Mac users may have lots of valuable data stored on their precious device. Unless you are sharing this data on a cloud, you are prone to data loss. Here are some housekeeping rules I am using to mitigate the risks of such data loss, without the use of cloud services, but relying on my own external hard drives.
The foundation of a good housekeeping is your folder organisation: keep oversight of where your files are stored. Mac OS will help you and will suggest the default locations for pictures, movies, music and documents. It is wise to use these locations and create any subfolders according to your needs. Mail files, Contacts and Calendar data are stored in (hidden) Library folders (read also “Mac OS X file locations“) and are not easy to locate. Hence, I use an alternative way to backup and archive this information:
Mail files
Select Inbox and use the “Export Mailbox” function in the Mailbox tab to save the file in a dedicated folder (e.g. a Documents subfolder named ‘mailbag’). You need to repeat this for each mailbox, including the folders ‘On my Mac’. If you are short on internal disk space, you may opt to export the files directly to an external drive (either USB- or network-attached).
Contacts files
Use the “Export” to “Contacts Archive” function in the File tab to save the file in a dedicated folder (e.g. a Documents subfolder named ‘mycontacts’). If you are short on internal disk space, you may opt to export the file directly to an external drive (either USB- or network-attached).
Calendar files
Use the “Export” to “Calendar Archive” function in the File tab to save the file in a dedicated folder (e.g. a Documents subfolder named ‘mycalendar’). If you are short on internal disk space, you may opt to export the file directly to an external drive (either USB- or network-attached).
Backup your files
Make regular backups of your data on an external drive and store it in a safe place.
