How to back up your Mac with Time Machine. We have a step-by-step guide to backing up with Time Machine here, but essentially you just need to do the following. Plug in hard drive or SSD.
- Backup My Mac
- How To Do A Backup For A Mac
- How To Do Backup For Macbook Pro
- How To Do Backup For Mac Os
Backup My Mac
In this article, we will cover the different ways you can back up a Mac, including locally, using Time Machine and with an external hard drive. We will also go over what to do before backing a Mac up.
- Back up the library in Photos on Mac. Even if you use iCloud Photos, it’s important that you always back up your library locally using one of the following methods. Use Time Machine: After you set up Time Machine, it automatically backs up the files on your Mac. If you ever lose the files in your Photos library, you can restore them from the Time Machine backup.
- Tip: You can use a shared Mac that’s on the same network as your MacBook Air as a backup destination.On the other Mac, go to the Sharing pane of System Preferences, then turn on File Sharing.Add a shared folder, secondary click (that is, right-click) the folder, choose Advanced Options, then click “Share as Time Machine backup destination.”.
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Free on SetappHow to prepare your Mac for a backup
Hard drives have finite space and that space can run out quickly if you’re continually backing up items that you don’t need.
To ensure that your hard drive has enough room for all of the important stuff, you should use CleanMyMac X routinely to detect and instantly remove system files and folders hogging up space.
CleanMyMac X’s Smart Scan feature scans everything on your Mac, including Mac System, Large & Old Files, Photos and iPhoto Libraries, Mail Application, iTunes Library, and Trash Bins to find the things that are safe to get rid off. And using it couldn’t be easier.
1. Download CleanMyMac X (for free).
2. Launch the app and select Smart Cleanup.
3. Hit Scan and wait while CleanMyMac readies items for cleaning.
4. Hit Clean and watch in awe as your hard drive suddenly gains free space that you never thought was possible.
How to back up your Mac locally
A local backup is the fastest way to backup your data. It involves moving your files over to an external hard drive. HDDs and SSDs have dropped greatly in price in recent years so you should be able to pick one up relatively cheaply with a decent capacity. Local backup is a safe and reliable way to safeguard all of your important files and it’s really easy to do.
How to back up your Mac computer to an external hard drive
Most external hard drives don’t come pre-formatted for Mac, so this is a job you’ll need to do before transferring your files. If you’re using an older hard drive that already has data stored on it, formatting will erase it, so you might want to transfer any files over to a different device before hooking the hard drive up to your Mac.
You can format a hard drive using Mac’s Disk Utility feature.
1. Connect the hard drive to your Mac.
2. Go to Applications > Utilities and launch Disk Utility.
3. Select the hard drive that you want to reformat from the Disk Utility.
4. Click Erase and confirm.
5. Rename the hard drive (e.g. “Mac backup”).
6. Choose a new volume format from the following options:
- macOS Extended (Journaled)
- macOS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)
- macOS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
- macOS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted)
- MS-DOS (FAT): For Windows volumes that are 32 GB or less
- ExFAT: For Windows volumes that are over 32 GB
If you’re unsure of which option to choose, go for Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted). This keeps your data organized and encrypted, and differentiates folders with upper and lower case letters.
7. Go to Security Options and check that the drive is set to overwrite past data at least three times.
8. Click Erase and confirm.
How to back up your Mac using the Time Machine
Mac’s built-in Time Machine feature is the easiest way to perform local backups. If you’re using an iMac, you can keep your hard drive connected to your computer and set Time Machine to perform scheduled automated backups. Of course, this isn’t always practical for MacBook users who often work on the go.
- Go to System Preferences > Time Machine and make sure it’s turned on.
- Under Select Backup Disk choose your hard drive.
- Click on Options to check that the settings are configured to backup everything you want to save.
Time Machine will begin performing automatic backups, allowing you to retrieve any data from the moment the process started.
How to back up your Mac files manually
If you only want to backup certain files, you can do this manually using drag-and-drop.
- Open the Finder and select your hard drive.
- Open the window that includes the folders that you want to move.
- Drag-and-drop the folders into the hard drive window.
Cloning your Mac backup hard drive
How To Do A Backup For A Mac
Cloning lets you create a bootable copy of your hard drive for an extra layer of protection that you can fall back on if ever your Mac is out of action.
With the tool like Get Backup Pro, you can clone your hard drive and be sure you’ll be able to boot the backup anytime — be it APFS or HFS+.
How to back up your Mac with iCloud
Local backups are quick and easy but, like your Mac, physical hard drives are susceptible to failure and catastrophes like flood, fire, or burglary. Storing data in the cloud removes these risks and it too is very straightforward, particularly in the case of iCloud.
Once iCloud is up and running you no longer have to worry about losing any of your photos, music, mail, contacts, calendars, reminders, notes, or Safari data. iCloud gives you 5GB of free storage to get you started, with options to upgrade to as much as 2TB of storage space.
Before setting up iCloud to automatically backup your data, make sure you’re running the latest version of Mac. You can find this out by choosing Software Update from the Apple menu and checking if an update is available.
- Go to System Preferences and click iCloud.
- Enter your Apple ID and select the service you’d like to store in the cloud.
- Click on the Option button next to Photos and select the iCloud Photo Library, My Photo Stream, and iCloud Photo Sharing.
- Open iTunes and select Preferences. Choose Downloads and select Music, TV Programmes, Films, and Apps.
Save Mac data with live cloud backups
Daily backups are great, but what happens if you’re in the middle of an important assignment and your Mac suddenly crashes? You lose everything you’ve been working on for the past hour.
To prevent this, it’s worth knowing how to backup your MacBook Pro or iMac using live backups. Live backups save everything you’re working on as you go in the same way that iCloud instantly saves your photos to the cloud.
There are dozens of tools out there to help you backup and sync data in real-time, but the big players are the best: Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, and Amazon AWS. For encryption and expanded storage space, use CloudMounter to connect your cloud storage accounts to Mac’s Finder.
Don’t risk losing your important files
Backup your Mac now! Don’t put it off. System failure can happen at any time and for any number of reasons. We really don’t want it to happen to you. Use a combination of local and cloud backups so that you’re protected against every eventuality, and make the most of a tool like CleanMyMac X to ensure your hard drives never run out of space.
CleanMyMac X is the easiest way to rid your Mac of system junk, ensuring your hard drives always have space for the things that are important. Download it for free today.
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Sep 21, 2020 • Filed to: Take Data Backup • Proven solutions
Most of the Mac users believe that their system can’t be infected by malware, which is a common misconception. Just like any other device, Macs can also get corrupted and suffer from an unexpected data loss. Therefore, it is important to know how to backup Mac to iCloud to safeguard your crucial information. To help our readers effortlessly achieve the same, we have come up with this comprehensive guide. Read on and learn different ways to backup Mac to iCloud right away.
- Part 1: Why Do You Need to Backup Your Mac to iCloud??
- Part 2: How to Backup Mac System and Files
- Part 3: How to Backup Your Mac to iCloud
- Part 4: How to Manage iCloud Storage Space
- Part 5: How to Retrieve Lost Data on Mac?
Part 1: Why Do You Need to Backup Your Mac to iCloud??
Before performing a backup operation, lots of users ask about its need. It is a misconception that iOS devices or Macs can’t beaffected by a virus or malware attack. Over the last few years, we have seen the occurrence of various cyber attacks that were essentially targeted for Mac. Appetite, Mac Scareware, Lamadai, and Coin Thief are some of the common threats that can cause some serious damage to your system.
Therefore, if you wish to prevent your data files from getting infected by malware (or accidental deletion of data), then you need to take a backup of your device. You can either take a backup of Mac on iCloud or any other external hard disk. Since one can access the information from the cloud almost anywhere, it is ideally recommended to backup Mac to iCloud promptly.
Part 2: How to Backup Mac System and Files
While performing the backup operation, you can either take the backup of your entire system or selectively make a copy of your important files.
1. System backup
In a nutshell, the system backup makes an entire clone of Mac’s storage on a secure device. Mostly, Time Machine is used to take the local backup of Mac. Since it is already a part of Mac, no additional tool is needed to perform the system backup. All you need is a mass storage unit that is supported by Time Machine totake a complete backup of the system. Simply open the Time Machine app and turn on the option. You can also select the disk(s) that you wish to backup.
There are also plenty of third-party backup applications that can back up your entire system. For instance, tools like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy can be used to mirror your entire hard drive while taking its backup.
2. Selective file and data backup
If you have limited space, then you can also choose to back up selected files. Even though it is a more time-consuming process, it will help you save your space. At the same time, you would be able to make a copy of all the essential files. Just go to Finder and look for the file you wish to back up. Later, you can just make its copy and save it to any other location/device.
One can either copy the data files manually to an external drive or can simply backup Mac to iCloud. We will learn about the latter in the next section.
Part 3: How to Backup Your Mac to iCloud
How To Do Backup For Macbook Pro
If you don’t want to lose your precious data, then you should know how to backup Mac to iCloud. By default, Apple provides free storage of 5 GB on iCloud for every Apple ID. Though, you can always buy added space on the cloud by paying a small amount. One of the best things about taking a backup on iCloud is that it can be accessed from anywhere.
Before proceeding, make sure that you have an updated version of OS X and have enough space on the cloud. You can check it from its official website right here as well. To learn how to backup Mac to iCloud, follow these simple steps.
Step 1To start with, go to the System Preferences on your Mac and launch iCloud.
Step 2If you are using iCloud for the first time, then you would be asked to provide your Apple ID and password to sign in.
Step 3Once it is done, you can simply check the kind of data files you wish to store on iCloud. For instance, you can enable the data on Safari, Mail, Notes, etc. to be uploaded on iCloud.
Step 4You can also visit the Photo settings to turn on the options for iCloud Photo Library, My Photo Stream, and iCloud Photo Sharing. This will let you access your photos on different devices easily.
Step 5Alternatively, there would also be a dedicated iCloud Drive on your Mac. To backup your data files, you can make a copy of your content on the drive or simply drag and drop a file on the drive as well.
Part 4: How to Manage iCloud Storage Space
Most of the users complain about the limited space on iCloud. If you are also suffering from the lack of space, then follow these tips beforehand.
1. Manage iCloud space
If you are running low on iCloud storage, then start by knowing how it is being utilized by different data files. Just launch the iCloud app on Mac and click on the 'Manage' button. This will let you devise how to get rid of the data you no longer need.
How To Do Backup For Mac Os
2. Turn off backup from multiple devices
If you are taking the backup of several devices on the same iCloud account, chances are that it might fall short on space. If it is not needed, then you can simply turn off backup from any other iOS device. Just go to its Settings > iCloud and turn off the feature of iCloud backup.
3. Buy more storage
If nothing else seems to work, simply buy more storage on iCloud. Just launch the iCloud app and click on the 'Manage' button. From here, you can click on the option of 'Buy more storage' and pick a plan of your choice.
- Allows you to take automatic, full, incremental, and differential backups of system, disk, partition, and files.
- Supports system restore, disk restore, dissimilar hardware restore, partition restore, and selective file restore.
- Supports disk clone, partition/volume clone, flexible clone, system clone, and command line clone.
- Supports Windows 10, Windows 8.1/8, Windows 7, Vista, and XP (all editions, 32/64-bit)
Part 5: How to Retrieve Lost Data on Mac?
While it is always recommended to make a timely backup of your Mac to avoid any loss of data, users still end up losing their files unexpectedly. If you have also lost your important data on Mac, then don’t worry. With the help of Recoverit, you can retrieve your lost files without much trouble. It is extremely secure and easy to use application that can recover more than 550 formats of files.
Compatible with every major version of Mac, it has an easy to use interface and can perform an extensive search to retrieve your lost files. It supports different kinds of situations as well. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if you have accidentally deleted your files or if your Mac has been infected by malware, Recoverit will come handy to you on numerous occasions.
Your Safe & Reliable Mac Data Recovery Software
- Recover lost or deleted files, photos, audio, music, emails from any storage device effectively, safely and completely.
- Supports data recovery from recycle bin, hard drive, memory card, flash drive, digital camera, and camcorders.
- Supports to recover data for sudden deletion, formatting, hard drive corruption, virus attack, system crash under different situations.
Now when you know how to backup Mac to iCloud, you can easily keep your data safe. Nevertheless, if you have lost your important data files, then simply take the assistance of Recoverit to get it back. Easy to use and extremely efficient, it will let you retrieve your lost data in no time.