TimeMachineEditor
TimeMachineEditor is a software for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard that lets you change the default one-hour backup interval of Time Machine.
You can change the interval or create a more sophosticated scheduling (see screenshot below).
This is useful if you don’t need to backup every hour and don’t want the performance penalty. This is also especially useful if you manipulate lots of data within one hour as you would spend the whole day backing up.
Download (updated 11.25.09)
Additional screenshot
How does it work?
TimeMachineEditor does not modify existing system files at all (unlike versions prior to 2.5). Instead it handles its own scheduling to trigger Time Machine backups when you want them to occur.
TimeMachineEditor also has its own ON / OFF switch that lets you enable / disable automatic backups.
TimeMachineEditor is free software. Use at your own risk.
Contact
About the icons
The icon of the application and the background image of the disk image have been designed by the great guys at GAFMEDIA STUDIO. Check out their web-site!
FAQ
Should I turn the big switch from the Time Machine preferences to OFF?
Yes. TimeMachineEditor handles the scheduling itself and has its own ON / OFF switch (which behaves very much like the one from Time Machine).
Do I need to keep TimeMachineEditor running all the time?
No. You just need to use TimeMachineEditor when you want to change the settings.
What about backups when waking up from sleep?
When using the “Calendar Intervals” mode, Time Machine backs up on wake only if the computer was asleep at schedule time. When using the “Interval” mode, this behavior may not work, this is due to a bug in Mac OS X (radar 4058640). You can workaround this by using the “Calendar Intervals” mode instead and adding as many “Daily” entries as necessary.
How do I uninstall TimeMachineEditor?
That’s really easy. You’ll probably want to use TimeMachineEditor one last time to turn it OFF, you can then trash the application.
If you were using versions prior to 2.5, you may need to use an older version to revert system settings to their defaults.
Look at the Time Machine logs to get more information about Time Machine’s activity:
