{"id":44304,"date":"2018-04-11T08:17:49","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T13:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=44304"},"modified":"2018-04-13T10:54:25","modified_gmt":"2018-04-13T15:54:25","slug":"backup-month-time-machine-local-snapshots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/44304-backup-month-time-machine-local-snapshots\/","title":{"rendered":"Backup Month: Time Machine Local Snapshots"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Most Mac users are aware of Time Machine<\/a>, the backup utility that\u2019s part of macOS. What you may not know is that you may be able to restore data that is lost or corrupted even if your Time Machine backup disk isn\u2019t connected. This is thanks to a feature of Time Machine called local snapshots<\/strong>, which stores backup information on your built-in startup drive and other local drives.<\/p>\n

When backing up a Mac, Time Machine normally backs up to the drive that you\u2019ve designated as a Time Machine backup disk. For example, you might be using an OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro<\/a> or speedy Thunderbolt 3 Envoy Pro EX<\/a> as a Time Machine backup disk for a MacBook or an OWC Mercury Elite Pro<\/a> as a backup for your iMac.<\/p>\n

Time Machine stores its backup data onto the Time Machine backup disk, but it\u2019s also creating a local snapshot once every hour and before any macOS update is installed\u2026 just in case something goes bad during an update.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the magic in action:<\/strong> if you enter Time Machine (see screenshot below) when your backup disk isn\u2019t attached or available, you\u2019ll still see backups that you can access. They\u2019re all from local snapshots. Just like restoring backups of files and folders from a backup drive using Time Machine,  <\/span>you can restore data from the local snapshots.<\/p>\n

\"Time
(Time Machine showing backups over time.)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is particularly useful with MacBooks, as you may not always have your backup drive available. You can rest assured that you still have local snapshots available to restore files you may have inadvertently deleted. <\/span><\/p>\n

When running macOS High Sierra<\/a> and using an all-flash storage device in your Mac or directly connected to your Mac, Time Machine stores snapshots on those APFS-formatted drives. If you\u2019re using an earlier version of macOS, Time Machine stores snapshots on the internal startup disk of any MacBook, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, as well as on any Mac OS Extended (HFS+) formatted storage devices that are connected to that computer. <\/span><\/p>\n

In order to keep a lot of storage space available on your Mac, snapshots that are older than 24 hours are automatically deleted (you\u2019ll still have a backup copy if you\u2019ve connected your Mac to the external drive). In addition, snapshots are stored only on disks with a lot of free space. When storage space is getting low, any additional snapshots are deleted by Time Machine, starting with the oldest. <\/span><\/p>\n

Frequent readers of the Rocket Yard may remember a recent article about scheduling Time Machine backups<\/a>. Part of that post discussed TimeMachineEditor, a handy free utility for scheduling backups. One of TimeMachineEditor\u2019s features is a checkbox for creating local snapshots every hour. This is a handy way to ensure that your Mac is making those local snapshots and keeping your computer safe \u2014 even when your backup drive isn\u2019t attached.<\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong> Find the perfect Time Machine backup drive for your Mac at macsales.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most Mac users are aware of Time Machine, the backup utility that\u2019s part of macOS. What you may not know is that you may be able to restore data that is lost or corrupted even if your Time Machine backup disk isn\u2019t connected. This is thanks to a feature of Time Machine called local snapshots, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":39995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"class_list":["post-44304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-tips"],"yoast_head":"\nBackup Month: Time Machine Local Snapshots<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Local snapshots store backup information on your built-in startup drive and other local drives.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/44304-backup-month-time-machine-local-snapshots\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Backup Month: Time Machine Local Snapshots\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Local snapshots store backup information on your built-in startup drive and other local drives.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/44304-backup-month-time-machine-local-snapshots\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rocket Yard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/stevensande\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-11T13:17:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-04-13T15:54:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" 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