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Add Apple's free Backup.app to your backup toolbox
When most people think about Apple and backups they probably think about Time Machine or perhaps even Time Capsule. But Apple has a lesser-known application which you might consider using. The app, simply named Backup, was originally available only to .Mac users, but is now openly available on Apple's website. It lists "MobileMe account" as one of its requirements. If you do not have a MobileMe account, each backup is limited to 100 MB. The good news is that for what I am suggesting, 100 MB will be completely sufficient for most people. Follow along as I use Backup to create a complete and scheduled backup of personal data and settings on my Mac. First, install and launch the application. Choose Plan > New Plan from the menu. If you have a MobileMe account, choose the "Personal Data & Settings" option (second from the top), click the "Choose Plan" button, and then skip the next paragraph.
Backups save the day after data loss
About 13GB of data was accidentally deleted from my account on my Mac yesterday. Fortunately, due to an aggressive backup system, I was able to recover all of the files. I was trying to test out a tip sent to the TUAW team, which led me to log into (and out of) the "Guest" account several times. One of the logins seemed to hang, which triggered a memory about a data loss bug in Snow Leopard which I had read about (and which Apple is now acknowledging in "extremely rare" cases, per Cnet). I immediately reached around the back of my iMac and shut it down. At first I thought everything was OK, but then Dropbox started asking me to configure settings, as if it was the first time the app was run. Fortunately, due to the new "LAN sync" feature in recent Dropbox betas, the iMac copied my Dropbox files from my MacBook Pro on the same network in a matter of seconds, rather than having to download almost 2GB of data from Dropbox's servers. I thought that was the end of the problems, until I saw that my Terminal customizations were missing. Then I noticed that a few other applications were not functioning correctly. Suddenly I realized that I had most likely suffered more data loss than was immediately obvious. Read on to see what had to be done to recover after the data loss occurred.
Mission TUAWpossible: Back up your iPhone with Time Machine
Good morning, Mr. Phelps. The man you are looking at is Justin T. iPhoneuser, one of our loyal TUAW readers. Recently, Justin's iPhone went kablooey and when he tried to restore, he found that his backups were corrupted. He lost a great deal of data and time, all because Time Machine hadn't backed up his iPhone's data. Your mission, Jim, should you choose to accept it, is to help Justin back up his data with Time Machine so he never has to face this kind of data loss again. As usual, should any of your team members be caught by Apple, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This post will self-destruct in five seconds... [This is the part where the Theme Music usually plays.] Read on for your TUAWpossible Mission Briefing.
