- How to back up your Mac with Time Machine. We have a step-by-step guide to backing up with Time Machine here, but essentially you just need to do the following. Plug in hard drive or SSD.
- Back up and restore your iPhone or iPad on Mac or iCloud. One of the best ways of safeguarding the information on an iPhone or iPad against damage or loss is backing up, or copying, your files and settings to either your Mac or iCloud.
If you used Time Machine to create a backup of your Mac, you can restore your files from that backup or a local snapshot on your startup disk. You might want to restore your files after the originals were deleted from your Mac, or the hard disk (or SSD) in your Mac was erased or replaced, such as during a repair.
Restore from a Time Machine backup
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When you restore from a Time Machine backup, you can choose to restore all your files, or restore both the Mac operating system (macOS) and all your files.
How to Back Up Your Computer with Time Machine. Mac macOS (10.5 and above) has an excellent built-in backup tool called Time Machine. Once you plug in a hard drive and set up Time Machine, it will work automatically in the background, continuously saving copies of all your files, applications, and system files (i.e., most everything except for the stuff you likely don’t need to back up, such. You can either take a backup of Mac on iCloud or any other external hard disk. Since one can access the information from the cloud almost anywhere, it is ideally recommended to backup Mac to iCloud promptly. Part 2: How to Backup Mac System and Files.
Restore all your files
- Make sure that your Time Machine backup disk is connected to your Mac and turned on. Then turn on your Mac.
- Open Migration Assistant, which in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
- If your Mac starts up to a setup assistant, which asks for details like your country, keyboard, and network, just continue to the next step. The setup assistant includes a migration assistant.
- If your Mac doesn't start up all the way, or you also want to restore the macOS you were using when you created the backup, follow the steps to restore both macOS and your files.
- When you're asked how you want to transfer your information, select the option to transfer from a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk. Then click Continue.
- Select your Time Machine backup, then click Continue.
- If you're asked to choose from a list of backups organized by date and time, choose a backup and click Continue.
- Select the information to transfer, then click Continue to start the transfer. This screen might look different on your Mac:
- If you have a lot of content, the transfer might take several hours to finish. When the transfer is complete, restart your Mac and log in to the migrated account to see its files.
Restore both macOS and your files
These steps erase your hard disk, then use your backup to restore both your files and the specific version of macOS you were using when you created the backup.
- Make sure that your Time Machine backup disk is connected and turned on.
If your backup disk isn't available, keep going: You might be able to restore from a local snapshot on your startup disk. - Turn on your Mac, then immediately press and hold Command (⌘)-R to start up from macOS Recovery. Release the keys when you see the Apple logo or spinning globe.
- When you see the macOS Utilities window, choose the option to restore from a Time Machine Backup.
- Click Continue until you're asked to select a restore source, then select your Time Machine backup disk. Or select your startup disk (Macintosh HD), which might have a local snapshot you can restore from.
- Click Continue. If your disk is encrypted, you're asked to unlock the disk: Enter the administrator password you used when setting up Time Machine, then click Continue again.
- Select a backup, if available, then click Continue.
- Select a destination disk, which will receive the contents of your backup. If restoring from a local snapshot, you aren't asked to select a destination.
- Click Restore or Continue. If your Mac has FileVault turned on, you're asked to enter your administrator password to unlock the disk.
- When done, restart your Mac.
Restore specific files
Learn how to use Time Machine to restore specific files, including older versions of your files.
Learn more
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- What to do if you can't restore with Time Machine. If you need help, contact Apple Support.