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Time Machine creates a backup of your Mac on an external drive.
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Get an External Drive to Use With Time Machine If you replace your Mac, change the storage drive, or wipe it clean, it’s easy to restore a Time Machine backup and recover every piece of data you lost. You can also use Time Machine to recover long-lost files, undo new changes to a document, or travel back to a time before malware infected your Mac.Ī Time Machine backup includes absolutely everything on your Mac: photos, documents, user preferences, and third-party apps. When you use iCloud Drive and delete a file on one device, it deletes on your other devices too. iCloud removes the files from every device that you're signed in to with the same Apple ID.This means you can revert your entire Mac-or an individual file on your Mac-to the state it was in on a certain date. Then go to your Recently Deleted folder in the Files app or on and delete the files there. Before you delete anything, make sure that you back up the files that you still want. You can also free up space on your device and in iCloud Drive when you delete files. On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you can search and browse files from all of your devices and download them only as you need them. If you want to free up more space on your Mac, follow these steps.
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Then your Mac keeps all of your recent files on your computer, but keeps your older ones only in iCloud, ready for you to download when you need them again. If you need more space on your device, iCloud Drive can help. On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences. Click Apple ID, then click iCloud. On macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click iCloud. The files that you keep in iCloud Drive use your iCloud storage. And as long as you have enough space in iCloud and on your device, you can store as many files as you like. Store your files in iCloud and save space on your device
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(and note that while the information is in the Desktop and Documents support article, the Optimize option is available even if you are using iCloud Drive without turning on Desktop and Documents option) See the information below from Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support To reduce the space needed on the drive, turn on the Optimize storage option. ICloud Drive is a syncing service and by default keeps a local copy on your Mac drive.
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