snippetbashTip

tmutil — Utility for managing Time Machine backups. More information: <https://keith.github.io/xcode-man-page

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

Viewed 0 times

commandtmutilclimanagingtimemachineforutility

macos

Problem

How to use the tmutil command: Utility for managing Time Machine backups. More information: <https://keith.github.io/xcode-man-pages/tmutil.8.html>.

Solution

tmutil — Utility for managing Time Machine backups. More information: <https://keith.github.io/xcode-man-pages/tmutil.8.html>.

Set an HFS+ drive as the backup destination:

sudo tmutil setdestination {{path/to/disk_mount_point}}

Set an APF share or SMB share as the backup destination:

sudo tmutil setdestination "{{protocol://user[:password]@host/share}}"

Append the given destination to the list of destinations:

sudo tmutil setdestination -a {{destination}}

Enable automatic backups:

sudo tmutil enable

Disable automatic backups:

sudo tmutil disable

Start a backup, if one is not running already, and release control of the shell:

sudo tmutil startbackup

Start a backup and block until the backup is finished:

sudo tmutil startbackup -b

Stop a backup:

sudo tmutil stopbackup

Code Snippets

Set an HFS+ drive as the backup destination

sudo tmutil setdestination {{path/to/disk_mount_point}}

Set an APF share or SMB share as the backup destination

sudo tmutil setdestination "{{protocol://user[:password]@host/share}}"

Append the given destination to the list of destinations

sudo tmutil setdestination -a {{destination}}

Enable automatic backups

sudo tmutil enable

Disable automatic backups

sudo tmutil disable

Context

tldr-pages: osx/tmutil

Revisions (0)

No revisions yet.