Duplicate an existing APFS TM disk?

[corby]

Hello,

Is it possible to duplicate an existing APFS TM disk? I'm on Big Sir, my system is too old for Monterey.

First I tried copying an extising TM disk to a blank disk. After several hours of copying, the end result was a disk that had data, but MacOS wouldn't recognize it as a TM disk. MacOS was willing to format it as a new TM disk and erase the contents.

Next I tried setting the new disk as a TM disk, which of course erased the disk and created the new TM volume. Then I tried copying from my original TM disk to the new TM disk (with TM backup disabled during the copy process). After many hours of data being copied, the end result was what looked still looked like the brand new TM disk without any of the old backups. In other words it only contained the initial TM backup that was created.

I'm guessing the results I'm seeing has to do with whatever magic TM is using to not duplicate files (I've lost track of how it works when they started supporting APFS).

Anyway, is there a method to copy an older working TM disk (APFS format) to a new larger TM disk and keep all the older backups?

[dnanian]

It is not. See the FAQ entry about copying Time Machine...

[corby]

Gotcha. I had read the first part and thought it was out of date and didn’t read the update at the bottom. Especially since the posting date is shown as 2008 Bummer.