Time Machine is a useful utility produced by Apple that keeps a backup of your data and files on your Mac OS. In order to work properly however, you need to connect to Apple’s hardware device – Time Capsule but you can use other data devices for this purpose as well. Once you connect the Time Capsule to your Mac, you need to assign it to Time Machine and after that, Time Machine will make a backup of everything on your Mac from your applications, accounts, preferences, documents, data, music files, movies and photos to Time Capsule. 

You may think that you can do this same thing on your own but the unique aspect about Time Machine is that it will make a spare copy of all of these documents and files. In addition to this, Time Machine will also remember the way your Mac looked on the day in which you backed up your files or on any other given day. You can make your system look like that given day using Time Machine; this is especially useful when you have not only lost your information but also when you are looking for a specific file and you are not sure which one it is but you remember it based on the last day that you used it.

The first time that you make a backup on Time Capsule, try to leave the Capsule in the same room as your Mac or try to connect it manually using a cable with your Mac because this will make the backup procedure much simpler and faster. However, the good news is that you can continue to use your Mac as the backups are being made. After this initial backup, as long as your computer is awake and the Time Capsule or any other backup device is connected in some way, Time Machine will continue to update changes made on your system and synchronize them with the backup. However, if you do not want this to happen automatically, you can always set the automatic Time Preferences to off and make manual backups as you desire.

You can also make a number of customizes settings on your Time Machine preferences to exclude certain documents and items from being backed up. This is especially important if your backup device has a limited space and you cannot back up everything on your computer to your device or Time Capsule. In such a situation, choose only those folders and files to be backed up that are the most important. A good idea is to exclude very large files as well since Time Machine tends to modify all files irrespective of their sizes and changes made.

To restore specific files from your Time Machine to your computer, make sure that the device is on and connected. You can go back in time using the timeline to fetch a specific file that has been lost from your system. You can even search for a file if you do not remember that date, something that makes backing up and restoring files a very simple task.