#How to choose files for backup in time machine for mac how to#
In a future post, I’ll write about how to restore individual files and folders using Time Machine and how to restore your entire Mac in case of a system-wide failure. Luckily, you can carry as using your computer as normal while the backup is taking place in the background. For me, backing up about 400GB of data to an external USB drive took about 10 hours. Depending on how much data you have, the backup will takes its time to complete. You can also check the Show Time Machine in menu bar, then go back to the notification bar at the top of the Mac screen and select the Time Machine icon (clock logo with counter clockwise arrow) and select Back Up Now.įinally, you can click the Options button on the Time Machine screen and exclude any files or folders that you do not want to backup. If you have Back Up Automatically checked, it should start performing a backup automatically after a couple of minutes. It’s easy to use, and it makes recovering from a drive failure or a macOS update gone awry as simple as restarting your Mac in macOS Recovery Mode and selecting Restore from Time Machine Backup. You can also encrypt your backup based on your preferences by checking the box next to it, but the backup will take longer. Time Machine is the built-in application in macOS that automates the process of backing up your data to an external drive. When you have selected the drive you want to use for the backups, click on Use Disk. To start, go to System Preferences and select Time Machine.Ĭlick on Select Backup Disk, and then choose the drive or paritio for your Mac OS Time Machine backup. Basically, if you can see the disk in OS X, you can use it as a Time Machine backup. In addition, you can use a network drive as long as it supports Apple File Protocol. You can connect a drive using USB, FireWire or Thunderbolt.
It’s best to backup your Mac to a completely separate hard drive either internally or externally. Also, you can use it to restore individual files and folders in addition to restoring your entire operating system, which is very convenient.