Does anyone have any good workflows for having iCloud Drive do an occasional backup? With selective download of the files stored in iCloud drive it’s hard to get one point in time where everything is there to do a “true backup”. Just wondering if anyone has come across this or has a good workflow…Thanks!
Carbon Copy Cloner can do this for you. It will temporarily download files stored in the cloud to make a local backup.
3 Likes
If you are talking about using iCloud Drive to store backups, for me, using any sort of “sync” service (like iCloud Drive) is not a wise backup. Because it does not “version”, and if a flaw (corruption, accidental file delete, deliberated but regretted file deletion) happens then that flaw is “synced”, destroying the backup as a source for recovery. Best to put backup files somewhere else.
If you are talking about taking copies of files on iCloud Drive to backup (properly), @dario mentions an approach. I don’t backup iCloud that way, but I do have Dropbox files set for “offline” and use Carbon Copy Cloner to capture copies for backups stored on local USB drive.
I actually just started doing this. I’m using Chronosync; I don’t fully understand it, but they seem to be using a very “deep” integration with cloud services, and iCloud specifically.
I’m a big fan of Chronosync in general too; I’m backing up over my LAN to a mac with external drives, using their helper agent app, using my NAS as a destination, and it mounts and unmounts everything to schedule. Super customizeable, fast, and reliable.
1 Like
I’m am too confused by trying to pick certain files to back up. I use Backblaze. It backs up everything without any attention from me. It is easy and quick for individual files. It should be effective for an entire computer.
It costs about $100 a year.
Backblaze does not backup entire computer. The app only backs up certain folded and types of files. See the documentation and/or the dialog boxes for those specs.
It says, “ Backblaze Computer Backup is designed to back up all of your data on Mac and Windows computers. This backup covers unlimited data on the computer itself as well as internal drives and external drives that are physically connected to the computer”
There are Exclusions, “ To save your bandwidth and data center disk space, Backblaze does not back up your operating system, application files, empty folders or directories, or temporary internet files that are transient. You can see these exclusions by navigating to the Backblaze control panel, clicking Settings, and selecting the Exclusions tab. Some of these excluded files include: ISO (Disk Images), VMC VHD VMSN (Virtual Drives), SYS (System Configuration & Drivers), and EXE (Application Files). You can remove all of these file types from this area. For example, to back up an ISO, remove .iso from the list.
Backblaze also does not include backup products like Time Machine and Retrospect RDB. Other excluded files include podcasts in iTunes, thumbnails, and caches from iPhoto, Aperture, or Lightroom. Additionally, aliases, Libraries, Reparse Points, Shortcuts, Symlinks, and folders that are shared from another computer are not included in the backup.”
Yep. That’s what I said. It does not backup “all your data”, unless you believe that what it does backup is “all your data”.
To clarify and eliminate misunderstandings, Backblaze does not provide full system backup.