Looking for a way check for Mac app updates not from the Mac App Store? Then head over to http://mac.majorgeeks.com and check out what's new.
I just found 6 apps that had updates released in the last week.
@jws Here’s how snapshotting now works: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204015
/@matigo
@jws Yes, local backups were introduced many OS iterations ago, but the implementation under APFS is vastly different. For one thing, you used to be able to disable local backups (they weren’t referred to as snapshots until High Sierra).
Such local backups were only on laptops, now under macOS 13, they are made on APFS-only drives. (If I’m reading the documentation correctly.
/@matigo
That was a better cuppa. This time I used fresh milk. Tea, Earl Grey, French , hot.
The potential was there for a nice cup of tea. Potential ruined by the milk being slightly off and curdling in the tea.
OK, now on the Fusion drive iMac (HFS+; no APFS). There are no local snapshots: either they're not taken because it's a desktop Mac or because it's not supported by non APFS systems. I suspect the former.
The only time I see snapshots is when cloning the drive to an external HD using SuperDuper! app. The first stage of a SD! backup is the creation & saving of a snapshot.
When booted into ⌘R mode, no local snapshots appear.
Here's a thing about High Sierra Mac laptops with APFS (SSD): you don't need an external drive to perform a Time Machine restoration.
I rebooted my MBA via ⌘R at restart & ran the First Aid aspect of DiskUtility. Mention was made of the existence of nine local snapshots, 6 from the previous day & one each for the previous three days.
-- Each hour, Time Machine takes a snapshot of the whole system and saves it somewhere (only if you have plenty of drive space). When a backup is made to an external drive, these local snapshots are replicated on the external backup. I don't know if they are then cleared from the Mac.
A snapshot is automatically made as the initial stage of a macOS system update.
Now for the interesting part. Under the Restore from Time Machine section, each of these snapshots is recognised as a source for a complete Time Machine restoration. You can also restore missing files if they were deleted any time after a snapshot was taken.
I don't know if that snapshot process works on a hard drive or Fusion drive Mac, though. I'm not even sure if desktop Macs use the snapshot process at all.