macOS Backup Strategy

General Backup Strategy Comments

Your overall backup strategy should include, as a minimum, the first two items in the list below. The last two items would be considered optional and only deemed necessary if your data is both critical and you would want additional means to retrieve it.

The advantage of incremental backups is it allows you a means to quickly recover individual files or folders that have been deleted. They can also be used to recover your Mac in case of a complete system drive failure.

The disadvantage of incremental backups is the recovery process itself; It would require that you first replace the failed drive before you can restore the system. This would introduce a significant delay between the time of the disk failure to the time you can be "back up and running" again.

The advantage of cloned backups is that it overcomes the disadvantage of incremental ones. That is, with a bootable clone of your system drive, you can boot up your Mac from the clone and use your Mac almost immediately. You can also use the clone to restore your Mac when you finally have the opportunity to replace the failed drive.

The 3-2-1 Rule of Backup

To minimize potential data failures, it is highly recommended to adopt the 3-2-1 Rule.

 This entails:

• 3 copies of media: These should include one working copy that you use daily, followed by two backups that will be located off your primary system.
• 2 different types of storage media: These can include hard drives, solid-state drives, optical media such as BluRay or DVD, flash memory devices, and Linear Tape Open (LTO) systems. By diversifying storage types, you are likely to offset the timing of any one failure as each medium carries its own expected vulnerabilities and shelf life. Typical shelf lives range from a little as 7 years for HDDs, to over 30 years for LTO tapes.
• 1 offsite location: Finally, at least one offsite location to mitigate an environmental disaster such as a flood or fire.

Incremental backups

• Using Time Machine.
  • To a network drive:
    • Time Capsule
    • NAS (ex. Synology DS916+)
    • Mac Server
    • To another Mac
    • A HFS+ formatted USB drive attached to an 802.11ac AirPort Extreme base station or Time Capsule.
    • (macOS High Sierra+) An APFS formatted USB drive attached to either a 802.11n AirPort Extreme base station or Time Capsule.
  • To a locally attached HFS+ formatted Thunderbolt, FireWire, or USB drives:
    • Semi-portable (ex. WD My Book Pro)
    • Portable (ex. WD My Passport)
  • (macOS High Sierra +) To a locally attached APFS formatted Thunderbolt, FireWire, or USB drives.
• Using a third-party application, like Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC).
  • To a network drive:
    • Time Capsule
    • NAS
  • To locally attached semi-portable or portable drives.

Cloned backups to an external drive

Note: With macOS Monterey+, making a bootable clone of your Mac is no longer possible with either the Disk Utility or a third-party app, like CCC. Instead, you can create a clone of the Macintosh HD - Data volume, which you can restore from. The method now would be to use Recovery Mode to fully erase, and then, re-install macOS. Then restore your data from the clone.

• (Pre-Monterey) Using the built-in macOS Disk Utility to clone the Mac's system drive to a locally attached semi-portable or portable drive, OR
• (Pre-Monterey) Using a third-party app, like CCC or SuperDuper!, to clone the Mac's system drive to a locally attached semi-portable or portable drive.

Cloud-based backups

• Incremental backups to the cloud would require, as a minimum, two things:
  • An Internet connection.
  • A cloud-based backup service.
• Ex. Backblaze, IDrive, CloudBerry Backup, SpiderOak ONE, or Carbonite

Off-site storage

• Rotate portable backup medium to a single or multiple off-site storage locations. (ex. Bank safe deposit box.)