Simon 5 is coming soon!
Simon version 5 is currently in beta testing. It is a massive update, introducing a much-requested feature: syncing the Simon data between multiple Macs, plus a Simon Status service, a Link Checker filter, improved Find filter, iMessage and Speak Error notifiers, a new app icon, and much more.
Important: please note that Simon 5 requires a minimum of macOS 10.12 (Sierra), and will be a paid upgrade from Simon 4 after the beta. Purchasers since September 1, 2020 automatically get a version 5 license (that also works in previous versions).
Re: Testing TimeMachine
Hi,
There is a Terminal command to access Time Machine called
tmutil. You can read about it viaman tmutilin Terminal.It has some useful variations. One that could be useful for what you want is
tmutil latestbackup: that will output the path of the most recent backup. I'm not sure if it'll change when the backup is started or completed, though; you could experiment with that. So you could use a script-based service to look at that, a Change filter to detect any changes, and an email notifier.I don't see any option to output an error, though maybe
tmutil destinationinfoor another might do so.Hope this helps.
Re: Testing TimeMachine
I'm currently checking when Time Machine backups start and stop using the
tmutil statuscommand. Try running this command in Terminal and you'll seeRunning = 0orRunning = 1.So you can use this in a shell script counting the number of times
Running = 1appears usinggrep -c, like so:tmutil status | grep -c "Running = 1"Output will be 0 when Time Machine backup is not running, and 1 when it is.