I think it is time to replace my laptop, but before I do so I want to run a final back-up on TM. Does TM save passwords for various web pages, or should I make sure I record them all somewhere before I try to "restore" my data to the new laptop?
I would make a disk image of the current install.
You can make an image via disk utility.. but I recommend you download and install Carbon Copy Cloner.. and create a bootable clone. CCC is free to use for a month.. and IMHO it is well worth the license fee.. but that is not needed just for a clone.
It should be possible to boot the new laptop from the old install if the computers are not too many years apart. You can install an update over the top of existing install and get it working without destroying your user files.
I will need to check if such things are still true for Sierra though.
Certainly it can be helpful to store your keychain.. as keeping track of all the passwords can be a total pain.
To some extent it will also depend on browser. One nice thing about chrome is that you actually sign into the browser not just the OS.. and google keep a copy of your settings and favourites etc online.. It can make swapping computers really easy. Not sure what safari offers.. but you should be able to export a lot of the settings.
While saying nice things about chrome my latest computer problems seem to have corrupted chrome in some way so the world is not all roses!!
If you stored them on the computer, Time Machine will back them up.
(152516)
Thanks. I stored them there, but i am having trouble with my TM (and may need to replace it, too), so I thought I'd best cover all bases.
In addition to Niel's comment, you may want to consider using a password saving utility, like 1Password, to save all of your passwords just in case a backup restore didn't capture them for you.
Does Time Machine saves passwords?
