Storage media, such as an external hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive, (SSD) can either be directly connected to a Mac or over a network. When the external disk is full, the oldest backup will be deleted. To use Time Machine, you’ll need external storage that is bigger than your Mac’s internal storage, as backups are made continuously over time. If the Mac is already set up, Time Machine backups can be restored using Migration Assistant, located in the Utilities folder. Likewise if you get a new Mac, the macOS Setup Assistant gives you the option to restore from a Time Machine backup, placing your data where you’d expect on the new Mac. If at any time you lose a file or something catastrophic happens to your Mac, you can “Go back in time” to retrieve the data. Time Machine is a backup utility built into macOS that allows you to create a backup of all your data on external storage that by default is updated every hour. This particular setup offers the dual advantage of having your content synced across multiple devices and having it stored in multiple locations. For example, you could back up your Mac’s entire disk with Time Machine and additionally store your documents and other files in iCloud Drive. Of course, like all backup solutions, it is not perfect, so it is generally advised to also have your data in another place, such as a cloud service. Thus in this guide, I will be discussing how to back up your Mac with Time Machine, the Mac’s built in backup utility. However, iCloud backup is not available on macOS.

If you have an iOS or iPadOS device, you probably back up the data on it in iCloud. For this reason, it is advisable to always back up your data. The device’s internal storage medium could fail, complications could occur during an update or other system event, the device could get lost or stolen, or a flood or fire could break out at the device’s location. When your critical information is stored in only one medium, it is inherently vulnerable. If you own a computer or mobile device, there’s one thing you’ve probably heard time and time again, back up your data.

External hard drive time machine