Backup & Peace of Mind

Losing photos, documents or years of accumulated files is one of the most stressful things that can happen, whether it’s your Mac, your iPhone, or both. We only work directly on Macs, but since so many of your photos and documents these days live on your iPhone or iPad just as much as your Mac, we make sure your whole Apple household is properly protected, not just the one device sitting on your desk.

Time Machine backup, done properly

Apple’s built-in Time Machine is the most reliable way to back up your Mac locally, and it’s the option we recommend first for most home users. Connected to an external drive or network storage, Time Machine keeps continuous, automatic backups of your whole Mac, including your files, apps and settings, and gives you a straightforward way to restore individual files, or your entire Mac, if something ever goes wrong, a failed drive, a botched software update, or simply wanting to move everything to a new Mac. We help you choose a reliable external drive sized properly for your needs (as a rule of thumb, at least twice your Mac’s storage capacity), set Time Machine up correctly from the start, and check in on it periodically so you’re not just hoping it’s still working.

Backup to a NAS (network storage)

If you’d like backup for more than one computer in the house, or you’re building up a large library of photos and videos that’s outgrown a single external drive, a NAS (network-attached storage) gives you one central, reliable place to back up every Mac on your home network over Wi-Fi or ethernet, with Time Machine support built in and no cables to plug in each time. We help choose, set up and configure a NAS properly for your household’s needs.

Backing up your iPhone & iPad too

It’s easy to think of backup as a Mac-only job, but plenty of people’s most important photos live on their iPhone first. iCloud Photos and iCloud Backup cover this automatically once set up correctly, keeping your iPhone and iPad’s photos, messages and settings safe as well, not just what’s sitting on your Mac. We’ll make sure this side of things is properly configured too, not overlooked.

Setting up cloud backup

If you’d like your photos and documents backed up automatically without having to think about it, and accessible from anywhere, services like iCloud or Dropbox can do this well once they’re set up properly. We’ll help you choose sensible storage plans and settings so you’re not paying for more than you need, make sure photo backup is actually working the way you expect, rather than silently filling up your phone’s storage instead, and confirm backup is genuinely happening, not just switched on and forgotten. We can also help set up two-factor authentication on your iCloud account, so your backed-up photos and documents stay properly secure.

Switching between cloud services

If you’re moving from one provider to another, we can help make sure everything transfers across properly first, including photos, documents and any shared folders, so nothing gets lost in the changeover.

Turning off cloud backup & going local only

Cloud backup isn’t the right fit for everyone. Some people find services like iCloud sync causing more confusion than convenience, duplicate photos, unexpected storage charges, or simply not wanting their files stored off their own device. If that’s you, we can help turn it off properly, without deleting anything by accident, and set up a reliable Time Machine or NAS backup instead.

Restoring after data loss

If you’ve already lost files, whether from accidental deletion, a failed drive, or a backup that wasn’t actually working, we’ll do what we can to recover what’s recoverable and help you get a proper backup in place going forward so it doesn’t happen again.