I am using macOS Server's Time Machine service to centralize backups for my mac workstations/laptops. One of the laptops hasn't been backed-up since upgrading to a new MacBook Pro (using Migration Assistant) 6 months ago. I'm now connecting the laptop Time Machine to the server, but instead of using the old backups with the same name, it's creating new ones with a "1" at the end of the name (e.g. MacBook Pro 1
when the name of the existing backup and mac is MacBook Pro
).
How do I force Time Machine to use the existing backups so that we may keep all the backup history?
For what it's worth, I believe the macOS Server Time Machine service is no more than a SMB share from the laptop's perspective.
I have seen posts on how to do inherit a Time Machine backup on a locally attached drive, but I'm not sure how to do this on a remote sparsebundle.
Best Answer
As it turns out, it is super easy with a single Terminal command.
First, you need to mount the Time Machine share using Finder. Just browse to the server, then to the share so that it mounts. I mounted with Admin privileges since Admin owns the the Time Machine sparsebundle.
Then, you open Terminal and run this command:
For example, mine would be:
If your prefer to use quotes intead of the space escape, you should be able to do:
You will need to enter your Admin password, and that should do it.
I rebooted after this, then selected the backup share in Time Machine and now it's using the existing sparsebundle instead of creating a new one.