BackupBy default, Time Machine backs up every hour, whether that suits you or not. Here's every way to change that on a modern Mac — including what the built-in setting can and can't do.
Option 1: the built-in setting (macOS 13 Ventura and later)
Apple finally added a frequency option:
- Open System Settings › General › Time Machine
- Click Options…
- Set Back up frequency
Your choices are exactly four: Automatically every hour, daily, weekly, or Manually. That's the entire feature.
What it can't do: anything in between. There's no "every 4 hours," no "at 12:30 and 18:00," no "not during work hours," no "skip backups while I'm on a call." Hourly is too often for many people; daily is a long time to leave work unprotected. If one of the four presets fits your life, use it — it's built in and free.
Option 2: the old Terminal hacks (don't)
Older guides suggest editing com.apple.backupd-auto's StartInterval or unloading launch daemons. On modern macOS these approaches range from ineffective to fragile — System Integrity Protection and years of Time Machine rework have quietly broken most of them, and a half-applied hack fails the worst way possible: silently, while you believe you're backed up.
Option 3: a scheduler app
The reliable approach is the one Apple itself supports: set the built-in frequency to Manually, and let a scheduler app start backups using the same mechanism as the "Back Up Now" menu command. Time Machine still does all the actual backing up — the app just decides when.
TimeMachineEditor pioneered this approach but hasn't been updated since early 2023. BackupTempo is a current, actively-maintained take, built for macOS 14 Sonoma through macOS 26 Tahoe:
- Intervals from 1 to 24 hours, counted from the end of the last backup
- Fixed times — daily, or different times per weekday
- Blackout windows — "never back up 9am–6pm on weekdays"
- Smart deferrals — waits while your camera or mic is in use, your Mac is busy, or you're on battery
- Verification — confirms each backup actually reached the disk, and tells you when one didn't
It's free, signed, and notarized. Download it here.
Which frequency should you pick?
There's no universal answer, but a useful rule: your backup interval is the amount of work you're willing to lose. For most people that's 2–6 hours during working days. Hourly mostly costs disk churn and history noise; daily leaves a whole day at risk. An interval plus a blackout window over your focus hours covers the common case: frequent enough to matter, never in the way.