Completely backing up everything on my MacBook...

Is there a simple way to take everything on my computer and transfer it onto a new MacBook? Mine is going to be replaced.

It is called Migration Assistant and it is one of the utilities on every Mac. Just be sure you have a standard FireWire cable long enough to connect both computers. When you first start up your new computer you'll get the offer to run MA and you can do it then or look for MA in the Utilities folder and you can run it any time. Just run it and follow the instructions.

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How can I back up everything on my macbook pro on a hard drive

Hi I was wondering how I could backup all of my stuff on my MacBook Pro to my LaCiE Porsche Design Hard Drive. When there was an update for my MacBook Pro a while back I was updating it and an error occurred so i took it to apple and he told me to always back up my stuff before updating because i could lose all of my things on my macbook, but I am not sure how to back them up to my hard drive and I want to update my MacBook Pro to 10.9.5 and also upgrade to OS X Yosemite.

How do I use Time Machine?? and this is what it says in the App Store

I have the new 2011 macbook pro, with lion preinstalled. I want to change the harddrive. I have backed up everything on time machine. when i put my new blank hard drive in will the lion screen startup.How do i get the lion dmg when i am already using lion

I have the new 2011 macbook pro, with lion preinstalled. I want to change the harddrive. I have backed up everything on time machine. when i put my new blank hard drive in will the lion screen startup.How do i get the lion dmg when i am already using lion

NicholasLiban -
When you use the Lion restore as described, it does a fresh install on the hard drive that you can select at the beginning of the process. This provides a complete install of the very latest version of Lion, including the recovery partition. The drive that you choose for the installation destination winds up like what you would have on a brand new computer from Apple.
- Randy

So all the bookmarks I've "bookmarked" for the past year are just gone - I have a mac, how do I go back & retrieve everything I've ever bookmarked on Firefox?

So all the bookmarks I've "bookmarked" for the past year are just gone - I don't understand why Firefox just doesn't automatically save every bookmark you make each session & put them in a place so you can organize them ... maybe there's some extra step you can take every session to force firefox to do this - I don't know what that is - but am also a bit aggravated that there has to be an extra step to do this - Internet Explorer just auto saves everything you bookmark, why can't Firefox - I see this as a big disadvantage to Firefox that needs to be made much simpler ... I have a mac, how do I go back & retrieve everything I've ever bookmarked on Firefox?
I think all the details are sufficiently covered in the question (which then in filling out the help form Firefox quite sillily made me shorten so I reposted the whole thing in this comment above - just another unnecessary step, seems to be the Firefox norm)
And btw the articles on lost bookmarks, saving bookmarks, etc. - were not helpful at all. Very not helpful. Almost anti-helpful.
I generally like Firefox & use it all the time, but this one area as to bookmarks is very frustrating & causing me to seriously consider not using Firefox at all & switching back to Internet Explorer or another browser like Google Chrome. What's the point of bookmarking something (which by itself indicates you are wanting to save the site link so you can re-find & re-visit it in the future) if Firefox just auto deletes all your bookmarking everytime it starts up? Just a completely user-unfriendly idea.

A possible cause is a problem with the file places.sqlite that stores the bookmarks and the history.
S*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Lost_bookmarks

My 2012 Mac Mini came with a SSD and with Yosemite, can I add a SSHD and also migrate everything from a Macbook Pro that is running Lion 10.7.5?

Hi Apple Community,
Today I received a refurbished 2012 i5 Mac Mini that I purchased via Amazon. The Mac Mini came with a 256gb Samsung SSD only installed. The Mac Mini also has 10.10.2 Yosemite.
I am planing on ordering an "OWC Data Doubler Mounting Kit" to add another drive onto the Mac Mini.
(http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYIMM11D2/)
I also plan on getting a second drive which would be a 1tb SSHD Black Western Digital (16GB SSD) 2.5 SATA III (6.0GB/s) 5400RPM drive.
Now here is where I am a very confused and concerned. What I essentially want to do is use Migration Assistant to completely migrate what I have on a 2012 i7 Macbook Pro's 750gb HDD to the Mac Mini's 1tb SSHD drive. I want every file and setting to be placed on my new Mac Mini just the way it is on the Macbook Pro. The Macbook Pro is however using 10.7.5 Lion while my new Mac Mini is using 10.10.2 Yosemite.
What makes me confused is, if I migrate everything from the Macbook Pro onto the 1tb SSHD, would I still be able to benefit by having the 256gb Samsung SSD in the Mac Mini? For instance, would the Mac Mini still be able to boot up super fast and use the SSD to write and read programs very fast? Or is it because I am migrating everything from my Macbook Pro's HDD onto the Mac Mini's 1tb SSHD, my Mac Mini will not be able to use the speed benefits of the SSD?
Another concern is, will I be able to use Yosemite or will I be stuck with 10.7.5 Lion? I would only like Yosemite. I do not mine if Lion is removed from my new Mac Mini.

UPDATE:
Hi again,
I made more research on raid and now I am considering not to raid at all.
Raid0 seems extremely risky because I do not know how the SSD and SSHD would react together.
And Raid1 seems like it would not be able to function the way I would like to store my files. [The SSD is 256gb and SSHD is 1tb, there is no point in raid1]
I think I will just have to add the second drive and use it without raid. I will mostly save media files such as movies, pictures, and music. And for everything else, save it onto the SSD's storage.

Backing up Everything onto External Hard Drive

I've just bought a Western Digital My Book external hard drive to back up everything on my iMac. How do I go about doing this? Can I just drag and drop?

Time Machine may not provide a bootable backup, but it does provide a backup process that is automatic and up-to-date to within ONE HOUR of active use. A clone is only as good as the last time you bothered to run a backup, which is a time-consuming process that you initiate manually. Although you cannot boot off the Time Machine backup disk, you can boot off your Mac OS X installation disc (for Leopard or Snow Leopard) and run the utility to do a complete startup volume restore. Unlike a clone, which can only be restored to the +last look+ (that may be a few weeks old), you can restore the complete volume using Time Machine to within the last hour before failure or to ANY past archived state.
Although I did not trust Time Machine initially as my only backup, I now treat it as my only backup for most of my personal data. I would trade the automatic +set it and forget it+ background process and the +restore to within one hour+ recency of the backup, to the backup being "bootable," any day. I do keep a separate backup (on a separate drive) of my most critical files, not because I don't trust Time Machine, but because it is possible for the primary drive and backup drive to both fail at the same time.

Can i erase everything on my macbook without.....

2 questions:
Is there a way to do the following?
1. erase everything on my macbook except my itunes account with my music and purchases?
2. A friend gave me her install 10.6.1 disk and i was wondering if its something i should install and if so can i do that and erase everything on my macbook except my itunes account with my music and purchases?

Hi....Welcome to Apple Discussions...
1...use 'iTunes Help' from the upper menu bar while iTunes is the active application to give you options for backing up your iTunes Library ie...an external drive or burn to CD's/DVD's.....type "Backup" into the 'search' box...
2...From a legal standpoint OSX is only to be installed on one computer at a time (unless she has a "Family" license) ....so if 10.6 is on her Mac from that install DVD it would be wrong...
....From a technical standpoint if the install disk is a machine specific disk (shipped with her mac) it would probably not work right in your MacBook...(only the Retail versions will work in a broad spectrum of Mac's)

HT201318 Do I need enough storage to completely back up my entire hard drive?

I need to have a complete back up of my hard drive, but I also need to stream my videos and photos so they take up all my hard drive space and slow my machine. I want this to happen directly between my iphone and macbook.

Get another drive for your streaming and storage needs. Use another drive for your backup needs. Backup and storage should not be combined on the same drive if you value your data.

How do I back up everything before repair?

I have to send my iphone 4s for repair and they have told me they are going to wipe it completely. Please can someone tell me (in simple terms!) how to back up everything (including camera roll) to my laptop or icloud if possible and also how I restore it all again when I get my iphone back?
Thanks

Have you ever used iTunes on your computer before to sync your iPhone? If not, just make sure your iTunes is the most current version on your computer. After that, connect your iPhone to the Charging Cable and then to the USB port on your computer. Don't worry about if your iPhone is on or off, and if off don't worry about responding to the iPhone screen while you are connecting to your Computer. If things work the way they are supposed to...
One of two things will happen...
Sometimes peoples Photo App will open and they can transfer their iPhone Camera Roll photos to this App on their Computer. If this happens, just name the album on your computer and save the photos. When that is done just close the Photo App on your Computer.
The second thing that may have happened is that iTunes may have opened... if not click on iTunes icon for the App on your computer and open it now. Once iTunes opens look toward the upper right of the screen and see if there is a Box that says something like "iPhone" in it. Click on that box and see if your iTunes screen goes to the Status Screen saying what iOS Release you are on and if it is time for an Update. Because you said your iPhone needs to be repaired, and because I don't know what is wrong with it ... Rather thna worrying about the iOS Update, look down at the bottom right of your Computer iTunes screen and see if there is a "Sync" button. If so click on it and just wait while the Sync goes through 8 of 8 Steps and finishes. When finished look back up at the iPhone Box and click on the Done or Eject icon. Remove your USB cable from the computer and get ready to send your iPhone in for Repair.

NEW COMPLETE BACK UP THAT DELETED ALL PREVIOUS BACK UPS

I have a 1TB Time Capsule that I bought in October 2008. I have been using it with Time Machine for back ups. Earlier this week Time Machine gave me a message that it wanted to do a new complete back up that would delete my previous back ups. I thought this was weird, but it said it would improve reliability. It would not do any back ups until I agreed. I didn't want to start it at that time because I wanted to update to Mountain Lion before getting rid of any back ups. Too late! I have updated to Mountain Lion and gotten all the updates released this week, meanwhile the back up started and delete nearly 4 years worth of back ups! Has this happened to anyone else?

I'm having the same issue, but my TC is only 4 months old. I'm glad I have a separate external hard drive that will do backups, but it was supposed to alternate between the TC and external drive.
Everything was working fine until upgrading to ML....
This is a screenshot that I just took and the Data (TC) drive has been sitting like this since last night when it wanted to do a brand new backup and delete all previous ones. Left the computer on all night because it said that the backup would take approximately 17 hours. Geez...
Message was edited by: calston5

How do I use my Time Capsule to back up my wife's MacBook Pro running 10.4.

I just installed a Time Capsule. I've extended the range with two Airport Expresses. I've connected my MacBook running 10.6.3 to the wireless network. I've connected my wife's MacBook Pro running 10.4.11 to it. I've connected my wife's 3G iPhone to it and my first gen iPhone to it and our Apple TV to it. All devices can connect to the internet. I've connected the Time Capsule to the printer and printed wirelessly from both computers.
I've backed up my MacBook and seen that the Time Machine is backing up my MacBook as it should.
How do use the Time Capsule to back up my wife's MacBook Pro running 10.4.11? I've tried connecting them via ethernet cable and via USB cable. In both cases the Time Capsule failed to show up as an external drive and wasn't seen by the 10.4.11 back up utility.
How do people do this? (Other than convincing their wives to let them upgrade their MacBook Pro to 10.6.3?)

James Elliott1 wrote:
How do people do this? (Other than convincing their wives to let them upgrade their MacBook Pro to 10.6.3?)
That really is your best option. Sooner or later, you're going to have a problem with the "other" data on your Time Capsule, since the backups of your Mac will, eventually, fill up all the available empty space. That will, of course, limit the space available for the other backups.
There's a very cumbersome workaround in the blue box of #Q3 of the Using TIME MACHINE with a TIME CAPSULE *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
Another is to connect a USB drive to the Time Capsule, partition it if desired, and back up one Mac to it and the other to the TC's internal drive.

Can I use two Time Capsules? one as an extension of my laptop (for music and video storage) and the other one to back up everything from the laptop and Time Capsule (for music and videos)

Can I use two Time Capsules? one as an extension of my laptop (for music and video storage) and the other one to back up everything from the laptop and Time Capsule (for music and videos)

Not via Time Machine. It cannot back up from a network location.
The 3rd-party apps CarbonCopyCloner and ChronoSync may be workable alternatives.
EDIT: And, if you're going to do that, you could back up from the Time Capsule to a USB drive connected to the TC's USB port. Second TC not required.
Message was edited by: Pondini

I have multiple apple ids was backing up everything to iCloud from iPhone 5. I just bought iPhone 6 and perform a iCloud restore. I received a message that all files did not restore. How can I restore apps, files manually?

I have multiple apple ids was backing up everything to iCloud from iPhone 5. I just bought iPhone 6 and perform a iCloud restore. I received a message that all files did not restore. How can I restore apps, files manually?

Yes - I connected my phone to my computer / Itunes and went into the apps section, but from there I have no idea how to manage the push notifications. I even tryied going into itunes that is installed on my phone. I still cannot find anyplace to manage these popups. I have also gone into settings - notifiations - and tried turning all notifications for these apps all off but that didnt work either. Any guidance is MUCH appreciated - Im not sure where to go from here.

Time machine says unable to complete back up an eror occurred while creating back up folder

Time machine shows error message "unable to complete back up an error occurred while creating back up folder" No error code is diplayed but if I turn the whole system off and restart it time machine backs up just the once

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message that corresponds to a failed backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showning, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Does Time Machine *really* back-up everything?

I've run into some problems with my computer and will have it repaired tomorrow. They will be replacing the hard disk, so I need to make sure I have everything before I give it to them tomorrow morning. I used Time Machine to back up things, so all should be fine. Theoretically, I guess... ;-)
I've now restored from Time Machine back-up to a different computer - this is the one I'll be using while my own is being fixed. But: About 40GB (of about 300GB in total) seems to be missing! The file number reported by Disk Utility is about the same (I've been using the "new" Mac for a day, so I expect it to be different), and I've used "du" in terminal to find out whether there are any major discrepancies but haven't found any. Maybe a few massive swap files that are ignored? Or what could it be?
Any idea what's going on???
Sebastian

No one is an idiot.
It is worth going to Apple's website and reading all the info on their pages about these products. They tell a lot and there are usually links to tutorials.
Time Machine backs up everything the first time. Then it only backs up changes. When you enter time machine you will seethe series of what ever folder you are in running back into space. You can go to a specific date and the version of say a letter will be in the state it was in at the time of that back up.
The same is true for the contest of a folder. If a back up runs at 2:00 pm and the you delete the file at 3:00 the file will remain in the 2:00 pm back up.
There is an option to exclude files from the back up. My opinion is that backing up the system files all the time isn't worth it. I find if there is a system problem I want to reinstall the whole thing fresh.
This works if you don't mind sitting through software installs.
Time Machine if left alone will back up the entire system and keep it current. Once the back up drive is full however it will start deleting old back ups. It will let you know it is going to do this. You can choose to let that happen or add a new drive. It isn't the best system for a permanent archive.
I have excluded everything but my home folder. I expect to get at least a years worth on my drive and at that point a new drive wouldn't be that big a deal.
Hope this helps.
Greg

Completely backing up everything on my MacBook...

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