Do You Use It? What’s Your Backup Strategy

Harking back to my days with a couple Beige G3s, pre-OSX, while running a very remote off-grid cattle ranch (and photography side-business), I still always always keep all files/documents and photos on external drives. Now, in addition, I Time Machine and SuperDuper daily, internal and external drives. The only thing on my internal drives is system stuff. “Documents” folder holds only whatever certain apps install on their own. I do use iCloud and basic, minimal Dropbox but download/backup all those files to my external backup drives. And try to keep those files available offline anyway, so they also are included in Time Machine and SuperDuper backups. Currently running Intel MB Air (Mojave) and iMac (Ventura), both at max OS. The externals all have at least one redundant backup. Still in the boonies (different state), with internet beamed from radio/RF towers, so not as zippy as most of you folks, but better than dialup. Tried CrashPlan a few years ago but slow uploads and got expensive.

While iMac was still under warranty, it went completely dead. Had to drive hours to Apple store which kept it for 10 days and apparently replaced mother board as it returned with a different serial number. I didn’t suffer a minute of downtime, since all my working files were on external drives, not dependent on or meshed with any particular system. Just plugged the external into a friend’s mac. It also makes migrating to new Macs easy.

I second this option. As well as off-site backups (although I suppose Internet Backups are basically the same).

I remember when a customer of mine used Retrospect to backup their data to DLT tape. Every night one of the employees put the full backup of the company in her handbag and went home with it. It saved her company when the building were they had their offices, one night burned down. Since then we always had offsite backups. At one time we mailed backups to our selves every day.
A lot has happened since then, but the problem persists.

My data files are stored on an external SSD. This is backed up to TM for versioning reasons (hourly), to another external SSD (daily) using SuperDuper, and to BackBlaze (constantly). I store as few data files as possible on my mac mini, which means I can be functional even if the mac mini has a crash, needs repairs, etc.

In addition I have a large holding of image and video files and these are stored on a dedicated external SSD with RAID settings and gives flexibility in volume, project and file management and record keeping. This is backed up to another external SSD (hourly) using SuperDuper and to BackBlaze (constantly).

I sync my iPhone and iPad to my mac mini and which means they are backed up. I use DropBox to automatically upload photo and video files taken with iPhone and iPad. I do not use iCloud as I don’t trust iCloud for backups.

I have a weekly Calendar reminder to physically check all backup devices and services and to test the operational functionality of my storage devices.

I have used BackBlaze and external backup SSDs to restore and recover files. I have had to use TM to recover from an issue with my mac mini. Fairly straightforward, but I learnt to keep a physical checklist of settings and customisations.

Many years ago - I attended a talk by a representative from Dantz Software - makers of Retrospect.
She opened by stating - ‘We do not make Backup Software - we make Recovery Software’
Life Lesson here. Whatever system you use - practice a recovery to determine if there is a flaw in your process.
I use Time Machine to local disks and to targets Macs in a different building - Control-click on a folder in the ‘Sharing’ System Settings to set a target Time Machine location
I also use ChronoSync (Outstanding support I might add) to ‘pull’ data from one system to another but again, in different buildings.
Other smaller date needs are covered by iCloud
Hope this helps
Brian

I have multiple Macs with data on multiple external drives and a raid array. I do rely on iCloud and Dropbox for my ‘working files’, my College’s OneDrive for ‘teaching files’ and my project work and archives are backed up daily from the external drives using Chronosync to my big Raid array and Backblaze.

All of my files are not Mac specific. They’re on various clouds or external drives.

The issue I guess is how quickly I can get a Mac back up and running. To be honest I would just switch to a different Mac and be up and running. My last disaster was recent, had to wipe the drive and reinstall Sequoia on my Intel iMac. It was an opportunity in the end to freshen it up, only install what I needed. Even though I have a Chronosync clone I didn’t bother use it.

I currently use Time Machine backup to an 8TB external hard disk plus iCloud Drive synching of my documents. I’ve used online backup via Backblaze in the past, and might consider it again.

I’ve been a firm believer in backups ever since I suffered my first hard disk failure in 2003, and that has saved me many times since then, through several PCs, two iMacs and now a MacBook Air. :relieved: Not just from hardware failure, but occasionally my own stupidity!

At some point, I’d like to get an external SSD for Time Machine backups, as that would be easier to grab in the event of a fire or other structural calamity befalling the house.

I don’t have the funds to afford a second computer right now, so I’d have to wait a while to get back up and running. I actually opted to do a clean install when I got my MacBook Air, then transfer my documents and other data via iCloud or AirDrop and decide which apps I needed.

It doesn’t happen often, but bootable backups have saved my bacon twice (roughly every 10 years, due to a drive failure and a lost MacBook).

I would not normally comment, but the trees are getting in the way of the forest here.

  1. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Stop backing up stuff you do not need; we are digital hoarders!
  2. Do not use software that will not run on current hardware and supported operating systems. If you do, your world is already broken, and you cannot see it.
  3. If your backup is not automatic, you do not have a backup, and your risk level is elevated. It also goes for testing restores that NOBODY does; I’m just saying!
  4. How many times do we have to repeat: SYNC is NOT BACKUP!
  5. Understand what risks you are trying to mitigate before you develop a strategy.
  6. Do not use a shotgun when you only need a fly swatter. AKA scale your tools to your risk.
  7. Do not create digital records that add risk to your world
  8. Do Not Panic!

By the way, this shit is a lot more complex than most of us think. We do not know how to estimate or evaluate risk, let alone mitigate it. These words are not needed past me finishing this post. The nice people at TidBits will do what they do with them on their servers and in their time. Done Finished, Move On. If I felt my words here were of long-term importance, I would not be typing them into this terrible forum software posting system. I would write locally using a plain text editing tool on my computer. So there is no risk of having the internet crash, my house burn down, or me dumping my drink on the keyboard. This text is ephemeral!

If I wanted this text safe, I would type it into IA Writer, which saves the file locally. The IA writer will then sync that file for my use on other devices. Time Machine will back this Mac in the next hour, and sometime today, Pcloud will take the data and store it in an offshore data center (I bet you did not see that risk coming.)

Saving a file in plain text mitigates the risk of custom software going away. If I have the file, I can view or edit it on almost any computer in the past 30 years. If that file was saved in some custom format, then I am at the mercy of the software vendor.

When I take a picture of something on my iPhone, the software saves that image to the “hard drive” on my phone. Then Apple Photos syncs that photo to iCloud. As a risk management strategy, I have Google Photos automatically send that same image to their service. Apple then syncs that photo to my Mac, Time Machine, and Pcloud to back that up. Can you count the failure points? Have I mitigated the risk of losing that photo well enough? I feel pretty good about it. But wait… What was that photo? Is there a risk of having that photo around?

Simple example. I take a picture of my driver’s license on my iPhone to put it in a “secure” place in my digital filing system for an upcoming trip. How can I remove that sensitive document from all the places it has traveled to? Unintended consequences!

I could go on, but I have made my point about data risks.

In closing, pay for services that protect your most important data with reasonable care. iCloud backup and sync are pretty darn good. A Chromebook and Google Services are also pretty good.

Bob

PS I copied this into IA Writer!

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I was burned a few times many years ago by hardware failures (floppy disks, hard drives, etc.) leading to data loss, and I am determined to not let that happen again. My backup strategy might be overkill, but I’d rather be extra safe than sorry.

First, I try to think through the various risks to my data. These include:

  • Accidentally deleting/saving over files - something I’ve done many times over the years
  • Malware/Ransomware or other malicious corruption/deletion by a hacker
  • Natural disaster
  • Burglary
  • Software failure/data corruption
  • Hardware failure (including failure of backup drives or could storage services)
  • Something happening to me – such as me forgetting important passwords, me getting dementia or a brain injury, or my death (inevitable at some point)

It’s important to keep in mind that e-mail hosted by Gmail or any other cloud provider, iMessage data stored in iCloud, and any other data stored in the cloud should be included in one’s backup strategy. Gmail could experience a failure/corruption or a hacker could gain access to a cloud account and delete data (and any such corruption or deletion would be synced to local devices).

I separately maintain a set of critical recovery credentials (passwords, recovery codes, MFA tokens/Yubikey) and instructions in such a way that either I or my family could gain access to my data if something were to happen to me.

Second, when considering backups, I mentally group my data into a few buckets:

    1. Primary Data (Documents folder and a few other folders – stuff that is used, updated, added to regularly)
    1. Critical Primary Data (a subset of #1 that is my most important data in terms of needing to maintain all versions and always have a very current backup)
      My general approach is to maintain frequent backups (with extensive retained versions) of my Primary Data locally, offsite, and in the cloud (with more frequent backups to more locations for my Critical Primary Data).
    1. Media and Other Data (music, photos, videos, setup files, ISO files, etc. – this data is supplemented regularly, but almost never changed after being saved)*
      My general approach for Media and Other Data is to maintain backups (with limited retained versions) locally, offsite, and in the cloud.
    1. System Data (apps, configurations, etc.)*
      My general approach has been to just maintain local backups of my System Data (i.e., the full Data volume on my Mac Studio). But reading this article makes me think that I should, perhaps, consider adding periodic offsite and/or cloud backups of my System Data.
    1. Other Backups
      This includes things like backups of my iPhone using iMazing, Google Takeout backups, Thunderbird and eM Client data, etc. I consider my iMessage conversation history to be very important, so I maintain both backups using iMazing and periodically export iMessage conversations to both PDF and Excel with separately saved attachments. Some of this data is mixed in with #1 and #4, and some is just separately backed up.

I use iCloud+ and store my Documents and Desktop folders in iCloud Drive, so that data is always synced to iCloud and between my Mac Studio M2 Max and my MacBook Air M2. I don’t consider iCloud a true backup, but if my house burned down or if my MacBook was stolen/destroyed while working away from home, I would presumably be able to recover files in my Documents folder. Similarly, I use iTunes Match to sync my local music collection to iCloud and make it available on my iPhone and my MacBook Air. That isn’t a true backup, but presumably I could remover my music collection from iTunes Match if I somehow lost my local copy and my backups.

Other than my Documents and Desktop folders and System Data, I store most of my data on an external NVME in a Thunderbolt enclosure.

My backup strategy for my Mac Studio (my primary computer) is currently:

Automatic Backups

  • Time Machine: hourly backup of entire Data volume to an external NVME drive
  • Carbon Copy Cloner: daily backup of entire Data volume to a 2nd external NVME
  • Carbon Copy Cloner: hourly backup of #1 (Primary Data) to a 3rd external NVME (with Snapshot Thinning currently set to retain hourly snapshots for 2184 hours (91 days), daily snapshots for 180 days, and weekly snapshots indefinitely)
  • Duplicacy: hourly backups of my #1 (Primary Data and a few other things) to a 4th external SSD, which is then synced in real time to Tresorit (encrypted cloud storage located in Switzerland)
  • ChronoSync: hourly synchronizations of #3 (Media and Other Data) to my local NAS (a QNAP device running TrueNAS), with ChronoSync set to retain archives of deleted/replaced files.
  • Arq: every 6 hours backup all of my data, except System Data, to MinIO S3 on my NAS.
  • Arq: daily backup of Primary Data to Backblaze B2 (EU Central) with Object Lock enabled with rolling 1-year data locks to protect against ransomware. I prefer using Arq with Backblaze B2 rather than Backblaze’s own backup software because Arq preserves all extended attributes, Finder tags, etc., and because I feel safer using a separate tool to encrypt my backups rather than relying on the cloud storage provider to both encrypt and store my backups (even though I know Backblaze’s backup software supports local encryption with a private encryption key).
  • Arq: hourly backups (spaced every 15 min.) of #2 (Critical Primary Data) to Backblaze B2 (US West), Backblaze B2 (US East), Backblaze B2 (CA East), and iDrive e2 (Singapore). So every 15 min., a copy of Critical Primary Data is backed up to a different, geographically diverse cloud location. – Pro Tip: You can get 10GB free storage from Backblaze in each of their regions. I pay for storage in the EU Central region, where I store backups of all my Primary Data, but I stay under the 10GB free limit for my Critical Primary Data backups to the other regions.
  • (PLANNED) Syncthing: Real-time (one-way) sync (with file versioning enabled) of my #1 Primary Data, the subfolder for the current and pervious year media (e.g., my Photos/2024 and Photos/2025 folders), and a few other data sets to an external drive connected to an old personal laptop at my office.

Manual Backups

  • ChronoSync: periodic manual backup of all data, except System Data (but maybe I should add that too), to (1) an external hard drive that I keep in my fire safe, and (2) a second external hard drive that I transport between my house and an offsite location to copy the backup data to a third external hard drive that stays in an offsite location.
  • (PLANNED) Blu-Ray M-DISCS: I bought an external LG M-DISC drive and a bunch of Blu-Ray M-DISCS. I plan to burn annual archives of my Primary Data and my Media (photos, music, videos, etc.). The Media backups would just need to include new stuff, so after I burn an M-DISC archive of my 2024 (and prior year) photos, next year I would just need to burn an M-DISC archive of my 2025 photos. I’ll probably store one set of my M-DISC archives at home and one set at a friend’s or relative’s house who lives far from me.
  • (PLANNED) Google Cloud Archive (or other cold storage) Backup of Media (photos, music, videos, etc.) to a cloud cold archive storage, probably Google Cloud Archive, which is currently $0.0012 per GB/mo. This would be a write-once, read/restore only in the event of an epic disaster backup.

MacBook Air
I don’t store anything critical exclusively on my MacBook Air. I store my Documents and Desktop folders in iCloud Drive (synced to my Mac Studio and backed up various ways from there) and I use ChronoSync to automatically sync my Downloads folder between my MacBook Air and my Mac Studio. I use Time Machine to backup my MacBook Air to an external NVME that I keep at home whenever I charge the MacBook Air. I also plan to include my MacBook Air in the Syncthing group described above to one-way sync data to an offsite personal laptop I keep in my office. I may start using Carbon Copy Cloner to make periodic full System Data backups of my MBA to my fire safe + offsite copy hard drives.

UpNote-d! Thanks for the detailed response.

Waiting to reinstall SuperDuper! until the problems are sorted out. I’ve been using Filen.io as a periodic encrypted cloud backup that isn’t connected to anything else. I run it when I want to make a backup. Other than that, iCloud sync for convenience and Time Machine. 1Password for critical private data, which Apple Passwords can’t do.

My strategy currently involves:

  1. All my essential files are stored on Dropbox (most files) or OneDrive (work files that, due to my university’s privacy policy, cannot be stored on Dropbox).

  2. Time Machine to an SSD attached to a headless M1 Mac Mini that’s connected by Ethernet to my WiFi router. That runs while I’m at home.

  3. Nightly Arq backups, originally to Amazon Glacier but now to Arq Cloud Storage. I run this while traveling, unless I’m somewhere that doesn’t have a fast Internet connection.

  4. Occasional clones of my Data volume to an external SSD using Carbon Copy Cloner.

I also have at least one additional Mac available to use in an emergency; I have a personal laptop, and my university provides me with a new laptop every 4-5 years, most recently an M3 13-inch MacBook Air. I don’t keep personal data on the latter, but if my personal Mac failed, I could use the work machine in a pinch while waiting to set up a new personal laptop, and vice-versa if my work machine were to fail.

I’ve never had a catastrophic failure of my primary computer(s) that required a full restoration from a backup, but I have many times used a CCC clone and Migration Assistant to move from an old computer to a new one. And on several occasions I’ve used one of my backups to restore files that I inadvertently deleted or that I discovered had been corrupted.

While cleaning out a closet last month, I did come across a Retrospect backup set from 2003, comprising over 30 CD-Rs! Back then, before Time Machine, my main backup was a nightly Retrospect backup to a FireWire drive; I must have made the CD-R set to store offsite.

I use TimeShare to a local disc and to a NAS in another part of the house, CrashPlan to local discs and the Internet, and CCC to removable discs for specific types of files (music, photos, etc) to removable discs store securely. I also occasionally use CCC for a copy of my internal storage.

I use Time Machine set to back up hourly to an external SSD drive that I carry with me when I’m not at home, and alternating to a dedicated SMB TimeMachine volume on my Synology NAS (though this solution is not for the faint of heart), and in turn I back the entire NAS up weekly to an external USB hard drive that I store in a fireproof safe buried under my house when it’s not in use. I also use iCloud Drive/Desktop and Documents. That’s a lot of redundancy - or at least, enough for me.
The usurious cost of cloud-based backup solutions, combined with the amount of time I previously spent unsuccessfully attempting to keep them up and running, (I’m looking at you Backblaze!), has permanently soured me to those options. No one asked, but I wish Apple would just make an iCloud-premium variation of TimeMachine and include it in one of their premium plans. (While I’m wishing, it would also be nice of them to efficiently optimize this so my Desktop and Documents folder data is deduplicated from, let’s call it “iCloud TimeMachine”, and if they offered and charged less for archival cold storage in iCloud.) I would love to get rid of the NAS, but I have a lot of archived old data (6 TB) from decades of media production and design practice which would cost a lot to keep in the cloud at current prices.

I second this. iCloud+ should include some sort of Time Machine backup solution that is de-duplicated with any other data stored in iCloud.

Adam neglected to leave another viable, proven choice: making weekly bootable SuperDuper! (SD) backups, which is the strategy I use for both of my Macs.

First of all, I am not having any issues using SD with V15.2 of Sequoia for those bootable backups to 2 external Samsung SSDs. It works flawlessly, is reliable, and safe.

Secondly, I am constantly keeping my Macs “lean, mean, and clean”. And when I say constantly, it is just that. Most of the time, it is permanently removing deleted EMails, but I also make sure to keep all my software up to date (I use only third party, reliable software on my Macs). Typically after upgrading, I will remove the prior stored version, and store the new one (for a couple of very vital programs, I always keep 2 versions of each: the current one, and the prior one).

Third, prior to doing the weekly SD backups every Saturday, I first run Onyx to “check things out”, along with some more possible cleaning. Then I launch Disk Utility to make sure all is well. Such a practice is what I also follow for doing cleanup/maintenance of both of our cars, our appliances, etc. Most folks are just too lazy to do that, but I have found it definitely has its benefits. Besides keeping things running smoothly (and costing very little), I get to learn something. Nothing wrong with that. But in this crazy “lazy” world, most folks neglect to do that.

Finally, I will never trust my information to be stored on an outside “service”, area, etc. Just too much risk. Plus, I insist on controlling it completely on my own. Might be old fashioned, but it is a proven way of keeping things safe.

Would like to hear if anyone is having success using SD with V15.2 of Sequoia, and what their backup strategy is.

Backup strategy:

Running a Mac M4 Mini, I also gave up on bootable backups. (Restore and migration assistance, works for me)

  1. Three backups
  2. On two different media
  3. One offsite

Test random restore every three months.

CCC, local external SSD, on desk.
CCC, Network server. (NextCloud run on community server)
Backblaze offsite

Last used: Had to evacuate do to wildfire, threw local potable SSD with CCC backup into go bag. House did not burn. But while I was out I used migration assistance on rental machine.

Twenty+ years ago backups were a vital thing. I’m not so sure any more.

First, most of our data is in the cloud these days. It’s already backed up. Whether or not that’s enough or is secure is another question, but it definitely takes some of the impetus away from more traditional backup methods. I just don’t feel the urgency any more.

Second, as the thread on the death of bootable backups says, those are going away or are already gone. That makes the “whole system” backup less feasible. Now, instead of backing up “everything,” we end up with a strategy where we back up different things in different places in different ways. That’s a lot more complicated and tedious.

Third, installing apps these days isn’t as complicated as the old days. In the ancient past installing a suite like Adobe’s Creative Cloud took many discs and a whole day of work, finding misplaced serial numbers, etc. These days with the Mac App Store and downloadable software, even an entire system rebuild from scratch could be done in half a day. Definitely not as fast as a bootable backup, but that situation is so rare I’m not sure it’s a problem.

While I do need to sit down and some analysis of some of my backup strategies, my current method is this:

  • All active work is stored on Dropbox/Cloud servers.
  • Multiple Macs, and since my work is in the cloud, I can immediately get to work on an alternate Mac if there’s a problem with primary Mac. I do periodically test this by working on different machines some days. It works just fine, though my workflow is simple enough (most text-based writing) and it supports this. Someone in a data-heavy field such as video editing would need a completely different setup.
  • Backblaze backs up several Macs to the internet.
  • One Mac that I kind of use as a server or hub uses Super Duper to clone its drives to external hard drives every night. It used to have Time Machine active, but the TM drive died and I never bothered replacing it. In the past decade I don’t think I ever used Time Machine for any purpose.
  • periodically (once a year) I back up most vital info onto optical discs and store off-site (safety deposit box at bank). This is mostly “useless” archive info (old issues of the magazine I publish), but I wouldn’t want to lose it for historical reasons.

To me this seems like a pretty decent system:

  • I can work on any of my Macs or even an iPad/iPhone (in a pinch).
  • Dropbox is versioned so if I corrupt a file I can go back in time to get a pre-corrupt version of the file.
  • BackBlaze gives me an off-site backup of everything. Not exactly fast to restore an entire system, but the house burned down and I lost everything, I’d have much bigger problems than waiting a whole week to recover data. (And the most vital data is small and could be restored in hours, not days.)
  • off-site backup of archival data

I have had to use my backups on a few occasions. Usually this was just a particular file or project, and it worked fine. Time Machine always seem hit or miss for this (half the time the file I wanted wouldn’t be there or wasn’t accessible for unknown reasons).

The weak spots:

  • I really should export all my photos from iCloud and have my own backup of them. That’s a project for the new year.
  • Same with things like Audible audiobooks (which Amazon stores for me). I do backup my Kindle books myself (they are tiny).
  • Corrupted file(s) can end up being backed up leaving you with no uncorrupted version.
  • Different versions of the OS or data files can cause problems across multiple systems. Not all my Macs are running the same OS, so if I open a Pages file on my Sequoia Mac and save it, I might not be able to read that file on an older Mac that is running an older version of Pages. The same applies to any application, such as Adobe InDesign. This is one of the reasons I prefer plain text formats for data.
  • One of my old Macs is incapable of running Dropbox (or Maestral) any more, which really sucks. I need to upgrade the OS, but that may break some things, so I need to do that with careful research and planning. My big task for the new year.

Versioned – Time Machine on a Samsung T7
Data Volume – Daily with CCC on another Samsung T7

Swap backup disks weekly

I use SuperDuper and used to backup all documents with DropBox. Then DropBox was filled up… Did some research and found Filen as an alternative encrypted cloud storage: Pricing – Filen – Next Generation End-To-End Encrypted Cloud Storage Check out the ‘Starter’ rates. Up to 50Gb free and during November the special offer included 200Gb lifetime for 30 Euros - half price, so I bought that. So filen replaces DropBox for all docs and now all my music and photos too.