Quick Hack to allow any folder to be a TimeMachine Destination

Apple doesn’t let you use a shared folder as a time machine destination in regular OSX (you can buy server and get that functionality), only a full volume or Time Capsule.

But you  can use this command line trick:

  1. This assumes your Folder exported is called TimeMachine
  2. AFP mount your TimeMachine share via Command-K on the Mac you want to back up.
  3. Try this. It will probably fail with an error about locking:
  • sudo tmutil setdestination /Volumes/TimeMachine
  1. On the server you want to back up to, run
  • defaults write /private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/sharepoints/TimeMachine.plist \ "timeMachineBackup" '(1)'
  1. Rerun
  • sudo tmutil setdestination /Volumes/TimeMachine
  1. Validate you can start your backup with:
  • tmutil startbackup