Using Time Machine for first time. Need advice, can I get some help?

[thomasliveshere]

Using Time Machine for first time. Need advice.

So I turned up Time Machine for the first time today for my retina macbook pro (500gb). I connected an external hard drive, chose to encrypt the data and then commenced back up. All was fine and everything backed up, but now it's encrypting it again (it's been a good few hours since I first turned time machine on) and it's taking forever to encrypt the disk.

I have a couple of questions here because I'm a first time mac user and it's my first time using time machine.

Is it necessary to back up the whole macbook every hour? If not, how do I change this?

Am I able to just plug in my external hard drive say, once a week, and back up through time machine?

Is it necessary to keep backing up my iTunes library? My downloaded music files etc. It backed it up, but now it seems to back it up every hour and I don't see the point of having the same music files backed up multiple times. Can I just put my iTunes folder on the "exclude" list and then un exclude it if I make any changes so I can back up those changes, then put it back on the exclude list and so on? (hope that makes sense)

Also, as it's taking forever to encrypt, is it safe just to eject the hard drive or do I have to wait for it to finish? I swear it encrypted when I first turned on time machine and said it was finished...

Thanks for your time guys, I really appreciate it.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Re: Using Time Machine for first time. Need advice.

...
I have a couple of questions here because I'm a first time mac user and it's my first time using time machine.

Is it necessary to back up the whole macbook every hour? If not, how do I change this?

No. After the initial backup (which can take a long time), only files that have changed will be backed up.

Am I able to just plug in my external hard drive say, once a week, and back up through time machine?

Sure

Is it necessary to keep backing up my iTunes library, my downloaded music files etc.?

Is it "necessary"? Not in my opinion.

It backed it up, but now it seems to back it up every hour and I don't see the point of having the same music files backed up multiple times. Can I just put my iTunes folder on the "exclude" list and then un exclude it if I make any changes so I can back up those changes, then put it back on the exclude list and so on? (hope that makes sense)

Also, as it's taking forever to encrypt, is it safe just to eject the hard drive or do I have to wait for it to finish? I swear it encrypted when I first turned on time machine and said it was finished...

Thanks for your time guys, I really appreciate it.

Check out the information via the following link for additional Time Machine Backup information.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250