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I'm following the instructions and scripts detailed in this article, but it's failing on mavericks - the mounted windows drive isn't showing up in the time machine disk selection pane.

Any ideas how to get this working?

http://lifehacker.com/5691649/an-easier-way-to-set-up-time-machine-to-back-up-to-a-networked-windows-computer

(Using Window 7 and the SMB server)

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  • I've been looking for an answer for this as well. Any luck?
    – Cybergibbons
    Nov 8, 2013 at 14:41
  • 2
    Has anyone validated that this scheme actually results in a restorable backup? I have my doubts.
    – zigg
    Nov 8, 2013 at 14:46
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    Yes - it appears to work. It's just a disk image stored on an SMB share. The issue is that previously the SMB share showed up when the defaults setting was set, now it doesn't.
    – Cybergibbons
    Nov 8, 2013 at 14:53
  • What version is the SMB service? Please add details to the question – thanks.
    – Graham Perrin
    Nov 10, 2013 at 14:53
  • Not a solution -- yet, but this is the best discussion on the topic I have found so far forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=229&t=71049
    – user273337
    Nov 12, 2013 at 20:17

1 Answer 1

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Pulled this from MacRumors:

  • After you get the sparse bundle created in your desired location, mount the sparse bundle by double clicking it. It should mount just as any other drive or image file will.

  • Once that is done open up terminal and run this command (leave the quotes in place):

    sudo tmutil setdestination "/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/"

  • Now open up Time Machine and turn it on. You don't have to select your disk, the command in terminal did that for you.

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  • somewhat amusingly I can't test this just yet as my MacBook is out of action due to water damage (fortunately I had a non-networked backup!), but marking this answered anyway
    – Josh P
    Dec 9, 2013 at 13:53
  • I create a bundle. I create a script that mounts NAS and after that mount bundle. But from time to time, bundle unmounts and Time Machine waits for connecting bundle and don't create backups. But when I select "Backup now" Time Machine automatically mounts bundle and create backup. Maybe I can customize this behaviour and force Machine to mount bundle?
    – AlKozin
    Jul 18, 2014 at 8:10
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    I'm getting this error with a samba share that is mounted as hfsplus on the server: $ sudo tmutil setdestination "/Volumes/TimeMachine/" /Volumes/TimeMachine: Incompatible file system type: smbfs (error 45) The backup destination could not be set. Any idea why?
    – frhd
    Aug 2, 2014 at 17:46
  • If you're using an unencrypted sparse bundle, it's well worth compressing the sparse bundle, as long as the OS allows for native compression in the filesystem (that's typically the case if you're hosting the Samba share on a Windows proper machine). I haven't tried it with encrypted volumes, but unencrypted sparse bundles used with Time Machine backups do compress quite well (almost 50% in my case). If you decide to compress the sparse bundle on the host, you might as well mark the folder as compressed as soon as you copy it there, so it can get compressed as soon as the data is copied there.
    – Bogdan Stăncescu
    Mar 3, 2015 at 21:31
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    @frhd, it looks like the path you're doing setdestination with is the SMB volume and not the mounted .sparsebundle file. You need to browse to the .sparsebundle file and double click it in Finder so it mounts (just like a .dmg would). It should then show up if you do ls /Volumes/ and is by default called Time Machine Backups (not TimeMachine).
    – Asbjørn Ulsberg
    Mar 22, 2016 at 9:52

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