What are my options to backup iMac to MBPro to take with me?

[Turnpike]

Having moved completely from PC to Mac, I am now getting a 27" iMac to do most of my daily research on, and since I'm new to the whole system of options, I thought I'd ask those who are familiar with them what they would suggest.

I'd like to work on my 2017 iMac and am wondering if there is a way to backup everything (browser history, files saved to desktop, downloaded files, 3D files created in software and saved to the desktop, stuff like that...) to a 2015 MBPro. So that should something happen to my iMac while I'm gone (fire, theft, whatever) my entire year isn't lost with the hardware.


Is there a way to have my Macbook Pro plugged in, or connected some other way to keep it exactly the same as the iMac, I'd want to know about it, I bought it to always be able to have my daily desktop work with me as much as possible, but if there's a minute-by-minute update/copy feature that would be fanstatic.

Anything similar to this, regardless of price, and no matter if it's a software solution or some additional hardware, I'd love to know about it. Thank you!

 

[DeltaMac]

iCloud will do all of what you are asking. That's already installed on both your Macs.

 

[Turnpike]

iCloud will back up even my desktop? It will keep my Google Chrome browser history and downloaded photos the same, a total clone of computer to computer?

 

[DeltaMac]

You can read up on that... Not sure if iCloud will sync your Chrome browsers. But, it works wonderfully well for me syncing bookmarks and tabs in Safari browser on any Mac where I use the same AppleID (I do that on 4 Macs.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-use-icloud/
https://support.apple.com/icloud
https://www.imore.com/icloud

(iCloud provides 5GB storage for free. If you need more, you pay for that)

 

[Turnpike]

Would Time Machine backup my daily activity on my iMac and onto my Macbook Pro too....? I've never used Time Machine or know much about it.

 

[OldGreyGuy]

Would Time Machine backup my daily activity on my iMac and onto my Macbook Pro too....? I've never used Time Machine or know much about it.

Time machine is designed to backup a single machine on a regular basis (each hour) and to allow you to restore either selected files or restore an entire machine. In fact you can also restore onto another machine as well but it is not really designed to be a synchronisation tool.

I have a iMac 27' in my office and a MacBook Pro that I keep synced using ChronoSync and ChronoAgent. I manage this from the iMac, which runs ChronoSync. Basically I have backup scripts (created graphically using the ChronoSync interface) for my Documents, Downloads, Pictures folders and I run these when I come into the office and as I leave each night this syncs these folders. On the MacBook you only need ChronoAgent. This works for me and I really only need those directories. Other things like iTunes, etc could be done but I'm not into iTunes media, etc.

Some folks also say that CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) can do this as well but I've never really looked into this.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

I suggest that you download CarbonCopyCloner and give it a try.
It's free to download and use for 30 days.