Backing up your Mac will save all your important data and memorable photos when your hard drive fails or your computer crashes. To prevent the loss, you should back up your files on a separate drive that you can restore from if anything happens to your computer. And this can be done with the built-in backup application, Time Machine on your Mac. It’s easy to set up, and you don’t need to worry about your files after that. Moreover, you can customize your Time Machine experience according to your needs. Here’s how to backup Mac with Time Machine.
Time Machine is Apple’s built-in backup system in macOS. Time Machine backs up all the files on your Mac, like apps, music, documents, photos, emails, etc. When you 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, it backs up hourly, daily, or weekly. Also, it deletes older backups as the backup drive starts running out of space.
Time Machine stores backup files hourly, daily, and weekly as long as your drive doesn’t run out of space. It also deletes older backups as the backup starts running out of space. It is to be noted that Time Machine is not a space to store archival data or records.
For G-Technology G-Drive 1TB,
For AirPort Time Capsule (2TB),
After you set up Time Machine, you can start the backup Mac on Time Machine:
Once the first backup is complete, Time Machine will check your Mac for new, changed, and deleted files regularly to make backups. Time Machine keeps a daily backup for the past month. IAlso, weekly backups are kept as long as the storage device still has space. Once the storage device runs out of space, the oldest backups will be deleted from Time Machine.
If you want to back up your Mac manually, click the box next to Show Time Machine in the menu bar. Then click the icon in your menu bar and select Back Up Now.
If you don’t want to back up every single file from your Mac, you can select the files you want to back up. Here are the steps to to do so:
Even the backup systems sometimes fail, so you need to check if the Time Machine is doing its job properly. Here are the steps for you to check the backup Mac with Time Machine:
You can confirm if your backup files are synced by simply restoring a file (or files) using Time Machine.
According to the size of backup files and speed of Mac, verification time changes. macOS will alert you if there is a problem, while the backup process is carried out.
When you use an external storage device for backup Mac with Time Machine you can’t use the above steps. Instead, you’ll need to verify your files using Terminal.
tmutil compare –s
.You’ll see the following items on this report:
A summary will be shown which will indicate how much storage was added, removed, and changed. The best way to verify that your Time Machine backups are sound is to restore one or more files as a test. But, if you want in-depth annalysis, other options are available.
The macOS Time Machine app is for backups, and files are stored in two locations. The external hard drive keeps actual backup files and local snapshots, which are taken each day, are kept on the internal hard drive.
There are two ways to delete older backup files from the Time Machine external drive. Either use the actual Time Machine app or delete the files using Finder on your computer. Both ways require that your hard drive is connected to your Mac.
Time Machine is Apple’s built-in backup system for the Mac. Once you turn it on, it makes a backup of your Mac and then keeps it up to date (hourly, daily and weekly). While it’s not encrypted by default, you can enable encryption when you set it up.
If you’re attaching a new drive, Time Machine might detect it and ask to use it. In that case:
If it isn’t detected or you want to use an already connected drive:
If you have an existing, non-encrypted Time Machine backup on the same volume, you’ll have to remove the disk first and then re-add it as an encrypted volume. Make sure that you copy all the old files or versions of files you might need beforehand or else you’ll lose it when the drive is reset for encryption.
You can use Finder to restore files through Apple’s built-in Time Machine on Mac. When the time comes, you can use Finder to restore files through Time Machine. Here’s how to do it.
If you use the same external drive to backup different Macs, Time Machine automatically creates separate folders for each computer. Also, Time Machine understands which files match the specific computer, whenever you restore files.
To back up different Macs using Time Machine, you can:
You can simply connect the external drive separately to each Mac and Time Machine will backup files in different folders for each Mac. The drawback to this approach is that you manually have to connect and disconnect the hard drive to each computer. Still, as long as you set up Time Machine on each Mac, you’re good to go.
Otherwise, you can share backup drive using Personal File Sharing on macOS. The computers need to be connected to the same network so that you can use the same drive with Time Machine.
The Terminal command is used to speed up Time Machine essentially disables the program’s throttling mechanism. You need to remember that Time Machine frees up space automatically, and eventually your Mac will slow down. But if you directly try to revert back to your original settings, Mac’s performance will deteriorate. Thus, you need to follow the steps to revert back to your normal CPU activity.
You need to make a fundamental change to the way the kernel schedules disk operations. Thus preventing processes that are supposed to have low I/O priority from being properly throttled. But, if you forget to undo this setting, it would have serious implications on battery life. Further, it would impact the gaming performance or other high-demand processes since they start to compete for resources, or could have other non-obvious negative consequences.
If you regularly backup Mac with Time Machine, you will know that Time Machine is designed to work quietly and slowly in the background. The regular backups are incremental and don’t need much power. Using the Terminal command, you will disable the disk operation throttling so Time Machine will run faster.
sudo sysctl debug.lowpri\_throttle_enabled=0
or copy and paste the command.Although speeding up Time Machine backup is great, but it will have an impact on everything else. Thus, you don’t want the throttle disabled at all times. So, when you are finished with back up, you need to revert to having Time Machine run quietly and slowly in the background. Use this Terminal command to reenable the CPU throttle.
sudo sysctl debug.lowpri\_throttle_enabled=1
or copy and paste the command.From the precious family photos to the files you’re working on, you need to back them up so that you don’t lose them permanently. But don’t worry, you can backup Mac with Time Machine, which is a built-in app in your macOS. This is an easy way to restore your data when your computer crashes, virus, accidentally deletes the file or another common tech disaster. Time Machine is reliable, easy to use, and can keep your Mac backed up on a routine schedule. It is meant to run in the background, offering a simple way to backup. When activated, it will regularly backup Mac, hourly, daily, weekly and monthly.
If you have questions, ask us in the comments section below.
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