Use Time Machine, the built-in backup feature of your Mac, to automatically back up your personal data, including apps, music, photos, email, and documents. Having a backup allows you to recover files that were deleted, or that were lost because the hard disk (or SSD) in your Mac needed to be erased or replaced. Learn how to restore your Mac from a backup.
Create a Time Machine backup
How Do I Use Time Machine On Macbook Air Pro
To create backups with Time Machine, all you need is an external storage device. After you connect the storage device and select it as your backup disk, Time Machine automatically makes hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months. The oldest backups are deleted when your backup disk is full.
Connect an external storage device
Hi, I am trying to assist my husband to migrate from MacBook Pro running 10.6.8 to a MacBook Air using Time Machine backup on a hard drive connected directly to the MacBook Air. I get to the page to select the Time Machine backup, tick all of the relevant boxes and there is 78.86GB selected with about 27.81GB available after transferring. Connect an external storage drive, which you wish to create as a backup disk, on your 2018 MacBook Pro. When macOS prompts you to use the drive to back up with Time Machine, select the Encrypt Backup Disk checkbox and then click the button Use as Backup Disk. When macOS does not prompt, then you need to add the drive manually. First, add the Time Machine icon to the menu bar, if you haven't already. Head to System Preferences Time Machine, then check the option at the bottom of the window. Next, click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar. Then, hold down the Option key, and a 'Verify Backups' option will appear. Click the 'Verify Backups' option. If this is the first time you've specified a backup device, Time Machine asks if you want to use that drive to back up the Mac with Time Machine: To use the drive as your backup disk, just click the 'Use as Backup Disk' button and Time Machine begins the initial backup. That was easy, wasn't it?
Connect one of the following external storage devices, sold separately. Learn more about backup disks that you can use with Time Machine.
How To Use Time Machine On Macbook Air
- External drive connected to your Mac, such as a USB or Thunderbolt drive
- Network-attached storage (NAS) device that supports Time Machine over SMB
- Mac shared as a Time Machine backup destination
- AirPort Time Capsule, or external drive connected to an AirPort Time capsule or AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac)
Select your storage device as the backup disk
- Open Time Machine preferences from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Or choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Time Machine.
- Click Select Backup Disk.
- Select your backup disk from the list of available disks. To make your backup accessible only to users who have the backup password, you can select 'Encrypt backups'. Then click Use Disk:
If the disk you selected isn't formatted as required by Time Machine, you're prompted to erase the disk first. Click Erase to proceed. This erases all information on the backup disk. Free video editing software for macbook pro.
Enjoy the convenience of automatic backups
After you select a backup disk, Time Machine immediately begins making periodic backups—automatically and without further action by you. The first backup may take a long time, but you can continue using your Mac while a backup is underway. Time Machine backs up only the files that changed since the previous backup, so future backups will be faster. Blu ray authoring software mac.
To start a backup manually, choose Back Up Now from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Use the same menu to check the status of a backup or skip a backup in progress.
Learn more
- Learn about other ways to back up and restore files
- If you back up to multiple disks, you can press and hold the Option key, then choose Browse Other Backup Disks from the Time Machine menu.
- To exclude items from your backup, open Time Machine preferences, click Options, then click the add (+) button to add an item to be excluded. To stop excluding an item, such as an external hard drive, select the item and click the remove (–) button.
- If using Time Machine to back up to a network disk, you can verify those backups to make sure they're in good condition. Press and hold Option, then choose Verify Backups from the Time Machine menu.
