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How to Remove Stuck Time Machine Backups from Mac Trash Due to System Integrity Protection Error

Aug 23, 2018 - 10 Comments
How to fix Time Machine backup stuck in Trash due to System Integrity Protection

If you’re trying to remove a Time Machine backup from a drive and find that it’s stuck in the Mac Trash with a specific error message stating the trash can’t be emptied because “Some items in the Trash cannot be deleted because of System Integrity Protection”, then read on to learn how to resolve this … Read More

How to Verify Time Machine Backups

Feb 1, 2017 - 34 Comments
Verify Time Machine backups on Mac

Some Mac users may wish to verify the integrity of their Time Machine backups before using a snapshot or backup to restore a Mac using Time Machine. This verification offers a simple way to know if the Time Machine backup data stored on an server or Time Capsule has been modified or corrupted, and can … Read More

How to Downgrade macOS Sierra & Revert to El Capitan

Oct 2, 2016 - 35 Comments
Downgrade macOS Sierra

For the vast majority of Mac users, macOS Sierra is a nice upgrade that goes without a hitch. For a small number of users, macOS Sierra presents a unique variety of problems that are impervious to all troubleshooting attempts, even reinstalling Sierra or a clean install. If you fall into the latter camp, or just … Read More

Get Mac OS X to Stop Asking to Use New Disks for Time Machine

Jun 22, 2016 - 8 Comments
Time Machine in Mac OS X

All Mac users should setup Time Machine backups with an external hard drive, Time Capsule, or network drive to insure they have regular automatic backups made of their stuff and MacOS X installation. But once you have a backup drive established with Time Machine, or if you use a different backup approach entirely, you may … Read More

Speed Up Time Machine by Removing Low Process Priority Throttling

Apr 17, 2016 - 18 Comments
Speed up Time Machine

It’s well known that all Mac users should set up Time Machine to automate backups of their computer, and while most Mac users let OS X go about backing up to Time Machine at it’s own pace, which sometimes borderlines on glacial, some users may wish to speed the backup process up a bit. With … Read More

How to Remove a Disk from Time Machine on Mac

Apr 13, 2016 - 19 Comments
Time Machine in Mac OS X

All Mac users should have regular automatic backups setup with Time Machine, it’s easy to use and ensures that your personal data and entire Mac is recoverable in the event something goes wrong with the computer. Some people go even further and setup redundant Time Machine backups with multiple disks for added data protection. But … Read More

Fix Slow Time Machine Backups on a Mac

Mar 19, 2016 - 70 Comments
Fix a slow Time Machine backup

The amount of time it takes to complete a Time Machine backup depends on a variety of things, like the amount of data being backed up, the destination drive speed, the speed of the internet connection if the backup is going to a Time Capsule, whether it’s the initial backup or a delta backup of … Read More

How to Check the Time Remaining of a Time Machine Backup in Mac OS X

Sep 11, 2015 - 20 Comments
Check the time remaining of a Time Machine backup in Mac OS X

If you have ever wanted to know exactly how much time Time Machine is going to take to complete a current backup of a Mac, you’ll likely have noticed the Time Machine menu bar item shows the progress, but not the time before the backup is completed. Instead, if you want to see the time … Read More

How to Restore a Mac from a Time Machine Backup

Aug 24, 2015 - 55 Comments
How to restore an entire Mac from Time Machine backup

Need to restore a Mac from a Time Machine backup? This article will show you how to do that. While Macs have a great reputation for being stable and rarely experiencing major issues, the reality is that sometimes things can go wrong. Typically this happens when either a hard drive fails or a Mac OS … Read More

How to Delete Old Backups from Time Machine on Mac

Jul 27, 2015 - 41 Comments
Time Machine in Mac OS X

If you use Time Machine to backup a Mac to an external drive, you may decide to manually delete old backups that are no longer needed. Yes, Time Machine does it’s own housekeeping, but sometimes users need to manually intervene. This can be for a variety of reasons, whether for simple removal of old backups, … Read More

How to Set Up Time Machine Backups in Mac OS X

Jul 12, 2015 - 49 Comments
How to setup Time Machine Backups in Mac OS X

Time Machine is an easy Mac backup solution built into Mac OS X that allows for automated continual backups of files, apps, and the operating system itself. Not only does Time Machine make it incredibly easy to maintain frequent automatic backups of a Mac, it also makes it equally simple to restore from a backup … Read More

How to Browse & Revert to Prior Versions of a File in Mac OS X

Jun 16, 2015 - 6 Comments
File version control and revision in Mac OS X made easy

All modern releases of Mac OS X include a powerful built-in version control system that allows a user to revert to any previously saved version of a file or document, assuming the app supports the version revision feature. This ability is often overlooked by Mac users, but it can be a real lifesaver when you’ve … Read More

Fix Time Machine When Stuck on “Preparing Backup” in Mac OS X

Mar 31, 2014 - 91 Comments
Time Machine stuck on Preparing Backup

Time Machine is by far the simplest way to keep regular and reliable backups of a Mac, and usually the automatic backups start and finish without any incident. On some rare occasions though, Time Machine may get stuck* on the “Preparing Backup” stage for an inordinately long amount of time, causing a backup to never … Read More

Unable to Empty Trash and Delete Time Machine Backups? Here’s How to Fix That

Aug 12, 2013 - 42 Comments
Empty the Trash when Time Machine backups won't delete

Despite Time Machine being a remarkable solution for easy backups, a peculiar issue can arise for some Time Machine users that causes the Mac OS X Trash to not be able to empty when the backup drive is connected to the Mac. This will usually manifest itself as the following; a user attempts to empty … Read More

Easy Redundant Mac Backups with Time Machine and Multiple Drives

Aug 9, 2013 - 4 Comments
Use Time Machine to backup to multiple drives

Having reliable and regular backups of your Mac should be considered a mandatory part of maintenance, and for most users Time Machine provides that with easy and peace of mind. But what if you want multiple backups stored in different places, like a backup at home, and another at the office, or perhaps a backup … Read More

How to Remove a File or Folder from Time Machine Backups in Mac OS X

Aug 6, 2013 - 7 Comments
Enter Time Machine

Time Machine is the simplest way to keep a reliable backup of everything on your Mac, but sometimes we don’t want every file or folder saved, or maybe you just no longer need a given directory to be preserved by external backups. In these situations, removing backups of any specific file or folders, or even … Read More

How to Safely Move Time Machine Backups to a New Hard Drive

Jul 7, 2013 - 10 Comments
Move Time Machine backups to a new hard drive

You can switch hard drives that Time Machine backs up to easily, but to properly migrate from one Time Machine backup drive to another and preserve the existing archived backups, you’ll want to take a few additional steps to insure that your existing prior backups are safely moved over as well. This is an easy … Read More

Use a Single External Hard Drive for Time Machine Backups and File Storage

May 1, 2013 - 58 Comments
Specify the Time Machine partition

Having regular backups of your Mac is a necessity, and there is really no easier way to consistently back up your Mac than by using the excellent Time Machine feature of OS X. But with the enormous size of external hard drives and their prices becoming cheaper and cheaper, it’s not always necessary to dedicate … Read More

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