--- title: "Storage Studio and Time Machine" url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/compared-with-time-machine category: "Compared with macOS" tags: ["backups", "comparison", "local snapshots"] summary: "Time Machine backs up your whole Mac. Storage Studio's Data Backup keeps versioned backups of the folders you choose, including ones on your external drive. Use both." updated: 2026-10-01T05:32:23.000Z --- # Storage Studio and Time Machine Time Machine backs up your whole Mac. Storage Studio's Data Backup keeps versioned backups of the folders you choose, including ones on your external drive. Use both. Time Machine and Storage Studio's **Data Backup** both keep earlier versions of your files, but they protect different things. They're designed to work side by side, and using both is the safest choice. ## What Time Machine does Time Machine is built into macOS. It backs up your files, apps and settings to a backup disk. It keeps hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month and weekly backups for older months, removing the oldest when the disk fills. It also keeps [local snapshots](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-local-snapshot) on your Mac's own disk, so recent versions are at hand even when the backup disk isn't connected. ## What Data Backup adds - **The folders you choose**, wherever they are — including folders you've moved to your [external drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-external-drive). Time Machine backs up a [shortcut](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-shortcut) as a shortcut, not the folder it points to, so a folder Storage Studio has relocated needs its own backup on the drive side. - **Where you want it**: another drive, a folder, or one of your cloud accounts, where backups are encrypted on your Mac before they leave it. - **When you want it**: **As things change**, **On a schedule** or **Only when I ask**. - **[Incremental](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-incremental-backup) [versions](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-backup-version)** you can browse file by file or restore whole, and a **Check** button that verifies a backup's integrity. ```mermaid %% caption: What each backup covers flowchart LR A[Your Mac's built-in disk] -->|Files, apps and settings| TM[Time Machine] B[Folders moved to your external drive] -->|Folders you choose| DB[Data Backup] A -->|Folders you choose| DB TM --> C[Time Machine backup disk] DB --> D[Another drive or a cloud account] ``` *Flowchart — What each backup covers. Outline:* - Your Mac's built-in disk - Files, apps and settings: leads to Time Machine - Folders you choose: leads to Data Backup - Time Machine - leads to Time Machine backup disk - Folders moved to your external drive - Folders you choose: leads to Data Backup - Data Backup - leads to Another drive or a cloud account ## Local snapshots Time Machine's local snapshots are useful, but they hold on to the space of files you've since moved or deleted. Storage Studio's **Local Snapshots** window shows how much they're holding, tells you whether a Time Machine backup exists, and lets you release space when you need it. If no Time Machine backup is set up, it warns you that the snapshots are the only copy of that state. ## Using both Keep Time Machine for your Mac as a whole. Add a Data Backup set for anything that lives on your external drive. Check Time Machine's options to see which drives it includes. See also: [Data Backup](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/data-backup) · [Local snapshots](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/local-snapshots) · [Where a backup can go](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/backup-destinations) - **Can I move my iPhone backups to an external drive on a Mac?** Yes. Finder has no setting for where it keeps iPhone and iPad backups, but Storage Studio can move them to your external drive from What's Using Space: it copies them, checks every file arrived, and only then frees the space on your Mac. Finder keeps backing up to the drive afterwards, so keep… (https://storagestudio.us/faq) - **What is purgeable space on a Mac and how do I clear it?** Purgeable space is storage macOS is holding — old snapshots, cached cloud files, optimised media — that it frees automatically when you need room, which is why "free" space can look smaller than expected. Storage Studio reclaims a lot of it on demand instead of making you wait. (https://storagestudio.us/faq) - **How do I reclaim space from local Time Machine snapshots on a Mac?** macOS keeps point-in-time APFS local snapshots so Time Machine can restore even when your backup drive is away — useful, but they can hold a lot of space. Storage Studio lists every snapshot, shows which are already safely backed up, and reclaims the space you choose in one click. (https://storagestudio.us/faq) ## What links here - [Data Backup](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/data-backup) - [How Storage Studio keeps every change reversible](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/how-storage-studio-keeps-you-safe) - [Local snapshot](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-local-snapshot) - [Local snapshots](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/local-snapshots) - [Where to start: pick your goal](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/where-to-start) - [Why deleting files doesn't always give the space back](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/why-deleting-doesnt-free-space)