A NAS ( network-attached storage) device that supports the SMB (Server message block) protocol.An external hard drive directly connected to a USB or Thunderbolt port on your Mac.If you need the drive to store other files, you can add a partition to it.ĭrives you can use with Time Machine on Mac are as follows: Time Machine will use up all the space on the drive to store the backups by default. If you are running macOS Big Sur or later, choose APFS as the format.If you are running macOS Catalina or earlier, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format.If you are using an old disk with a Windows file system such as NTFS, exFAT, or FAT32, backup the important data first, then format the external hard drive on Mac with Disk Utility.
#TIME MACHINE ON MAC TOOLBAR HOW TO#
How to backup Mac with Time Machine?īefore using Time Machine, you should prepare a new or clean external hard drive of 2 to 4 times the size of the data you need to backup.
If the drive you use for Time Machine backups is full, Time Machine will delete the oldest backups to make space. When Apple Time Machine is on, it saves hourly backups for the past day, and daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for the data older than a month. FAQ about how to use Time Machine on MacĪpple Time Machine is a built-in app in macOS to backup everything on your Mac by creating images or snapshots so that you can restore a specific file or the whole system when needed.