[spatterson]

I know this sounds silly, but I want to keep my work files off my computer. Currently Time Machine will back up all the files I have deleted. Say I am working on a FLA file, and I don't want to keep it forever using Time Machine, can I do a secure empty trash or something to keep it off?

Many Thanks!

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

Originally Posted by spatterson 

I know this sounds silly, but I want to keep my work files off my computer. Currently Time Machine will back up all the files I have deleted. Say I am working on a FLA file, and I don't want to keep it forever using Time Machine, can I do a secure empty trash or something to keep it off?

Many Thanks!

The files will disappear from the Time Machine backup after a period of time. I think you could try to delete the files from the backupd folder on your Time Machine drive.

[peeb]

NO NO NO! Don't delete the files from the folder - just delete them from within Time Machine.

[TETENAL]

a) Backups will be coalesced over time. Hourly to a daily backup after 24 hours, daily to weekly backups after one month. So Time Machine doesn't keep dozens of revisions of your work files. Don't worry about that.

b) Why don't you want to back up the files you work on? At some point it might become very handy to be able to go an hour back; for example when you screwed up a document beyond repair/edited it to death. Things like this happened to me. Maybe you should rethink this.

c) You can exclude any folder you want from being backed up. So you could exclude the folder where your temporary files are saved to.

d) You can delete all revisions of a file from the backup with the respective command in the Action menu of the Finder while in the Time Machine view.

[spatterson]

Thanks guys... gave me something to think about!

[ginoledesma]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

b) Why don't you want to back up the files you work on?

Can't speak for the original poster, but in my case, there are some files that are somewhat confidential (e.g. legal documents), and I would rather that they live on my system temporarily when possible. My current work-around is to designate a certain area on my HD as "do not backup", so whatever I dump there won't be included in Time Machine. And then off to secure empty trash when done.

Then there's the occasional email attachment (e.g. family photos) that might be good to view once, but aren't worth keeping long run.

[- - e r i k - -]

Create an encrypted disk image. Save all your files to that image. Drag such image to Time Machine's do not backup list. Delete files off that image as no longer needed, or the whole image when you are done with all of it.

[ginoledesma]

Yes, that works also, but so does designating one folder to be excluded. It's not necessarily always in the same level as "no one should ever see this". Some files are just there once then never to be bothered with again (just like tmp files, or swap files, only user-generated).

[peeb]

Out of interest, what kind of workflow do you have that generates these kinds of files?

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by peeb 

NO NO NO! Don't delete the files from the folder - just delete them from within Time Machine.

There is nothing wrong with deleting files from the folder.