Or pick Apple () menu > System Preferences, then click Time Machine. Open Time Machine preferences from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar.Network-attached storage (NAS) device that supports Time Machine over SMBĬhoose your storage device as the backup diskĪs you connect an external drive to your Mac directly, you might be asked if you want to use the drive to back up with Time Machine. Select Encrypt Backup Disk (recommended), then click Use as Backup Disk.įollow these steps to add it manually, if Time Machine doesn’t ask to use your drive,:.Mac shared as a Time Machine backup destination.External drive connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac model) or AirPort Time Capsule.External drive connected to your Mac, such as a USB, Thunderbolt, or FireWire drive.Learn more about backup disks that you can use with Time Machine. You can choose one of the following external storage devices to connect, sold separately. After you connect the device and select it as your backup disk, Time Machine automatically makes backups every hour, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months. Don’t forget that the oldest backups will be deleted whenever your backup disk is completely full. In order to create backups with Time Machine, it’s necessary to have an external storage device.

Using Time Machine, the built-in backup feature of your Mac, to back up all of your files automatically, like apps, music, photos, email, documents, and system files. As you know, when you have a backup, you can easily restore files from your backup and this is really helpful when the original files deleted from your Mac accidentally, or the hard disk (or SSD) in your Mac is erased or replaced.

How to back up macbook pro manually