Carbon Copy Cloner Local Snapshots

[chscag]

As some of you may be aware, Local Snapshots are taken of your HHD/SSD by Time Machine and you may also know how to stop or remove them. And as of High Sierra, Local Snapshots are taken for all Macs that have flash storage formatted to APFS. If you have any questions about that, please ask and we will address them.

However, did you know that if you use Carbon Copy Cloner as your backup regimen that it too takes Local Snapshots of your APFS formatted SSD and stores them?

A little history: I have been concerned that my SSD space was being used by something that I could not find. Turning off and/or removing Time Machine Local Snapshots was not returning the lost space.

Here is what Terminal reported to me after I inquired about Local Snapshots:

PTL:~ CS$ sudo tmutil listlocalsnapshots /Volumes/
Password:

com.bombich.ccc.AD55E048-4B38-4630-8771-9E492C3DD55D.2018-03-01-132329
com.bombich.ccc.99562694-2248-4620-9770-7088E8D45C68.2018-03-02-135611
com.bombich.ccc.EA323F23-0D71-4985-B54B-1CA12D78D5C0.2018-03-03-144220
com.bombich.ccc.B00F1DDD-DE18-44A6-8F33-983BE0FA20D1.2018-03-05-172754
com.bombich.ccc.79A1640B-5FDF-4D5A-8A63-4A2CB98B21D7.2018-03-07-194135
com.bombich.ccc.E9065B57-19DA-4DD6-BC0E-42329D726773.2018-03-09-154934
com.bombich.ccc.8D572DA4-3076-4BC9-8765-712EA706D4C7.2018-03-10-172904
com.bombich.ccc.E7B51318-9E5E-4412-800D-5E5A440F6059.2018-03-12-155910
com.bombich.ccc.BCB5B465-47CB-4135-B1BB-4B466662162B.2018-03-13-164743
com.bombich.ccc.823C0B17-1285-4767-81DF-EE5D7F152C80.2018-03-14-222928
com.bombich.ccc.C8AFC14C-AD90-420F-8AE3-2EC069E521EF.2018-03-16-225024
com.bombich.ccc.DD35C237-D3EF-4BDF-9FB4-A6F3E072EF73.2018-03-18-120449
com.bombich.ccc.2301D026-CD4B-4B4D-B679-806FA389F71C.2018-03-19-195519
com.bombich.ccc.9D5CE4F1-A81C-4170-AC64-850103A9FF08.2018-03-21-134407
com.bombich.ccc.8F9D632B-9199-493C-864E-B070458F8937.2018-03-22-185001
com.bombich.ccc.34E08F55-A0D7-45E0-B139-FD4489D6017D.2018-03-24-153706
com.bombich.ccc.FED99E9A-9FA1-4EE8-BD62-A8575F3EB472.2018-03-26-133113
com.bombich.ccc.1CD50596-D024-4CD9-A6BD-C7D4AB36DCD4.2018-03-27-155004
com.bombich.ccc.E39B7A55-9147-4DC8-9360-83B463FF710B.2018-03-28-192033

Interesting listing isn't it?

I then sent an email to Mike Bombich (developer of CCC) and included the above and asked him... what the heck is going on?

Mike responded to me the very next day and directed me to the CCC knowledge base: https://bombich.com/kb/ccc5/leveraging-snapshots-on-apfs-volumes#space

Following the directions given in the CCC knowledge base, I was able to remove the CCC Local Snapshots and turn them off permanently. And by the way, got back 40 GB of my SSD space!

Long story shortened: If you are a regular CCC user and have pure flash storage and using High Sierra, you might want to keep an eye on your drive space and decide whether or not to allow CCC to make Local Snapshots.

Long post I know but I hope this will assist some of you who may have pure flash storage and have High Sierra.

If you have any questions about how to turn off Local Snapshots that CCC makes, I can go into more detail. It's not exactly something that is easy to find.

Regards, Charlie

 

[Slydude]

Nice job rooting that out Charlie. I don't think I would have expected this.

Looks like this combination of Flash storage and APFS formatting is going to require some serious thought/study when problems arise.

 

[MacInWin]

I didn't have any CCC Snapshots. Then I read this in the article Charlie linked:

If your backup task is configured to run on a daily or weekly basis, then CCC will not produce hourly snapshots

I run CCC once daily, right after midnight. No Snapshots, ever.

 

[chscag]

Note that what Jake is referring to is CCC scheduled backups, not the unscheduled backups that I was running. He makes a good point though, one that I probably should have adhered to, and that is a regular scheduled backup is one that you are not likely to forget. ;D

Anyway... since I have turned off the CCC snapshots I will continue along my stubborn way and make backups on my time. LOL.

 

[MacInWin]

Yes, I use scheduled backups. I find I am not reliable enough to make backups, but both TM and CCC are quite capable and much more reliable!

 

[carel]

Hello chscag, I would like you to tell me how to suspend the Snapshots rn CCC
Thanks

 

[chscag]

Hello chscag, I would like you to tell me how to suspend the Snapshots rn CCC Thanks

Open CCC. Click or double click on your Macintosh HD which should be shown on the bottom left of the dialog. That will open another dialog to the right where you will see the option to turn off Local Snapshots.

 

[carel]

I'm sorry but I could not find where to change the settings of the Snapshots. I attach a picture of the window

Josef

 

[chscag]

Try clicking on "121.02 GB PCI-Express Volume". That should show up as your Macintosh HD and clicking on that should bring up the option to turn off Snapshots.

I tried uploading an image of what mine looks like but for some reason the system is not uploading the file. Sorry about that.

 

[carel]

Try clicking on "121.02 GB PCI-Express Volume". That should show up as your Macintosh HD and clicking on that should bring up the option to turn off Snapshots.

I tried uploading an image of what mine looks like but for some reason the system is not uploading the file. Sorry about that.

That is exactly what I did before and the result is the window you see in the image. I do not find another possibility
Thank you any way
Josef

 

[chscag]

@carel:

I was able to do some re-sizing of the image from my CCC screenshot. As you can see below, the option I was referring to.

 

[carel]

Yes I see, but I don't have that option, I don't know way
Thanks a lot
Josef

 

[ferrarr]

Your drive may be too small, for local snapshots? At least thats the way I see it.

 

[IWT]

Your drive may be too small, for local snapshots? At least thats the way I see it.

Or maybe not the latest version of Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) which is 5.0.9?

Ian

 

[chscag]

Thanks Ian. I neglected to include the version of CCC that I have installed. Like you, I suspect member "carel" may be using an older version which does not include that option.

And Bob also has a good point about his SSD being too small to accept local snapshots. I would have to look at the CCC knowledge base to see what it says about that.

 

[MacInWin]

Hmmm, I'm running 5.0.9 and I don't get that option either, Charlie. Wonder what is different? I have a 1TB internal SSD, with about 50% free, so it's not space.

 

[ferrarr]

The difference is "space in use". The OP, is using 40gb of 128gb, Charlie is using 50gb of 500gb, and you're using 500gb of 1tb. I'm not exactly fluent in Snapshots, but what exactly do they "capture"? Only edited files, or everything?

 

[MacInWin]

I believe they should capture only changed files, i.e., those that would be included in the next CCC cycle of cloning. No reason to include everything. CCC doesn't touch unchanged files.

 

[chscag]

Hmmm, I'm running 5.0.9 and I don't get that option either, Charlie. Wonder what is different? I have a 1TB internal SSD, with about 50% free, so it's not space.

Sorry everyone.....

I completely forgot that I beta test new versions for Mike Bombich. The version of CCC that I'm currently using is Version 5.1-b9 (5383).

 

[pm-r]

Sorry everyone.....

I completely forgot that I beta test new versions for Mike Bombich.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, back into the corner for you it is!!!

And no Pease pudding for you this evening.






- Patrick
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