(In Catalina, Apple added volume groups, which are used to hold the operating system itself in pieces, separating your data from system files, enhancing system security and integrity.) You can have several volumes in a container that dynamically share the space allotted to the container, which means you don’t have to allocate storage space to a given volume beforehand.

Each container has one or more volumes, and each volume (starting in High Sierra) has a “role,” which defines the kind of volume it is. APFS divides a disk into one or more containers (similar to partitions). Not only must you use Big Sur to back up to an APFS-formatted Time Machine volume, you can’t even access the backups from a Mac with Catalina or an earlier macOS version installed. This might go without saying, but I know enough people with mixed-system setups who will ask. I would set up any new Time Machine volume formatted with APFS, but not convert an old one from HFS+.īig Sur APFS-based Time Machine backups can’t be used in Catalina or earlier releases. Data is restored to your Mac.While APFS has advantages for SSD-based storage, there really aren’t any for hard disk drives, the most likely kind of drive used for large-capacity backup drives. Address any prompts that appear on the screen (grant Administrative access, etc.) The Graphical Timeline to the right of the Time Machine windowīrowse to, and select files/folders you wish to restore.

You can navigate Time Machine through the following: Open Finder - Applications - Time Machine.At this point Time Machine prepares the drive and backs up selected data. At this point the folder size Calculations and Adjustments are made. Select files/folders and click on the Exclude button.Click on the + button to change what is excluded by Time machine.At this point the Backup Disk is selected and the next Time Machine Backup will start in 120 Seconds (2 Minutes).Įxcluding items from Time Machine backup plan ( Options): Select a drive and click on the Use Disk button.A window opens showing External Storage Drives connected to your Mac. Setting up the external drive to be used with Time Machine: Use this link for instructions on formatting your drive

For macOS versions for 10.6 (Snow Leopard) to 10.15 (Catalina) use Mac OS Extended (Journaled) also referred to as HFS+ when setting up a new backup.

For Big Sur use Apple File System (APFS) when setting up a new backup.

MacOS requires that a drive be formatted with a specific file system to be used with Time Machine Setting up the external drive to be used with Time MachineĮxcluding items from Time Machine backup planįormatting a drive to be used with Time Machine:

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