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How often should you back up a Mac?
You need to regularly back up your Mac. The great thing about Time Machine is that it does backups all the time, but instead of taking a full backup of your Mac every time, the software only copies what you're working on. So each backup doesn't take a long time..
Most other backup methods involve backing up your entire system daily. Apple's method has the advantage of being able to load a version of a document you were working on an hour ago, instead of undoing your changes over and over again until you revert to the version of the. document you want.
It is important that you keep in mind that while Time Machine does backups regularly, it will only do so if your Mac is connected to the device that is supposed to store your backups. This can be an external storage device that needs to be plugged into your Mac, so don't forget to plug it in! Speaking of which, your Mac must also be plugged into a power source to back up with Time Machine..
Otherwise, it could also be a network attached storage device (a NAS drive). In this case, your Mac just needs to be connected to the same WiFi network as the NAS drive to be able to perform a backup.
If your Mac hasn't backed up with Time Machine for a long time, you'll receive notifications reminding you to do so. Don't wait until a hundred days have passed since your last Time Machine backup or until you spill water on your laptop (we speak from experience)..
How do I stop a Time Machine backup?
If you don't have time to back up right away (maybe you need to shut down your Mac and go home), then you can stop Time Machine from backing up your Mac.
An "X" icon will appear next to the progress bar we described above. Click on it to stop the backup. The system will restart the backup in an hour. If you want to restart the backup, read how to force Time Machine to take a backup above.
If you want to pause a backup and finish it later, select the “Skip this backup” option from the Time Machine menu.
How do I stop Time Machine automatic backups?
If hourly Time Machine backups become too troublesome for you, well you can turn them off - but remember to use Time Machine to back up your data every now and then, and remember that backups will take you longer. time because incremental hourly backups will not be performed. Time Machine will therefore have more data to save.
1. To stop automatic backups, go to “System Preferences ...” → “Time Machine”.
2. Uncheck the “Save automatically” option. (On Mac OS X El Capitan or earlier versions of macOS, select the “Disable Time Machine” option).
3. When you want to back up your Mac, click the grayed out Time Machine icon in the menu bar and click “Back up now”.
What to do when Time Machine cannot complete a backup?
In some situations, Time Machine may not be able to back up your Mac. When this happens, you will see an exclamation mark in the middle of the Time Machine icon in the menu bar.
This may be because your external drive does not have enough free space; it is also possible that it is corrupted because you unplugged the drive without ejecting it (this is why it is important to always eject a drive properly before unplugging it); or the drive may not be formatted correctly.
To check if the problem is with the device that is supposed to store your backups, try the following solutions:
If you are backing up to a server, hold down the Option / Alt key on your keyboard while clicking the Time Machine icon in the menu bar, then click "Check Backups". If Time Machine detects a problem with your backup, a message will appear with more details. Then follow the on-screen instructions.
If you are backing up to an external drive, verify that there is no problem with the drive you are backing up to. Start by opening the Time Machine preferences and shutting down Time Machine by unchecking the “Back up automatically” option. Then open Disk Utility (press cmd + spacebar and search for “Disk Utility”), select the backup device and use “First Aid” to check the status of your external backup drive.
If you find that the drive has not been formatted correctly, you should format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID Partition Table (GPT), otherwise it will not work with Time Machine. Use Disk Utility to reformat your hard drive. If you have to reformat it, you will lose everything on the drive. So first make a copy of your data and move it to another hard drive.
Time Machine backup failed due to lack of space. What to do ?
If Time Machine is unable to perform a backup because there is not enough free space on your device, then you will need to take some action.
You can choose to exclude items from your backup. Follow these steps:
1. Click on the Time Machine icon in the menu bar and enter Time Machine preferences (or open Time Machine from System Preferences).
2. Click on “Options…”
3. Click the “+” button and locate all the files and folders you want to remove from the backup. If you have iTunes Match for example, you can choose not to back up your music library as it will already be backed up to Apple's iCloud servers.
4. You can also delete old backups from your storage device, although Time Machine does this itself over time. Open the storage drive in your Finder and locate the backup files in the "Backups.backupdb" folder. Find the oldest backup files and delete them (You will also need to delete them from the recycle bin).
And there you have it, it was the ultimate guide to Time Machine. But you might be wondering how to restore lost data without having Time Machine backup. Read this guide to learn even more or leave us a comment in the space below.
