No matter which device you talk about, having backups is always important. They really come in handy when something goes wrong with your device and all your important stuff is lost. And, just like any other device, Macs are no exception. In fact, there are quite a few options that you can try for taking backup of your Mac. You can use clone, cloud or Time Machine as your backup option and, probably, Time Machine is the best of them all. But what is Time Machine and how you can backup your Mac on it? Well, here are all the details.
What Is Time Machine?
Time Machine comes as a built in backup feature in macOS X. It runs in the background and regularly takes backups of your Mac and always has an updated copy of everything that you have stored on your machine. It backs up your data on Mac in a way that you can restore data that was there on the Mac on any given day from the past. It is easy to set up and use and gives you a perfect option for keeping your Mac fully backed up anytime.
How To Setup Time Machine On Your Mac?
In order to setup Time Machine on your Mac, you need to have an external drive that is empty and properly-formatted. If you’re specifying your backup device for the first time then you’ll be asked for a confirmation that if that’s the device you want to backup your Mac on using Time Machine. Just click “Use as Backup Disk” and continue. As you do that, Time Machine starts the initial backup of your Mac and that’s all.
You can also make your data even more secure by encrypting your backups and there is nothing special you have to do for that either. When specifying the disk to be used as backup, just check the box labeled “Encrypt Backup Disk” and that’s all. You will be prompted to enter a password, type it in and you are done. You can then use your specified password for accessing the backup data.
What’s The Frequency Of Time Machine Backups And How Long Are These Backups Kept?
When you setup Time Machine for the first time on your Mac, it backs up everything present on your Mac. After this initial backup, Time Machine checks for any updates and changes every hour. There is an hourly backup for last 24 hours and then there is a daily backup for the last month. Besides, Time Machine keeps weekly Mac backups as well that remain intact until your backup drive runs out of space. And when there is not enough space left for accommodating new backups, the Time Machine starts deleting the oldest ones.
Do You Need To Initiate Any Backups?
Not really! Once you have set up Time Machine backups for your Mac, Time Machine starts creating an initial backup instantly. Once the initial backup is completed, Time Machine switches to hourly and daily backups automatically. There is nothing that has to be done on your part and you can easily keep your Mac backed up all the time.
So, with all the effectiveness of keeping backups of your Mac and Time Machine backups as easy as you like, set it up now and keep your important Mac data completely safe.
Author Bio
James Barrett is a passionate writer who writes mostly about tech with a focus on Apple’s products, news and reviews. Currently, he’s a contributing author at Apple Pit.
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