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backup

Explainer: snapshots

Fundamentally simple: a preserved copy of a volume at a moment in time. How its size can only increase with time, how they’re managed, what they’re used for, and the tools for using them.

January 31, 2026 Macs, Technology

How Time Machine backups can fail silently

When I started my Mac up, its external backup storage was present as expected, but couldn’t be opened. It turned out that Time Machine had stopped backing up after 12:35 the previous day, but hadn’t reported the problem.

January 15, 2026 Macs, Technology

Check Time Machine backups in macOS Sequoia and Tahoe

T2M2 is nearly 9 years old. Here’s a walk through its summary reports on Time Machine backups. and an outline of what you’ll see in its log extracts.

January 8, 2026 Macs, Technology

Exclude or include items in backup, search, iCloud Drive and QuickLook preview

How to exclude folders and files from these services, with new problems apparent in macOS Tahoe over exclusions from Time Machine backups.

January 6, 2026 Macs, Technology

Save space on the internal SSD by adding another volume

T T Read More

If you’ve got large files like Virtual Machines or media libraries on the Data volume on your Mac’s internal SSD, use this method to keep the size of its snapshots smaller.

May 28, 2025 Macs, Technology

Check your network backups and shares, as AFP is being removed

Are you prepared for the removal of support for AFP in a ‘future version of macOS’? Here’s what you need to know, and what you should consider doing.

May 15, 2025 Macs, Technology

What isn’t backed up?

Backups don’t include everything. Here are details of those items excluded from Time Machine backups, and why they’re excluded.

May 2, 2025 Macs, Technology

Versions in motion: how to preserve document versions

The rules for preserving document versions are based on their being associated with the document’s inode number, and on the same volume. Here are the details and a way to preserve them whatever.

May 1, 2025 Macs, Technology

How robust are APFS clone and sparse files?

How do clone files and sparse files cope with being backed up and restored? Can they save space in iCloud Drive? Some of these answers may surprise.

April 7, 2025 Macs, Technology

Watch your background: automatic Time Machine backups

How DAS gathers its budgets and loads lists of activities. When rescoring permits, it then dispatches the process to initiate backup. Re-scheduling has changed in Sequoia, as shown here.

February 14, 2025 Macs, Technology

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