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I can't recommend Backup for anything. It barely works. The scheduled backups seem to me to be completely broken. The resulting backup files are only readable from the Backup application.

Get Transmit from the Mac app store. It's $34 and it works very well for backing things up to MobileMe. And the files are readable when you are done. It can also backup up to Amazon's S3 cloud storage server.

Ugh. I really hope that there is a massive MobileMe overhaul coming. We've been fantasizing about this for years and all we've really gotten are superficial changes... and Find My iPhone. I would love to be able to Time Machine to Apple's data farm.

That article at Popular Mechanics about the experiences of Apple Store employees reveals what I have always known. Nobody buys MobileMe in its current form, except for some of us 'fanboys.' I just renewed for the last time.

Make this the year, Apple.

jdb8167, on 18 February 2011 - 11:01 AM, said:

I couldn't disagree more. I depended on Backup before I was in a good position to use Time Machine, and had exactly zero problems. I have a couple of friends in the same position, they use Backup for weekly backups to their iDisk. I'm currently still using Backup for my MacBook (which doesn't change much, so hourly backups are overkill), while depending on Time Machine for my iMac, my main machine. Yes, you have to use Backup if you want to restore something, but all backup utilities (pretty much) have that limitation, use idiosyncratic formats or something.

If you subscribe to MobileMe (whatever its shortcomings), and Time Machine is impractical for some reason, or unavailable, or overkill, or whatever, I have no problem recommending Backup.

P.S., Acquiring Backup usually requires a MobileMe subscription, but installing and using it does not; you can Backup to any mounted volume, or RW optical media, without MobileMe access. So if you have a friend with a copy...

There are so many limitations to Backup, not to mention that you have to be a current paying member of MobileMe to benefit from it completely, why would anyone in their right mind use it over Time Machine? It makes no sense.

Sure, I appreciate it was useful in the days before Time Machine, but now really... What's the point?

I have MobileMe and I haven't touched it since Time Machine came along. I'm surprised it was given 3.5 mice.

One of MobileMe's key features is available for Custom backups: using "QuickPicks" to select what to backup.

QuickPicks are available to backup specific application data, e.g. Apple Mail, iTunes, Contacts, etc. The QuickPick is smart: it knows what files need to be backed up for that application.

And there are QuickPicks that backup documents of a certain type, no matter where they are hidden. Such as Microsoft Word documents, FileMaker databases, etc.

Again, the document type QuickPicks are smart. For example, the Word QuickPick will find Word documents by extension, creator, or type.

These are things that are difficult to do in a conventional backup program.

Advanced users (and I mean /really/ advanced) can create their own QuickPicks. Such as, "backup all the TextEdit files in my Documents folder" or "Backup all the .PDF files in my User folder".

jeffm23, on 18 February 2011 - 12:25 PM, said:

I agree. Before Time Machine was even announced, Backup pulled my fat out of the fire more than a couple of times— including once when my laptop was stolen the day before classes began at both the school where I taught and the graduate school where I studied. With Backup and a couple of hours re-downloading applications, my new Mac was completely restored to fully-functioning in time for both, and I lost almost nothing (my Backup routine had run a full back-up just a couple of days before).

My only complaint with Backup is that it doesn't automatically re-iterate full backups periodically, so eventually all media fills up and you must manually re-start the whole work.

I use Backup backups to iDisk daily for "Personal Data & Settings" as well as another "plan" that includes various text and database files that change frequently and are important to me. But it's not my only backup: I also have an onsite Time Machine backup disk, and an onsite AND offsite bootable backup on a pair of portable hard drives - "offsite" is my safe deposit box at my bank. Even if my house burns down I'll barely lose anything (and nothing important) as I can restore from (or even run from) my banked bootable backup which is never more than a month old, and every other important thing is saved on iDisk via Backup.

Backup does have one very important bug which is extremely annoying: If you put your computer to sleep, the time spent in sleep mode is added to the time interval between your last backup and your next backup. The only way to reset this is to log out and back in again (or restart), or begin a log out and then cancel the log out process. This is TOTALLY STUPID. No other application I use which supposedly does things on a date/time schedule behaves whacky because I put my computer to sleep rather than logging out/shutting down most of the time. It makes the scheduling nearly useless, forcing me to essentially run Backup manually each day.

Backup has worked great for me for several years now, it's about as reliable as it gets. I use it with an external drive, even though I have MobileMe. Using Backup with MobileMe really only works when you have limited data to backup. Anything more than a gigabyte or so is painful with MobileMe because of it being so slow. Like the others I'm really hoping for a MobileMe makeover soon from Apple, it's long overdue.

jdb8167, on 18 February 2011 - 11:01 AM, said:

Sigh. So much FUD.

1/ Backup is a good app., mostly because it performs a full checksum, before telling you it's finished. This means your backup can actually be trusted!

2/ Backup files can be accessed via the Finder. Apple tend to try to save users from themselves, by preventing them from messing up their backups, just like other developers, but you can easily access any of Backup's files, either from the full backup, or an incremental one. Click on the backup, choose 'Show Package contents' from the Contextual menu, then double click the sparse.image file. Everything is in there, exactly as you would see it in the Finder. The identical file/folder names and paths.

3/ Since its last update, it can perform incremental backups, exactly like Time Machine. In fact, I would guess that Backup is now Time Machine, but one that you can control fully yourself. Choosing where to store your backups and precisely what you want to backup and when. What's not to like? (I'm only guessing, but it does seem to now be the same 'engine' as Time Machine)

It is an excellent app., though typically understated by Apple, with no communication whatsoever about the last update, which made big changes to the way it works.

This post has been edited by grants: 19 February 2011 - 01:58 AM

I use Backup as a supplement to Time Machine. I do have mobile me and because of this article decided to backup personal data & settings.
Primarily I use Backup to make a second backup of my iPhoto Library. This is to a drive I take with me to work at the beginning of the work week so I have a good off-site copy.

For my use, Backup is good enough.

I'm going to rant here: stop complaining about this backup versus another backup. Who among us has backedup with floppy disks or zip disks? You don't know how good you have it. The worst option out there is better than the way things used to be both in software and hardware technology. And usually it's just the cost of hardware these days.
OK I'm done with my little rant.

I used to use MobileMe Backup to iDisk on my Pismo for everything. The drawback was that since I was backing up so much stuff online, it took quite a while. Now that I have a newer mac, I also got an external drive. I can use Time Machine (not possible with Pismo - 10.4 was the highest OS) for backups. However, I back up my most essential documents to MobileMe using the Backup software still. That way, if something happened to my computer and my external drive, then I'd still have critical files. And since I'm only backing up a few things to iDisk now, it goes a lot faster.

jdb8167, on 18 February 2011 - 11:01 AM, said:

isn't better to just backup to an external HD? the mobile me took years to upload something, and you need to go through hundred of steps, with the money you pay for mobile me, you can get a 2TB HD.

Mobile Me is a Joke. Backup, Backup what? A 16 GB iphone? Media, forget about it. I have tracks in my itunes library that are 20 gigs. I have MobileMe, but have no use for it. It's outrageously expensive, offers almost nothing as far as service goes. Email leaves everything to be desired. They can not compare to Gmail. or Hotmail for that matter. Space? I can back up 20 gigs on a thumb drive.
Find my phone won't work, if someone has stolen your phone. Apple won't track it. AT&T won't track it. Photo Gallery, assuming you have backed up an entire 16 GB iphone, you have enough room to share a few photos. Not too many, you may want to store some text documents in the cloud. Forget about PDFs for now.
There are far better services that offer unlimited backup (some even backup external volumes.) For less than half the price of MobileMe.