Time Machine is also intelligent in the way that it stores all these backups and snapshots.

It performs all backups in the background so that you can still use your Mac while Time Machine is running. It only backups up any changes you have made since the last backup so after the first ever backup you make, it runs very quickly. Time Machine is incredibly fast because it doesn’t do an entire backup every time it whirs into action. Note that local snapshots can only be saved on Macs hard drives that use the Apple File System (APFS) format which is pretty much every new Mac out there nowadays unless you’ve reformatted it.Įven better though, Time Machine can store multiple copies of everything you are working on so you can roll back to a document that you edited hours ago and restore it if you wish.

Snapshots don’t require an external hard drive as they are saved on your Mac’s internal hard drive but we recommend you use an external hard drive for snapshots too as if your hard drive fails, you’ll lose them. Time Machine can be configured to backup every hour, daily or weekly.Īpart from backups, Time Machine also takes a daily snapshot of your computer every 24 hours and once a week so you can roll back to a previous state at any time.

Time Machine is a free tool in macOS which makes backups of files and folders on your Mac including apps, music, photos and documents.Īll you need is an external hard drive connected to your Mac to save the backups on.

Which External Hard Drives Work With Time Machine?.

However, all of these other Time Machine backup methods are more complex which is why using an external drive is usually the easiest (and cheapest) solution.

Time Machine can also backup to a Network Attached Storage (NAS) which supports SMB, another Mac on a network or an AirPort Time Capsule connected with an AirPort Extreme Base station. The great thing about Time Machine is that it runs silently in the background and all it requires is an external hard drive connected to your Mac to backup your Mac automatically in the background. This not only is the perfect way to backup your Mac but also allows you to roll-back to older or earlier versions of documents, folders, files and photos if your Mac crashes, the hard drive fails, you accidentally delete something or something goes wrong when you uninstall an app. In our opinion, Time Machine is one of the most useful features of macOS and in this guide, we show you how to backup and restore your Mac with Apple Time Machine.Īs the name suggests, Time Machine is a free tool in macOS that allows you to instantly roll back your Mac and all its files, documents and photos to a previous state at any time.

Recover mac from time machine