My wife's iMac running 10.6.1 is set to run a back up sequence every morning at 7.00, the sequence includes a verify three times/week. This morning the verify started at 6.10 (and woke up my dog), the rest of the back-up started on schedule. Checking the log I see that verify has started before the back-up sequence several times. The attachments should should this odd behaviour. Any ideas on how to get verify to start on time (and let my dog sleep a bit longer)?

Here's the schedule (upload failed earlier).

Charles,

You've stumbled into the crazy world of human dates and times.

An interval schedule (like every 3 days or every 90 minutes) is based on fixed time intervals from a particular point in time. You selected 28-Jul-2008 7:10 as your anchor time. QRecall then calculates 72 hour intervals from that time.

Unfortunately, 7:10 in July is an hour different from 7:10 in January because daylight savings time shifts the clock between summer and winter. QRecall is calculating an exact number of 72 hour intervals from 28-Jul-2008 7:10 and that occurs at 6:10 this month.

Solutions:

You could pick a starting time in the winter (say 1-Jan-2010). That would start the verify at 7:10 in the winter and 8:10 in the summer.

I'd suggest using a Daily schedule and choose two days a week to perform the verify. The Daily schedule always uses the localized time for "today", so the actual time shifts automatically according to your local time zone. For example, if you moved from France to Mexico, your capture will still run at 7:00 Mexico time (CST), whereas your current interval schedule would start running your verify at 1:10 at night (but still 7:10 in France in the Summer).

(I wish I could go back in time, find the guy who invented daylight savings time, and imprison him on a desert island where he can't do any harm.)

James Bucanek wrote:
An interval schedule (like every 3 days or every 90 minutes) is based on fixed time intervals from a particular point in time. You selected 28-Jul-2008 7:10 as your anchor time. QRecall then calculates 72 hour intervals from that time.

Unfortunately, 7:10 in July is an hour different from 7:10 in January because daylight savings time shifts the clock between summer and winter. QRecall is calculating an exact number of 72 hour intervals from 28-Jul-2008 7:10 and that occurs at 6:10 this month.

OK I understand this and even suspected it though it doesn't explain why two verifies (2 & 5 January) started at 6:55. Or does it?, it's too late here to do the maths.

James Bucanek wrote:
I'd suggest using a Daily schedule and choose two days a week to perform the verify.

I'll try this. By the way my own machine uses the same verify routine and has had no troubles (so far as I'm aware). Crazy world, eh?

Charles Watts-Jones wrote:OK I understand this and even suspected it though it doesn't explain why two verifies (2 & 5 January) started at 6:55. Or does it?, it's too late here to do the maths.

The action is probably scheduled to start at 6:10 but isn't starting until 6:55. The action might be waiting for the archive or maybe the computer is asleep and that's the time you have it programmed to wake up.

By the way my own machine uses the same verify routine and has had no troubles (so far as I'm aware). Crazy world, eh?

It is. And as soon as I find a better one, I'm moving.