Want to back your Mac up to iCloud, Dropbox, or another remote backup solution? We look at the various kinds of backup you can have, explaining how to backup your Mac - and why you should use more. Oct 18, 2019  The first backup may take a long time, depending on how many files you have, but you can continue using your Mac while a backup is underway. Time Machine backs up only the files that changed since the previous backup, so future backups will be faster. To start a backup manually, choose Back Up Now from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Mar 22, 2015  I have an iPhone 6 with iOS 8.2 on. I have enabled iCloud photo library (beta) and ticked 'optimise iPhone storage'. However on my iCloud backup storage options on my iPhone you can enable/disable what you want backed up. On my photo library it has 'no. Ever since Lion (OS X 10.7), Apple has hidden your personal Library folder (/Library) by default. In Lion and Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8), you could make the folder visible, but it required some work. You should poke around in /Library and see what's in there that you need. Here's a list of what I backup to get you started: /Library/Application Support and /Library/Preferences are where most of your application settings live. You should go through each of those folders' subfolders and see which ones you need.

An iMovie library holds all the media and data used to make movies in iMovie. If your iMovie library is large and you want to free up storage space on your Mac, you can move your iMovie library to an external drive.

Before you move an iMovie library, it's a good idea to back up your Mac.

Moving your library to an external hard drive doesn’t affect any iMovie Theater content you have moved to iCloud.

Prepare your drive

You can store your library on an external storage device such as a USB Thunderbolt drive formatted as APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Apple doesn’t recommend storing iMovie libraries on external storage devices like SD cards and USB flash drives, or drives shared on a network.

You can’t store your library on an external drive or other disk used for Time Machine backups.

Move a library to an external storage device

  1. Quit iMovie.
  2. Select your external drive in the Finder, then choose File > Get Info.
  3. If the information in Sharing & Permissions isn’t visible, click the triangle , then make sure the 'Ignore ownership on this volume' checkbox is selected. If it's not selected, click the lock icon to unlock it, enter an administrator name and password, and then select the checkbox.
  4. Click your desktop to make sure that you’re in the Finder, then choose Go > Home from the menu bar at the top of your screen.
  5. Open the Movies folder, then drag the file named iMovie Library to your external hard drive.
  6. When the library file is finished copying to your external drive, double-click the library file on the external drive to open it in iMovie. If an alert appears asking you to give iMovie access to a removable volume, click OK.
    If you clicked Don't Allow, in the Finder choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, click Security and Privacy, then click Privacy. Click Files and Folders in the sidebar, then select 'Removable Volumes' under iMovie.
  7. Make sure the library you moved contains all your media, then drag the original file from your Movies folder on your Mac to the Trash.
Library

If you disconnect the external drive

When your external drive is connected to your Mac, the library you moved to the external drive opens automatically in iMovie. If you disconnect the external drive containing the library, iMovie opens to a new, empty library created in the Movies folder on your Mac. iMovie automatically saves any projects you create and media you import in the new library.

If you want to open the library you moved to an external drive, you can open it after you reconnect the external drive. You can then move clips, events, and projects between libraries.

Here are some things to know

Your iTunes library, a database that's made up of all of the music and other media that you add to iTunes for Windows, is organized into two iTunes library files and an iTunes Media folder.

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Before you back up your media:

  • Consolidate your iTunes library.
  • Redownload any previous purchases, like music, movies, TV shows, and more. The only way to back up your purchased media is to download your purchases to your computer.

iTunes and Store availability and features might vary by country or region. Learn what's available in your country or region.

If you have a Mac

In macOS Catalina, your previous iTunes media library is now available in the Apple Music app, Apple TV app, Apple Podcasts app, and Apple Books app. And when you back up your Mac, your media library is automatically included in that backup.

Consolidate your iTunes library

  1. Open iTunes.
  2. From the menu bar at the top of your computer screen or at the top of the iTunes window, choose File > Library > Organize Library.
  3. Select Consolidate files.
  4. Click OK.

When you consolidate, copies of any files that were outside of your iTunes Media folder are added to your iTunes Media folder. To save space on your hard drive, you might want to delete the original files after you make sure that the copies are in your iTunes Media Folder.

Find the iTunes Media folder

By default, your iTunes Media folder is in your iTunes folder. To find it, go to User > Music > iTunes > iTunes Media.

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If you don't see your iTunes Media folder in the above location, here's how to find it:

  1. Open iTunes.
  2. From the menu bar at the top of the iTunes window, choose Edit > Preferences.
  3. Click the Advanced tab.
  4. Look in the box under 'iTunes Media folder location' for the location of your iTunes Media folder.

Back up your library and media files

After you consolidate your media files, you can back up your library and media files to an external drive.

  1. Quit iTunes.
  2. Find your iTunes folder.
  3. Right-click on your iTunes folder, then choose Copy.
  4. Go to your external hard drive, then right-click and choose Paste.

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Restore your library from a backup

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You can restore your iTunes library from your external drive to your computer. If you're restoring an iTunes Library from a different computer, make sure that your new computer has the latest version of iTunes.

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  1. Quit iTunes.
  2. Go to 'This Computer,' then click your external drive.
  3. Select your iTunes folder, then right-click and choose Copy.
  4. Go to the location on your computer where you want your iTunes library, then right-click and choose Paste.
  5. Hold down the Shift key while opening iTunes.
  6. When you see a message that asks you to Choose iTunes Library, click Choose Library.
  7. Choose the location where you copied your iTunes folder.
  8. Click Open.
  9. Choose the iTunes Library.itl file inside.