For Developers
Mac Backup Built
for Developers
Back up your dotfiles, SSH keys, Homebrew installs, git repos, and everything in between — automatically, encrypted, and restorable to a new Mac in under an hour with Migration Assistant.
Why Developers Outgrow File-Sync Backup
iCloud Drive and Dropbox sync your Documents folder. They do not capture the parts of macOS that matter to a working developer.
Your Toolchain Lives Outside ~/Documents
Homebrew packages, asdf/nvm/rbenv versions, language SDKs, signing certificates, IDE preferences — none of this lives in the folders cloud-sync services back up. Time Machine captures the full filesystem.
Dotfiles Are Easy to Lose
Your ~/.zshrc, ~/.gitconfig, ~/.ssh/config, ~/.aws/credentials, and the dozens of dotfiles you have tuned over years are critical and rarely committed anywhere. A real backup includes them automatically.
Migration Day Is Brutal Without It
Setting up a new Mac without a Time Machine snapshot means a full day of reinstalling tools, re-creating SSH keys, importing certificates, and remembering "what did I customise last time?" Migration Assistant turns it into a coffee break.
What Time Machine Backs Up on a Developer Mac
A full inventory of everything Capsule Backup protects, by default, on a typical developer setup.
Toolchains & runtimes
/opt/homebrew(Apple Silicon)/usr/local(Intel Macs)~/.asdf,~/.nvm,~/.rbenv,~/.pyenv~/.cargo,~/go,~/.deno,~/.bun~/.rustup, JDK installations
Configuration & secrets
~/.zshrc,~/.bashrc,~/.config~/.ssh/— keys and config~/.aws/credentials,~/.kube/config~/.gnupg/, signing certificates- macOS Keychain (encrypted)
Editors & IDEs
- VS Code settings, keybindings, snippets, extensions
- JetBrains IDE configs (
~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains) - Neovim/Vim configs and plugins
- iTerm2/Warp/Ghostty profiles
- Xcode preferences and provisioning profiles
Code & databases
- All git repositories (
~/code,~/dev, etc.) - Uncommitted changes between commits
- Local Postgres/MySQL/SQLite data files
- Docker images and volumes (optional)
- Browser dev tool customisations
Tip: exclude node_modules/, target/, build/, .next/, and Docker.raw if you want lean backups. Time Machine → Options.
Three Developer Scenarios Solved
You broke your .zshrc at 2 a.m.
Open Time Machine, scroll back one hour, restore the file. You are back to a working shell in under a minute. No git history, no remembering what you changed.
Your MacBook dies before the demo
Borrow a colleague's Mac or buy a new one. Run Migration Assistant against your Capsule Backup volume. Apps, dotfiles, IDE state, SSH keys, credentials — all back. Demo on time.
You upgrade to a new M-series Mac
Migration Assistant reads your most recent Time Machine snapshot from the cloud. Your full dev environment moves over — including Homebrew, which Migration Assistant correctly relinks to /opt/homebrew on Apple Silicon.
Recommended Plan for Solo Developers
Pro · 5 TB · $35/month
Comfortable headroom for full-system snapshots across one or two Macs, with room for years of incremental history. Solo devs typically use 200–800 GB of actual snapshot space; the 5 TB tier removes any worry about hitting the wall.
See All Plans"The setup took 2 minutes. Having a real Time Machine backup in the cloud with full restore capability gives me peace of mind."
Developer FAQ
Will Time Machine back up my Homebrew installation, /opt, /usr/local, and other dev tools?
Yes. Time Machine backs up your entire user home directory plus system files. Homebrew installs (/opt/homebrew on Apple Silicon, /usr/local on Intel), npm/yarn caches, language toolchains in ~/.asdf, ~/.nvm, ~/.rbenv, and configuration files in ~/.config are all included by default. You can exclude noise like node_modules and build artefacts in System Settings → Time Machine → Options.
Do my Docker images and volumes get backed up?
Docker Desktop stores images and volumes inside a single Docker.raw or Docker.qcow2 file under ~/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/. Time Machine backs it up like any other file, but the file can be many GB and changes constantly, so backups will include the whole file each time. Most developers exclude Docker data and rely on Dockerfiles + registry pulls for restore. Add the path to Time Machine's exclusion list to keep snapshots fast.
Can I restore my dev environment to a brand new Mac?
Yes. Boot the new Mac, run Migration Assistant, point it at your Capsule Backup volume, and select your most recent backup. Apps, dotfiles, SSH keys, signing certificates, IDE preferences, and your full user environment come back exactly as they were. Most developers are productive on a new machine within 30–60 minutes — no manual reinstall of brew packages, no re-cloning every repo.
Is it safe to back up SSH keys and credentials?
Yes, when you enable Time Machine encryption. Your private keys, ~/.ssh, ~/.aws/credentials, ~/.gnupg, and the macOS Keychain are encrypted on your Mac with a passphrase only you know before being uploaded over the SMB3 encrypted tunnel. Even Capsule Backup operators cannot read the contents.
What about my git repos — does it back up uncommitted work?
Yes. Time Machine snapshots the filesystem hourly, so your uncommitted changes, stashes, untracked files, and local-only branches are captured between commits. Treat it as a safety net for when you forget to push or accidentally git reset --hard at the wrong moment.
Can multiple Macs (laptop + desktop dev box) back up to the same plan?
Yes. All Capsule Backup plans are storage-based with unlimited devices. Time Machine creates a separate .backupbundle per Mac on the shared volume, so your laptop and your desktop maintain independent backup histories on the same plan.
Will hourly backups slow down my IDE or compilation?
No. Time Machine is incremental and runs in low-priority mode — only changed files are uploaded each hour. After the initial full backup, ongoing snapshots typically use a few MB to a few hundred MB and are imperceptible during normal coding sessions. SMB3 over a 1 Gbps fibre uplink finishes most incrementals in seconds.
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Capsule Backup is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple Inc. Time Machine, macOS, Finder, Migration Assistant, and Xcode are trademarks of Apple Inc.
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