To make sure that you don’t accidentally lose all your files and data that you store on our MAC, it’s worth thinking about doing backups. If you’re about to sell your Apple MAC, remember to wipe it clean of your files and private data so the next owner can’t access them. Therefore, you should also create a backup so that you don’t lose these data too. Every MAC owner should know how to back up their system and files, and with Time Machine, the whole process of backing up your laptop is really easy. Read the guide below and back up your MAC.

Before you start the backup process, you need to prepare an external storage device (for example, an external hard drive). The backup will be created by Time Machine on this device, so the device should be relatively capacious and preferably used only for this purpose.

How to back up MAC with Time Machine?

  1. Plug in an external storage device (external hard disk, USB).
  2. Go to System Preferences.
  3. Click on Time Machine.
  4. Enable the Show Time Machine in menu bar option at the bottom to nagivate easier in the future.
  5. Now press Select Backup Disk.
  6. Choose your external device. If you want to, you can encrypt the backup with a password. In that case, tick Encrypt backups.
  7. Click on Use Disk.
  8. MAC may ask you to reformat your external device to prepare it for the Time Machine backup.
  9. After that, MAC will begin creating the backup. Depending on how many files there need to be saved, it may take a while to create it. However, you can keep using your MAC in the meantime.
  10. Once the backup is complete, you will see a notification. Time Machine will delete old backups to make a room for the newest one if there is not enough space. After the first backup, and as long as the device is connected to MAC, Time Machine will automatically create new backups.
  11. To create a backup manually, click on the Time Machine icon on the menu bar. Then, click Back Up Now.

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