by

Mac Time Machine Manual Backup



The Apple Time Capsule seemed like a great idea when it was unveiled about a decade ago. It was a Time Machine network backup target that also embedded a Wi-Fi gateway and ethernet sharing. To start a manual Time Machine backup, press the Time Machine icon on the menu bar and start the backup. If you don't find the Time Machine icon, you can enable it in System Preferences Time Machine. It creates automatic, hourly backups of your Mac, so you don't have to worry about the frequency of backups. Both ways require that your hard drive is connected to your Mac. Deleting files stored on an external drive using the Time Machine app. To delete the files using the Time Machine app: Click on the Time Machine icon on the Menu Bar and select Enter Time Machine. Scroll through your backups and find the one you want to delete. Click on the Gear icon. You can do this as often or as little as needed for a Mac: Click on the Time Machine icon located in the Mac OS menubar Select “Back Up Now” to begin the instant backup Time Machine will now begin a full manual backup of your Mac’s hard drive. Connect the external HDD with the Time Machine backup to the Mac that requires restoration. Open the Migration Assistant. Choose to transfer the information from a Time Machine backup when asked. You’ll get asked to choose the backup disk you want to use for this process.

Use Time Machine, the built-in backup feature of your Mac, to automatically back up your personal data, including apps, music, photos, emails and documents. Having a backup allows you to recover files that have been deleted or were lost because the hard disk (or SSD) in your Mac needed to be erased or replaced. Find out how to restore your Mac from a backup.

Create a Time Machine backup

Backup

To create backups with Time Machine, all you need is an external storage device. After you've connected the storage device and selected it as your backup disk, Time Machine will automatically make hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month and weekly backups for all previous months. The oldest backups will be deleted when your backup disk is full.

Mac Time Machine Manual Backup

Connect an external storage device

Connect one of the following external storage devices, sold separately. Find out more about backup disks that you can use with Time Machine.

  • 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)
Time

Select your storage device as the backup disk

  1. Open Time Machine preferences from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Or choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Time Machine.
  2. Click Select Backup Disk.
  3. Select your backup disk from the list of available disks. To make your backup only accessible to users who have the backup password, you can select “Encrypt backups”. Then click Use Disk:

If the disk you've selected hasn't been formatted as required by Time Machine, you'll be prompted to erase the disk first. Click Erase to proceed. This will erase all of the information on the backup disk.

Mac Time Machine Manual Backup Manual

Enjoy the convenience of automatic backups

After you've selected a backup disk, Time Machine will immediately start making periodic backups – automatically and without any further action needed by you. The first backup may take a long time, but you can continue using your Mac while a backup is underway. Time Machine only backs up the files that have changed since the previous backup, so future backups will be faster.

Mac Time Machine Manual Backup

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.

Mac Os Time Machine Manual Backup

Learn more

  • Find out 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 you're 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.