In my opinion Time Machine is not sufficient. In the old days it used to be said that you should have three different backups in three different locations (with all sorts of variations of opinions as to how to implement that). The logic is obvious: any single backup can fail, for any number of reasons. A hard drive can fail or become corrupted, your house might be burgled or burn down, and so forth. Nowadays I use Time Machine and also have subscriptions to both Backblaze and Arq. Using the latter two means you have a couple of backups “off site” which I regard as essential for important data – and your research data is about the most important thing you will have for the next 3-5 years (even more important than your computer itself – so spend money on data security).
I don’t think so. You should consider at least one additional remote backup option like Backblaze or Arq. You’ll find numerous threads on that topic here, and there’s also advice in the DT manual about backups.
It’s not only about the frequency of backups, is also about redundancy: if your house burns down with your Mac and your TimeMachine disk, where does that leave you?
In addition to terrific sage advice from @mbbntu and @chrillek make sure you understand where exactly your files are located on your computer so that when you configure your backups you are in fact taking backups of those files. Also, do an occasional test restore from each of your deliberately redundant backup methods to check that things are still working and that in the event of the high-pressure event of absolutely needing to restore, you know how to do it.
ps. and don’t count on a “cloud sync” method as backup.
Another piece of advice: don’t try to write your thesis in MS Word or Pages. Consider using a tool that is better suited to long-form writing, such as Scrivener. It is what I used for my thesis and it worked well.
Obviously there are other options and it is worth looking around to see what suits you.
And I will push back a little on the others’ more bullet-proof replies… Time Machine alone is better than nothing at all. It’s free, built-in, and easily set up. I strongly recommend connecting a hard drive and letting Time Machine do a full backup. That engages a mechanism that does rolling 24-hour hourly backups that work even when the drive isn’t connected. So while you habitually should connect to the drive (or leave it connected), you still have a day’s worth of shadow backups available when the drive hasn’t been connected.
Outside of that, what the rest of the participants said is sage advice. 
Thank you; I do have Scrivener and that is my plan. I do use pages for some “thinking through” bits, which I then move into DT as my new home for everything.
Again, please forgive my ignorance. I thought Time Machine did its saving by physically connecting an external hard drive. How does it backup when the hard drive is not connected? Does it do an “on board” save until I again connect the external hard drive?
Looking at these, and checking my understanding: Backblaze provides storage for my backups; Arq does not, ie with Arq I tell it where I want the backups stored (site examples include Amazon, dropbox, google drive, etc). Am I understanding that correctly? I think someone (BLUEFROG?) said not to use dropbox (or iCloud).
It doesn’t, in my experience. But others might know better than me.
Edit: I’m not against Time Machine, but I’ve found it the least useful of the backup solutions I’ve tried. It has failed me more than once while others have saved me.
From the Arq website: “We also offer Arq Premium: the same great app for up to 5 computers plus integrated cloud storage in one package.”
In other words, backups are stored on Arq’s servers if you have this package. That is what I do.
You can use Dropbox and iCloud for sync, and you can use Dropbox for backup. What was said, I think, is that one should not consider sync as a backup method. These two things are different conceptually and practically – you can never restore to a certain point in time with sync. Which is possible with backup.
Yes. They’re called snapshots but they’re stored in a hidden location. It’s a super handy feature that has come in clutch for many people who didn’t even know it was happening. Even if ultimately you opt to go with another backup solution like Arq, Carbon Copy Cloner, etc., I still recommend doing this first full backup with Time Machine just to get this mechanism going.
And just because I’m a geek, I do only daily backups to Time Machine at physical two locations via Tailscale.
One where I now live, one where I used to live.
I’m using the wonderful TimeCapsuleSMB and variously Time Capsules and AirPort Extremes with a mix of internal and external HDs across the two locations. Not for the faint hearted.
For me, this plus iCloud Sync is good enough.
But all this does also raise another point – you can add more than one TM destination, so you can swap out/rotate HDs connected to your computer, or use locally connected and Time Capsule network destinations, etc.
Time Machine just alternates through available destinations.
Sean
That’s what I do - I have two Time Machine disks for each of my systems, desktop and laptop. One is connected all the time, the other gets a refresh once a week.
Then, hopefully, I remember to move it offsite.
I enjoyed this thread. Lots of very useful (vital) advice from the usual suspects (experts)
To summarise - there is no such thing as too many backups. Small portable USB drives are cheap (or were) - I use Chronosync to backup.
I’ve never been 100% confident with Timemachine so I use in addition off site Backblaze and portable hard drives
For those who are paranoid, consider printing the ‘completed’ parts of your thesis on paper and store them securely - a colleague put his thesis folder on his car roof when loading up and then drove off… he never found this - his only copy!
Finally consider physical security of disks etc if you live in a high risk area. Buy a ‘bugout’ bag and keep high value items including backup disks there. Grab & go!
Thank you. Checked out ChronoSync… does it provide storage too, like Backblaze? Does that happen automatically? Or is it more like iCloud … more of an access everything from anywhere than a backup? Forgive the lack of specificity in my terminology (hopefully you will get the gist of my question).
Chronosync is a terrific product. It does not provide storage. It only synchronises between a “source” and a “target”. You provide the target, be it a local disk, another computer share on your network, or an internet file repository at which you have an account.
Unlike others, I use on macOS’s TimeMachine and after years of using it, it has never let me down for restoring individual files, folders, or even entire disk system for new/crashed laptops.
I do not rely on it. as I use a 3-2-1 backup regime–which you can read about on the Internet. My backups using various methods involving TimeMachine, Chronosync, and Arq, go to my Synology NAS, and offsite to Dropbox Backup (not Dropbox Sync!) and Arq storage.
Chronosync is just a program to let you backup to various sites. I moved to this from SuperDuper when my Drobo raid (now not supported) was moved to a cupboard attached to a 2011 MacBook Air (not supported anymore) and connected by LAN - it’s quieter that way!
The Drobo backs up my SSD drives incl my DT databases. Perhaps not state of the art, but it works and mitigates my investment in the Drobo
I still have DVD R discs holding very old DT backups - until bitrot takes over. We will need to keep on migrating data to new forms of storage ad infinitum!
For those of a geeky nature, the rsync command is at least somewhat equivalent to Chronosync if you don’t mind command line utilities run from Terminal.
Yea, I also am familiar with rsync and have used it over the years for automation–probably done more because I could, not because really needed. Excellent tool. I guess that Chronsync may have started out as a GUI front-end to rsync but probably moved on beyond that over the years. Yea, I have geeky tendencies, mostly in the past.