How to back up your MacBook before sending it for repair

Before you post your MacBook for repair, take half an hour to back up your data properly. A good workshop — including ours — protects your drive during repairs, but the rule for electronics you care about is simple: assume the worst can happen, and plan for it. Here are the three backup methods we recommend, in rough order of how you should prioritise them.

1. Time Machine to an external drive (the gold standard)

Time Machine is the full-system backup built into macOS. It captures everything: files, settings, installed apps, browser state, email, the lot. From a Time Machine backup you can restore to any MacBook and be exactly where you left off.

What you need:

• An external USB drive with more space than the used space on your MacBook. (Check About This Mac → Storage.) 2 TB drives are typically £50-80.
• A USB-C cable that works with the drive (most external SSDs ship with one).

How to do it:

1. Plug the drive in. If macOS asks whether to use it for Time Machine, say yes. Otherwise open System Settings → General → Time Machine → Add Backup Disk. 2. Format the drive for Time Machine if prompted. This wipes it. 3. Time Machine starts the first backup automatically. Leave the MacBook running with the drive connected — the first backup can take 2-6 hours depending on how much data you have. 4. When "Last backup" shows "Today" and there's a green tick, you're done.

Before sending the MacBook off, eject the Time Machine drive properly and keep it at home. Don't post it with the MacBook.

2. iCloud sync (belt and braces)

iCloud automatically syncs Desktop, Documents and Photos folders (if enabled), plus app data from Mail, Notes, Reminders, Messages, Safari bookmarks, iCloud Keychain (passwords) and anything explicitly iCloud-enabled.

Check what's actually synced:

• System Settings → Apple ID → iCloud. Scroll through the list — iCloud Drive, Photos, Contacts, Calendars, Mail, Safari, Keychain, Notes, Reminders. Everything with the toggle ON is backed up to Apple's servers.
• If Desktop & Documents isn't on, enable it. Wait for the sync to finish (blue progress circle in the Finder sidebar).
• Photos: check Photos app → Settings → iCloud → iCloud Photos is on.

The advantage of iCloud is that it's automatic and off-site. If your Time Machine drive also gets lost or damaged, iCloud still has the critical stuff.

Pro tip: iCloud's 5 GB free tier isn't enough for most people. Upgrade to iCloud+ (£2.99/month for 200 GB, £8.99/month for 2 TB) for the duration of the repair if you need the space, then downgrade afterwards.

3. Disk image via Migration Assistant (for paranoid users)

If the MacBook is your work machine and you want an exact portable copy of its state, create a disk image on an external drive before sending it off.

• Disk Utility → File → New Image → Image from "<Macintosh HD>". Creates a compressed .dmg file containing the exact contents of the drive.
• Save to an external drive. This is slower than Time Machine but creates a single portable file.
• Takes 1-3 hours for most MacBooks.

Less commonly needed than Time Machine but useful if you specifically want a snapshot you can mount and browse later.

Specific things to capture before you send it in

Whether or not you've done a full backup, make sure these are dealt with before the laptop leaves the house:

• Browser bookmarks + passwords. Enable iCloud Keychain. Or export from Safari / Chrome / Firefox → Settings → Bookmarks → Export.
• Email — if you use Apple Mail or Outlook in "on this Mac" mode (not IMAP), your local .mbox files aren't on the server. Time Machine catches them; iCloud doesn't.
• Photos not yet uploaded to iCloud. The Photos app shows you progress in its toolbar. Let it finish.
• Any commercial software licence keys stored in app documentation or emails. Some (Microsoft Office, Adobe) are re-activatable by sign-in; some (Logic Pro on pre-Big Sur Macs, Final Cut on older versions) can be machine-bound.
• WhatsApp chats. Back up to iCloud from WhatsApp settings.
• SSH keys and API tokens stored in ~/.ssh and ~/.config. These aren't typically synced. Time Machine gets them; iCloud doesn't.

What we do in the workshop

For the record, here's how your data is treated during a repair at Hark Tech:

• The SSD stays inside the MacBook throughout the repair wherever possible. We don't remove or image your drive unless the repair specifically requires it (e.g. some liquid-damage jobs involve pulling the board, during which the SSD may need to be temporarily disconnected).
• If we do need to pull the SSD, it goes straight into an anti-static bag labelled with your enquiry number. It goes back into your MacBook at the end of the repair.
• We never copy, image or browse your files.
• We never ask for your login password. Some diagnostics (especially around display and storage) can be done from the recovery partition or the Apple Diagnostics mode, without ever booting into your user account.

That said, always back up anyway. Backups protect against multiple scenarios — courier damage, unexpected board failure during repair, and other rare but real possibilities. 30 minutes of preparation for peace of mind is a very good trade.

After the repair returns

Before unpacking excitedly, resist the urge — check the MacBook boots, gets past login, and shows your data. Then you can relax. If anything is missing or different, tell the workshop immediately so they can check backups on their end (we keep a photo record of the drive state at receipt).

When to send it in

Backup done? Post the MacBook to our MacBook repair service — free diagnosis, no-fix-no-fee, 90-day warranty. Most repairs return within 5-10 working days.