Simply launch the application and click “First Aid” on your drive. If you’re unsure even after all of this, you can verify and repair your hard drive using Disk Utility. When it’s done, you’ll see a summary of the difference between your computer and your backup drive. The process will take a while to run-it’s not unusual for the process to take 15 minutes, or even a half hour. A - before a file means the given file was deleted.A + before a file means the given file is new.A ! before a file means the given file has changed.The first character tells you about the file. The process will take a while, and results will scroll by. Type tmutil compare -s, then hit Enter, and your Mac will compare the contents of your Mac with the contents of your backup.
If the files you expect to be there are there, and it’s possible to preview them, your backup is most likely in working order.īut if you’d like more details and assurance that things are working, open the Terminal, which you can find in Applications > Utilities. You can press the Spacebar to preview them, or even restore them. Head back in time, and find some files you know you deleted. Connect your backup drive, then launch Time Machine, which is in the Applications folder.
The simplest thing is to launch Time Machine and try to restore some files that you’ve deleted. If your Time Machine backup runs locally-for example, if you back up to an external hard drive over USB-you cannot use the menu bar method to verify your drives. If you never get any notification, you don’t have any problems to worry about. If there’s a problem, you will find out via a notification. You Mac is comparing your backup with the checksums it has on file.
#What is time machine on mac pro free
If you want to watch the progress closely, feel free to open up the Time Machine panel in System Preferences again. Your Mac actually does this regularly, but there’s no harm in doing it manually from time to time, particularly if you think there might be a problem.
#What is time machine on mac pro mac os
You’ll see HFS+ listed in your Mac’s operating system as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). But for earlier MacOS versions like Catalina, Mojave. The best drive format for a Time Machine backup is APFS. (If your backup isn’t over the network, or was created by an older version of macOS, the option may be greyed out.) Your Mac will start verifying the backup. When your MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or iMac is running MacOS Big Sur (version 11.0). Then, hold down the Option key, and a “Verify Backups” option will appear.Ĭlick the “Verify Backups” option. Next, click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar.