Time Machine Controller

[ctwise]

Simple workflow that shows Time Machine status and lets you start and stop a backup. Download from here - http://tedwi.se/u/dc

 

[vancura]

404

[ctwise]

404

 

Hosted database was dead. It's working again now.

[vancura]

Hosted database was dead. It's working again now.

 

Thanks!

[nitingoyal]

Nice work !!!

[derico]

Hmm, it was working fine at first but seems to do nothing since I moved the backup to NAS:

It hangs on checking status and when I choose to start/stop a backup, the notification appears immediately but nothing actually happens. 

 

Edit: Well, I thought it worked once, but the 'tmutil' command seems to be missing in Snow Leopard. Is there an alternative for 'tmutil'?

07.04.13 16:56:35 [0x0-0x2a02a].com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred-2[216] -e:38: command not found: tmutil status
07.04.13 16:56:35 [0x0-0x2a02a].com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred-2[216] -e:22: undefined method `start_with?' for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)

Edited April 10, 2013 by derico

[shadylane]

Hi Ted!

 

Thank you very much for the workflow! I tried to cobble something similar together myself - but since I really know nothing about scripting I was glad to find your workflow

 

I do have one question though: when I was working on my own workflow for Time Machine I tried to get a notification that shows me the time/date of the last completed backup. I even found a script that will do just that:

 

date -jf "%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S" "$(tmutil latestbackup | sed 's|.*/||')" +"%F %T"

 

But for it to work the backup drives have to be mounted. Since I use two different drives for Time Machine and one of them is a Time Capsule, that script would always mount the drive first - not a perfect solution... so I kept searching and found this:

 

http://goo.gl/oVCWK

 

But I couldn't make it work. Would it be difficult to add that feature to your workflow? Or maybe you can give me some advice on how I could add it myself, that would be great  All I really want is a notification with the time/date of the last backup, it doesn't have to be part of the script filter. 

 

Thanks and cheers, Anna

[ctwise]

Hi Ted!

 

Thank you very much for the workflow! I tried to cobble something similar together myself - but since I really know nothing about scripting I was glad to find your workflow

 

I do have one question though: when I was working on my own workflow for Time Machine I tried to get a notification that shows me the time/date of the last completed backup. I even found a script that will do just that:

 

date -jf "%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S" "$(tmutil latestbackup | sed 's|.*/||')" +"%F %T"

 

But for it to work the backup drives have to be mounted. Since I use two different drives for Time Machine and one of them is a Time Capsule, that script would always mount the drive first - not a perfect solution... so I kept searching and found this:

 

http://goo.gl/oVCWK

 

But I couldn't make it work. Would it be difficult to add that feature to your workflow? Or maybe you can give me some advice on how I could add it myself, that would be great  All I really want is a notification with the time/date of the last backup, it doesn't have to be part of the script filter. 

 

Thanks and cheers, Anna

 

You can build a quick workflow yourself. Create the workflow, trigger it with a keyword of your choice, connect it to a Ruby script and paste this in the box:

 

require 'date'
puts DateTime.strptime((`defaults read /private/var/db/.TimeMachine.Results BACKUP_COMPLETED_DATE`.strip), "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %z").new_offset(DateTime.now.offset).strftime("%A %B %d, %Y %l:%M %P")

 

And connect the script to a display large type output.

Edited April 20, 2013 by ctwise

[shadylane]

Hi Ted, thank you so much for your fast response, I really appreciate it!

 

I feel like an idiot, but I don't get any output from the Ruby script...

I have connected the keyword trigger to a "run script" module (/usr/bin/ruby) and added a "large type" module at the end - but nothing happens when I type the keyword. I don't get an error in Console app either.

 

I have never had anything to do with Ruby, but Terminal tells me I have version 1.8.7 (thanks, Google!) and I'm on a recent Mac with 10.8.3. - is there anything else I need to install?

 

Thanks again for your help

[ctwise]

Hi Ted, thank you so much for your fast response, I really appreciate it!

 

I feel like an idiot, but I don't get any output from the Ruby script...

I have connected the keyword trigger to a "run script" module (/usr/bin/ruby) and added a "large type" module at the end - but nothing happens when I type the keyword. I don't get an error in Console app either.

 

I have never had anything to do with Ruby, but Terminal tells me I have version 1.8.7 (thanks, Google!) and I'm on a recent Mac with 10.8.3. - is there anything else I need to install?

 

Thanks again for your help

 

I edited my reply since I forgot the require statement. Try the updated code.

[shadylane]

Ted, you are AWESOME! Exactly what I wanted, thank you so much. 

[neilf]

Hi,

 

Nice workflow.

 

I'm new to all of this...is there a way to get the Time Machine controller to work in the Alfred remote?

 

Thanks,

neilf

[ctwise]

Hi,

 

Nice workflow.

 

I'm new to all of this...is there a way to get the Time Machine controller to work in the Alfred remote?

 

Thanks,

neilf

 

I just updated the workflow on Packal to add remote triggers.

[Weaselboy]

Just installed your workflow on El Capitan 10.11.2 and it works perfectly. Exactly what I was looking for! Thank you

[rdg]

I tried this out on Mojave, and the status fails over to a google search. With some investigation, I found that the method for getting the latest backups is obsolete.  Digging around online, I found a way to query backup information even when the backup discs are unavailable:

 

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print Destinations" /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist

 

This gives you every TM volume's list of backups, which should be parseable to make it pretty, and to possibly only grab the BackupAlias and last "SnapshotArray" date. I haven't had time to modify your script to make that work, but thought I'd share what I found in case you're still updating the workflow.