want Time Machine to continue backing up after you've logged out, it's as simple as setting your system to leave FireWire drives mounted after logout."

Uh, sure, unless you're not backing up to a FireWire drive, which most people aren't.


[ Reply to This | # ]

Uh, sure, unless you're not backing up to a FireWire drive, which most people aren't.

Well, that's good to know! Can you share the source of your data that tells what percentage of Leopard users use which backup media? I didn't know that data was published anywhere!

In any case, I don't think a hint needs to help "most" people to be a good hint--after all look at all the iPhone hints we have, and we know that most people don't have iPhones.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Previously, I had already set mount while logged out with *censored*tail, so I didn't notice that it doesn't.

Now I have a Time Capsule and it will back up to it, regardless of whether a user is logged in or not.


[ Reply to This | # ]

This will work when typed into Terminal.app

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/autodiskmount AutomountDisksWithoutUserLogin -bool true

[ Reply to This | # ]

[TodW adds: I haven't tested this either.]

It seems that "robg" has nothing better to do than add totally superfluous commentary. Sheesh, what an ego. As if we readers really care whether or not "robg" has tested the tip or not.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Oh, I don't know...I'd assign more credibility to a Rob Griffiths test of a tip than yours. Or the fact that he hadn't tested/validated a tip would dictate more caution was required in my way of thinking.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Can someone explain the purpose of time machine running when noone is logged in?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Two instances where it's proved useful for me:
1) I create a lot of data on my office machine (or, worse, my boss does — I'm a sysadmin), then log out for the weekend. Anything I did in the hour before I logged out will not be backed up. If something goes wrong over the weekend (and doesn't it always?), that data gets lost.
2) The first backup I made of my staff's computers took a very long time as a full backup had to be created. We therefore let the initial staff backups run overnight, when our staff is normally logged out. This hint allows us to let them log out as normal, rather than having them use Fast User Switching to switch to the Login Window, which is easier and more straightforward for both them and me.

There are other times this could be handy:
1) You create some data on your machine remotely, via SSH or SCP, and want that data to get backed up, but you're not logged into the GUI.
2) Your machine acts as a server of some sort (file server, perhaps) and is rarely logged in to the GUI, but you still want to use Time Machine for backups.

Oh, and just to clarify, this should work for all external drives — firewire, USB, eSATA, what have you.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Does it run even if logged out if you are backing up to an internal SATA drive?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Will this hint work if I am backing up to a time capsule?

[ Reply to This | # ]