If there are specific apps or tools you absolutely depend on to work, make sure they're going to work okay with El Capitan before you upgrade. We've already gotten a flurry of El Capitan app updates leading up to the software's release this week, and we're reporting on them too, so keep your eyes on iMore, too. In some cases they'll have important compatibility fixes in others they may try to introduce new features. It's good to keep an eye on the social media accounts of the vendors whose apps you use, so you can see if they've prepped any updates for El Capitan or plan any. Let other people fall on that sword, like us! Launch day inevitably brings in a lot of confusion, too. Unless you have a reason to, don't bother to upgrade on day one.

There are other backup apps too: I'm fond of SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner, which are great for creating 'clones' - exact duplicates of your hard drive - that you can restore from in a pinch, but I think Time Machine is what most people need. How to back up and restore your Mac with Time Machine.Time Machine will ask you if you want it to use the external hard drive. The easiest way to get started with Time Machine is to turn it on in System preferences, then connect an external USB hard drive. Once that's done you'll be able to restore your Mac back the way it was, if you have to. Back up!īacking up your Mac with Time Machine is the fastest and most foolproof way to prep it for an upgrade to El Capitan. Here's are two things I encourage you to remember with any operating system upgrade: Make sure your data is safe before you make any changes, and make sure you're going to see a benefit before you do. Apple's focused on a lot of productivity enhancements with El Capitan: Split View, for example, which lets you split the screen between two open windows of two different apps It's an iOS 9 exclusive for the iPad Air 2 and iPad Pro, but it works on the Mac, period.

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