Time Machine has been a feature of Mac OS X for so long that I do not know how we ever did backups without it. It keeps a copy of all your files and updates it automatically. It remembers how your system looked on any given day so you can “go back in time” to see your Mac as it appeared in the past.
Setting up Time Machine
You need to select a backup destination before you can use Time Machine. You can choose one of these:
- an external drive connected to a USB, FireWire or ThunderBolt port on your Mac
- an AirPort Time Capsule or OS X Server on your network
- an external drive connected to the USB port of an AirPort Extreme
Time Machine will keep hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month and weekly backups. The oldest backups are deleted as your drive gets full.
Using Time Machine with an External Drive
This is the simplest way to use Time Machine. Plug that 1TB drive that is on sale this week into the USB port on your Mac. If you haven’t already specified a backup device, Time Machine will ask you if you want to use that drive when you connect a blank drive to your Mac.
- Click “Use as Backup Disk” to select that drive
- You can choose to encrypt you backups if you want to prevent other users from accessing your data without a password. But a word of caution, if you do encrypt your data and forget your password you will not like it.
Using Time Machine with an AirPort Time Capsule or AirPort Extreme with attached Drive
Once you have your Time Capsule configured on your network you can set it up to select as the backup device for Time Machine. Here’s the steps to get started:
- Open Time Machine preferences an click Select Backup Disk
- Select the AirPort Time Capsule (or the drive attached to your AirPort Extreme) from the page that comes up
- You again have the option of encryption
Backing Up (beep, beep ,beep)
Backing up begins automatically when your Time Machine drive is available. Your first backup will take a while, especially if you are doing it wirelessly with a Time Capsule. It does not interfere with your use of your Mac but you’ll want to give it a few hours for the first backup. If you are using the AirPort Time Capsule you will find that it goes a lot faster if your connect an Ethernet cable between your Mac and one of the Ethernet ports on the Time Capsule.
Once the first backup is complete, Time Machine automatically backs up files that have changed on your Mac since the last backup was performed. You can check the status of your backup by clicking on the Time Machine icon in the menu bar.
You can also manually start a backup by selecting “Back up Now” from the Time Machine menu bar item. If you hold down the Option key when selecting this menu you will also see additional items such as verifying the backup disk or switching to a different disk.
Restoring
With Time Machine, you can go “back in time” to restore files, versions of files or the entire system. If you accidentally deleted a photo you can enter Time Machine, imagine you are H.G. Wells, and grab it from the past and restore it to the present.
Using the timeline on the right side of the window will allow you to reach back to a certain point in time. The timeline shows all the times of your backups on the drive. If you don’t know exactly when you deleted that photo you can use the back arrow to tell Time Machine to travel through time to show you when that folder last changed.
You can also search for a file using a Finder window. From the Finder, enter Time Machine and then enter a search term in the search field. Use the back arrow to have Time Machine search through your backups.
To restore a file, select the file or folder and click the “Restore” button. If you are not sure if you are restoring the right file, you can use Quick Look to preview the contents. Highlight the file and press the Space Bar to take a closer look.
You can also revert to earlier versions of a document from within apps. In those apps that support this feature, open a file that you want to revert and you can either
- Choose Enter Time Machine for the Time Machine Menu
- Choose File>Revert to>Browse all Versions
- Click the Time Machine icon in the Dock
Restoring your Whole Mac
If you lost your Mac or like Grace left it someplace and you want to restore your whole life to another Mac you can do that by using Migration Assistant. A new Mac will ask you how you want to transfer data or you can launch Migration Assistant. Then you will be prompted to select a Time Machine Backup and whether you want everything or just apps, etc.
As long as you keep storage attached wirelessly or by direct USB connection to your Mac, Time Machine can be a real lifesaver without any attention from you unless you need something from the past.