In our most recent Do You Use It? poll, we asked\u00a0which backup methods you could use to recover your data and get back to work<\/a>. Versioned backups\u2014made with Time Machine by most people\u2014were by far the most common, receiving 87% of the votes, but cloud storage was also extremely popular, with 59%. Just over half of respondents (51%) rely on Internet backups, with fewer (41%) relying on regularly scheduled duplicates and 33% saying they could turn to a second Mac to get back to work. Only 9% of people said they manually copy files to external drives for backup, and I\u2019m extremely pleased to see that no one said they ignore backups entirely. Of course, that mainly speaks to the self-selected nature of the poll respondents\u2014TidBITS readers know that working without a backup is like tightrope walking without a net.<\/p>\n What most surprised me about the extensive discussions that followed the poll was how varied everyone\u2019s strategies were. I suspect that this is one of those areas where putting thought into developing a backup strategy is most of what\u2019s necessary for good results\u2014the precise details can vary without significant loss of protection.<\/p>\n That said, I want to review each of the poll\u2019s backup methods and discuss what I learned from people\u2019s responses.<\/p>\n Versioned backups are essential for recovery because they maintain the contents of your drive at multiple points in time. They let you restore files when problems occur, whether from corruption, accidental overwrites, or deletions.<\/p>\n Ideally, deletions shouldn\u2019t require going to your backups. To make recovering deleted files and folders even easier, use Finder > Settings > Advanced to turn on \u201cRemove items from the Trash after 30 days\u201d and don\u2019t empty the Trash manually unless you really need the space. That way, you always have a month to pull a deleted item out of the Trash.)<\/p>\n The canonical versioned backup app is Apple\u2019s Time Machine, which makes a backup every hour, automatically pruning the hourly backups after 24 hours and the daily backups after a week\u2014it keeps weekly backups for all previous months. The oldest backups are deleted when space is needed, but Time Machine always keeps the latest version.<\/p>\n Some people don\u2019t trust Time Machine because of bad experiences in the past, but it\u2019s worth keeping in mind that Apple has radically changed how Time Machine works under the hood over the years, so what was true a decade ago no longer is today. What hasn\u2019t changed is Time Machine\u2019s tremendously funky interface for finding and restoring files. Happily, thanks to Time Machine\u2019s use of snapshots, you can now navigate through your backups in the Finder. Choose the backup you want, and you\u2019ll find all the data on your drive from that date.<\/p>\n Other apps also provide versioned backups. Apps that can make local versioned backups include Carbon Copy Cloner<\/a> (which has evolved beyond the duplicates implied by its name) and Retrospect<\/a>. The cloud backup apps Arq<\/a> and Backblaze<\/a> also provide versioned backups. In October 2023, Backblaze increased its free version history from 30 days to 1 year, but you must choose it explicitly\u2014I just remembered to update mine (see \u201cBackblaze Raises Prices, Makes Extended Version History Standard<\/a>,\u201d 25 August 2023).<\/p>\n I was excessively concise in the wording of this poll answer, labeling it just \u201cInternet backups,\u201d but where I was going with that is the need for a backup somewhere other than in the immediate vicinity of your Mac. Some sort of offsite backup is essential to protect from theft, fires, tornadoes, and numerous other disasters that will affect both your Mac and any backup stored with it.<\/p>\n Historically, offsite backups required schlepping hard drives to another location, a process that is only as reliable as the person doing the transport. Another issue with physical offsite backups is that the destination location often isn\u2019t all that far away\u2014storing a drive at your neighbor\u2019s house won\u2019t have helped if you live in Pacific Palisades. Plus, hard drive reliability isn\u2019t improved by moving them around repeatedly.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why I\u2019ve become a big fan of Internet backup services like Backblaze. Before Backblaze, I relied on CrashPlan, which unfortunately discontinued its consumer-level services in 2018\u2014see \u201c CrashPlan for Home Ends Today<\/a>,\u201d 22 October 2018. There are others, like IDrive<\/a>and Carbonite<\/a>, but I haven\u2019t used them.<\/p>\n Some people don\u2019t like having another subscription fee, lack sufficient Internet bandwidth to back up a lot of data effectively, or are uncomfortable with storing their data in the cloud. If that\u2019s true for you, you\u2019re likely back to moving drives around.<\/p>\n Storing backups in a safe might seem like a reasonable alternative and would likely protect against theft as long as the safe is secure. However, not all \u201cfireproof\u201d safes are appropriate\u2014ratings matter<\/a>. You want at least a Class 150 or Class 125 safe, which is rated to keep the internal temperature below 150\u00ba (sufficient for magnetic media) or 125\u00ba (safe for optical media). Safes are also rated for how long they can keep the temperature below that level\u2014although house fires can last several hours, it\u2019s uncommon for the area around a safe to burn hot for more than 20 minutes before the fire moves on. Although wildfires burn much hotter and last longer, the safes are tested at higher temperatures than standard house fires. Don\u2019t forget to look for water resistance\u2014firefighters will be dousing the area with a lot of water.<\/p>\n Although versioned backups generally provide a relatively quick way of accessing just the latest version of backed-up files, a duplicate is a more intuitive form of backup\u2014it\u2019s an exact copy of the selected files at the time of the backup. Duplicates don\u2019t protect against file corruption or deletion because as soon as you update the duplicate, those changes are reflected in the backup copy.<\/p>\n However, duplicates are useful for restoring files quickly with familiar Finder actions rather than having to muck around in the weird Time Machine interface or use another app. They also work well with Migration Assistant for restoring data after erasing a drive or setting up a new Mac. (Migration Assistant also supports Time Machine, but not proprietary backup formats.) In addition, it is possible to make bootable duplicates that can, in some situations, be used to boot a Mac so you can get back to work as quickly as possible after some types of internal drive failure.<\/p>\n This answer in the poll was also poorly titled \u201cNightly duplicate.\u201d I hadn\u2019t anticipated that some people would make weekly or monthly duplicates, particularly bootable ones. They\u2019re not perturbed that their duplicates are almost always outdated because they could get more recent files back from regular Time Machine backups or cloud storage. That\u2019s true, but it seems to introduce unnecessary complexity over a nightly schedule.<\/p>\n A few people make duplicates manually, which is a fine addition to an automated backup strategy but not something to rely on solely. One of the cardinal rules of backup is that it\u2019s best to remove the human element to the extent possible. If you have to remember to initiate a backup manually, Murphy\u2019s Law states that you will forget or be too busy right before the event that causes you to need your backup.<\/p>\n In terms of software, the main players are Carbon Copy Cloner<\/a>, ChronoSync<\/a>, and SuperDuper<\/a>. All three are fine apps and will do a good job of making duplicates. Carbon Copy Cloner has additional versioned backup capabilities, ChronoSync offers more synchronization options, and SuperDuper is the easiest and most focused on duplicates.<\/p>\n I need to emphasize that putting your files in cloud storage is not a backup. Here\u2019s why: A backup, by definition, must be separate and independent from your working files. If you accidentally delete or corrupt a file in your cloud storage folder, that change immediately syncs to all your devices\u2014there\u2019s no way to recover the original. So when I use iCloud\u2019s Desktop & Documents folder syncing feature to make files available on my iMac and MacBook Air, I may have a copy of each file on each Mac, but any changes I make to one of those copies are immediately reflected on the other machine. Versioned backups are designed to eliminate this concern, and even duplicates only reflect such changes when they\u2019re updated.<\/p>\n However, cloud storage can play a huge role in getting back to work quickly after a disaster because all those files live in the cloud as well as on any synced devices. If you store much of what you do in folders synced by Dropbox, Google Drive, or iCloud Drive, as soon as you reconnect to your account from a reinvigorated Mac or new Mac, all your files immediately become accessible. You can even get to them from an iPhone or iPad. That also applies to Web apps like Google Docs, where data is never stored locally.<\/p>\n For some people, in some situations, cloud storage and Web apps let Macs act like the <\/p>\n Also, some cloud storage systems offer limited version history, enabling you to access previous versions of a file. Again, this is not the same as a versioned backup system, but it can help you get back to work more quickly.<\/p>\n Such a situation also points to the next option in the poll\u2014having a second Mac available to get back to work more quickly. It\u2019s important to remember that we don\u2019t make backups for the sake of having backups; we make them so we can recover from setbacks. Many problems are minor, like an accidentally deleted file, and even more serious corruption can be addressed by erasing the drive, reinstalling macOS, and restoring files.<\/p>\n But what if your Mac is stolen, destroyed, or damaged badly enough that you must send it to Apple for repair? A backup of your data is necessary here, but it\u2019s not sufficient on its own\u2014you need another Mac. For anyone whose livelihood would be impacted by doing no work for a few days, having a second Mac available is critical. It probably doesn\u2019t have to be as powerful as your main Mac, so using a laptop that supplements a desktop or keeping an older Mac around are good options. You can also use someone else\u2019s Mac, possibly by using a bootable duplicate to have it act like yours, or by creating another user account and accessing your data from your backup or cloud storage accounts.<\/p>\n![\"DYUI](\"https:\/\/tidbits.com\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DYUI-Backup-Strategies.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nVersioned Backups<\/h2>\n
![\"Finder](\"https:\/\/tidbits.com\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Finder-trash-setting.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Time](\"https:\/\/tidbits.com\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Time-Machine-Finder.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Backblaze](\"https:\/\/tidbits.com\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Backblaze-version-history.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nInternet or Offsite Backups<\/h2>\n
![\"Backblaze](\"https:\/\/tidbits.com\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Backblaze-Internet-backup.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nRegularly Scheduled Duplicates<\/h2>\n
Cloud Storage<\/h2>\n
Second Mac<\/h2>\n