how do i backup my mac with time machine

If you're interested in hand-selecting which items you back up, you can use the Options menu in Time Machine to customize your Mac backups. The oldest backups are deleted when your backup disk is full.' Because of its simplicity and how extensive the backups are, this may be the best way to back up your MacBook or Mac. If you want to, you can click Back Up Automatically to ensure that automatic backups occur when the drive is plugged in.Īpple's Time Machine web page explains that once you've set it up, the service 'automatically makes hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months.If you want to encrypt your Mac backups, you can also click the box next to Encrypt backups at the bottom of the window.Select the storage device you've plugged in.Click Select Backup Disk to choose your disk as the Mac backup drive.If you don’t see the window, open System Preferences.

You should see a window pop up on your Mac asking if you want to use the external drive with Time Machine.Plug your external hard drive into your Mac.Here's how to use Time Machine to perform a Mac backup with an external hard drive: If you enjoy learning tips and tricks for your Apple devices, check out our free Tip of the Day newsletter! It's essentially as easy as plug-and-play once initial setup is complete. For best results, make sure your Mac is connected to power before beginning the process of performing backups. The benefit of this method is that it requires almost no knowledge of the inner workings of your computer. Time Machine is simple to use and can back up your Mac automatically, including files, photos, email, apps, music, and more. Apple estimates that you'll need about twice as much available storage space on your external drive as the capacity on your Mac.Īpple provides a list of compatible external storage devices for Macs in case you need to verify that yours will work.

You'll need to use an external storage device (a hard drive) for Time Machine or other external Mac backups.

How Much Storage Space Do I Need to Back Up My Mac?

How do i backup my mac with time machine