Please walk me through icloud backup

March 3, 2018 5:19 AM

My macbook (powerbook, about 2014) screen is suddenly filled on the left side with colorful vertical lines preventing me from seeing the left hand side bar or the apple icon, which now seem beyond the border of the screen, and the left border is just lines. I figure it's the end. I want to back up but my Timemachine to an external drive also frequently fails to work, just doesn't back up, even with different external drives. I want to bring it in to the shop today and back up all my data to icloud first.

I can't figure out how, though I followed the steps on the apple page and a forum. What I am trying: I click on System Preferences (which is difficult because the apple menu is now invisible due to the lines, but I can manage) and click on icloud. THen I click on manage icloud. Then... I can't seem to make it all backup or save to icloud. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks mac people!

posted by velveeta underground to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Best answer: Are you looking to do a full backup? In other words, if your computer meets an unfortunate end, are you looking to be able to restore everything back onto a new computer? If so, I don’t think iCloud can do that. For that, you either need Time Machine (for a local hard drive) or an online backup service (Backblaze is the one I use). iCloud is based around the idea of having all your “stuff” “in the cloud”. So, it’s going to sync your pictures and music and email and contacts, but isn’t really meant for doing full backups. I’d spend my time figuring out why Time Machine isn’t working (that will be, by far, the fastest option) or sign up for an online backup service.
posted by Betelgeuse at 5:45 AM on March 3, 2018

A work-around for not being able to launch apps using the mouse is to use Spotlight. If you hit command-space (assuming you haven't disabled it), a "Spotlight Search" window should pop up. You can type in the names of applications, and when you press enter they'll be launched. System Preferences should be accessible this way.
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:38 AM on March 3, 2018

iCloud Backups are designed for iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod) full backups only, sadly so. For full Mac backups, you'll need to do it using Time Machine.

As trying to backup to Time Machine failed, it's possible something's wrong with the USB/Thunderbolt/FireWire connection, so I'd buy more iCloud storage if needed and use iCloud Drive as an alternative - manually back up your files and applications, and try to put down any product key ID numbers for products such as Office or Adobe, if you have any.

To back up applications from your Applications folder, click on the Desktop, press COMMAND and G at the same time, type: /Applications, hit enter, then select all (COMMAND and A), then drag files to iCloud Drive (make sure you're in another window there for iCloud Drive)... some will refuse to copy, as they're Mac files and unnecessary.

Your photos/videos from the Photos app on the Mac MAY already be on iCloud. Check System Preferences > iCloud > Photos and see if the checkmark is on, and if the number count matches that with your iPhone.

I hope this helps, I know this isn't thorough but hopefully begins as a good start. Oh, and Johnny Assay is right as well - spotlighting System Preferences works as well. It's a bit more tricky with the Mac - it's quite easy to backup an iPhone using iCloud, as the process is seamless, but the Mac isn't as easy.

And PowerBook? Those hasn't existed since, what, 2007 or so? If 2014, it's an MacBook Air, Pro, or Pro Retina.
posted by dubious_dude at 4:21 PM on March 3, 2018