I have a new iMac - which I love - but just wondering Is it worth leaving my external hard drive plugged in all the time for the Time Machine backups, which do seem a bit OTT every hour - or do people just do a weekly backup? I'm not working from home but just use my iMac for pleasure and photographs.
Thanks
iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15
Typically, most people leave their external hard drive plugged in all the time to their desktop Macs. This way, Power Nap, What is Power Nap on Mac? - Apple Support, can function, and you’ll always have up to date Time Machine backups. And even if you don’t have it plugged in all the time, you should make backups more often than once a week, ideally.
Cheers,
Jack
Typically, most people leave their external hard drive plugged in all the time to their desktop Macs. This way, Power Nap, What is Power Nap on Mac? - Apple Support, can function, and you’ll always have up to date Time Machine backups. And even if you don’t have it plugged in all the time, you should make backups more often than once a week, ideally.
Cheers,
Jack
That is how Time Machine in intended to function. With the drive attached all the time, you can never lose more that one hour's work.
The very first backup takes a while because it must copy everything. However, once the first one is done, the rest are much faster incremental backups. If you use a USB3 or USB-C external drive, the incremental ones are almost unnoticeable and certainly unobtrusive.
Thanks Allan - the first backup did take a while, but everything seemed to migrate fine. I bought a new external drive too as my old one was full and not that large.
Your help is appreciated.
Maureen
Thanks very much, Jack - I thought that was the case, but just thought I would check.
Maureen
Leaving external hard drive plugged in to do Time machine backup
