Using Time Machine with Carbonite

• This article is for Mac only

Time Machine and Carbonite can both be used to back up your files; multiple backups are never a bad thing! If you do decide to use both services, please be aware that you will need to exclude Carbonite from your Time Machine backup. Carbonite should not be used to back up your Time Machine backup or vice versa because the data may not be usable when restored.

Carbonite's status files keep track of what is currently selected for back up. If you were to restore an older version of your status files with Time Machine, it would cause you to lose all of the files in your Carbonite backup that were added after Time Machine last backed up your status files. Those files would need to be backed up again with Carbonite.

How to Exclude Carbonite From Your Time Machine Backup

You can exclude Carbonite from your Time Machine backup from within the Time Machine interface within System Preferences.

Click the Apple symbol in the menu bar and select System Preferences to open the System Preferences window.

Within the System Preferences window, click on the Time Machine icon.

Within Time Machine, click Options.

Click the ( + ) sign to open a window that lets you browse your system for the Carbonite program files.

Navigate to /Library/Application Support/ and select Carbonite. With the folder selected, click exclude to exclude it from your Time Machine backups.

Click Done to complete the process. Carbonite is now excluded from your Time Machine backups.