Have you recently purchased a Mac and are you looking for valid solutions to back up your data? Have you decided to change your Mac’s hard drive and don’t know how to transfer the data from your old drive to the new drive you bought? Then I guess you’ve come to the right place at the right time!
With today’s guide, in fact, we will see together how to make a Mac backup using both the native solution included “as standard” in macOS, which allows you to copy your data constantly on an external disk and always have them available in case of necessity, both on the cloud, going to synchronize most of the files on iCloud, in order to always keep the most important files safe.
Both solutions are very easy to use and do not require any particular configuration: once you have chosen the initial backup parameters, just let them work and they do everything by themselves. So, can you know that you are waiting to get started? Take five minutes of free time, choose the solution that best suits your needs and follow the instructions I am about to give you. You will see, creating a backup of your Mac is really a breeze!
Index
- How to backup with Mac
- Time Machine
- Mac backup programs
- How to make a Mac backup to iCloud
- How to backup Mac to iPhone
How to backup with Mac
I guess you can’t wait to find out how to backup with Mac ? Before proceeding, however, I suggest you buy a rather large external hard drive (or even an SSD ) (I recommend at least one external disk with double the capacity of that of the Mac) to be used to save at least two backup copies inside. of the Mac. Of course, feel free to choose the disk capacity according to your needs.
Once you have purchased the disk, connect it to your Mac to format the disk with the Mac OS extended (journaled) file system . To do this, you must use the Disk Utility application : to open it, click on the Launchpad located in the dock at the bottom, then open the Other folder and select the program; otherwise do a simple search with Spotlight .
Once in the main screen of the application, select the external disk from the side menu located in the External section and then click on the Initialize button : from the pop-up that appears on the screen, select the Mac OS extended (journaled) file system from the Format section , Click the Initialize button and then click Finish to complete the procedure.
Now you are finally ready to proceed with the backup of your Mac.
Time Machine
To perform a backup on Mac using the native function present within macOS, just use the Time Machine application . It is a tool that is able to automatically copy all the files, applications and settings on the Mac to an external hard drive. In this way you can recover, at any time, any type of file that you may have accidentally deleted. , an application that you have mistakenly uninstalled or fix some mess.
To proceed with the backup you must first open the Time Machine application. To do this, press on the Launchpad , then open the Other folder and click on the Time Machine application . Alternatively, you can use Spotlight Search by clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the top bar. In the screen that opens on the screen, click on the Configure Time Machine button to continue.
The Time Machine screen will open on the screen in the System Settings : to proceed click on the Add backup disk button , select the external disk you formatted previously and click on the Configure disk button . In the screen that appears, decide whether or not to password protect the backup by setting the lever of the item Encrypt the backup to ON / OFF , type the password you want to use if you want to encrypt it, and click the Finish button .
In the pop-up that appears on the screen, click on the Initialize “disk name” button and wait for the procedure to be completed.
Once this is done, the system will automatically back up the disk every time it is connected to the Mac. If, however, you prefer to act manually, just open the System Settings application and go to General> Time Machine : do click on the Options button and in the menu that appears set the Backup frequency item to Manually .
If you want to exclude an external disk from the Time Machine backup, just click on the – button under the selected disk and confirm the operation by clicking on the button Detach destination from the pop-up that appears on the screen.
If you’d like more information on how this tool works, check out my tutorial on how Time Machine works .
Mac backup programs
You don’t particularly like the Mac backup system via Time Machine , so you want to use an alternative program to back up your Mac. However, you have no idea which software to use, let alone if there are other programs to make backups . Mac .
In this case, I have good news for you: if you don’t want to use Time Machine, there are good alternatives you could use, but sadly none of them are completely free.
- Carbon Copy cloner– software that allows you to perform a complete cloning of your Mac’s hard drive, which can be restored at any time. it is not free, in fact the license price is 42 euros . However, you can try it for free for 30 days .
- Get Backup Pro– software that allows you to make a backup (even encrypted with a password) of your Mac. In addition, it is also able to clone the entire disk to another disk and also make it bootable, so you can easily replace the disk inside the Mac. The cost of the license is $ 19.99 , but it is also possible to try it completely free . In addition, the program is also included within Setapp , a service that in exchange for a small monthly or annual fee (with an initial free trial) allows you to access a wide range of paid applications for Mac (and also for iOS / iPadOS, with a small surcharge). More info here .
- ChronoSync– software that can perform backups, bootable backups and cloud storage for your Mac. In addition, there is also a file synchronization function, useful if you want to keep two Macs synchronized at all times, as well as being able to make a copy of all files. The license fee is $ 49.99 , but you can also try it for free . This program is also included within Setapp . More info here .
- Arq– backup creation and management software for Mac (and Windows). One of the interesting features of this program is the ability to transfer a backup even to the cloud, using one of the various services available. The license fee is $ 49.99 , but you can try it for free for 30 days . In addition, there is a Premium version that can be used on 5 computers, with support up to 1 TB, priced at $ 59.99 per year .
How to make a Mac backup to iCloud
In addition to backing up via Time Machine to an external drive, you would like to be able to back up to the cloud as well, so you can be really sure that all your data is really safe. You’ve had a problem with an external hard drive in the past, and regretted not having backed up the data to the cloud as well.
Since you use a Mac, you would like to be able to use Apple’s iCloud service , already fully integrated into the operating system and with 5GB of free space (with the possibility of increasing it for a fee ). How do you say? Even if you already have your Apple ID associated on your Mac , have no idea how to backup Mac to iCloud ? Don’t worry, I’m here to help you.
In the case of a Mac, you can store the Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud Drive , which you can then easily access from an iPhone or iPad (if connected to the same Apple ID) and you can also change them in real time.
To proceed, open the System Settings application located in the dock at the bottom (it is recognizable by the icon of a gear) and click on your Apple ID at the top: if it is not present, all you have to do is press the Login button and enter your credentials.
Once in the main screen of your Apple ID , then click on the iCloud item and then on iCloud Drive : in the menu that appears on the screen, click on the Activate button and then on Options . In the screen that appears on the screen, put the check mark on the item Documents and Desktop Folders , but you can also do it with all the other applications in the list: once finished, click on the Finish button .
If you also want to back up photos, contacts, calendar, notes and more, just set the relative levers on the main iCloud screen to ON .
How to backup Mac to iPhone
Often times you take notes via the Notes app on your Mac, or mark an event in the Calendar and you’d like to find everything synced back to your iPhone, without having to do it manually.
You don’t know how to do it, so would you like to understand how to backup from Mac to iPhone ? To synchronize photos, contacts, notes, calendar and much more on your iPhone, all you have to do is use the same Apple ID on both devices . Once you have established this, just follow the same instructions I gave you in the previous paragraph regarding the Mac, while on the iPhone , open the Settings app (recognizable by the icon of a gear) and tap on your Apple ID located in tall. On the screen that appears, tap on the iCloud item and set it to ONthe lever of all the apps you are interested in in the Apps that use iCloud section .
How do you say? Would you like to backup your iPhone via Mac? No problem, if you have this need, just take a look at the instructions you find in my tutorial on how to backup iPhone .
