How often Time Machine backs up, and how to change it

Why it happens

Hourly backups mean you lose at most an hour of work if something goes wrong. Time Machine keeps hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month and weekly backups for older months. When the disk fills up, it deletes the oldest backups to make room.

How to fix it

1. Open the Apple menu, choose System Settings, click General, then Time Machine.

2. Click Options… and open the Backup Frequency pop-up menu.

   General›Time Machine›Options…›Backup Frequency

3. Choose Automatically Every Hour, Automatically Every Day, Automatically Every Week or Manually. Hourly is the safest; daily is a good middle ground if backups slow you down.

4. Click Done. If you picked Manually, nothing backs up until you start it yourself, so set a reminder.

Still not fixed?

1. Need a backup right now? Click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar and choose Back Up Now.

   Menu bar›Time Machine›Back Up Now

2. No Time Machine icon in the menu bar? Turn it on in Menu Bar settings, under Menu Bar Controls.

   Menu Bar›Menu Bar Controls›Time Machine

3. If backups skip on a MacBook, it may be running on battery. Turn on Back up on battery power in Time Machine's Options….

   General›Time Machine›Options…›Back up on battery power

4. If backups fail with errors, check the backup disk with First Aid in Disk Utility.

   Disk Utility›First Aid

5. If First Aid can't repair the disk or backups keep failing, contact Apple Support, or replace the backup drive, since drives wear out over the years.