Mac Treat #61: Change the Backup Schedule in Time Machine

ByMike Moffit

Annoyed when Time Machine kicks on ALL THE TIME? Well, maybe it’s not all the time, but it is every hour you have a hard drive plugged in or Time Machine set to run. That’s too often for me, so I decided to see what I could do to change it.

Here’s how:
1) Go to Macintosh HD > System > Library > LaunchDaemons
2) Open com.apple.backupd-auto.plist in Text Edit (or other text editor)
3) Find 3600; this represents the amount of time between backups in seconds
4) Change the 3600 to the number of your choice

Note: You must be the system administrator of your Mac for this to work as written.

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