I accidently changed my OS from Sierra to Mojave, and now my macbook pro does not work right.
Having bought extra storage on icloud, I felt that I didn't need to backup with time machine. Therefore, my latest backup on time machine was March, 2018.
Can I restore my macbook pro from icloud?
MacBook Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12.6)
iCloud is not a backup solution. If you have turned on all iCloud's features and you have enough iCloud space, iCloud will contain everything in your Documents folder, your email, events, reminders, Photos, Contacts, notes Safari bookmarks, and password keychain. It does not backup any other folders in your account (music for example) nor does it back up your operating system, configurations, or applications. In other words, TimeMachine (or some other backup program) with an external drive is not an option but a necessity. It isn't a question of if you will ever need a backup it is when.
"On the cloud" is great for sharing photos, but is not a viable backup solution for everything you have. The stuff is not under your control, and is subject to sloppy handling, arbitrary changes in policy, theft, data loss, and bankruptcy of the company that holds it. It can easily take three days to restore it at ordinary Internet speeds.
If you do not have a recent backup, your computer is like a ticking Time bomb. You are only one disk failure away from losing EVERYTHING! Drives do not last forever. It is not a question of IF it will fail, only WHEN it will fail.
If you are using another direct-to-disk backup method that you prefer, and you currently have a recent backup, that is great. If not, you should consider using Built-in Time Machine. Take steps to acquire an external drive as soon as possible. If you buy one, a drive 2 to 3 times or larger than your boot drive is preferable for long term trouble-free operation. Do not pay extra for a drive that is fast. (You can get by for a while with a "found" smaller drive if necessary, but it will eventually become annoying).
Attach your external drive and use
System preferences > Time machine ...
... to turn on Time Machine. It may ask to initialize the new drive, and that is as expected.
Time Machine may spend all afternoon making your first full backup. You can continue to do your regular work while it does this. The first Full Backup is by far the biggest backup. After that, it will work quietly and automatically in the background, without interrupting your regular work, and only save the incremental changes.
Time machine's "claim to fame" is that it is the backup that gets done, because it does not ruin performance of the rest of the computer while doing its backup operations. You do not have to set aside a "Special Time" when you only do backups. When you need it, your Time machine Backup is much more likely to be there.
How to use Time Machine to Backup or Restore your Mac:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht201250
If you choose to connect your backup drive only from time-to-time, try to do so at least every-other day, at minimum. Otherwise, it may take several hours of computation just to decide what needs to be backed up, before any files are transferred.
Thanks for the reply, dwb!
My wife talked me into calling Apple Support. It was like a real man's hesitation to open the instructions on how to put together your new patio furniture. But, I swallowed my pride, and made the call. It is not easy to get an actual phone number, or any of the other support options without a VALID serial number, and the number printed ON my MacBook is not valid, which I learned is a problem with my logic board. It makes no sense to me that Apple would have no record of the printed serial number on the product.
Regardless, I finally reached a tech, and I must give him (David) 5++ Stars for his determination to fix what I had messed up. It took over an hour of his patience, but through so many steps where I had to use three fingers on each hand, at the same time, to hold down keys for so many seconds, then wait, and wait, for progress bars to slowly go from 0% to 100%, while we made small talk.
When it was all over, my MacBook Pro had been completely restored, as if I had never messed up by trying to change my Sierra OS to Mojave.
THANK YOU DAVID !!!!!
How do I restore my macbook pro from icloud?
