And you need to create backups for Mac regularly, use different mediums, and store them in different places. It should go without saying how incredibly important to back up the Mac if you keep crucial files there and can't afford a disaster of data loss. You always have access to this crucial document even if the Mac is unexpectedly lost, stolen, damaged, and so forth. In addition, you also use iCloud to back up this document, then you have the third copy stored in a remote server - an off-site copy. And you back up the Mac including this document with Time Machine, thus you create the second copy of the data. This good rule of thumb has been applied by quite a few personal or business users.įor example, if there is a valuable document on the Mac, the original file is the first copy. Have you heard of the 3-2-1 strategy of backup? It means you should have at least three total copies of your data, two of which are local but on different mediums, and at least one copy off-site.
You can choose the best backup software for Mac according to your own case. SuperDuper, Carbon Copy Cloner, ChronoSync, and Backblaze are most recommended by Mac users. Most of the backup software for Mac needs to purchase a license or make a monthly subscription. It only backs up the changed files compared with the last time.
It helps when your MacBook Pro won't boot from internal hard drive.
There are some excellent applications exclusively for creating backups for Mac. After that, you can access the backups from another device. Similar to iCloud, it needs to register an account to sign in, then you can upload or drag files/folders into it. And except for iCloud, you can also choose other cloud storage services, including Dropbox, One Drive, and Google Drive to store files.
Wait for the iCloud to back up selected files.Īpple provides 5GB of iCloud storage for free to use.Click Merge or OK if asked for confirmation.Check the boxes next to the apps that you want to sync to iCloud like Photos, Contacts, Reminders, etc.Select the apps you want to create backups, such as adding Desktop and Documents Folders to the iCloud.Go to the Apple menu, open System Preferences, then click Apple ID.Keep your Mac charged and don't put it to sleep during the backup process. Wait for the automatic backup, or start a backup manually by clicking the Time Machine icon on the top-right menu bar and choosing Back Up Now.Ĭreating the initial backup with Time Machine takes the longest compared to subsequent incremental backups.Use the ( + ) and ( - ) buttons to add or remove. Check Show Time Machine in the menu bar for convenience's sake.Tick the box next to Back Up Automatically to enable automatic backups.
Time Machine backups could be written to Mac OS Extended drive on macOS Catalina and earlier and APFs drives on macOS Big Sur and later. Tick Encrypt backups if you want to protect private information, then click Use Disk.to choose a disk for Time Machine backups. Click Select Backup Disk./ Select Disk.Or click the Apple logo > System Preferences, then choose the Time Machine app. Open Time Machine preferences from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar.Connect an external hard drive to your Mac.Steps for backing up Mac with Time Machine: If the backup external drive becomes full, it will delete the oldest backups to release space for the new one. When you turn on Time Machine on the Mac, it will automatically create one backup every hour for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months. And it is most commonly used with external hard drives connected using either USB or Thunderbolt. It creates images or snapshots of your data and enables you to restore a specific file or the whole system when needed. This built-in backup feature appears on every Mac since 2006.
Time Machine is Apple's solution to back up all your files and macOS on the Mac. Once you have backed up the Mac, you can access the data from another device and in another place, retrieve the early version of your working document, transfer files between two Macs, or restore the dysfunctional Mac to make it work again.