How are you automatically backing up your Mac to the cloud? My son is a Mac user and wants to set up an automatic backup schedule to a cloud service (not necessarily ICloud). What are...

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

My son is a Mac user and wants to set up an automatic backup schedule to a cloud service (not necessarily ICloud). What are you using? I’m a PC user and don’t have the Mac experience to recommend a good solution other than the cloud provider.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I use iCloud--no problems; no complaints.

wmontgomery Loc: Louisiana

I have used Crash Plan for several years. I also use an app called Arq which backs up to AWS(Amazon Web Services). Both run in background continuously.

Bob Boner

I don't use cloud backup. I've heard too many bad stories. I use hard drives--3 copies of each, one at home, one at my wife's office, and one at my son's house.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

I avoid backing up my stuff to someone else's computer because they get it. Want my files, well then come and pry them out of my cold stiff hands.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Thanks to all for the replies. I’m not at all worried about cloud security from major vendors like Amazon (do you think hackers are spending their time looking through your photos?). I’m mostly interested in a backup ap for Macs (I use ICloud for my few Apple devices and Amazon S3 for everything else) - I’ll take a look at Arq.

nut4golf Loc: Windsor, CT

Highly recommend ARQ and Amazon Drive. If you have/get Amazon Prime, you get a pretty good chunk of storage free (5 GB), and 1TB is just $59.99 / year. Other pricing is available as well.

For those looking to archive photos, with Prime unlimited storage of photos in Amazon Drive is free! Use a program like Goodsync to copy your photos to folder(s), and you have very reasonable cloud storage solution to keep a copy of your precious assets off-site.

pappleg

I have used Macs for years and my latest IMac I bought with it a device called Airport that serves two purposes: it automatically backs up your computer and hard drives(s) periodically (i believe hourly) to I cloud and it serves as a wifi device for up to 300' so you can access internet or print remotely, etc. The wifi is password protected to keep neighbors/hackers out.

nut4golf Loc: Windsor, CT

pappleg wrote:

I have used Macs for years and my latest IMac I bought with it a device called Airport that serves two purposes: it automatically backs up your computer and hard drives(s) periodically (i believe hourly) to I cloud and it serves as a wifi device for up to 300' so you can access internet or print remotely, etc. The wifi is password protected to keep neighbors/hackers out.

Hi Pappleg - Airport a great device, but do be aware the backups made are local to that device and *not* in the cloud. Important to know and understand that if you are looking to protect your data with an offsite copy...

BigBear Loc: Northern CT

nut4golf wrote:

Hi Pappleg - Airport a great device, but do be aware the backups made are local to that device and *not* in the cloud. Important to know and understand that if you are looking to protect your data with an offsite copy...

As a security tech, I do not trust any cloud storage services. There is absolutely no guarantee that your files will be there when you want them.
Like nut4golf, we use a TimeCapsule for full system and incremental backups. You can set it up for scheduled or manual. It works for PC's as well.

When my HDD failed, all I had to do was to connect my laptop to the TimeCapsule and choose which image to restore my whole system from.
The only critical info is my photo library which I keep a third copy on an external drive that is kept in a safe.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

BigBear wrote:

As a security tech, I do not trust any cloud stora... (show quote)

Thank you for the response. As a security tech, you might be interested in this article describing the CIA and 17 other US Intel agencies using a secure Amazon AWS cloud for top secret classified materials: https://www.enterprisetech.com/2017/11/21/aws-adds-secret-region-cia-cloud/