Uploaded April 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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Use Rsync in Terminal on macOS 11 to backup local files to an external drive

Helpful tips shown:

1. Keep old versions of modified and deleted files.

2. Format a path with spaces

3. Use the modify-window option to stop unchanged files from being copied every run



Here is the command:

rsync -abv --modify-window=2 --backup-dir="/Users/User1/Desktop/History/ $(date +\%Y\%m\%d_\%H\%M\%S)" --delete /Users/user1/Desktop/Src\ Files/ /Volumes/KINGSTON/Dest/

Make sure the quotes around the backup directory are vertical. Slanted quotations failed to run for me