Apple's built-in backup program for the Mac on macOS, Time Machine, makes it incredibly easy to back up all of your important data so you can restore your computer if something should happen. You can even recover deleted files if you accidentally lose them.

On MacBooks, Time Machine includes the added feature of creating local snapshots so that if you disconnect your MacBook from its external hard drive, you'll still have backups stored on your internal hard drive so you can recover data if you need to.

Local snapshots are invaluable for situations when you're out and about and need to recover data but don't have your backup hard drive. Unfortunately, they also start taking up noticeable space on your hard drive. To free up space on Mac, keep reading.

Why do I have 100 GB of backups on my hard drive?

You need an external hard drive to set up and use Time Machine because that's where your backups are stored. So why do you have many backups taking up space on your MacBook's internal hard drive? Because of local snapshots.

Local snapshots are created automatically when you set up Time Machine on your Mac laptop. Time Machine makes one daily snapshot every 24 hours when you start up your MacBook on macOS Monterey or later. It also stores weekly snapshots. It keeps those weekly snapshots on your internal hard drive until you start to get low on storage. So, if you've been backing up your Mac for years with Time Machine, you could potentially have 100 GB of backups stored in your internal hard drive, as long as you have space for them.

How do I get rid of all these backups?

First, let me preface this by saying that you shouldn't worry about those backups and the space they are taking up. If everything is working correctly, Time Machine will automatically delete the oldest snapshot backups as soon as your internal hard drive has less than 20% of storage space left. If you then, say, download some large program and your internal hard drive plummets to below 10% (or less than 5GB of internal storage), Time Machine will delete all local snapshots except the most recent. The program will then continue to replace the old snapshot with a new one until you free up space on your Mac's internal storage, at which point it will go back to saving weekly snapshots as long as space permits.

That being said, everything doesn't always work correctly, and you may find yourself out of storage space on your internal hard drive, and those snapshot backups won't go away. However, if you really need to delete those snapshots (which I don't recommend unless you desperately need that space), there is a way to purge local snapshots from your internal hard drive. You can use a Terminal command to disable Time Machine's local snapshot feature, which will delete all of the local snapshots on your internal hard drive. It will also stop Time Machine from creating new snapshots.

To disable local snapshots in Time Machine and remove them from your internal storage:

1. Open Time Machine Preferences from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar on your Mac.
2. Uncheck Back Up Automatically.
3. Wait a few minutes for the local snapshots to delete.
4. Check Back Up Automatically again.

Looking for a new Mac?

When the time comes to replace your computer, consider our lists of the best MacBook and Mac desktop models.

Just be careful

Before you purge your local snapshots, be sure you need to do this. Time Machine should work automatically to remove older backups as you need the storage space on your internal hard drive. If you delete old backups, you can never retrieve data from them if something were to go wrong while you aren't connected to your backup hard drive.

Updated June 2022: Updated for latest macOS version.

You have to back up your Mac. If you don't, you will lose something essential, and there will be nothing you can do to get it back. Therefore, back up, and do it now. And do it using one of the solutions below.

Why do you need to back up?

One copy of your data is no copies at all. That's because hard drives and solid-state drives (SSD) fail. By contrast, two copies of your data are really just one copy since there's a chance both could fail at the same time.

To make sure your data is safe, you want to back it up in a way that minimizes the chance you could ever lose it. Realistically, that means a local backup and an off-site or online backup.

What's a local backup, and how do you do it?

A local backup takes the data on the best Macs and copies it to another drive in your home or office. Both copies are in the same physical location, so you can quickly get to the backup when and if you need it, and either keep it up-to-date or restore it if something terrible happens to the original.

There are a couple of ways to do a local backup. The first and easiest is with Apple's built-in Time Machine feature as knowing how to back up your Mac with Time Machine takes hardly any time at all.

What's Time Machine, and how do I use it?

Time Machine is the easiest way to get started with local backups. Because it's built right into macOS, there's no additional software to buy. Instead, you need an external drive to get started. In addition, Time Machine is supported by popular mass-storage (NAS) devices, so it can scale as much as you need.

Time Machine makes backing up your Mac a set-it-and-forget-it experience. Once enabled, you don't have to do anything else. You need an external hard drive attached to your computer.

What about "cloning" for local back up?

The significant advantage of cloning is that it makes a byte-for-byte copy of your drive. If anything happens to your Mac, you can boot from the clone and get back to work. You can worry about fixing your main drive or restoring any data for another time.

Many of us at iMore use SuperDuper! and rotate between two different backup drives. That way, we minimize the chance of losing anything should one of those drives fail. Carbon Copy Cloner will get the same job done, so you have options.

What's off-site backup?

Having a backup or two at home or the office is fine unless there's a fire, flood, or theft that eliminates everything. To avoid this, take one or more of your backup drives and store them at a different physical location to reduce that risk. It should be a place that you trust with your data and is far enough away that any disaster striking your site won't also strike the secondary area. So, not the neighbors, but your parent's or sibling's place across town, your office, or even a storage unit or safety deposit box at the bank a few blocks away would all be great.

The most convenient way to manage this is to swap the local and off-site drives once a week or month, depending on your needs. Take the hard drive with your latest local backup to the off-site location and bring back the older one to update. Then swap them again the next time.

This is also the best option if you have sensitive financial, health, or personal information that you don't want to trust to an online service, no matter how secure.

What about online or cloud backup?

We live in the age of the internet. While local and offsite backups are a good enough solution to recommend them, there are considerable advantages to going to the cloud.

Similar to Time Machine, online backup "just works." You pay for a subscription, download a utility, start it up, and then it churns away in the background copying your data to giant server farms and updating it as and when needed.

There's typically also an option to send or receive hard drives if you have a large amount of data to get you started or in the event you need to recover.

BackBlaze and Carbonite are reliable services that have been around for years.

What about iCloud, Dropbox, and Google Drive — can't you use them?

If BackBlaze or Carbonite are like disk cloning in the cloud, iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, and the other storage providers are like copying a few critical files over. They're convenient to keep things in sync and restore a few files here and there if and when you need to, but if you lose your entire Mac, you won't be able to restore and go back unless you've stored a disk image about your business.

Most of them have free and cheap plans and are well worth using in addition to an online backup service because you can quickly and easily sync and recover files.

Back it up. Just back it up.

Pick a date. Set a calendar reminder. Every time it goes off, check your backups and improve your strategy as needed. Even though backups always feel like tomorrow's problem, losing your data can profoundly screw up your today. And odds are it will happen at some point, so be ready.

Begin backing up your Mac now!

Updated May 2022: Up to date with macOS Monterey.

If you're already using iCloud to sync your content, do you need to do a full backup? Yes. One of the biggest reasons a full backup is so important is to cover you if or when your device crashes, and you lose everything.

If you're in the middle of a critical, time-sensitive project and your Mac poops out, you may have protected the document you're working on in iCloud, but without a backup, you didn't protect your apps or settings. In that case, it'll take you a long time to get things back the way you want them. With a recent backup, you can restore your Mac and continue working. You'll be happier if you back up your Mac. 

Looking for a new backup drive? Check out the best external hard drives. They work with the best Macs on the market.

How to restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup

If you use Time Machine to back up your Mac, you can restore individual files or restore your entire hard drive from a recent backup using Apple's Migration Assistant.

1. If your Mac starts up with a flashing question mark, you'll need to reinstall macOS before continuing.
2. Connect your Time Machine backup disk to your Mac and turn it on.
3. Open the Applications folder > Utilities folder > Migration Assistant.
4. Follow the on-screen prompts.
5. When asked how you want to transfer your information, select: From a Mac, Time Machine backup, or Startup disk. 
6. Click Continue.
7. Select your Time Machine Backup.
8. Click Continue.
9. Choose your backup.
10. Click Continue.
11. Select the information you wish to transfer.
12. Click Continue. Note that the transfer may take hours, you may want to do it overnight.
13. When the Migration Assistant is done, quit Migration Assistant.
14. Log into the migrated account on your Mac to see its files.

How to restore your Mac from a local backup

If you clone your Mac using a cloning program like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner, you can restore your entire hard drive from a backup and even create a bootable installer.

Note: Because you have to enter Recovery mode on your Mac, I suggest printing out these instructions or switching to another device to read them.

1. Restart your Mac.
2. While the startup disc is waking up, hold down the Command and R keys simultaneously. Your Mac will boot into macOS Utilities. If it doesn't, try again.
3. Click on Disk Utility.
4. Click Continue.
5. Select your Mac's hard drive.
6. Click the Restore tab at the top of the Disk Utility window.
7. Select the external hard drive that your cloned backup is stored next to "Restore From."
8. Select your Mac's hard drive next to "Restore to."
9. Click Restore.

Your Mac will restore the cloned backup and then restart once it is finished.

If you want to install a bootable backup, hold down the Option key while your Mac is restarting and select the clone from your external hard drive in your partitioned hard drive.

How to restore your Mac from a cloud backup

If you use a cloud-based backup service, like Backblaze or CrashPlan, you can download missing data to restore your Mac.

Each cloud-based backup service is different. All of them will require that you download a backup from their remote servers, though — unless the service offers to send you a physical hard drive that you can use as a backup (Backblaze provides this feature).

Most programs will have a Restore files tool right in the user interface. You can launch the remote app on your Mac or visit the company's website.

You can then select the files and folders you want to restore from your backup menu.

Because you either have to download files from the Internet or send them away for a physical copy, I only recommend using a cloud-based backup service to restore your Mac if you don't already have a local backup on hand. It is very time-consuming and less efficient than restoring directly from an external hard drive you have sitting right on your desk.

Restored safe and sound

There are various choices for restoring your Mac from an external backup in macOS Big Sur and macOS Ventura. Choose the one that's right for you and within your budget.

Have you ever worked on a document and made too many changes? Have you had that moment of panic where you start feverishly mashing the undo button, desperately trying to get back to the older version of the text you were working on? Relax, we've all been there, and there's an easier solution.

Most programs available on macOS Monterey include a restoration feature, making it possible for you to go back to that moment in time when you thought you did it wrong, but really didn't.

Pro tip: getting yourself an amazing external hard drive for your Mac is a worthwhile investment, so you can save your document in a safe location easily and often. But, we know that even with a hard drive, sometimes accidents happen — here's how to restore older versions of a document on Mac.

How to restore an older version of a file on the Mac

Not every application has the Revert To feature, but the good ones always do. To see if the program you are working with has the feature, look for it in the App menu section of the Menu bar under File. If you see it, you can find an older version of the document you are working on with just a few clicks.

1. With the document selected, click on File in the app menu in the upper left corner of your Mac's screen.
2. Select Revert To from the dropdown menu.
3. Select Browse All Versions.

4. Either click the Arrow next to the document to go backward through the versions, one at a time, or use the Timeline ticker on the far right to browse through your working timeline and select a version from a specifically saved time.
5. Click Restore.

This will automatically exchange the version you were working on with the newly restored version.

How to restore a copy of an older version of a file on the Mac

You may want to keep your current version and make comparisons with an older version. You also have the option to restore a copy of an older version of a document and work on them separately.

1. With the document selected, click on File in the app menu in the upper left corner of your Mac's screen.
2. Select Revert To from the drop-down menu.
3. Select Browse All Versions.

4. Either click the Arrow next to the document to go backward through the versions, one at a time, or use the Timeline ticker on the far right to browse through your working timeline and select a version from a specifically saved time.
5. Hold down the Option key.
6. Click Restore a Copy.

This will open a copy version with an untitled name. You can save it to your Mac if you want to keep both versions.

How to search for an older version of a specific document using Time Machine

If you use Time Machine, you can search for older versions of files, even if an application doesn't have a Revert To feature. You can find it easily thanks to Finder.

1. Launch a Finder window.
2. Search for and then select the document you want to restore an earlier version of.
3. Click on Time Machine in the Menu bar.

4. Either click the Arrow next to the document to go backward through the versions, one at a time, or use the Timeline ticker on the far right to browse through your working timeline and select a version from a specifically saved time.
5. Click Restore.

When you restore a document from Time Machine, it will automatically save it to its original location. If you already have a version saved in the same place, it will ask if you want to delete, replace, or keep both. If you keep them both, the older version will be renamed with the word (original) in the title.

Back up your Mac

Losing an important document is annoying and stressful, and while the steps above can help alleviate some of that discomfort by letting macOS Monterey call up an older version of that document, you should try to avoid ever using the feature if you can.

We can't stress enough how important it is to have backups of all your files and document, be that in cloud storage or an external hard drive. Plus, don't forget, you should also be backing up your entire Mac on a regular basis with Time Machine, or your backing up software of choice.

Updated April 2022: Updated for the most recent version of macOS Monterey

Apple's built-in Time Machine app makes it simple to back up data on your Mac. You can use the same external hard drive to back up multiple Macs if you wish. Here's how to use Time Machine with multiple Macs. Alternatively, check out how to set up and start using Time Machine if you're not sure where to begin.

How to use Time Machine with multiple Macs: Get it done

When you use an external hard drive to back up different Macs, Time Machine automatically creates separate folders, one for each computer. If you ever need to restore data from the hard drive on any of your Macs, Time Machine understands which files match the specific computer. Be sure to check out our list of the best external hard drives for Mac.

To back up different Macs using Time Machine, you can:

Do it manually

Perhaps the simplest way is to attach the drive to one Mac, let Time Machine run a backup, and then disconnect the drive and repeat the steps on another Mac. In each case, Time Machine works behind the scenes to get the job done.

The drawback to this approach is that you manually have to connect and disconnect the hard drive to each computer. Still, as long as you set up Time Machine on each Mac, you're good to go.

Use networking

A second solution is to share your backup drive using Personal File Sharing on macOS. In doing so, computers connected to the same network can use the same drive with Time Machine.

1. Open System Preferences on the computer that's physically connected to the hard drive.
2. Click on Sharing.

3. Check the box next to File Sharing.
4. Click on the + button under Shared Folders to share specific folders. In this case, share the external hard drive.
5. Click on the Everyone user under Users.
6. To the right of Everyone, change the permissions from Read-Only to Read & Write.

7. On another computer on your network, open a window in the Finder.
8. Scroll down the sidebar until you see Shared.
9. Select the Mac you'd like to access. In this case, select the shared hard drive.
10. If you are required to log in, you may see a button labeled Connect As....

Once the hard drive is shared successfully, you can set up Time Machine backup on your Mac. Repeat these steps on other Macs on your network.

Our top equipment pick

There are countless hard drives available that support Apple's Time Machine app for backup purposes. These three are among the best on the market.

Also available with 2TB and 4TB, G-Technology's G-Drive is one of the easiest drives to use for backup. Just plug it in, and you're halfway there! It's available in silver, space gray, and rose gold.

The following hard drives are also among our favorites.

SanDisk Extreme Portable External 500GB, 1TB, 2GB (From $159 at Amazon)

This product proves that even hard drives can be beautiful. Get the one that matches your budget.

Samsung T7 Portable SSD, 500GB, 1TB, 2 TB (From $78 at Amazon)

Yes, Samsung makes some tremendous hard drives, including this one that's available in various colors.

It's important to know how to start using Time Machine, even if you've only just bought a MacBook Air M2. Apple's built-in Time Machine app makes it very simple to back up your Mac's data so you don't have to worry about a hard drive failure. To create backups with Time Machine and keep the data from your best Mac safe, you ideally need an external storage device but from there, your Mac has everything you need. 

Once you connect the storage device and select it as your backup disk, Time Machine will automatically make hourly backups for the past 24 hours. From there, it has daily backups for the past month, and then weekly backups for all previous months. The oldest backups are deleted once your backup disk is full so it maintains itself well. Besides being a useful tool for ensuring you don't lose anything, it's also handy for when you need to reset your Mac before selling it.

Here's everything you need to know about how to set up and start using Time Machine.

How to set up Time Machine

It's possible to use one of many backup methods to keep your data secure right from when you start using Time Machine. Here's a look at those methods.

• External drive connected to your Mac, such as a USB-based or Thunderbolt drive
• Network-attached storage (NAS) device that supports Time Machine over SMB
• Mac shared as a Time Machine backup destination
• AirPort Time Capsule, or external drive connected to an AirPort Time capsule or AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac)

Here's how to start using Time Machine for backup purposes. Once you're set up, you won't have to do much else to keep your data safe and secure.

1. Select System Settings from the Apple menu.
2. Select General.
3. Click Time Machine.
4. Click Select Backup Disk.
5. Select which disk you'd like to use as a Time Machine backup.
6. Check the Back Up Automatically box so that your Mac automatically updates to your chosen disk or disks.

Your hard drive is now ready to accept backups through Time Machine and should continue to do so automatically without any prompt by you. If the hard drive is disconnected at any time, Time Machine will pick back up once it's reconnected.

How to restore files from a Time Machine backup

1. Click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar.
2. Click Browse Time Machine Backups.
3. Find the file or folder in question and click Restore.

Time Machine will now copy that file back to its original location on your hard drive and you can now access it again.

Go further now you've started using Time Machine

Now that you've started using Time Machine, it's probably time to buy a fresh, new backup drive. There are plenty of options out there. Check out the best external hard drives for Mac to start you off.

You may also want to consider one of the best USB-C hard drives instead. The latest MacBooks lack USB-A ports so if you buy a hard drive that uses USB-C, you won't have to worry about adding on a docking station or USB hub to use the hard drive. Given the importance of having the drive plugged in as often as possible to get the latest backup, you want the most convenient solution for your setup.

Once in a while, it's a good idea to double check that Time Machine is working properly too so that you're not missing out on any valuable backups.

Time Machine automatically keeps your Mac backups to date without you having to worry as much as if it was all done manually. All you really need to do is set it up and possibly use one of the best external hard drives to keep everything safely stored away.

One of the best things about Time Machine is that it's built into macOS so every Mac comes with it and it takes minutes to set up. Once you have set it up, you don't even need to worry about doing anything more other than occasionally doubling checking it's all working smoothly. 

While a free, built-in app sounds like it could be limited, Time Machine can be easily customized to your particular needs. To help guide you through how to use it effectively, we've taken a look at everything you need to know. Here's how to back up your Mac with Time Machine.

What is Time Machine?

Time Machine is Apple's dedicated built-in solution for backing up everything on your Mac from the operating system to all your documents and everything else you might choose to keep safe. It's possible to connect an external hard drive over USB or Thunderbolt (or Firewire if you have a much older Mac) if you prefer a wired connection. Alternatively, you can back up across a network wirelessly if that suits your needs better. 

Providing the hard drive is accessible, Time Machine backs up every hour, while also deleting your oldest backups any time the drive starts running out of space. It's all effortlessly hands-off for you with little maintenance required. 

Whether you've got the latest MacBook Pro M2 or something older, it's a great first layer to any backup solution. Thanks to it being included as part of your operating system, it's ideal for all the best Macs. It's also a good idea to use Time Machine if you intend on resetting your Mac before selling it and switching to a new one.

Getting started with Time Machine

Learning how to set up and start using Time Machine should be your first port of call when setting up a new Mac. Crucially, this is the ideal time to configure things so that you selectively back up with Time Machine. Not every file on your Mac may need to be backed up with game installs or files already saved elsewhere liable to be fine to be cut from your list. 

Once in a while, it's a good idea to double check that Time Machine is backing up properly on your Mac as the last thing you want is a nasty surprise when your hard drive or Mac fails. If the worst happens and something fails, knowing how to restore from a Time Machine backup will soon get you back up to speed with your newly fixed (or replaced) Mac. 

Another important thing to learn is to delete older Time Machine backups. While the app will do this for the very oldest, once in a while, you might need to adjust things manually. If your data is particularly valuable, we recommend encrypting your Time Machine backups.

Digging in to Time Machine

Now you know the basics of using Time Machine, you might be all set. However, if you're looking to do more advanced things, that's certainly possible. For instance, what if you delete a key file? There's no need to restore your entire backup. It's perfectly possible to restore individual files from a Time Machine backup and you can use Finder with Time Machine to make that even simpler. 

If you own more than one Mac, it's also possible to view Time Machine backups from another Mac, and you can always choose to use Time Machine with multiple Macs without much bother.

Finally, we get it. Every one is in a rush. There are plenty of ways to speed up your Time Machine backups so take a look at the options that work best for you.

Apple's Time Machine is the go-to backup method for many Mac users. Apple's termination of the AirPort/Time Capsule series, however, puts some users in a lurch over how they will be continuing to back up their Macs using Time Machine. Luckily there are Apple approved Time Machine backup options sans Time Capsule.

However, not everyone will be able or is willing to use a spare Mac as a backup location or attach yet another external drive or even buy an expensive Time Machine capable NAS. Other hacked solutions do exist that allow you to use any networked location — including a Windows shared folder. Although this method cobbles together various utilities to make it function (and as such could be subject to points of failure), you can easily set up Time Machine to use a non-approved location for backups. Here's how!

The problem

The issue that makes Time Machine more complicated in terms of options for backup locations is that it requires the use of the Apple File System (APFS), which first launched with macOS High Sierra. It's optimized for solid-state drives (SSDs) and other all-flash storage devices, but it also works on mechanical and hybrid drives.

Create a Windows share location

I won't go into detail on how to create a shared folder on a Windows PC, but before you begin, you'll need to have a shared folder created and accessible to your Mac that you want to run Time Machine on. For example, if you have a Windows PC named "Server" and a network shared folder on the Windows PC named "share," you'd be able to test for connectivity by doing the following:

1. Start Finder.
2. Click GO > Connect to Server.
3. Enter smb://Server/Share where "server" is the name of the Windows PC and "share" is the name of the shared folder.

4. Click Connect.

If you've correctly set everything up, you'll be prompted to enter a registered user and password. Make sure to save those credentials to your keychain for the OS to automatically use those credentials for connecting to the share for future access. You should also see that share in Finder in your "Shared" section and see the "Eject" icon next to it since it is now mounted.

Create a sparsebundle image

We now need to create an "image" file that will, in essence, pretend to be an APFS filesystem for your Mac for backup.

1. Start ** Disk Utility**.
2. Go to File > New Image > Blank Image.
3. Rename the Save As to TimeMachine.

4. Press the Down Arrow next to Where.
5. Select your mounted Share.
6. Rename the name of your sparsebundle.
7. Select the size of the backup location. Be generous. If you want to be able to at the very least backup the entire contents of a full hard drive, select a size at least equal to your Macintosh HD drive size. As a word of warning, the size you choose will be the size of the disk space that will be immediately created on the remote share.

8. Make certain that the Format is set to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
9. Click Save. This will take a while, especially if you set a large file size.
10. Click Done.

Make the remote share automatically mount

For this hack to survive reboots, we need to ensure that the remote share is automatically mounted when you restart your Mac. Here is a simple way to get this done. Some drawbacks of this method are that it only works once you've logged in, and it won't work for other users of your Mac.

1. Start System Preferences.
2. Select Users & Groups.
3. Select your Username.
4. Click Login Items.
5. Click the +.

6. Navigate to and select your mounted share and TimeMachine.dmg file we created earlier.
7. Click Add.

You may need to unmount the share before this can take effect, but as of this moment, that share will automatically mount every time you reboot and log in.

Make Time Machine use the remote share and file

Finally, we're ready to make Time Machine see and use the Windows 10 share housing our sparsebundle file.

1. Start Terminal.
2. Enter the command sudo tmutil setdestination /Volumes/TimeMachine/ where "TimeMachine" is the name you gave to your sparsebundle you created with Disk Utility.
3. Enter your Password.

Check Time Machine

Now we need to check that Time Machine sees the Disk and is ready to use it for backups.

1. Start System Preferences.
2. Select Time Machine.
3. You should now see that Time Machine has a backup location, and Select Disk shows the proper name of the sparsebundle.

Final Comments

Yes, this is far and away from Apple's simple "just works" ideology. But if you have no other choice, it works for our Time Machine purposes. Do you have any comments or questions? Let us know in the comment section!

What you need to know

• Mac backup and disk cloning app SuperDuper now supports macOS Catalina.
• The update has taken considerable work to complete.
• The update is free for existing SuperDuper! users.

I don't need to explain how important backing up your data is because we've already done it and you're smart people. SuperDuper! is one of my favorite tools for backing up and cloning my Macs and now it's been fully updated to support macmOS Catalina, too.

SuperDuper! is an app that has seemingly been around forever and allows people to clone their Mac's disk. That has a few advantages, not least the fact that the cloned disk can be made bootable. So, let's say you have an issue and need to get back up and running quickly. No problem, just boot from your cloned disk and you're back to work. It's magic, except better.

While I wouldn't say that SuperDuper! is a replacement for Time Machine – they do two different things – it really is a great addition to your backup strategy. And now you can make full use of it thanks to this update.

But that update didn't come easy. As developer Dave Nanian explains, getting SuperDuper! to play nicely with macOS Catalina's new storage methods wasn't a piece of cake by any stretch of the imagination.

Anyway, none of that really matters to users and you can download the new update for free if you already have a license. Everyone else can get in on the action for just $27.95. And it's worth every single penny.

If you're using Time Machine as your local backup system, you may have noticed that a lot of data is being backed up every single day. I recommend letting Time Machine do its job because you never know when you're going to wish you had a copy of something you didn't think you'd ever need. If, however, there is a file, folder, application, or even entire system folder that you just don't think needs to be included in your regular Time Machine backup, you can manually exclude anything you want. Here's how.

• What Time Machine excludes automatically
• How to exclude files from being backed up by Time Machine
• How to remove files from the exclusion list in Time Machine

What Time Machine excludes automatically

Time Machine is built to smartly exclude certain things that you don't need right when you restore your Mac from a backup, things like library caches or Safari icons. These things will reinstall automatically as you use them.

You can find out more about what Time Machine excludes from standard backups if you're interested (you can also add them to your routine if you want to).

1. Click on your desktop to select Finder.
2. Click on Go in the app menu section of your Mac's Menu bar.
3. Click on Go to Folder.

4. Paste the following path setting into the text field:/System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/StdExclusions.plist
5. Click on Go.
6. Double-click on the StdExclusions.plist to view the list of items Apple already excludes from Time Machine backups.

How to exclude files from being backed up by Time Machine

As efficient as it is, Time Machine backs up some things you may not consider necessary to your daily backup security routine. Dropbox, for example. It's a cloud-based program with its own internal backup system. My Dropbox account has 30GB of data. I don't need to back up Dropbox because Dropbox backs up Dropbox. Excluding it reduces the amount of time it takes to do a full backup every day (and the amount of space each backup takes on my external hard drive). Here's how to exclude files, folders, applications, or entire system folders from a Time Machine backup.

1. Click on the Apple icon in the upper right corner of your Mac's Menu bar.
2. Click on System Preferences.

3. Click on Time Machine.
4. Click on Options.

5. Click on the Add symbol below the list of excluded items. It looks like a plus (+) symbol.
6. Select the item you want to back up. You can search for it using the Finder window.
7. Click on Exclude.
8. Click on Save.

The items you've selected will no longer be backed up to your external hard drive using Time Machine.

How to remove files from the exclusion list in Time Machine

If you change your mind and decide you do want to back up those items you previously excluded, remove them from the list the same way you added them.

1. Click on the Apple icon in the upper right corner of your Mac's Menu bar.
2. Click on System Preferences.

3. Click on Time Machine.
4. Click on Options.

5. Select the item you want to remove from the exclusion list.
6. Click on the Remove symbol below the list of excluded items. It looks like a minus (-) symbol.
7. Click on Save.

Best drives for Time Machine

If you want to use Time Machine, you'll need an external drive to get started. Here's our favorite, along with a few alternative options.

Also available in 2TB and 4TB models, G-Technology's G-Drive is one of the easiest drives to use for backup. Just plug it in and you're halfway there! It's available in silver, space gray, and rose gold.

The following hard drives are also among our favorites for 2019.

If you need something more portable, or something with a little more style, check out these options.

SanDisk Extreme Portable External 250B, 500GB, 1TB, 2GB (From $73 at Amazon)

This product proves that even hard drives can be beautiful.

LaCie Porsche Design 1TB, 2TB, 4TB (From $90 at Amazon)

LaCie is well known for its backup devices and this is one of the most popular models on the market.

Any questions?

Do you have any questions about excluding files from a Time Machine backup? Put them in the comments and we'll help you out.

Apple's built-in Time Machine app makes it simple to back up Mac data. You can also view the files that were backed up on another computer by following these steps.

• Our favorite: G-Technology G-Drive 1TB ($70 at Amazon)
• Compact: SanDisk Extreme Portable External 250B, 500GB, 1TB, 2GB (starting at $73 at Amazon)
• Sleak choice: LaCie Porsche Design 1TB, 2TB, 4TB (starting at $90 at Amazon)

How it's done

Make sure you have the physical backup drive that was used with the other computer. From there:

1. Plug in your external backup device to your Mac and make sure it's powered on.
2. Go into Finder and click on the external backup device.
3. Select the folder called Backups.backupdb.

4. Double click on the folder with the name of the Mac.
5. You will see folders identified for the dates backups occurred. Drill down to find the documents you wish to review.

6. Copy and paste the files/folders you want to copy to your computer.

Please note: Make sure you don't "Move" the files or rename them. If you alter any of them, you may have problems using the native Time Machine app with that backup instance. Instead, only copy and paste.

Our top equipment pick

There are countless hard drives available that support Apple's Time Machine app for backup purposes. These three are among the best on the market.

Also available with 2TB and 4TB, G-Technology's G-Drive is one of the easiest drives to use for backup. Just plug it in and you're halfway there! It's available in silver, space gray, and rose gold.

The following hard drives are also among our favorites for 2019.

SanDisk Extreme Portable External 250B, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB (starting at $73 at Amazon)

This product proves that even hard drives can be beautiful.

LaCie Porsche Design 1TB, 2TB, 4TB (starting at $90 at Amazon)

LaCie is well known for its backup devices; this is one of the most popular on the market.

Apple's built-in Time Machine app makes it simple to back up Mac data — capturing them in their most recent state so you can recover them later. When the time comes when you have to restore individual files from a backup you can do so with ease by following these steps.

• Our 2019 favorite: G-Technology G-Drive 1TB ($70)
• Compact: SanDisk Extreme Portable External 250B, 500GB, 1TB, 2GB (starting at $73)
• Sleak choice: LaCie Porsche Design 1TB, 2TB, 4TB (starting at $90)

How it's done

Regardless of the reason, you can restore an older file from a Time Machine backup. In doing so, you can replace a newer version of the file or keep both versions so that you can compare. Here's how it's done.

1. Plug in your external backup disk and make sure it's on.
2. Go to the location where the original file(s) were located. For example, if you're looking for a file that was under Documents, go into that location.
3. Choose Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine Menu.

4. Find the items you wish to restore by using the timeline on the edge of the screen on the right. You can also use the up and down arrow.
5. Select an item and press Space Bar to preview it and make sure it's the one you want.
6. Click Restore to restore the item you selected, or Control-click the item for other options.

From there, you'll be given a choice to copy over the existing file or leave the newest file in place alongside the older one.

Our top equipment pick

There are countless hard drives available that support Apple's Time Machine app for backup purposes. These three are among the best on the market.

Also available with 2TB and 4TB, G-Technology's G-Drive is one of the easiest drives to use for backup. Just plug it in and you're halfway there! It's available in silver, space gray, and rose gold.

The following hard drives are also among our favorites for 2019.

SanDisk Extreme Portable External 250B, 500GB, 1TB, 2GB (starting at $73 at Amazon)

This product proves that even hard drives can be beautiful.

LaCie Porsche Design 1TB, 2TB, 4TB (starting at $90 at Amazon)

LaCie is well known for its backup devices; this is one of the most popular on the market.

Apple's built-in Time Machine app makes it simple to back up data on your Mac. When the time comes, you can use Finder to restore files through Time Machine. Here's how to do it.

• Our Favorite: G-Technology G-Drive 1TB ($70 at Amazon)
• Compact: SanDisk Extreme Portable External 250B, 500GB, 1TB, 2GB (starting at $73 at Amazon)
• Sleak choice: LaCie Porsche Design 1TB, 2TB, 4TB (starting at $90 at Amazon)

Using Finder with Time Machine

Follow these instructions to use Finder with Time Machine to ultimately restore files.

1. Select the Time Machine icon on the Mac Toolbar.
2. Choose Enter Time Machine.

3. In Time Machine, click on a Finder window that represents a day. Once you do, the Finder window for that day moves forward to the front of the screen.

4. Find the file or folder in question and click Restore.
5. From here, you'll be asked whether to replace the current file with the older one or same the older one as a duplicate.

There you have it! You should have restored the proper file.

Our top equipment pick

There are countless hard drives available that support Apple's Time Machine app for backup purposes. These three are among the best on the market.

Also available with 2TB and 4TB, G-Technology's G-Drive is one of the easiest drives to use for backup. Just plug it in and you're halfway there! It's available in silver, space gray, and rose gold.

The following hard drives are also among our favorites for 2019.

SanDisk Extreme Portable External 250B, 500GB, 1TB, 2GB (From $73 at Amazon)

This product proves that even hard drives can be beautiful.

LaCie Porsche Design 1TB, 2TB, 4TB (From $90 at Amazon)

LaCie is well known for its backup devices; this is one of the most popular on the market.

Apple's built-in Time Machine app makes it simple to back up Mac data. When the time comes to restore some of those files (or your entire Mac), Apple also makes that easy. Here's how to restore from backup using the Time Machine app in macOS Mojave.

• Our 2019 favorite: G-Technology G-Drive 1TB ($70 at Amazon)
• Compact: SanDisk Extreme Portable External 250B, 500GB, 1TB, 2GB (From $73 at Amazon)
• Sleak choice: LaCie Porsche Design 1TB, 2TB, 4TB (From $90 at Amazon)

Restoring files from a Time Machine backup

1. Select System Preferences from the Apple menu.
2. Choose the Time Machine icon.

3. Check the box next to Show Time Machine in menu bar.
4. Click Enter Time Machine after clicking the Time Machine icon in the Menu bar.

5. Find the file or folder in question and click Restore.

You're all set! Time Machine will copy that file back to its original location on your hard drive.

Restoring your hard drive from a Time Machine backup

Whether you're having major problems with your current hard drive or upgrading to a new Mac, Time Machine can help you get back on track.

1. Power up your Mac and hold down the Command and R keys to enter the macOS Recovery Partition. Your Mac should boot to a screen that says macOS Utilities.
2. Select Restore from Time Machine Backup and click Continue.
3. Read the info on the Restore Your System page and click Continue.

4. Select your Time Machine backup and click Continue.
5. Select the most recent backup of your hard disk and click Continue. Your Mac will then restore the Time Machine backup; once it's done it will restart.

If you've had to replace it with a stock drive that has nothing on it—not even macOS—you won't be able to boot from the macOS Recovery Partition. But fear not, you can get the recovery rolling from the Time Machine backup disk itself: Just hold down the Option key when you start your Mac; you'll be able to select the Time Machine backup disk as your startup drive and go from there.

Our top equipment pick

There are countless hard drives available that support Apple's Time Machine app for backup purposes. These three are among the best on the market.

Also available with 2TB and 4TB, G-Technology's G-Drive is one of the easiest drives to use for backup. Just plug it in and you're halfway there! It's available in silver, space gray, and rose gold.

The following hard drives are also among our favorites for 2019.

SanDisk Extreme Portable External 250B, 500GB, 1TB, 2GB (From $73 at Amazon)

This product proves that even hard drives can be beautiful.

LaCie Porsche Design 1TB, 2TB, 4TB (From $90 at Amazon)

LaCie is well known for its backup devices; this is one of the most popular on the market.

Using Time Machine, which is built into macOS, incremental backups of files are created that are restorable at a later date. These backups can include an entire system or specific files. Time Machine captures the most recent state of your data. As these snapshots age, they become prioritized progressively lower automatically compared to newer files.

Time Machine stores hourly backups for 24 hours, daily backups for one month, and weekly backups for as long as your drive has storage space. Once storage space becomes limited, the system deletes the oldest backups. Because of how this is performed, Time Machine is not intended as an archival utility or offline storage solution.

Time Machine can use the following storage devices as backup disks:

• An external USB, Thunderbolt, or FireWire drive connected to your Mac
• An external drive that's connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station or AirPort Time Capsule
• AirPort Time Capsule
• A Mac shared as a Time Machine backup destination
• Network-attached storage (NAS) device that supports Time Machine over SMB (Server Message Block)

Also available with 2TB and 4TB, G-Technology's G-Drive is one of the easiest drives to use for backup. Just plug it in, and you're halfway there! It's available in silver, space gray, and rose gold.

The AirPort Time Capsule isn't just a backup solution; it's also a full-featured Wi-Fi base station that uses 802.11ac technology and simultaneous dual-band support.

Apple's built-in Time Machine app makes it simple to back up files on your Mac to an external drive. You can also remove those files in a few different ways. Here's how to do it all.

• Our 2019 favorite: G-Technology G-Drive 1TB ($70)
• Compact: SanDisk Extreme Portable External 250B, 500GB, 1TB, 2GB (starting at $73)
• Sleak choice: LaCie Porsche Design 1TB, 2TB, 4TB (starting at $90)

Should you delete your files?

Before getting started, keep in mind that Apple deletes the oldest backups on your hard drive if you're about to lose space. In other words, you don't have to delete this manually.

How to delete Time Machine backups

When you use the macOS Time Machine app for backups, files are stored in two locations. Your external hard drive is where actual backup files are kept. Local snapshots, which are taken each day, are kept on your internal hard drive. We'll show you how to delete both kinds of backup files.

Deleting files on an external drive

There are two ways to delete backup files off of your Time Machine external drive. You can either use the actual Time Machine app or delete the files using Finder on your computer. Both ways require that your hard drive is connected to your Mac.

To delete the files using the Time Machine app:

1. Click on the Time Machine icon on the Menu Bar and select Enter Time Machine.
2. Scroll through your backups and find the one you want to delete.
3. Click on the Gear icon.
4. Select Delete Backup.
5. If requested, enter your password.

That's it! You should be all set.

You can also delete backed up files using Finder on your Mac:

1. Click on the Finder icon
2. On the left-hand side, click on your backup drive that's located under Devices in the panel.
3. Under Backups.backupdb, find the subfolder for the Mac machine that's backed up.

4. Scroll down until you find the subfolder for the date you'd like to delete.
5. Right-click and select Delete.

6. Confirm your choice to delete.
7. Note: You'll have to delete these files in the Trash too.

Local snapshots

When you set up Time Machine on your Mac, local snapshots begin getting created automatically, once every 24 hours. Those weekly snapshots are stored internally until you start getting low on storage. When this happens, macOS automatically begins deleting the oldest snapshots.

According to Apple, you shouldn't worry about the space these snapshots use on your Mac. It notes that they don't use the space needed for tasks like downloading files, copying files, or installing new software. Regardless, you can still delete these files manually if you become concerned.

To disable local snapshots in Time Machine and remove them from your internal storage:

1. Launch Terminal on your Mac laptop.
2. Enter the following command into Terminal.sudo tmutil disablelocal
3. Press Enter.

This will remove those local snapshots from your internal storage. You can then re-enable the feature, which I highly recommend.

1. Open Terminal on your Mac laptop.
2. Enter the following command into Terminal:sudo tmutil enablelocal
3. Press Enter.

Time Machine will start over, saving local snapshots to your Mac laptop's internal storage.

Our top equipment pick

There are countless hard drives available that support Apple's Time Machine app for backup purposes. This is the best on the market.

Also available with 2TB and 4TB, G-Technology's G-Drive is one of the easiest drives to use for backup. Just plug it in and you're halfway there! It's available in silver, space gray, and rose gold.

The following hard drives are also among our favorites for 2019.

SanDisk Extreme Portable External 250B, 500GB, 1TB, 2GB (starting at $73 at Amazon)

This product proves that even hard drives can be beautiful.

LaCie Porsche Design 1TB, 2TB, 4TB (starting at $90 at Amazon)

LaCie is well known for its backup devices; this is one of the most popular on the market.

Apple's built-in Time Machine app makes it simple to back up Mac data. You don't have to back up everything on your Mac, however. Here's how to selectively back up content using the Time Machine app in macOS Mojave.

• Our 2019 favorite: G-Technology G-Drive 1TB ($70 at Amazon)
• Compact: SanDisk Extreme Portable External 250B, 500GB, 1TB, 2GB (starting at $73 at Amazon)
• Sleak choice: LaCie Porsche Design 1TB, 2TB, 4TB (starting at $90 at Amazon)

How to enable Time Machine backups on your Mac

1. Select System Preferences from the Apple menu.
2. Choose the Time Machine icon.

3. Click Select Backup Disk.
4. Select which disk you'd like to use as a Time Machine backup.

5. Check the Back Up Automatically box in order to automatically back up your Mac to your chosen disks.

How to exclude files from Time Machine

Time Machine will back up most of your Mac automatically, but you might want to exclude certain files.

1. Open System Preferences on your Mac.
2. Click Time Machine.

3. Click Options….
4. Click the + button.

5. Choose the files or folders that you wish to exclude.
6. Click Exclude.

7. Click Save.

Use the steps above to successfully set up a backup process on your Mac and exclude certain files from being backed up.

Our top equipment pick

There are countless hard drives available that support Apple's Time Machine app for backup purposes. These three are among the best on the market.

Also available with 2TB and 4TB, G-Technology's G-Drive is one of the easiest drives to use for backup. Just plug it in and you're halfway there! It's available in silver, space gray, and rose gold.

The following hard drives are also among our favorites for 2019.

SanDisk Extreme Portable External 250B, 500GB, 1TB, 2GB (starting at $73 at Amazon)

This product proves that even hard drives can be beautiful.

LaCie Porsche Design 1TB, 2TB, 4TB (starting at $90 at Amazon)

LaCie is well known for its backup devices; this is one of the most popular on the market.

It's said one of the simplest ways to back up your Mac is to go down the official route with Apple and purchase the Time Capsule. This device acts as an external hard drive of sorts, allowing you to connect to it via Time Machine and load backups of all your PCs to the unit. However, there's another way that will save you money.

The Ds119j is Synology's latest budget NAS, which opens up more doors than the Airport Time Capsule, allowing you to create your very own file server, media server, surveillance, and much more. All that's required is the NAS and a shared folder on the server OS, a user account to access the folder on connected Macs, the configuring of the NAS OS to allow for Bonjour connection support, connecting to the NAS on your Mac, and setting up Time Machine.

Once these steps have been carried out, the NAS will not only handle all Time Machine backups, storing them securely on your local network, but also allows for additional functionality. If you get a little lost in the setup process, Synology has a great guide to walk you through each step and get you up and running in no time at all.

An additional bonus of the Synology NAS is the full support for Windows 10 backups too, making it a household-friendly solution for keeping all connected PCs backed up. While the NAS is essentially a super smart external storage device, it lets you do much more than the Airport Time Capsule and is vastly more affordable.

You could pick up an Airport Time Capsule and call it a day for backing up your Mac hardware, but if you already own a Synology NAS or are thinking about buying one, it's possible to use Time Machine to back up your Mac. But what's the difference? The best part about using a Synology NAS is you're able to use it for other uses, including file storage, creating a media server, and much more.

All you need to do is set up a shared folder on the Synology NAS (you can even encrypt this shared folder), set up a user for folder access on your connected Macs, configure the DSM OS to enable Bonjour connection support, connect to the server on your Mac, and set up Time Machine to save everything on the NAS.

Once that's done, you can use the Synology NAS as a backup destination, much as you would the Airport Time Capsule or other Apple product that provides similar functionality. Luckily, it's not that difficult and Synology has a solid step-by-step guide on how to get all this done.

As a bonus, using a Synology NAS ensures you have full support for Windows 10 backups too, not to mention access from a variety of devices, regardless of the OS. Why you'd want to go with NAS, which is essentially a super-smart hard drive, is the additional features supported by the OS. Simply connecting a drive to your Mac doesn't offer anything but backup functionality, while a NAS opens the door to so much more.

The same goes for the Airport Time Capsule, which is rather limited in what you can do with it, especially compared to NAS. The price is about the same between the two, but a NAS comes rocking far more features and is better suited for a cross-platform household or office.

The news that Apple is discontinuing the AirPort line, although expected, is a bitter pill to swallow for many Mac enthusiasts that love the no-nonsense, easy to administer backup and recovery features on the Time Capsule series. Even though the Time Capsule will be no more, you can still use Time Machine for your backup and recovery purposes in your post-AirPort world. Here's how!

• Discontinued but supported
• Use another Mac
• Use a Time Machine supported NAS
• Final comments

Discontinued but supported

Apple and authorized resellers will continue to sell AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time Capsule while supplies last. Apple is also be helping customers get service and parts for current generation AirPort Base Stations for the next five years. So if you've just picked up a Time Capsule or an Extreme or can get your hands on a new one, you'll can rest assured that you'll be covered, hardware and software, for the next 5 years so using it as your main backup device is still a great way to go.

Once your Time Capsule is configured, your Mac will automatically "see" the backup disk in Time Machine preferences as a backup location.

Use an attached disk drive

Apple can format an attached disk device, like those that Western Digital offers, for Time Machine purposes using Time Machine's preferences pane. This method will use the entire drive as a Time Machine backup location.

1. Start System Preferences.
2. Select Time Machine.
3. Click Select Backup Disk.

4. Select your external Disk Device.
5. Click Use Disk.
6. Click Erase to format the drive.

Use another Mac

If you are needing a na solution to backup multiple Macs to a single location, you can have one of the Macs become the "repository" of all of the backups for Time Machine via a shared folder.

1. Open Finder.
2. Select one of your hard drives and create a New Folder.
3. Rename it to Time Machine.

4. Open System Preferences.
5. Select Sharing.
6. Enable File Sharing.
7. Click the +.

8. Add the newly created folder Time Machine.
9. Control-Click the Time Machine share.
10. Select Advanced Options.
11. Enable Share as a Time Machine Backup Destination.
12. Optionally set the maximum storage size.

13. Click OK.

1. Start System Preferences.
2. Select Time Machine.
3. Click Select Backup Disk.
4. Select the Time Machine folder we created on the remote machine.
5. Select Use Disk.

Use a supported NAS device

If you don't like the idea of using one of your Macs as a storage location because you require more robust storage features, third party NAS devices such as the Diskstation by Synology offer options that allow your Macs to "see" a Time Machine capable "share" for you to backup to.

Final comments

Although I have a 2nd generation Time Capsule, I default my Time Machine backups to my Synology Diskstation NAS device. I prefer my backed-up data to live on a fault tolerant disk system so that when I need to recover, I know the data will be there for me to recover from. What about you? How will you continue to use Time Machine? Or will you use a different backup solution for your Mac? Let us know in the comments!

Apple is exiting the Wi-Fi router business. And that's fine because there are lots of great alternative Wi-Fi routers to choose from. But what if you really, truly want to keep using an AirPort for the foreseeable future? Not a problem. At least not yet. Apple is going to keep selling AirPort Base Stations for as long as they last. So, if you want to keep a stack of them in the freezer (or, fine, closet) so you can keep using them for as long as you want, act fast.

• See AirPort Extreme at Amazon
• See Airport Express at Amazon
• See Airport Time Capsule at Amazon
• See AirPort Extreme at Apple
• See Airport Express at Apple
• See Airport Time Capsule at Apple
• See AirPort Extreme at Best Buy
• See Airport Express at Best Buy
• See Airport Time Capsule at Best Buy

You can also try your local Apple Store or a local Apple Authorized Reseller. Happy hunting... and hoarding!

Apple is ceasing production of its AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time Capsule Wi-Fi routers. I had a chance to speak to Apple briefly about the decision, and here's the statement I was given:

• Best Wi-Fi router alternatives to Apple's AirPort

AirPort was originally introduced by Steve Jobs at Macworld New York in July of 1999. Back then, wireless technology was in its infancy and Apple felt it had to provide not only Wi-Fi support in Macs, but Wi-Fi support in general, up to and including the routers, in order to bring it to the mainstream. Over the years, as we progressed to faster and more robust Wi-Fi standards like 802.11n and 802.11ac, Apple similarly felt it had to stay in the market and help push those standards forward.

Not just for wireless routing, but for other features wireless routing made possible.

Extreme, Express, and Time Capsule... but no mesh

For example, AirPort Express, introduced in 2004, included a built-in audio jack that could connect speakers and stream music wireless across your house or business. Time Capsule, introduced in 2008, included a hard drive so that, when combined with OS X's then-new Time Machine feature, it could wirelessly, almost effortlessly, back up all of your Macs.

Apple continued adding new features like dual-band support for simultaneous 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz connections, and guest networks. But, over time, that slowed and then stopped.

The AirPort Base Station line was last updated in 2013.

Since then, we've seen the advent of mesh networking, which lets larger, more irregular, and more challenging areas enjoy better and more robust coverage. Rather than release AirPort Mesh, though, Apple chose to offer the Linksys Velop at its retail stores instead.

I take that as a sign that Apple nows sees Wi-Fi routers as a thriving industry all its own, with multiple, highly-motivated vendors that no longer need the platform-maker to push technology and innovation. And, looking at iMore's list of the best Wi-Fi router alternatives to the AirPort Base Station it's hard to disagree.

(Though, I think it's safe to say that if Apple ever felt Wi-Fi routers were languishing and it had unique and important advances to contribute to the space, it would consider re-entering the market.)

Making tough choices

A while ago, when it seemed like Apple was exiting the display business as well as the Wi-Fi router business, I wrote about the horn effect and my concern that once people started buying non-Apple products, it would be easier to keep buying non-Apple products. In other words, the opposite of the halo effect.

Since then, Apple has said that it will be introducing a new, Pro-level display in 2019. That's important. The display is the face of the computer and if you stop seeing Apple logos there, it makes you wonder how much you really need to see them anywhere.

Routers are different. They're infrastructure. They're behind televisions, underneath desks, and in closets. For some people, especially people who appreciate Apple's design and manufacturing, and its unequivocal stance on security and privacy, the loss of the AirPort line will still be a blow.

I'm one of those people.

But I'm also reminded of a comment Steve Jobs once said to one of his direct reports: Sure, Apple could do that and make some money at it, but was it really a business Apple had to be in?

No company, not even the world's richest and most successful, and especially not its most focused, can do everything. Tough choices have to be made. For a while now, Apple has been punting on those choices and leaving some products and their customers in limbo.

Now, it looks like Apple is starting to make those tough choices — committing to some, like pro displays, and cancel others, like routers. And it hurts, even if it's for the best.

What happens next

Apple and authorized resellers will continue to sell AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time Capsule while supplies last. Apple is also be helping customers obtain service and parts for current generation AirPort Base Stations for the next five years.

Over the next few weeks, Apple will also be posting knowledge-base articles to help customers transitioning away from AirPort products. iMore, of course, will be doing likewise.

If you have any comments or questions on Apple ending the AirPort Base Station, let me know.

Having to play around with large video files can be a headache when my system has a blazingly fast SSD drive but is only 500GB in size. Going to the macOS storage analyzer can be a mixed bag of easy to understand actions to reduce disk usage to cryptic descriptions that are more daunting to deal with.

We have spoken about how to rid your computer from data noted in "other" which in short is space taken up by caches, plug-ins, and documents. But now we'll show you how to reclaim some of your disk space from your "System" disk usage.

• Time Machine and local backups
• How to determine if a lot of your disk space is being used by "System"
• Purging old snapshots
• Comments

Time Machine and local backups

If you run Time Machine for backups over Wi-Fi like I do, then macOS High Sierra will simultaneous use your remote backup disk and your local disk to save backups to. The reasoning behind this is that in the event the remote backup disk is not available or present, then you can recover files in spite of a missing remote backup disk and recover from the local disk.

In fact, macOS High Sierra manages this disk usage seamlessly without user intervention. It also purges local backups if disk space starts to get too low. However, sometimes the purging doesn't happen to leave enough disk storage for my very large video files and I'll get a "not enough disk space" message. And instead of waiting for macOS to catch up with my disk space requirements, I can force the purging from the terminal.

Determining if you have a large amount of "System" disk usage

To see if this method will help you reclaim some disk space we need to check the macOS System Information.

1. Click the  from your desktop.
2. Click About This Mac.
3. Click the Storage tab. You'll be greeted with a color-coded categorization of what your disk is being used for.

In my case, "System" (meaning the operating system) was clearly using the most space. Although I understand the reasoning behind why Time Machine is storing local backups, I didn't feel that I needed so much of my disk space devoted to these local backup snapshots.

If you have other categories that have very high disk usage you can click the manage button to get more details on what is using that disk space and possibly delete those things that you determine to no longer have use for.

Purging local backups

Please note that although this doesn't affect your remote backup from Time Machine, this will get rid of the redundancy (at least until the next Time Machine backup) that a local backup disk will provide. If you need such redundancy or are worried about the recovery of your data then you would be best served to let macOS determine when to purge these files.

1. Start Terminal from spotlight.
2. At the terminal type tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates.
3. Hit enter.

Here, you'll now see a list of all of the locally stored Time Machine backup snapshots stored on your disk.

Next you can remove the snapshots based on their date. I prefer to delete them one at at time. Once my "System" disk usage is at an acceptable level, I stop deleting but you can delete all of them if you want to reclaim all of the disk space.

1. Back at the terminal, type tmutil deletelocalsnapshots [[ date ]] where [[ date ]] will be one of the dates from your backup. This will be in the form of xxx-yy-zz-abcdef. Try to start with the oldest snapshot.
2. Hit enter.
3. Repeat for as many snapshot dates as required.

You can watch your System Information graphic free up disk space in real time to see if you've removed enough.

Comments

I want to stress that this should only likely be used if you absolutely immediately need to reclaim the disk space. Otherwise macOS does a pretty good job in managing the unused disk space for local backups and purging when it deems necessary.

Are you running out of disk space? What have you done about it? Let us know in the comments!

I'm far too much of a fiddler. And in my fiddling I managed to completely FUBAR my beloved and venerable 2010 MacBook Air. I managed to successfully install GNU/Linux along side my macOS High Sierra installation; however, when I went back to reclaim the disk space used by GNU/Linux for my macOS install running APFS, I was met with a failed boot screen. Yikes!

If you have an older Mac and you perform Time Machine (or other) backups, sometimes that diligence might not be enough to get your system back up and running to an expected working state. The recovery process is more involved than simply restoring from Time Machine.

When backups aren't enough

In my previous life as a network and system administrator, I learned (the hard way) that backing up data is only part of the data protection process. In fact, backing up is the easy part. The hard part is system restoration. Just because you have your data ready on a remote disk to be restored, doesn't mean you have a computer ready for you to restore to.

Dealing with older hardware

Normally, if you have a modern Mac, an OS repair is a straight forward thing where you can reboot by pressing the Command-R keys at boot time and be presented with a series of tools to help you recover your Mac.

Following that, you can either re-install (not wiping your personal data), run disk utilities to repair a hard drive (my intention), or wipe your hard disk completely and do a fresh install. When that's done, you can restore from Time Machine as needed. So far so good.

Old begets old

What happens if you have no ability to start restoration utilities at boot time? Well, Apple has a built-in system that allows you to perform an internet-based recovery. "That's great," you say. And it is. Until we realize that the recovery mode from the internet will query your system and provide a version of the recovery based on when the system was released. Therefore, since my MacBook was from late 2010, it provided me tools that would only install and repair disks that work with OS X Lion.

macOS High Sierra now runs Apple's new file system, aptly named APFS. APFS isn't supported on OS X Lion. My disk utilities to repair my drive were now useless. So I was forced to wipe and install Lion from the internet recovery utility.

Starting internet recovery mode.

The good news is that getting to internet recovery mode is as easy as starting the regular recovery mode except with some extra steps.

1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Power you mac back on while pressing Command-Option-R until you are prompted to connect to a network.
3. Select your Wi-Fi network and enter the password.

You'll now have to wait while your system downloads the recovery utilities from the internet.

Install OS X

You'll be happily greeted by a familiar (yet older looking) version of the repair utilities where you can restore from Time Machine, install OS X (not a typo since OS X was the default install on my 2010 Mac), or run Disk Utility (Again useless in my case since APFS was what my internal hard drive had running).

You'll be tempted to try and run a restore from Time Machine and your certainly free to try it out to see if things will automatically start working (and if your APFS volume is intact you may be able to). However, I had to do a complete OS X install.

You can follow our guide to install a fresh copy of OS X if you need help.

I strongly suggest to create an Install account rather than use your normal account name when preforming a fresh install so that when you come to the restoration process, you avoid any compatibility issues with having similar account names.

Once again, you'll need to wait a while while your Mac downloads the installation file from the internet.

Upgrade OS X

Once re-installed, you'll quickly want to upgrade to macOS High Sierra. Unfortunately, you can't. You need to first upgrade to a minimal macOS version of 10.8 and that would be macOS X Mountain Lion.

Searching for older versions of macOS in the App Store yields no results. But if you've downloaded and installed previous versions on your Mac, you can simply select it from your purchased apps list.

1. Launch App Store.
2. Select Purchased.
3. Sign In to the App Store.
4. Scroll down until you see an older macOS version such macOS X Mountain Lion.
5. Click DOWNLOAD.

The installer will automatically start and you can follow the prompts or you can look at how to upgrade your macOS install by following our guide.

Upgrade to macOS High Sierra

Now we can finally go ahead and perform the macOS High Sierra upgrade on our older Mac.

1. Launch App Store.
2. Search for macOS High Sierra.
3. Click DOWNLOAD.

Again the installer will automatically start and you simply follow the prompts or follow our macOS installation guide.

Get your data restored

Finally, we're ready to restore our backed up data. If you back up using Time Machine, here's what you do.

1. Launch Migration Assistant.
2. Click Continue.
3. Enter your Password.
4. Click OK.
5. Select to transfer From a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk.
6. Click Continue.
7. Select your Time Machine backup location.
8. Click Continue.
9. Enter the Time Machine Password if needed.
10. Click Connect.
11. Select your Backup File.
12. Click Continue.
13. Select your Macintosh HD to restore to.
14. Click Continue.
15. Select The information you want restored. Select all for a complete restore.
16. Click Continue.
17. Allow any upgrades to occur if prompted such as iTunes.

18. Click Continue.

Now you need to wait for the restore to complete which can take many hours depending on the amount of data to restore and how you're transferring that data whether it be via ethernet cable or Wi-Fi.

When complete, log into your restored account and delete the "installer" or "Setup" account if you created one earlier.

Your old mac is Restored! Any comments?

That's finally it. Your older Mac should now be restored to it's pre-FUBAR glory. Do you have any stories from the backup/restore trenches? Let us know in the comments!

As the old saying goes, one copy is no copy and two copies is as good as one. What that means is, unless you have good local backups—plural—and online redundancies, you're only one failure, accident, theft, or other incident away from catastrophe—from the loss of everything that's digitally vital to you. That's why you need to have a plan in place. Luckily, both iOS and macOS make it easy to get started and have plenty of options available so you can get serious as well!

1. Local backup

Your first line of defense for any disk failure or damage is a local backup. On macOS, Apple provides the built-in Time Machine apps that will automatically create incremental backups—as long as you have an external drive or Time Capsule hooked up. The great thing about Time Machine being incremental is that, if you only need to recover a few files or folders, or even older versions of them, you can do that without a full restore. Since you may want to backup multiple versions and multiple machines, you'll need a hard drive at least as big as the one(s) you're backing up, although in this case, the more the better.

If you want to back your iPhone or iPad locally as well, you'll need to connect them to iTunes, make a backup—make it encrypted, so it stores your passwords securely as well—and then Time Machine will copy that data over as well.

• How to backup your Mac with Time Machine
• Apple Time Capsule on Amazon
• Western Digital external hard drive on Amazon
• Western Digital portable external drive on Amazon

2. Clone

Although Time Machine is great for incremental backups, if you ever have to do a complete recovery it can be time consuming. A bit-identical clone, on the other hand, isn't just fast to restore, you can boot off of it in a pinch and get right back to work immediately in case of emergency. You still need an external hard drive, but in this case it doesn't store your backup—it becomes your clone. That means you simply need to match the size of your internal drive. You also need an app, since cloning isn't built into macOS. Both SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner can get the job done.

If you want to back your iPhone or iPad as part of the clone, you'll still need to connect them to iTunes and make a backup—make it encrypted, so it stores your passwords securely as well.

• SuperDuper!
• Carbon Copy Cloner
• Western Digital external hard drive on Amazon
• Western Digital portable external drive on Amazon

3. Offline + offsite

If you have incredibly personal data you can't afford to lose but also don't want to risk on anyone else's servers, you can make an additional copy or clone on an additional drive and keep it somewhere else. If it's home data you can keep it at work. If it's work data you can keep it at home. You can keep it with a relative or friend, if you trust them. You can keep it in a locked drawer, a safe, even a safety deposit box at a bank. Then, every week or month or so, you can swap it with a recently updated version so it's always as up-to-date as possible. And if a fire, break-in, or anything else ever takes out your primary data, your backup is still safe. It's old-fashioned, but it works.

4. Online backup

Offline backups might be private but they're also a pain. If you don't mind trusting your data to someone else's servers, there are online options that are basically set-it-and-forget-it. Sign up, sign in, and from then on the bits just float up to the cloud.

On iOS, Apple provides the built-in iCloud Backup that keeps all your data safe on the company's servers—as long as you have enough space left on your account. On macOS, not so much. Luckily, there are a couple of company's that provide inexpensive, reliable online backup, including Backblaze and Crashplan. Experts can even roll their own using Amazon or a similar service. They'll copy every bit of your data to their servers and then let you download it again if and when you need it. For large amounts of critical data, some will even take and send drives to speed things up.

• How to turn on iCloud backups for your iPhone or iPad
• Backblaze
• Crashplan

5. Online storage

Backing up your entire drive is effective but not always convenient. It also provides security but not synchronization. While you should absolutely have local and online backups, you may also want to keep your most important files safe and synced via online storage. Apple provides the built-in iCloud Drive, which is accessible through both iOS and OS X. Dropbox, though, is typically regarded as the fastest and most flexible solution. Google also offers its own online drive, as does Microsoft. If you use their services, you'll have the best time using their storage. All of them are cross-platfom, so you can pick the one that suits you best and access all your files from anywhere.

• Dropbox
• Google Drive
• Microsoft OneDrive

Your backup plan?

If you already have a backup plan for your data, let me know what it is! If not, let me know what you end up going with!

Updated January 2017.

I recently picked up Apple's latest AirPort Express base station for our house to replace my aging first-generation Express. On my drive home, I mentally began calculating the insanity of reconfiguring all our connected HomeKit devices with the new router, but it turns out I didn't need to: Apple provides a one-tap option for setting up your new AirPort to clone and replace your old network, no hassle required.

Here's how you go about doing it.

How to replace your router with an AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, or Time Capsule

1. Plug in your new AirPort next to your old router. Don't move any wires just yet.
2. On your iPhone, open Settings > Wi-Fi and wait until you see the Set Up New AirPort Base Station field below Choose a Network.
3. Tap on the new AirPort to join it. Once connected, it will automatically offer to extend your current network. Tap Other Options and then tap Next to proceed.
   
   
   

4. Select Replace an Existing Device.
5. Choose whether the existing device is an older AirPort or a non-Apple router and press Next.
6. Select the Wi-Fi network your AirPort is replacing and enter its password, if necessary.
   
   
   

7. Your AirPort will then copy over that station's settings. Once finished, it will prompt you to switch over any Ethernet wires you had connected to the old router.

And with that, you're done! Feel free to get rid of your old base station, or move it to another part of your house to extend your network.

That's the question posed to me in this week's Mac Help. Now, I'll extol the virtues of the Mac mini as a home and small business server until my dying day. Sometimes I think I'm the only one, then a question comes in that reminds me I'm not. This one focuses on storage for OS X Server, Time Machine and more.

R.S. writes:

R.S. has a setup like mine: The Mac mini is the household hub. It's already storing and streaming media content like movies, TV shows and music to other devices on the home Wi-Fi network. This saves me from having to burden my other Macs, including SSD-based Macs with more limited storage capacity, by piling on hundreds of gigabytes of media that I'm not in a hurry to get rid of, but don't need access to all the time.

The interesting wrinkle here is that R.S. is running OS X Server. It's a $19.99 download from the Mac App Store. Using OS X Server, you can back up every Mac on your network too. If you have the storage for backing up the whole network already hanging off the Mac mini server, then you can certain use it.

My Mac mini is set up with a CalDigit T4 Thunderbolt 2 RAID. I back up everything in the house to it as a Time Machine server and I use it for media storage and streaming too.

Thunderbolt is daisy-chainable; if you've already got a Thunderbolt drive you've got your media stored on, I'd recommend using an additional device to do the Time Machine backups.

As far as Network Attached Storage (NAS) is concerned, it adds another layer of network complexity that makes me uneasy. I prefer to keep my topology as simple and as fast as possible. Thunderbolt 2 RAID meets that criteria: It's fast and it has redundancy; if a drive fails my data is safe.

Buffalo's Terastation 3400 may fit the bill, though: It sports built-in support for Time Machine.

Most of us will get away just fine with a Time Capsule, Apple's Wi-Fi router with built-in network storage, presuming we want to spend the $299 or $399, depending on capacity. But if your interest is tweaked and you'd like to see what OS X Server can do, you can download it to any Mac running Yosemite.

• $19.99 - Download now

Our colleague Haroon Q Raja recently elected not to include any of Apple's devices in his roundup of the top five best Wi-Fi routers for your connected home. His rationale was that there are "faster, more feature-rich, customizable, powerful and cheaper options." He's right about that. But he's also wrong to exclude them from consideration. Let me explain.

Raja made a good case to consider options like Netgear's Nighthawk R700 and R6250, TP-LINK's Archer C7 v2, and Edimax's BR-6478AC. All of them have strengths and weaknesses; some are very inexpensive (less than half what Apple's AirPort Extreme retails for), some have myriad configuration features so you can extensively tweak their performance and abilities. If that sounds good to you, then have at it. But understand what you're giving up.

Simplified setup and management

There's a lot more to recommend Apple's devices than simply "brand loyalty," as Raja dismisses. Apple makes its network devices as easy to use as the Mac and the iPhone. And that goes a long way to effectively targeting Apple's customer.

That's because, put frankly, most Wi-Fi router manufacturers absolutely suck at making their devices easy to set up and use. They require you to use web-based interfaces. They present you with page after page of configuration information, myriad checkboxes and radio buttons that are either not well-described or not described at all, clad in techno jargon.

Setting up a Wi-Fi router can be tremendously intimidating to the layperson. Hell, I worked in IT, and I find setting these things up intimidating.

Most people buying these devices aren't IT people. They're not computer hobbyists either. They're just regular consumers who know they need Wi-Fi in their home. What's drawn them, by and large, to Apple equipment is because they know it's easy to use and comfortable for them.

The AirPort Utility, by comparison, makes it a dream to set up and run an Apple router. It's included in OS X in the Utilities folder; you can download a Windows version, and a free App Store version is available for iOS devices. The software's great at connecting your Apple router to the Internet and making sure it's properly configured for whatever you need to do.

Apple's network device choices

The AirPort Extreme was introduced last year, when Apple's Haswell-based MacBook Air made its debut — the first Mac to support 802.11ac, the faster Wi-Fi implementation that's now standard across the board in every Mac that Apple's released since then.

It comes with three Gigabit Ethernet ports on the back, along with a USB 2 port to attach a printer or an external hard drive that can be shared on the network. A fourth Gigabit Ethernet WAN port is used to connect to your Internet device - a cable or DSL modem or router, for example.

But what really makes the AirPort Extreme special is the software that Apple includes on the Mac and makes available for free download for the PC. AirPort Utility, found in the Utilities folder of your Mac, can help you set up and manage an AirPort Extreme within a couple minutes of opening the box.

Apple's Time Capsule is much the same story — it's the exact same device as the AirPort Extreme, though it's equipped with an internal 2 TB or 3 TB hard disk drive that's visible to the Time Machine software built into OS X. That makes it a cinch to use as a network-based backup system for the Mac. You set it once and forget about it, and every time your Mac is connected to the network it'll back up, so you'll always have a way to recover in the event of a catastrophic failure.

I'll readily admit that the AirPort Express is becoming a hard sell. It's a tiny box with unremarkable network performance — relegated to 802.11n — and it's pricey for a device in its category. But two things make it worth considering: Software and AirPlay. It's every bit as easy to configure because it works with the same utilities that support Apple's other routers, and it doubles as an AirPlay audio router.

In other words, if you hook the AirPort Express up to your stereo or to speakers using the mini jack that's built into it, it will appear in iTunes as an AirPlay device, so you can stream audio to it.

Other considerations

Here's another reason to consider an Apple-branded router: AppleCare coverage. If you've purchased, or plan to purchase, Apple's AppleCare service coverage to protect your Mac, AppleCare also covers an AirPort device. Here's the relevant details from Apple's North American coverage terms:

In other words, you don't need to buy a separate AppleCare coverage plan for your AirPort Extreme, Time Capsule or AirPort Express. It's automatically covered within two years of the AppleCare-covered device's purchase.

What this means is that if you have an AppleCare-covered device and something goes wrong with your Apple router, you can call Apple and expect to get help and expect to get it repaired or replaced at no cost to you. That's certainly better than the standard factory warranties of many other routers from other manufacturers.

Also, good luck getting competent Mac or iOS-centric support from most of third-party router makers.

The bottom line

I've laid out some practical considerations for considering an Apple router for your next Wi-Fi networking purchase, but obviously one size does not fit all, and Haroon Raja makes some great suggestions for people who are more technically inclined and less intimidated by technology. Please read his piece and decide for yourself what your next 802.11ac Wi-Fi router should be. And if this nomenclature confuses you, I also recommend Raja's illuminating How to choose the best router for your connected home to brush up on the latest Wi-Fi technology.

But getting the best "bang for your buck" is about more than which router is the fastest or can be configured the most extensively. It also involves how happy you'll be after the sale, and how seamless is the experience of setting up and using the device.

People don't just buy Apple routers because they're sycophants and acolytes that will buy anything with an Apple logo on them. I'm sure there are a few people out there like that, but many others do it because they've had positive experiences with Apple equipment and expect the same from Apple's routers — and the devices deliver. They're trying to reduce stress, eliminate grief to get connected, and make sure they'll get after-sales support and service without dealing with huge headaches.

Have you purchased an AirPort Extreme or another Apple router? Are you happy with it? Or are you considering one? Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

As we head towards WWDC 2014 we thought it would be fun to look back at Apple World Wide Developer Conferences past, what they introduced, and what impact they made. Today let's take a look at WWDC 2013, where Apple introduced iOS 7, OS X Mavericks, new MacBook Airs, new Time Machines and the stunning new Mac Pro...

WWDC 2013 took place from June 10 to 14 at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco. Tickets went on sale in late April and sold out about 70 seconds later, prompting Apple in 2014 to offer WWDC tickets to registered developers for the first time in a lottery.

WWDC 2013 was a crucial year for iOS. Apple had reinvented iOS in the biggest single update since the iPhone was introduced in 2007 when it unveiled iOS 7, featuring a radical visual departure from previous releases. iOS 7 — the first version to be spearheaded by Apple's design chief Jony Ive — focused on clarity by removing unessential interface elements, shifting buttons to tinted text and simply getting out of the way of contents and apps. The entire interface was cloaked in a physics and particle engine that shifted as you moved the device, building a parallax engine into the home screen.

Other new features of iOS 7 included Control Center, to make it easy to access commonly-used apps and features, an enhanced Notification Center, multitasking, AirDrop and more.

By comparison, OS X Mavericks didn't have the visual pizzazz of iOS 7, but sported a lot of under-the-hood changes aimed at improving performance and efficiency, especially for laptop users. Losing the big cat moniker for the first time, OS X Mavericks is named for an infamous surf break not too far away from Apple's Cupertino headquarters.

With timer coalescing, App Nap, memory compression and other features, Mavericks makes the Mac operate more efficiently with less power and better performance. But there are some interface changes, too, like tabbed Finder windows and better document tagging. Multiple display support was enhanced, and Maps and iBooks applications have been added. Notification Center was dramatically improved with Mavericks, as well.

Cloud services got some important updates at WWDC, too. Apple introduced iWork apps for iCloud, making it possible for iCloud users to work on their Pages, Keynote and Numbers documents without needing a Mac or iOS device at all. And with pressure mounting from streaming music services like Pandora and Spotify, Apple introduced iTunes Radio.

Apple also introduced new MacBook Air laptops, the first Macs to feature Intel's Haswell CPUs, which enable heretofore unimaginable battery life for MacBook Airs - up to 12 hours of continuous use between charges for the 13 inch model. The upgrade also gave Apple a chance to incorporate 802.11ac Wi-Fi networking, with an overall speed boost of up to 3x provided you're using an 802.11ac base station. That's why Apple introduced new AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule devices at the same time.

Apple also took the wraps off a machine that wouldn't ship until late December, but one that got Mac hardware fans excited: the radically different Mac Pro, a machine presumed dead after Apple discontinued the earlier model, which languished for years.

One-eighth the volume of its predecessor and turbine-shaped to speed the removal of warm air from its unified core, the Mac Pro is a parallel processing powerhouse, featuring a Xeon processor with up to 12 cores and twin AMD FirePro workstation-class GPUs. SATA hard drive bays are gone, in their place went PCIe-based flash storage, and RAM with twice the bandwidth of the old Mac Pro.

Give it the keynote a watch and let me know — what do you think of WWDC 2013 and what, if anything, does it make you hope for at WWDC 2014?

To accommodate newly introduced MacBook Airs that ship with 802.11ac "Gigabit WiFi" capabilities and Apple's forthcoming redesigned Mac Pro, Apple also introduced a new AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule at WWDC this week. This is the first update to the AirPort Extreme in several years and the first complete redesign since Apple moved from the UFO shape of the original to the Mac mini-like beveled rectangle, so it's worth taking a closer look at what makes the new products worthwhile.

First, let's start with the name: "Base Station" has been excised; Apple now calls it simply "AirPort Extreme" (perhaps to simplify and better align with the AirPort Express, which remains unchanged - it's still an 802.11n-capable box that can hook up to a stereo system and stream audio as well as route data for a small wireless network group).

It's been two years since the AirPort Extreme was last revised, and it's undergone some major changes - the flat box style, cribbed from Apple's Mac mini and measuring 6.5 inches on a side, is gone, and replaced with a smaller but taller cuboid design - 3.85 inches on a side and 6.6 inches tall. It's also about half a pound heavier, weighing in at 2.08 pounds.

The biggest difference, outside of the industrial design and name, is the new networking technology that's under the hood: AirPort Extreme supports 802.11ac, backwards compatible with earlier WiFi protocols but on its own capable of transmitting up to 1.3 gigabits per second - almost three times faster than the rating for its predecessor. Inside the box are six antennas, which Apple describes as a "beamforming antenna array."

The antennas can broadcast simultaneous dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands, just as before. And Apple says the AirPort Extreme can support up to 50 users simultaneously, just as before. Also unchanged are the ports on the back of the device: A Gigabit Ethernet WAN port, three Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, and one USB 2.0 port, to support a printer or external hard drive.

The price has risen for the new device by $20, to $199.

Just as with the previous generation, the new AirPort Time Capsule uses the same industrial design as the new AirPort Extreme. The Time Capsule is designed for users who want to easily backup data from their Macs over the network using Time Machine, OS X's built-in backup software.

The networking specs and interface port array of the AirPort Time Capsule is identical to the AirPort Extreme; what's different is the hard drive inside. Just as before, the AirPort Time Capsule is available in 2TB and 3TB capacities, but there's been a price realignment: the 2TB model is still $299, but the 3TB model has dropped $100 to $399 - a better value for users looking for maximum Time Machine backup storage capacity.

Even if you haven't put in an order for a new MacBook Air yet, if you haven't jumped on the Time Capsule bandwagon, now's a better time than ever because of the cheaper big version. It'll work with all the older WiFi gear you have in the house, plus you'll be future-proofing yourself a bit for 802.11ac when you're ready.

Information on Apple's new Airport Extreme 802.11n, dual-band routers has just hit the FCC, according to Engadget, who speculate:

Meanwhile, 9to5Mac has a source that claims Time Capsules could be bumped up to 2TB and 3TB models, and both the Time Capsules and Airport Extreme could drop in price as well.

The big news for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users is the continuing rumors that Time Capsule could serve as a local cache for iCloud, or at the very least [download and cache [iOS 5](/ios] (and OS X Lion) software updates](/2011/06/02/apple-time-capsules-cache-ios-software-updates).

The new Airport Extreme and Time Capsules could hit any day now. Anyone planning on jumping on them?

[Engadget, 9to5Mac]

Another countdown to Macworld, another rumor! This one says that Apple is developing a turbo-boosted version of Time Capsule that would offer HP Media Smart Server-like capabilities. Some of the more nifty, iPhone related features, according to 9to5Mac, could include:

Hey, if multiple drives and RAID-5 (RAID-6!) are in the cards, it might even be a viable Drobo alternative -- something that's already the darling of the Apple community...