You probably don't think about backing up your computer very much. It will become important even if it hasn't been at the top of your mind recently.
If your Mac suddenly goes black-screen on you, what will happen to your data?
Even though most people know they should back up their information, the motivation is not always strong enough to make it happen. Macs are easy to back up.
All you have to do is pick a backup method and set it up.
There are a couple of ways to back up your Mac.
Here is how to set up and use a backup system.
Time Machine is a backup feature on your Mac. It makes hourly backups of your computer that cover the past 24 hours, daily, and weekly, respectively.
You can look back at your stuff as it was when you set it up, instead of having to recreate it as best as you can remember.
You need an external storage device and a way of connecting it to your computer to create backups with Time Machine.
Follow the steps below.
1. Attach the storage device to your Mac. Click the Apple menu on the upper left corner of your screen to select System Preferences once your computer recognizes that you have done so.
2. Click on it.
3. If you tick the Show Time machine in the menu bar, you can add the Time Machine icon to the top toolbar. Select Disk Backup.
4. All you have to do is select the external storage device when a small window pops up. The Encrypt backups option is on the bottom left. Click on Use Disk to start the backup process.
If your drive is not formatted for Time Machine, you will be asked to remove everything from it so that it can be set up in a compatible way.
Time Machine will make periodic copies of your Mac after you have selected your backup method and set it up. Depending on how many files you have, the first sync may take a long time.
You can create a backup manually by selecting Back Up Now and clicking on the Time Machine icon.
You can use iCloud to store your data and documents. You will need to set it up.
1. The first thing you need to do is make sure that your Mac is up to date.
2. Click the Apple menu and select System Preferences once your macOS is up to date.
3. If you are already a member of System Preferences, you can select Apple ID.
4. Click on the sign in button if you are not already a member.
5. Click on Next to enter your Apple ID and password.
6. A prompt will ask if you want to combine your Contacts, Calendar, and Safari accounts. If you want to do one of the options, you can click on it.
7. You will be able to see which apps you can include or exclude from your account, as well as how much storage data your information currently takes up. You can upgrade to a larger account for a range of monthly fees.
As your documents change and grow, the information you dictate will be updated automatically. If you use the same Apple ID, your data can be accessed from any other device.
You can determine how much space you need by looking at the size of a particular file or folder.
You can see this information by scrolling down.
1. Clicking on the file will prompt you to press Command + I.
2. Under the General section of the file information, look at Size.
If you want to back up Time Machine, you should have an external storage device with twice the internal storage capacity. You can check the storage capacity of your Mac.
1. Select About This Mac from the menu.
2. To see the storage capacity of your Mac, click on the Storage tab.
You need to restore your Mac if the worst has happened. You have been backing everything up with Time Machine. Just grab your external storage device with the backups and read our guide on how to restore your Mac computer using Time Machine and an external hard drive.
If you stored a lot of data on your Mac, you need to clear up the mess before the restoration process begins.
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