Time Machine

Back up your Mac with Time Machine

• Connect a storage device to your Mac

• Set up the storage device as your backup disk

• Make a backup

• Learn about backup frequency and duration

• Restore your Mac from a backup

Back up your Mac with Time Machine

Backup disks you can use with Time Machine

• External storage device connected to Mac

• Mac shared as a network backup destination

• Network-attached storage (NAS) device: Time Machine can back up to a third-party NAS device that supports Time Machine over the SMB network protocol. Time Machine backup to NAS devices over Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) is not recommended and won't be supported in a future version of macOS.

• AirPort Extreme Base Station or AirPort Time Capsule: These solutions are no longer recommended, because they use Apple Filing Protocol (AFP), which won't be supported in a future version of macOS.