Mac users love using Time Machine. It’s a great tool that out performs traditional external backup procedures. This is because, like most apple products, it’s user interface is so easy to use.
If your computer’s hard drive fails, you can completely restore all of your data and it works just like it was. Anyone who has had to use it knows just how much time this saves.
So, what happens if both your computer and Time Machine are damaged or lost, like a theft or fire? You’re going to wish you had it backed up in the cloud. This led us on a search to find the best way to back up Time Machine to the cloud. We found 3 methods. IDrive is the only true Time Machine compatible backup, Dolly Drive and Transmit are alternatives that behave similarly.
1. IDrive has a Time Machine specific backup utility. It recognizes Time Machine and backs it up to the cloud.
2. Dolly Drive does is similar Time Machine, it backs up your files to the cloud rather than a local drive.
3. Transmit gives the user control over the whole process and it is used to sync your Time Machine to a cloud provider.
1. IDrive
IDrive offers the easiest solution available to backup your Time Machine. It’s built into their backup software. Like most convenient options you will have to pay for the cloud storage service. To us, paying a little extra each month is worth the peace of mind.
In addition to restoring downloads via download, IDrive is able to send you a Time Machine external hard drive of your data for an extra charge. This minimizes downtime because you will not have to wait for hundreds of GB’s to download. Depending on your internet speed, you can spend hours or even days downloading 500+ GB’s.
Cost: 500GB for $14.95/Month
Pros
- Very easy to work with
- Scheduled and Automatic
- Email, Chat, and Phone Tech Support
- Will send a physical Time Machine restore drive
Cons
- None
2. Dolly Drive
Dolly Drive is a service that provides exactly the same type of thorough backup that Time Machine offers except you back up to the cloud using Dolly Drive’s user interface. It’s neat and clean, but it’s not actually Time Machine. Chances are you that won’t matter to you much when you restore your files and it works perfectly.
Along with cloud backup, you can also backup any file to the cloud using Dolly Space, sync files across multiple devices using Dolly Sync, backup locally using Local Backup, or clone your hard drive using Dolly Clone.
Cost: 500GB for $20/Month (or discounted to $180 for year contract)
Pros
- Lots of backup options
- Provides sync space and clone options
- Schedule backups
Cons
- More expensive
- Not the same as Time Machine
3. Transmit
Transmit is an FTP client that offers a sync capability. You can set it to backup your Time Machine folder on your external drive to a cloud service of your choosing. The downside is that you have to pay extra for a cloud service provider like Amazon S3.
Cost: $34 for Transmit + Cloud Backup Service
Pros
- Control over backup space and storage options
- Sync Time Machine to any cloud service
Cons
- No built in cloud software
- No scheduling available
- File sizes can be large and take a while to backup
Steven is a web developer and online technology expert. He has built global networks and websites for fortune 500 companies. A graduate of Georgia Tech in Chemical Engineering, he now happily spends his time building Joomla and WordPress websites as well as reviewing online backup services, web hosting and anything else that needs reviewing.