Continuing Time Machine backups on a new Mac

Good afternoon everybody,

I have been having a MacBook 2011 until a few months ago backupped with TM.

I just bought a new Mac.

I tried to connect on the new Mac the previous Mac TM backup and I have been asked by the system if I wanted ti continue these backups or start new ones.

What are the upsides and downsides of giving continuity to my old TM backups?

Thanks and Regards.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Nov 9, 2026 10:49 AM

Reply
2 replies

Nov 9, 2026 2:31 PM in response to Jet787

If you opt to inherit the old backup on the new machine, then Time Machine will act as if the backup files are for the new machine, and it will continue to add files to the backup, and you can recover files from the earlier backups, even if they, technically, are older than this machine.


If you start a new backup sequence, then Time Machine will leave the old backups in place and start a new backup sequence for the new machine.


The difference is really whether you want to lock the old machine into a historical record (it won't get any more updates, but also old files won't get deleted), or whether you want to use the old backups as if they'd been part of the new machine's history all along.

Nov 10, 2026 2:54 AM in response to Camelot

Thank you very much for your support.

What you mean with “it won't get any more updates”? Does it mean that if connected to the old Mac it won’t do any more TM shots for that Mac but it will only work on the new one?

Also, are the old TM backups going to be delayed as standard when there is no more space on the backup drive?

Continuing Time Machine backups on a new Mac

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