If you hold the Option key down and click on the Time Machine icon on the right side of the Menu Bar, you’ll see that the command Verify Backups replaces Back Up Now. You can use this command to verify the integrity of your backup. This can be a handy reassurance if you are about to do something like use Migration Assistant to restore everything to a new Mac.
Verify Your Time Machine Backup
Comments: 7 Responses to “Verify Your Time Machine Backup”
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Sierra 11.0.3
Holding Option and clicking Time Machine icon, Verify Backups is greyed out. Does this require High Sierra?
Roger: It has been around for a long time, so it doesn't need High Sierra. But I think it is grayed out when the drive is connected directly to your Mac, as opposed to using a Time Capsule or networked drive. I'm thinking this is because directly connected drives are maybe verified automatically during backups, whereas that would be too expensive (network-wise) to do over a network.
Correction to previous comment.
Sierra 10.12.6
Safari 11.0.3
Holding Option and clicking Time Machine icon, Verify Backups is greyed out. Does this require High Sierra?
Yes, the hard drive used for back-ups with Time Machine is connected to the iMac via a USB cable. So then I can't expect to use this Option click to verify the back-up. Thanks.
I just tried this and had the same result. Verify back up is greyed out. My Time Machine drive is connected the the iMac with a USB cable.
Hi Gary - i tried the verify trick, and it seemed to work - there was a % count on clicking the TM icon, but i can't see if there is a way to know whether the backups were verified, or not. What do you know?
George: I would assume you would see an error message or get a notification if it failed.