Users Manual

Back up and restore your Mac
To keep your files safe, it’s important to back up your MacBook Air regularly. The easiest
way to back up is to use Time Machine—which is built into your Mac—to back up your
apps, accounts, preferences, music, photos, movies, and documents (it doesn’t back up
the macOS operating system). Use Time Machine to back up to an external storage
device connected to your MacBook Air, or to a supported network volume. For a list of
devices supported by Time Machine, see the Apple Support article
.
Tip: You can use a shared Mac that’s on the same network as your MacBook Air as a
backup destination. On the other Mac, go to the Sharing pane of System Preferences,
then turn on File Sharing. Add a shared folder, Control-click the folder, choose Advanced
Options, then click “Share as Time Machine backup destination.”
Set up Time Machine. Make sure your MacBook Air is on the same Wi-Fi network as
your external storage device, or connect the external storage device to your MacBook Air.
Open System Preferences, click Time Machine, then select Back Up Automatically. Select
the drive you want to use for backup, and you’re all set.
Back up with iCloud. Files in iCloud Drive and photos in iCloud Photos are automatically
stored in iCloud and don’t need to be part of your Time Machine backup. However, if
you’d like to back them up, do the following:
iCloud Drive: Open System Preferences, click Apple ID, then click iCloud and deselect
Optimize Mac Storage. The contents of your iCloud Drive will be stored on your Mac
and included in your backup.
Backup disks you can
use with Time Machine