Setting a new (or pre-owned) Mac up can be quick and easy when you use Migration Assistant. When is best, what should you migrate from, and do you need iCloud to help?
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When and how to use Migration Assistant to move apps, settings and documents to a new or previously owned Mac. Also how a Mac can claim an old Mac’s backups.
Backups are for recovery, while archives are for posterity. Plan for the future now by storing important files on durable media in your personal archives.
Understand how TM backs up and how snapshots work to minimise the size of local snapshots and backups, and the time they take. How to ensure files in iCloud Drive are backed up properly.
When do sparse files explode to full size, and how could you preserve them in transit? Can you copy clones or snapshots? How to preserve extended attributes?
From dispatch of a new automatic backup, through computing which items need to be backed up, cleaning up snapshots and old backups, to success at the end.
APFS or HFS+? Which can Time Machine back up to? What about hard disks? Which format for use on PCs? And which are supported by Disk Utility now?
Released in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on 26 October 2007, it supported Time Capsules launched in January 2008, and in Big Sur could back up to APFS.
How large should the drive be to store all your backups for the next couple of years? Here’s how to work that out for Time Machine and other apps.
Most backup apps make snapshots, so why not use those instead of conventional backups? Because of the weaknesses of snapshots, as explained.
The Eclectic Light Company 