How Do I Backup My Mac With Time Machine

• How Do I Backup My Mac With Time Machine
• How Do I Backup My Mac With Time Machine
• How Do I Backup My Mac With Time Machine Without

Use Time Machine, the built-in backup feature of your Mac, to automatically back up your personal data, including apps, music, photos, email, and documents. Having a backup allows you to recover files that were deleted, or that were lost because the hard disk (or SSD) in your Mac needed to be erased or replaced. Learn how to restore your Mac from a backup.

Create a Time Machine backup

Select your storage device as the backup disk Open Time Machine preferences from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Or choose Apple menu  System Preferences, then click Time Machine. Click Select Backup Disk. To see storage information about your Mac, click the Apple menu in the top-left of your screen. Choose About This Mac and click the Storage tab. For Time Machine backups, it's good to use a drive that has at least twice the storage capacity of your Mac. Free up storage on your Mac. Check Back Up Automatically in the left pane of the dialog box if you want your Mac to back up at regular intervals. Check Show Time Machine in menu bar to create a shortcut in the menu bar to Time Machine preferences and backup status. Time Machine is Apple's built-in solution for backing up macOS. You can connect an external hard drive over USB or Thunderbolt (or FireWire, for older Macs) for a wired connection, or over a network for a wireless connection. Time Machine backs up every hour, deleting older backups as the backup drive starts running out of space. On your Mac, click Use As Backup Disk, then follow the instructions in Time Machine preferences. To open Time Machine preferences, choose Apple menu System Preferences, then click Time Machine. Important: Time Machine doesn't backup system files or apps installed during macOS installation.

To create backups with Time Machine, all you need is an external storage device. After you connect the storage device and select it as your backup disk, Time Machine automatically makes hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months. The oldest backups are deleted when your backup disk is full.

Connect an external storage device

Connect one of the following external storage devices, sold separately. Learn more about backup disks that you can use with Time Machine.

• External drive connected to your Mac, such as a USB or Thunderbolt drive
• Network-attached storage (NAS) device that supports Time Machine over SMB
• Mac shared as a Time Machine backup destination
• AirPort Time Capsule, or external drive connected to an AirPort Time capsule or AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac)

Select your storage device as the backup disk

1. Open Time Machine preferences from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Or choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Time Machine.
2. Click Select Backup Disk.
   
3. Select your backup disk from the list of available disks. To make your backup accessible only to users who have the backup password, you can select 'Encrypt backups'. Then click Use Disk:
   

If the disk you selected isn't formatted as required by Time Machine, you're prompted to erase the disk first. Click Erase to proceed. This erases all information on the backup disk.

Enjoy the convenience of automatic backups

After you select a backup disk, Time Machine immediately begins making periodic backups—automatically and without further action by you. The first backup may take a long time, but you can continue using your Mac while a backup is underway. Time Machine backs up only the files that changed since the previous backup, so future backups will be faster.

To start a backup manually, choose Back Up Now from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Use the same menu to check the status of a backup or skip a backup in progress.

Learn more

• Learn about other ways to back up and restore files
• If you back up to multiple disks, you can press and hold the Option key, then choose Browse Other Backup Disks from the Time Machine menu.
• To exclude items from your backup, open Time Machine preferences, click Options, then click the add (+) button to add an item to be excluded. To stop excluding an item, such as an external hard drive, select the item and click the remove (–) button.
• If using Time Machine to back up to a network disk, you can verify those backups to make sure they're in good condition. Press and hold Option, then choose Verify Backups from the Time Machine menu.

Posted November 8, 2018 by Geek Support in Apple Mac

How Do I Backup My Mac With Time Machine

We are not saying it to scare you but if you don't back up your Mac, sooner or later you may lose something that is crucial and irreplaceable. So that you don't blame past you, it is advisable to create back up for your Mac.

Why Do You Need to Backup Your Mac

From irreplaceable personal pictures to important office presentation, any data available on your Mac needs protection. In the absence of a good back up system, you can lose all your digital data in a blink of an eye. Therefore, it is crucial that you set up a robust backup system on your Mac.

If you're wondering how to back up your Mac in the simplest way, continue reading this 'How to' guide. In this post, you will learn backing up your Mac with the help of Time Machine software. But before you proceed with the backing up process we would like you to know what is Time Machine first.

What is Time Machine?

It is a popular backup software from Apple itself. It is a built-in backup feature and one of the easiest ways to initiate with local backups. Since it is available straight into your macOs, you don't require to install any 3rd party or additional software. You just need only an external drive to start with the backup procedure.

The good thing is that the Time Machine can easily work with any kind of external drive connected to your Mac computer. In addition to this, it also supports Apple's Time Capsule.

Once you have set up Time Machine, it starts working automatically in the background and continuously saves copies of all the applications and files available on your computer. In case, you don't have sufficient disk space, this software starts erasing the oldest version of the files automatically.

Backing up Your Mac with Time Machine Software

1.Connect an External drive to your Mac Computer.

As we said above, you will require to connect an external drive to your Mac for backing up your files, make sure it has at least the same size your Mac's internal drive has. As storage devices are quite cheap nowadays, you can easily get the storage device that is at least 2 to 4 times the size of the drive you are backing up. You can use any of the followings as an external drive.

• • USB
  • FireWire
  • Thunderbolt
  • AirPort Time Capsule network device

2.Turn on Time Machine & Choose Backup Destination

Once you have chosen your preferred external drive and plugged it into your system your next step will be navigating to System Preferences->Time Machine. Next, turn on Time Machine button available on the right side as you can see in the picture below.

Next, click on the Select Disk button in order to choose the drive you want to use. Now you will see an option – whether you want to use the disk as your back up destination.

Remember that the drive should be formatted as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). In case it is not formatted, the Time Machine will alert you to reformat the drive.

3.Exclude Items

If you click on the Options button available at the bottom, you will see options to eliminate volumes from your backups. The Time Machine software also allows you to enable notification for if any old backup gets deleted from your Mac system.

4. Leave Everything on Time Machine

Once you are done with the above steps now you should let the Time Machine do its work. The software will create backup automatically after every hour. With Time Machine you can create:

• Hourly backups
• Everyday backups
• Weekly basis backups

Restoring of Files From Time Machine Backups

It is as simple as creating the backup. In order to see and restore files/folders from Time Machine, you will need to go to the Spotlight, it is a search feature in macOS that helps you find apps and documents available on your Mac. On Spotlight search, enter Time Machine. It will take you to the Time Machine view.

How Do I Backup My Mac With Time Machine

Here you can scroll through the timeline and go back to a certain point in time and search for a particular file. Highlight the file that you want to store, press Space-bar to take a quick look at it and then click on the Restore button to copy that file. In case you encounter filename conflicts, you will be asked which file you want to keep out of the two versions.

You can restore all the file at once by using the latest copies of all your files. When your Mac is restarting, hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys until the Apple logo appears. After that, select 'Restore from Time Machine Backup'.

Conclusion

How Do I Backup My Mac With Time Machine Without

In this 'How to' guide we covered how to back up a Mac using Time Machine software. If you have any query, feel free to ask in the following comment section.

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