Back up to the cloud

Keep a copy of your files off-site

Adown. ny number of Time Machine backups, clones and RAID setups won’t help if your house burns

For a robust backup system, you need offsite backups. In other words, you must back up to the cloud.

We’re not talking about iCloud, nor other cloud storage providers. Although you can sync your Mac’s Desktop and Documents folders across devices using iCloud Drive, that should not be considered a backup – changes (including possible corruption) made in one place will propagate across all your devices. And although you can use the likes of Dropbox to store copies of important files, you’re better off working with something automated, so that backups just happen – to all of your files rather than a chosen few.

When choosing a cloud backup provider, map what they offer to your specific needs. Backblaze (backblaze. com, $50, about £36, per year) offers unlimited data, but you pay per Mac. iDrive (idrive.com, from $52.50, about £37, for the first year; more thereafter) covers limitless computers, but only 2TB of data, unless you pay extra.

For many, Backblaze will be a good choice. The service is reliable and robust, consumer-friendly, and has useful features. You can go online to start restoring, which can be as little as a single file from your cloud backup. Backed-up data is accessible from your mobile devices, too. If disaster strikes and you have no means to rapidly download your entire cloud backup, Backblaze can send it to you on a USB flash drive or hard drive. Return the hardware and you’ll get a refund. However, note that because Backblaze is based in the USA, this may incur custom fees in both directions.

There is one major downside to cloud-based backups: the initial backup can take a very long time. If you have a lot of data and even reasonably fast fibre broadband, you may still be talking a matter of many days, rather than hours. Because of this, you should be mindful of two important pieces of advice.

First, do not rely heavily on a cloud backup while it’s first uploading. Consider making periodic clones of your Mac on drives you alternate and keep off-site – perhaps in a lockable cabinet at work or a friend’s home. That way, if something happens to your home, you’ll have recoverable data, even if it’s days old.

Secondly, although you can have a cloud backup service upload all your Mac’s data as it sees fit, you can instead upload in a more controlled manner. Use a service’s settings to upload what you consider your most important data first (for example, your Documents folder), only later uploading content you can easily recover (such as music and photos). That way, you can have that extra layer of safety on your most important data in place relatively quickly, rather than having to wait for days or weeks for the initial backup to complete.