• How To Backup Your Macbook Pro
• How To Backup Your Mac To The Cloud

Time Machine creates a backup of your Mac on an external drive. You can use USB, Thunderbolt, or FireWire to connect a drive to your Mac, although you may need to use an adapter if your Mac doesn't have the right ports. Apple used to offer a product called Time Capsule, which let you back up your Mac with Time Machine over Wi-Fi. If your device has an issue, you can use a recent backup to restore the information on the device. Connect your device to your Mac. You can connect your device using a USB or USB-C cable or using a Wi-Fi connection. To turn on Wi-Fi syncing, see Sync content between your Mac and iPhone or iPad over Wi-Fi. After installing and launching the cloning app, you'll need to choose where to store the backup. In the left drop-down menu, choose your Mac volume to back up. Then choose the destination volume in the right drop-down menu. Using Time Machine 1 Connect your Mac to a formatted external hard drive. Connect the drive to your computer using the cable provided (usually USB, Lightning or eSATA).

Back up with Time Machine

Automatically back up all your files with Time Machine, which is built in to your Mac, or choose another backup method.

Store files in iCloud

You can also use iCloud and iCloud Drive to store files, such as your photos, documents, and music.

Restore your Mac from a backup

When you have a backup, you can use it to restore your files at any time, including after the original files are deleted from your Mac.

How To Backup Your Macbook Pro

Prepare your Mac for service

Making a backup is an important part of preparing your Mac for service, especially because some types of repair might require erasing or replacing your hard drive.

How much space do I need for a backup?

To see the size of a specific file or folder, click it once and then press Command-I. To see storage information about your Mac, click the Apple menu in the top-left of your screen. Choose About This Mac and click the Storage tab. For Time Machine backups, it's good to use a drive that has at least twice the storage capacity of your Mac.

Free up storage on your Mac

macOS can save space by storing your content in the cloud. This isn't a backup, but it includes new tools to make it easier to find and remove large or unwanted files before you make a backup.

Erase or format a storage device

You can use Disk Utility if you need to erase or format a storage device.

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How To Backup Your Mac To The Cloud

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