Reassess Your Backup Strategy
If you’re reading this book for the first time, you may not already have a backup strategy, in which case feel free to skip this chapter for now and move on to Choose Backup Software. But I suggest returning to this chapter in a year or so, by which time you may benefit from its recommendations. If you already have a backup strategy, though, read on to learn the best way to proceed.
Just as I reevaluate my own stance every so often, you too should periodically reassess your backup strategy in light of new information. If you read an earlier incarnation of one of my books and set up your backup system based on what I said years ago, I’d like you to reassess your strategy right now. In any case, put a reminder on your calendar for one year from now to come back and (re)read this chapter, then reassess your strategy again!
I want to begin with a brief “state of the union” look at what has changed in the last year or so (as I write this in early 2019), and then say a few words about Factors to Reevaluate as you reconsider your backup strategy, both now and every year. Feel free to skim this chapter to see which topics are applicable to you; you might want to jot down a few notes about those topics to help you identify items to concentrate on as you reformulate your backup approach.
What’s New in Mac Backups
Since version 3.0 of Take Control of Backing Up Your Mac in December 2017, a number of things have changed that affect Mac backups. I present the highlights here in a number of different categories.
Prosoft Ends Development of Data Backup
One of my long-recommended Mac backup apps, Prosoft’s Data Backup, has now marched off into the great beyond. More precisely, development has stopped, and although the company still sells the app, it comes with limited support and is fully functional only up through 10.12 Sierra. I’m sad to see it join the ranks of other previous favorite backup apps such as Synk and CrashPlan Home. Speaking of which…
CrashPlan for Home Is Finally Gone
In August 2017, Code42 Software discontinued its consumer online backup service, CrashPlan for Home, but let people who had recently signed up run out their subscription. The last of those grandfathered accounts expired in August 2018. I covered the saga in my TidBITS article CrashPlan Discontinues Consumer Backups. But the long and the short of it is that CrashPlan, which I’d heartily recommended for many years—for both local versioned backups and online backups—is now off the table.
Well, for some people, it’s not entirely off the table. CrashPlan does have a backup service for small businesses that’s still available, even to consumers with just one computer to back up. But it costs twice as much as CrashPlan for Home did; it lacks popular features of the consumer version, such as peer-to-peer backups; it still uses a clunky, Java-based client; and it means entrusting your data to a company that has shown itself not to be trustworthy.
There are lots of other cloud backup services. I’ve switched to Backblaze (see Self-Contained Cloud Backup Services) for my family’s online backup needs, and I discuss other options later in this book. But candidly, none of them have the breadth of features, the flexibility, or the overall value that CrashPlan for Home offered, so my enthusiasm about cloud backups as a whole has become, shall we say, more muted.
Retrospect Goes Solo
Now for some happier news. Another Mac backup app I’ve long recommended, Retrospect, now comes in a new edition for individual users: Retrospect Solo. This new product has most of the powerful features for which Retrospect has long been known, but it’s far less expensive at only $49, and slightly less complex. On the downside, Retrospect Solo works with only one computer (so, no client-server mode), it can’t use a NAS device as a source or destination, and it doesn’t support tape or optical drives as destinations either (not that an individual user is likely to care). If you want those more-advanced features, you’ll have to step up to Retrospect Desktop, which starts at $119 but can back up five Macs on your network. I say more about both apps in Retrospect and Retrospect Tips.
APFS Evolves in Mojave
In 10.13 High Sierra, Apple introduced a file system: Apple File System, or APFS. It supersedes the decades-old Mac OS Extended file system (otherwise known as HFS Plus), with promises of better performance (at least for SSD users), improved data integrity, and greater security (among other virtues). Its reach has now been extended.
In September 2018, 10.14 Mojave was released. Whereas High Sierra used APFS only for SSD startup volumes, Mojave uses it for all startup volumes (including mechanical hard drives and Fusion drives). This change brings the benefits of APFS to more people, but it also comes at a cost, as the performance of APFS on mechanical hard drives is quite poor.
APFS has a built-in mechanism for making snapshots that’s somewhat reminiscent of the method certain backup apps use (see Snapshots and File Lists). In theory, this should be a capability that backup apps can tap into to get quicker, easier, and more compact backups. However, at present, only Time Machine seems to have access to this capability—and even then, only in the limited sense of storing local, temporary backups while your backup disk is disconnected (as I mentioned just above). Perhaps other backup apps will be able to take advantage of this feature in the future.
But there’s a bigger problem with APFS: Time Machine can’t use an APFS-formatted disk as a backup destination, because APFS has no concept of hard links, which Time Machine depends on (see The Magic of Hard Links). So even though Disk Utility in High Sierra or later will let you reformat your Time Machine disk to use APFS, you should not do this, because Time Machine won’t work; you’ll be forced to erase the disk and restart your backups from scratch. Ouch. I have heard nothing about whether, when, or how Apple plans to address this.
The introduction of APFS also made life difficult for developers of backup software, because it was poorly documented at first and a lot of things work in, shall we say, surprising ways. Dave Nanian, the developer of SuperDuper!, wrote about one such situation in his article Fraternal Twins. Mike Bombich, the creator of Carbon Copy Cloner, wrote about another issue in Think twice before encrypting your HFS+ volumes on High Sierra.
In short, although APFS holds great promise, it currently leaves Mac users and developers alike in a sort of uncomfortable limbo, making decisions that should otherwise be straightforward (like “How should I format my backup disk?”) unnecessarily complicated.
T2 Chips Change the Backup Rules
Recent Mac models, such as the iMac Pro and the Mac mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro models introduced in 2018, use a new Apple T2 Security Chip. The T2 chip adds a number of security features, and of course I’m all for extra security. However, it also complicates a couple of things when it comes to backups. To wit:
You can still make a bootable duplicate, but in order to actually boot from that duplicate, you’ll have to follow these instructions to reboot in macOS Recovery, choose Utilities > Startup Security Utility, and select “Allow booting from external media” under External Boot. Then restart your Mac. (Note that you should not change the Secure Boot setting, however.)
It’s no problem to create a bootable duplicate of an APFS startup volume onto a backup disk formatted as HFS Plus; such a disk is still bootable (keeping in mind the previous point). However, if that HFS Plus volume is encrypted (as I generally recommend; see Encryption), a Mac with a T2 chip can’t boot from it. So you must either forgo encryption on your bootable duplicates or format the destination volume as AFPS, create the duplicate, boot from the duplicate, and enable FileVault. This is even more of a pain considering how slow APFS is on mechanical hard drives.
Privacy Concerns Increase
High-profile hacking cases have continued to occur at troubling rates. Every week or two, another big site announces that it’s suffered a data breach, often involving the exposure of millions of passwords (or other private information). These cases highlight the need to be cautious with what information is stored online and how it’s protected.
Throughout this book, I discuss using encryption as one means of protecting your backed-up data. You should also use excellent passwords and enable two-factor authentication where available. For details on all these things, see my book Take Control of Your Online Privacy.
Hard Drives Are Larger and Cheaper
Nothing surprising there; hard drive sizes are always on the rise. You can now easily find individual 3.5-inch drive mechanisms that hold up to 14 TB, and 2.5-inch mechanisms that hold up to 5 TB. (The largest Fusion drive currently available directly from Apple in a build-to-order new Mac is only 3 TB, while build-to-order SSDs go up to 4 TB.)
Meanwhile, the price of storage per gigabyte continues to fall: you can buy an external, bus-powered, 2.5-inch, 4 TB drive for under $100, or a 5 TB model for under $120. And I’ve seen 3.5-inch, 8 TB USB 3.0 external drives on sale for less than $140.
Interface Options Evolve
Apple has continued to release new Mac models (including updated MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models and the iMac Pro) featuring super-speedy Thunderbolt 3 ports. Thunderbolt 3 supports 40 Gbps connections—double the speed of Thunderbolt 2 and quadruple the speed of the original Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt 3 peripherals such as RAIDs are less plentiful than those that use USB 3.0, but the number of options is increasing.
Thunderbolt 3 uses the USB‑C connector, which is also used by USB 3.1 devices. This has caused considerable confusion, because all Thunderbolt 3 ports support USB 3.1 peripherals, but the reverse is not true—a Thunderbolt 3 peripheral won’t work on a computer that supports only USB 3.1 (such as the 2015 or 2016 MacBook), even though the connector is physically identical. I say more about these standards later, in the sidebar USB 3.1, USB-C, and Thunderbolt 3.
Time Capsules Officially Bite the Dust
We saw this coming for a couple of years, but in 2018 it finally happened: Apple discontinued its entire line of AirPort products, including the AirPort Time Capsule. If you already have a Time Capsule (or buy one used), it will still work—at least for the time being—but now, if you want a Time Machine backup over a network, you’ll have to use either another Mac (see Use a Mac as a Time Machine Server) or a third-party NAS device as a destination.
Factors to Reevaluate
The mere fact that technology evolves does not, by itself, mean you need to change anything about your backup system. If everything you set up last year continues to work perfectly now, it’s entirely reasonable to leave well enough alone. However, changes that affect your backups have a way of sneaking up on you slowly, so this is a good time to think about not only new things you can buy but also numerous other factors.
In particular, consider the following questions:
What are your current data and storage media figures? You selected backup methods and storage media based partly on how much data you have to back up (consult Decide on Capacity), but data inevitably grows over time. If you haven’t recently done so, check to see how much data you have to back up. Then make sure your media still has enough breathing room to accommodate your needs over the next year or so—and if not, look into moving up to something with higher capacity. You might also think about whether your data is likely to grow at a faster rate. For example, as our kids grow, the number of photos and videos we record increases dramatically.
Do you have any new equipment? Related to the last point, maybe you’ve purchased a new Mac since last year (including more internal storage, no doubt)—or maybe you’ve upgraded your digital camera, bought an iOS device or two, or added external storage. Whatever the case, take all these into account when calculating how much space you’ll need for backups.
Have you upgraded to a new version of macOS? With more recent versions of macOS, you may find new backup options (products that work only with the new operating systems). You may also find that products you relied on previously are no longer supported.
Are you using Optimized Storage? In 10.12 Sierra and later, a group of features collectively called Optimized Storage may have an effect on the way you back up your Mac. Among other capabilities, Optimized Storage lets you move your Desktop and Documents folders to iCloud Drive, and permits macOS to delete local copies of older files that are stored in the cloud (you can download these again later if need be). On the one hand, that could mean less data that you need to include in your versioned backups (see Can You Reduce Your Backup Footprint?). On the other hand, using Optimized Storage makes it all the more important to have backups of the “optimized” data apart from what Apple stores for you.
With Optimized Storage, your Mac won’t tell you when it’s about to delete the local copy of a file (or photo or whatever) such that the only copy is stored in the cloud. If the local copy wasn’t backed up before this happens, you have just a single copy of that data in the cloud—and if anything happens to that copy, you’re out of luck. So, a word to the wise: make sure your backups (at least your bootable duplicates) include all locations subject to Optimized Storage, and update them frequently.
How old is your media? The physical media on which you store your backups—hard drives, optical discs, or whatever—is subject to degradation and data loss over time. If the media you’re currently using is older than a few years or so, strongly consider copying your backups onto fresh new media (and you’ll probably want to upgrade to higher-capacity storage in the process).
Are network backups more—or less—viable than before? If you have more computers in your home or office, if their combined storage needs strain individual backup drives, or if you’re tired of moving drives and messing with cables, you might consider switching from local drives to network backups (see Choose Local or Network Backups). The fact that any Mac running High Sierra or later can function as a Time Machine server with no extra hardware or software (see Use a Mac as a Time Machine Server) may also influence you to embrace network backups. On the other hand, if you’ve been using network backups and found them to be too slow or otherwise unsuitable—and if you have only one or two Macs to back up in the first place—it might be worth switching to individual hard drives.
Are cloud backups more—or less—viable than before? Increases in bandwidth and decreases in price may lead you to reconsider cloud backups (see Use a Cloud Backup Service) if you decided against them in the past. Conversely, if you’ve been using online backups and your data has grown at a rate your broadband connection (or budget) can’t keep up with, maybe it’s time to switch services or explore other forms of offsite storage.
Are you relying more heavily on cloud storage and syncing? If you use Dropbox or a similar service for your most important documents, you already have a safety net of sorts, at least for those files. Although it’s not quite the same thing as a real versioned backup (see the sidebar Dropbox, the Almost-Backup Service), it might make restoration easier, leading you to rethink which backup tools you prefer.
Is it finally time to ditch optical media? If you chose optical discs (recordable CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, or whatever) as your storage media, do you feel less secure in that choice knowing that optical technology is rapidly on the decline, at least as far as Macs are concerned? Even if your discs remain viable for decades, your next Mac might not have a way to read them, which might make you think twice about continuing to rely on optical media.
Are you responsible for protecting more people’s data? If there are more people than before in your household or office and they rely on you to keep their data safe, be sure your current system can scale to accommodate their needs. If not, it may be time to look into client-server backup software (described in Network Backup Approaches) and expandable storage (see Drobo Storage Devices). Likewise, if your child once used an old laptop for games and web browsing but now uses it to write essays and book reports for school, it’s time to start backing up that laptop.
Has your budget changed? For many of us, income fluctuates from year to year. If you’ve been fortunate enough to earn more money in the last year, perhaps you should consider investing in larger or faster storage devices, or fancier backup software. Conversely, if you feel the need to economize, it might be necessary to scale back on significant recurring expenses, such as high-end online backup services.
Would any of the latest products be a better solution? New and higher-capacity storage devices (see Consider RAIDs and RAID-Like Tech), better online backup options (see Use a Cloud Backup Service), and updated backup software (see Choose Backup Software) may offer solutions to problems that couldn’t be solved easily a year ago—or they may be more affordable than they once were. I’m not one to buy new gadgets just for the sake of keeping up with the latest fads, but if a new product genuinely makes my life simpler or saves me money, I’m all for it.
Is your overall strategy still sound? I hope you took my advice to make use of the three main pillars of a solid backup strategy: versioned backups (see Why Create Versioned Backups?), bootable duplicates (read Why Create Bootable Duplicates?), and offsite storage (see Why Store Backups Offsite?). If you decided against any of these components, I’d like to kindly suggest that you take a moment to review my reasons for recommending them and your reasons for rejecting them. There’s no shame in changing your mind; if something makes sense now that didn’t a year ago, adjust your setup accordingly. Think about the details as well. For example, if you chose to keep versioned backups of only your home folder because your external hard drive was too small, but now you have a bigger one, consider expanding your backups to include every file on your disk.
If the time has come to move to new media or even to an entirely different storage method, give some thought to whether you should migrate your existing backups—for example, moving your Time Machine backups from a hard drive onto a server or NAS (see Migrate to a Network Volume) or from a smaller Time Capsule to a larger one (see Migrate to a Larger Time Machine Disk)—or start over from scratch. Migrating your old backups ensures continuity, so you can be certain of having access to all your old files. Creating new backups will reduce your storage space requirements, but you’ll spend a lot of time doing the initial backup, and your backups won’t contain previously changed or deleted files (so if you do this, be sure to keep your existing backups safely on hand for a while).