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Could use help with backing up between Mac mini and MacBook

E

ECMacSS

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi all
I'm fairly new to iMac and MacBook. I've used both for work however now primarily using it for personal at home. I have a Mac mini (m2) and purchasing an M5 MacBook Air. I'm having trouble understanding how to setup Time Machine and file sharing for both.

Here's the scenario I'm looking to do. Originally I thought I need to backup both individually to same external drive, but this seems logistically a pain in the butt...doable but tedious with extra steps I suppose. Especially since I won't always have the Air near the desk.

I guess I won't be saving anything specifically to the MacBook locally. I can save it to the 'documents' folder which should sync to my Mac mini and then get backed up there. Is that correct? What other scenarios do you use to have to backup both devices separately?

Also couple questions:
1) I have my mini save desktop and documents folders to iCloud Drive. If I do the same on my MacBook and have it sync to iCloud (like my mini does), Is there only 1 'desktop' and 'documents' folder in iCloud that has files from the different devices? or does iCloud create separate 'desktop' / 'document' folders? Hope that made sense

2) On my mini in finder I don't have 'documents' in favorites. Instead it's listed under "iCloud". I'd like to make sure it's saved in both locations as an ultimate safety guard (and eventually backed up in Time Machine). How do I ensure that happens?

3) Last question...when I look in iCloud I see a handful of files and folders in there (probably from my iPhone/iPad and me just saving them incorrectly). How do I ensure a copy is also saved locally to my mini so that I can Time Machine back it all up (just in case something ever were to go wrong with iCloud).

Appreciate the help. I'm sure I'm overthinking this but it has me confused the more I do try to think through it.
 
Your understanding is correct. If both machines are using iCloud Drive and storing their desktop and documents in iCloud, the files on each desktop and the files in each documents folder on each machine will be the same. Anything you put outside of these two areas will not be synced.

Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support

Learn how to share your files from your Mac Desktop and Documents folders to all of your devices with iCloud Drive.
support.apple.com support.apple.com

1) I have my mini save desktop and documents folders to iCloud Drive. If I do the same on my MacBook and have it sync to iCloud (like my mini does), Is there only 1 'desktop' and 'documents' folder in iCloud that has files from the different devices?
Click to expand...

Yes. That’s exactly right.

2) On my mini in finder I don't have 'documents' in favorites. Instead it's listed under "iCloud". I'd like to make sure it's saved in both locations as an ultimate safety guard (and eventually backed up in Time Machine). How do I ensure that happens?
Click to expand...

The locations displayed in your Finder sidebar are customizable. I recommend you arrange them both the same. Take out any favorite that might point to the account’s local documents folder. Put the iCloud documents folder in Favorites on both machines. It’s a personal choice but I prefer all of my commonly used folders to be under Favorites.

3) Last question...when I look in iCloud I see a handful of files and folders in there (probably from my iPhone/iPad and me just saving them incorrectly). How do I ensure a copy is also saved locally to my mini so that I can Time Machine back it all up (just in case something ever were to go wrong with iCloud).
Click to expand...

All files in iCloud wil be the same amongst all of your devices, including your iPhone and iPad.

Now, for backup…

- I’d attach a large hard drive to the iMac.
- Set the iMac to never sleep (you’re still protected by the screensaver and lock screen).
- Keep your account logged in at all times.
- In iCloud settings, make sure the iMac keeps a local copy of all iCloud files.
- in Photos, make the iMac keep downloaded copies of all photos.

Now, the iMac will have sync with iCloud and have local copies of everything in iCloud. Time Machine backups of this one machine will capture it all.

If you want to go farther just in case, make sure your Time Machine hard drive is large enough to support backups to both the iMac and the MacBook. On the iMac, in Sharing preferences, turn on File Sharing and make a shared backup folder. Add this to your MacBook as a Time Machine destination. It’ll back up automatically when you’re home.

Back up to a shared folder with Time Machine on Mac

On a Mac, share a folder that other Mac computers on your network can use for Time Machine backups.
support.apple.com support.apple.com

For better security, buy two Time Machine drives and rotate one offsite periodically. This will preserve recent backups in case of theft or if your house burns down. I used to keep one in my office.
 
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Wow thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. I really appreciate it!

To clarify my #2 - I think I was trying to figure out that if 'documents' was only listed under my iCloud (in Finder), does it mean it's also locally saved? I'm curious because I didn't see 'documents' under my favorites.

Also great info on the sharing backups. I didn't know about that. I think I understand (haven't looked at your link yet). Wouldn't having the shared backup folder in my iMac eventually take up too much space? Maybe I'm confused on that part since I intended to use an external drive for backups.

Thanks again for your time!
 
Regarding #2, when you turn on Desktop and Documents in iCloud, your local documents are moved to iCloud and the local Documents folder no longer exists. I put my iCloud Documents folder under Favorites so it looks the same as before, but the files are really in iCloud, not local.

For Time Machine, all backups should be on an external drive. It will need to be bigger because it’ll be backing up two machines. But the backup of the MacBook should be much smaller than the backup of the iMac (which contains everything important).
 
Thanks again for the help. I feel a tad bit lost on the whole shared folder as a backup destination. I don't think I understand the concept. What purpose would it be needed for? Is it for files that I might work on/save outside of 'desktop' and 'documents' folders on the MacBook?

Thanks!
 
The “shared backup folder” is an alternative that lets you run Time Machine directly on the MBA to the backup drive attached to the iMac. It’s only necessary for files not synced through iCloud, so if you do set that up ensure that the MBA excludes iCloud files from the backup, to avoid needing a monstrous drive. Personally, I back up just the one computer (Mac mini in my case) and not my laptop, however; that does mean if my laptop is lost or damaged it’ll need to be fully set up (apps manually installed, etc) rather than “restored”. I’m okay with that but it’s a personal preference.

chabig said:
For better security, buy two Time Machine drives and rotate one offsite periodically. This will preserve recent backups in case of theft or if your house burns down. I used to keep one in my office.
Click to expand...
I also run a 2nd backup on my Mac mini to a cloud service (not iCloud; not using Time Machine) to satisfy this. So all files are backed up to Time Machine AND to the cloud service.
 
I have both a Mini for a desktop and a MacBook Pro for a laptop.

I've always "let each Mac be its own Mac". Never bothered to try to make one just like the other.

Same with backups. As each Mac is its own Mac, each Mac gets its own backup drive.
As simple and unsophisticated as it gets.
But it ... just works.
 
FreakinEurekan said:
The “shared backup folder” is an alternative that lets you run Time Machine directly on the MBA to the backup drive attached to the iMac. It’s only necessary for files not synced through iCloud, so if you do set that up ensure that the MBA excludes iCloud files from the backup, to avoid needing a monstrous drive. Personally, I back up just the one computer (Mac mini in my case) and not my laptop, however; that does mean if my laptop is lost or damaged it’ll need to be fully set up (apps manually installed, etc) rather than “restored”. I’m okay with that but it’s a personal preference.


I also run a 2nd backup on my Mac mini to a cloud service (not iCloud; not using Time Machine) to satisfy this. So all files are backed up to Time Machine AND to the cloud service.
Click to expand...
Ahh makes sense! Thank you for the explanation and your real world scenario!
 
Fishrrman said:
I have both a Mini for a desktop and a MacBook Pro for a laptop.

I've always "let each Mac be its own Mac". Never bothered to try to make one just like the other.

Same with backups. As each Mac is its own Mac, each Mac gets its own backup drive.
As simple and unsophisticated as it gets.
But it ... just works.
Click to expand...
Very true...I figured since I won't always have my laptop by my desk I would eliminate the extra steps of carry a backup around and/or trying to remember to do a backup. Certainly not a difficult thing but one less thing for me to think about I suppose.
 
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