Follow the prompt to ‘use this drive with Time Machine,’ or go to System Preferences > Time Machine > Select Disk.

Connect an external hard drive or SSD to your Mac.

Here’s how to backup Mac with Time Machine: As long as there’s storage space, the hourly, weekly, and daily backups will routinely pile up and then get replaced with the new ones - that’s how it works. It’s a native tool designed to automatically backup Mac at specific time intervals. How do I back up my Mac? If you ask Apple, Apple will advise you to use Time Machine. For example, you can use a backup to quickly move data to a new Mac and access it on another device if you’re away from your Mac. While we mostly focus on bad scenarios when we talk about backups, there are also many ways in which they can benefit your workflow.

You can keep access to your files after some ransomware or any type of malware hits your Mac.

They save your data if your drive suddenly fails, or there’s any kind of unexpected software or hardware issue.They help get your files back if you lose your Mac or someone steals it.Here’s a quick list of all the reasons why backups matter: A backup will help you restore all the files for when you fix your Mac or get the new one. Maybe it just suddenly goes black screen one day, you spill a cup of coffee on it, or else.

Backups should be part of your digital life permanently because they guarantee quick file recovery, no matter what happens to your Mac. It’s absolutely necessary to know how to backup your Mac if you ever update macOS, especially if you install betas, which are often unstable and can cause accidental data loss.

Also, we’ll recommend the best tools to backup Mac fast, without wasting tons of storage. In this guide, we explain how to backup Mac to external hard drive, when you’ll need a bootable copy of your drive, and how to schedule regular backups.

Backup my mac to cloud