Backing up your Mac is simple and important. We recommend it for everybody.
How to back up your Mac with Time Machine:
To create backups with Time Machine, all you need is an external storage device. After you connect your device and select it as your backup disk, Time Machine automatically makes hourly backups for the past 24 hours. The oldest backups are deleted when your backup disk is full.
- Connect your external storage device
- Select your storage device as your backup disk
When you connect an external drive directly into your Mac, you may be asked if you want to use the drive to back up with Time Machine. Select Encrypt Backup Disk (recommended), then click Use as backup disk.
If Time Machine doesn’t ask you to use your drive, follow these steps:
- Open Time Machine preferences. This can be done by clicking on the Apple logo at the top of your screen > System Preferences, then click Time Machine.
- Click select backup disk (or select disk, or add or remove backup disk)
- Select your external drive from the list of available disks. Then select encrypt backups (recommended) and click use disk.
How to back up your Mac using iCloud Drive:
Documents that you store in iCloud Drive stay up to date across all of your devices, and you can access them from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC, and on iCloud.com.
Before you begin:
- Update your Mac to the latest macOS
- Set up iCloud on all of your devices
- Make sure that you’re signed into iCloud with the same Apple ID on all of your devices.
If you’re unsure what macOS your laptop is, click here
Get Started:
- Set up iCloud Drive everywhere that you want to access and edit your files
- Go to Apple Menu > System Preferences, then click Apple ID. If you’re using macOS Mojave or earlier, you don’t need to click Apple ID.
- Select iCloud
- Sign in with your Apple ID, if you need to.
- Select iCloud Drive.
If you have any problems, questions or concerns feel free to contact the staff here at Mac Choice