How-To Holiday: Read Backup.app Logs

OK, I searched high and low on this big wide internet of ours and found bupkus on this one topic: when Backup.app tells you some files couldn't be copied (backed up), how do you find those files in the log?

I don't know about you, but I'm backup up literally thousands of files. First I saved the log as a text file. Then I tried searching for seemingly logical terms-- fail (and all variations), incomplete, unsuccessful, etc.

The magic word: skipped.

Do a search for skipped in the saved text file of your logs, and you'll see what files Backup could not backup.

There is a way to back everything up without Backup.app. Actually there are several, but I'm a very cheap person, so I want free or really cheap...

1. Everybody seems to love Carbon Copy Cloner, and it is cool, but you have to make sure you have another hard drive to accomodate your ENTIRE drive!

2. So instead, to replicate much of what Backup does, I found this tasty little knowledgebase article on Apple's site. It explains how to properly backup your machine while keeping permissions, etc. in check. Enjoy! The link is here.