Step 2:When the dropdown set of choices appears, you’ll want to select System Preferences.

Step 1:Select the Apple logo from the left side of your menu bar. You’ll want to follow these steps to ensure you can start using Time Machine on Mac successfully. Since the Time Machine backup operates in the background automatically, you don’t need to access the service repetitively to continue saving your folders and files. If it is already operating, you’ll see choices that reflect the actions you can perform with this service.įor the average user, the only step you need to know for using Time Machine is to understand how to activate the service. Older operating systems sometimes have it as an independent option that you can select through Launchpad.Ĭlick on the Time Machine option to begin the activation process. If you didn’t turn this feature on during your macOS system’s initial setup phase, you could find it available in your System Preferences menu. When Time Machine saves an image, you keep the last few versions available locally to revert back to a previous setup if an error develops on your computer. You must activate it to take advantage of these benefits. This option provides a straightforward way to preserve your data’s integrity if something unexpected happens.

Your Mac operates Time Machine in the background. That information gets compressed into a single file that contains everything. Instead of creating one file out of a few documents or pictures, Time Machine takes an image of your entire drive. zip before, the process is somewhat similar. If you have ever compressed a file into a.

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