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I have recently backed up my iMac to the iCloud. Can I also continue backing up with Time Machine to external drive as I was before? I know it’s redundant, but I’d feel better about it
iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15
If you have synced Mac data via iCloud Drive or iCloud Photos you can still backup to an external drive. However, if you turned on Optimize Mac Storage in iCloud Photos preferences and/or turned on Optimize Mac Storage for iCloud Drive in Apple menu > System Settings, then it is possible that some of your data is optimized and does not have a local copy on the Mac. In that case, that data will not be included in a backup to an external drive.
Apple offers iCloud Backup for iPhones and iPads but not for Mac computers.
It is possible to sync data from a Mac to iCloud if you turn on those options (e.g., iCloud Photos, iCloud Drive including the Desktop & Documents option). Syncing has some of the benefits of a backup (and the benefit of being offsite) but is not the same as a backup. Major differences include the fact that not everything on your Mac can be synced and the fact that if you delete something, accidentally or otherwise, there is only a limited time period (30 days in most cases) during which it can be recovered.
Also see the Apple article: How to back up your Mac - Official Apple Support
And more information on syncing in:
Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support
and
Access and manage your files in iCloud Drive - Apple Support
and
Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support
If you have synced Mac data via iCloud Drive or iCloud Photos you can still backup to an external drive. However, if you turned on Optimize Mac Storage in iCloud Photos preferences and/or turned on Optimize Mac Storage for iCloud Drive in Apple menu > System Settings, then it is possible that some of your data is optimized and does not have a local copy on the Mac. In that case, that data will not be included in a backup to an external drive.
Apple offers iCloud Backup for iPhones and iPads but not for Mac computers.
It is possible to sync data from a Mac to iCloud if you turn on those options (e.g., iCloud Photos, iCloud Drive including the Desktop & Documents option). Syncing has some of the benefits of a backup (and the benefit of being offsite) but is not the same as a backup. Major differences include the fact that not everything on your Mac can be synced and the fact that if you delete something, accidentally or otherwise, there is only a limited time period (30 days in most cases) during which it can be recovered.
Also see the Apple article: How to back up your Mac - Official Apple Support
And more information on syncing in:
Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support
and
Access and manage your files in iCloud Drive - Apple Support
and
Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support
Thank you for your quick reply. I didn’t optimize the photos as I wanted to keep the full resolution on my end. (I have a lot of photos on the Mac and was surprised that they were 138GB on it but only 38GB in cloud; but I guess that’s normal ).
I appreciate your info. My iMac is older and I’ll feel better with a local backup until I replace the machine. Currently, it appears that everything except my desktop is in the iCloud as I can access my documents from my iPhone. I plan to replace the machine with a MacBook Air soon. Would you recommend using the external backup or the migration assistant and the iMac? Thanks again for your help and the links
I've never used Migration Assistant so don't know much about it (also don't know of anything wrong with it). One option is to use it with your external backup.
I recently got a new Mac and just let iCloud Photos sync and I manually copied my Documents folder to an external drive and then manually copied them to the new Mac. I manually installed my applications. That's the hard way but I had the time.
That sounds good to me. I recently replaced my iPad at the Apple Store and they transferred everything from the old one. Seemed pretty straightforward.
Thank you for your help.
When using iCloud backup, can I also backup to external storage
