If you have recently purchased or been gifted a new Apple MacBook laptop or Studio desktop computer, you might wonder how you can keep your important documents. media and data safe just in case the worst should happen. This quick guide will take you through what you need to know to back up your Mac with Apple Time Machine. Enabling you to set up an automatic backup system to make sure that all your most important documents, photographs and files are copied to an external storage device.
The Time Machine backup system has been created by Apple to make it easy for its customers and Apple Mac users to back up their documents to external storage devices such as a Thunderbolt drive, network attached storage (NAS) or USB drive depending on your preference and budget. It is also possible to use third-party backup applications and services if you would prefer, however this guide will focus on backing up your Mac with Time Machine.
It is also worth noting that Time Machine is different to the Apple iCloud backup system which automatically stores your photos, calendars, contacts, notes, passwords and more. However, you only currently get a 2TB limit with iCloud and it will not backup your MacBook or desktop computer operating system allowing you to carry out a complete re-store of your OS and files if ever needed. Personally I use a Time Machine backup for my computers to a NAS and iCloud for documents I use regularly as well as backing up my iOS devices such as my iPhone and iPad photographs and home videos.
Back up your Mac with Time Machine
To set up a Time Machine backup connect your desired external storage to your Mac computer. Remember, you can only use this storage as your Time Machine backup disk and not for other files as Apple will automatically allocate the drive only to Time Machine. Apple recommends that the backup disk should be at least twice the size of the system you would like to back up. For example, if you have a 2TB hard drive in your MacBook then a 4TB external drive will be required. But do not worry if your external disk does not have enough storage space to complete a full backup you will be notified.
1. Once your preferred external storage is attached to your computer either via a network or locally using a USB-C cable or similar you can then enter the Time Machine settings. Apple will then ask you to select the disc you would like to use for Time Machine backups.
2. The next option depends on the operating system your Mac is running. For macOS Ventura or later select the Apple Menu > System Settings, then click General in the sidebar, then select Time Machine on the right. If your Mac is running an earlier version of macOS choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Time Machine.
3. Once in the Time Machine settings select your external storage device as the backup destination. This is completed in macOS Ventura or later by selecting the + and following the on-screen instructions in earlier versions simply click “Select Backup Disk” and follow the instructions presented by Apple.
4. Once your external storage is accepted by the Apple Time Machine application you can select the system to start a backup manually without waiting for the next automatic backup after which the Time Machine will start making periodic backups automatically.
5. Any time during the backup process you can check the status and the last backup completed by clicking on the Time Machine menu icon which is a circular arrow clockface. Once selected it will tell you the status of a current backup in process or tell you when the last backup was fully completed. Providing peace of mind that all your documents are safely stored on the external drive.
macOS Ventura
macOS Monterey or earlier
Time Machine backup frequency
Time Machine offers two different ways to back up your data allowing you to either select the process to run automatically or manually. By default Apple Time Machine will complete hourly backups for the past 24 hours as well as daily backups for the past month and weekly backups for all previous months the oldest backups will be automatically deleted to help free up space on your external storage. During the creation of macOS Ventura Apple added a couple of new features to Time Machine allowing users to change the backup frequency by going to Settings > Options and then selecting “Back up frequency”.
First Backup
As you would imagine the first backup may take quite some time to complete possibly even a few days depending on how many applications and their size you have on your MacBook laptop or desktop computer. Once a first backup is completed Time Machine will only backup the files that have changed since the previous backup and will do this every hour automatically.
Exclude items from a Time Machine backup
If you would like to remove items from a backup or perhaps save storage space not backing up applications and items. You can easily add these via the Time Machine Settings > Options menu. If you still require more information on how to configure Time Machine and set up a daily backup routine with your computer jump over to the official Apple support website for more information.
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