HOW TO Back up and restore with Time Machine

1 Plug in the drive

Plug in the external drive you’re going to use for Time Machine. It will be wiped for the process, so make sure there’s nothing on it that you need. Open System Preferences from the Apple menu, and go to General > Time Machine.

4 Limit backup space

Under Disk Usage Limit, choose Custom if you want to limit the amount of space your Time Machine backup can use on your drive. Never put data and its backup on the same drive, though, or both are lost if the drive fails.

7 Restore (Intel Mac)

To restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup, you must enter Recovery Mode. If it has an Intel processor, turn it off, press the power button while holding Cmd+R. Release it when you see the Apple logo.

2 Choose a drive

Click Add Backup Disk. You’ll see a list of connected drives available for Time Machine backups. Click the one you want to use, and then click Set Up Disk to proceed to the next step, which will be deciding whether or not you need to encrypt.

5 Start the first backup

When you’re ready, click Done. The disk is prepared, and the first backup starts. You can click the Options button to change the frequency of future backups, which can choose to set as manual only, hourly, daily or weekly.

8 Restore (Apple silicon)

If your Mac has an Apple Silicon processor, turn it off, then press and hold the power button. Release the power button as soon as you see the startup options on the screen. Now click Options to proceed to the next step.

3 Encrypt your backup

If you want to encrypt your backup, add a password, retype that password, and add a hint. Encrypted drives require a password to access. If you don’t want to encrypt, click the switch marked Encrypt Backup to turn encryption off.

6 Exclude from backups

If you have files or external drives you don’t want to back up with Time Machine, under Options, click the “+”, navigate to the item you want to leave out, and then simply select Exclude. To change your mind, just click the “–”.

9 Enter your details

Whichever processor you have, you now need to enter your username and admin password when asked to do so. From the Utilities list, choose Restore from Time Machine Backup and follow the on– screen instructions.