AstonJ
I’ve been reinstalling macOS after trying out Tahoe, and when I went to migrate from a Time Machine backup I got an error I’ve not see before:
Which reminded me of the importance of contingency, so thought it might be an idea to post this thread (that’s my tip, use Time Machine and with more than one drive!)
Curious what everyone else’s backup strategy is?
Where Next?
Trending in Dev Env & Tools
Other Trending Topics
Latest on Elixir Forum
Sponsor Spotlight
At WyeWorks, we believe great software is built by combining technical excellence with genuine human connection
Categories:
Sub Categories:
Forums
Popular Tags
- #ecto
- #liveview
- #troubleshooting
- #learning-elixir
- #library
- #deployment
- #erlang
- #testing
- #genserver
- #mix
- #absinthe
- #remote-other
- #otp
- #plug
- #how-to-question
- #macros
- #postgres
- #elixirconf
- #channels
- #exunit
- #discussion
- #code-sync
- #podcasts
- #javascript
- #onsite
- #dialyzer
- #docker
- #authentication
- #umbrella
- #full-time-contract
- #podcasts-by-brainlid
- #ecto-query
- #elixirconf-us
- #ai
- #blog-post
- #elixir-ls
- #phoenix_html
- #iex
- #graphql
- #genstage
- #websockets
- #supervisor
- #advent-of-code
- #distillery
- #processes
- #api
- #forms
- #metaprogramming
- #hex
- #security
Our Sponsors
Build Elixir applications with speed and confidence.
We build reliable cloud platforms for business-critical systems.
Catch errors, track performance, monitor hosts and more.
Error tracking, logs, uptime, and Just Enough APM. Built for developers.
Elixir, Erlang & BEAM conferences from Code Sync - join us in 2026!
Producing high quality Elixir screencasts since 2017.
**Building the future of software with AI, trust, and human connection.**
The deployment platform built for Elixir: PaaS ease, VPS control.
The team behind Membrane, Popcorn, LiveDebugger. Available for hire.
Courses that'll move you from confusion to "Aha, now I get it!"
First Post!- Show Best Posts
- Show All (oldest first)
- Show All (newest first)
AstonJ
Btw if anyone’s curious I’m not sure why it was saying my Mac was formatted as case-sensitive as I’m pretty sure I had formatted the drive as APFS, I had another TM backup so just reformatted and started again with the other backup and that worked fine. It’s possible I had formatted it incorrectly the first time but it just reminded me of the importance of contingency, hence this thread.
My macOS backup tips are:
My preferred way of transferring to a new machine (or just periodically after every second update of a major macOS version) is to do a clean install (manually copying of your files). Eg: Clean macOS install – the easy way – (via @AstonJ)
Most Liked
arcanemachine
On Linux, I have my .bashrc, Vim config, other config files, documents, etc. backed up to various Git repos. All the essential stuff I wouldn’t want to lose.
I don’t make an effort to preserve my entire home directory, there’s just too much junk that accumulates over time.
Evey 5 years or so, I find some reason to reinstall Linux and start over, which is like a breath of fresh air.
mudasobwa
None. I mean it.
When I forget my gloves in the train I don’t check lost and found either.
I can redo whatever I could have lost in less time than I would waste doing all these backups and whatnot.
dimitarvp
I use
borg+rclonefor years. The caveat is that I have to manually trigger my script but nothing prevents it from being scheduled, I just haven’t bothered. Motivation to tinker with macOS deteriorates by the week lately.Having various backup tools like
borgorrestic(orrustic) gives you another layer of backups i.e. it’s a “repository” of backup snapshots which you can configure to have N past backups based on counts or time slots. And then that repository I disperse across multiple cloud services (and my own home server), compressed, deduplicated and encrypted.I also test my backups once a month or two. Because if you don’t do that, they are pointless.
Last Post!
mudasobwa
Really. Passwords only.
Important documents I have on paper. Photos are the past and I am doing my best to live the future.