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David has launched a new Field Guide, designed to take everyone’s Obsidian usage to the next level. This week, I talk to him about the project and everyone’s favorite text tool.

Note: This is an updated version of an article from 2018.

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With macOS, Apple makes it easy to set up a drive to be a target for other Macs to use with Time Machine.

Say you have a Mac mini on your network, and a MacBook Pro. You can hook up an external drive to that Mac mini, and within a few minutes, be backing your MacBook Pro up across your network using Time Machine.

Here’s how to do it.

1. Prepare Time Machine Drive

Once your drive is plugged in, open Disk Utility and format it as APFS. For this article, the drive I set up is named “Remote TM.”

2. Share the Drive Using System Preferences

Once the drive is ready, navigate to the General section in System Settings, then navigate to the “Sharing” sub-section and turn it on with the slider.

Then click on the small i button in the “File Sharing” section:

This will open a new pane. On this new pane, click the + button below the list of “Shared Folders:”

This will open a standard file picker window. Use it to navigate to the drive you have set up for remote Time Machine, then click “Add:”

Once you do, you will be returned to the previous screen, but this time, your Time Machine drive will be listed:

3. Set Up Drive as a Time Machine Destination

From the File Sharing pane pictured above, right-click on the drive in question and select “Advanced Options” from the menu:

Doing so will open another new pane, that will let you tell macOS that the drive should be shared as a Time Machine backup destination. Select that option, and if desired, set a backup size limitation. This can be helpful if more than one user will be using this drive for Time Machine.

Once you are done with this, save the changes and exit System Settings.

4. Add Folder as Time Machine Destination

Now go to a computer that will be using this drive for Time Machine. Navigate to the “Time Machine” section of the “General” pane in System Settings and select “Add Backup Disk…”

This Mac should automatically see your drive, assuming the two Macs are on the same network. Here, you can see my “Remote TM” drive as hosted on my Mac mini, which I named “Castle:”

Clicking “Set up Disk…” will prompt you to log in to the remote computer with the user account on that machine:

After being authorized, System Settings will present the standard Time Machine set up user interface. If you wish to encrypt your backup, set your password and click “Done.” If you do not want to encrypt your backup, toggle the slider off:

5. Back, Back, Back It Up

You are now ready to backup one Mac to another on your local network. Be warned that this can be slower than having a drive hooked up directly to a machine, but it’s very handy for laptops that don’t have a permanent home on a desk.

As noted by Chance Miller at 9to5Mac, Apple has pulled the plug on its iTunes Movie Trailers website and app after starting the process earlier in August.

This website had been around a long time. It made big news back in the late 1990s when it hosted the trailer for STAR WARS: Episode I. Here’s a press release from that era:

The popularity of the STAR WARS: Episode I trailer has set an Internet record with over 3.5 million downloads since it first premiered on the joint Lucasfilm/Apple web site (reachable through www.starwars.com or www.apple.com) last Thursday, March 11.

Jim Ward, director of marketing for Lucasfilm, said, “We’re thrilled with the fans’ response. Apple’s QuickTime software provided us with the highest quality and enabled us to push Internet video to its limits.”

Steve Jobs, Apple’s interim CEO stated, “Over three and a half million downloads in five days makes this the biggest Internet download event in history. Apple is proud to have participated in this online experience of the new Star Wars movie.”

Visiting trailers.apple.com now redirects to the TV app, complete with a banner that harkens back to the old site:

Version 4 of Obscura, the excellent camera app for iOS, has launched today. The update brings a revised interface, iPad support and a new business model, as John Voorhees writes as MacStories:

If you bought Obscura 3, you’ll still have access to all its features with the free version of Obscura 4, which you can upgrade to at a discount. I think the new pricing model is a good deal, and I wanted to mention it up front because it’s behind many of the design changes in Obscura 4.

The new subscription is called “Obscura Ultra,” and until September 11 is just $7.99/year. I think it makes a ton of sense for an app like this, and it’s far less of a hassle than the old “pay to upgrade to a new app” method that Ben McCarthy (the app’s developer) was using.

I love the app’s updated design, and the haptics are just next-level. If you are in the market for a professional camera app for your iPhone (or iPad), you can not go wrong with Obscura 4.

This week on the show:

With Apple’s September event less than two weeks away, the guys talk about the latest rumors concerning the iPhone 15 line and upcoming Apple Watch models. Also on the docket: Reminders’ Today view, Alex Hay’s apps and Live Voicemail in iOS 17.

My pal David Sparks has a new Field Guide out:

The Obsidian on-ramp is steep. It takes a while to wrap your arms around exactly what you can do with this app and unlock its full potential. You need a guide. That’s me, MacSparky, your Obsidian pal. Once you master Obsidian, you’ll also need help picking plugins and figuring out exactly how far down that rabbit hole you want to go. I’ve got you covered there, too.

I’ve been working through this for a couple of weeks, and Sunday’s episode of Mac Power Users is all about Obsidian and this project. As usual, David knocked this out of the park. If you use Obsidian and want to get more out of it, or are Obsidian-curious, this is for you.

This is just great:

I’ll be there in person:

As the Relay FM community is blasting through our milestones, I will be streaming this weekend, taking apart a white MacBook. I opened about 753,289 of these notebooks back in the day, so we’ll see if I can still do it by memory!

Join me on Saturday, September 2:

• ???????? 10:00 AM Pacific
• ???????? 12:00 PM Central
• ???????? 1:00 PM Eastern
• ???????? 6:00 PM BST
• ???????? 7:00 PM CET

Today, we are announcing Relay FM’s 5th annual fundraiser for St. Jude. Over the last four years, the Relay community has raised $2.2 million for this mission. St. Jude won’t stop their lifesaving work until no child dies from cancer. With your support, we’ll be one step closer to that day. One cure closer. One child closer.

St. Jude is an amazing institution, and one that does incredible work in an incredible way:

The mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the vision of our founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family’s ability to pay.

I know just how incredible firsthand, as in May 2009, my wife and I’s oldest son was diagnosed with brain cancer at just six months of age. He underwent almost two years of treatment at St. Jude, and that treatment saved his life. He’ll be 15 in a couple of months, and while his life is still impacted by his diagnosis, he would not be here without St. Jude. He loves music and computers, and like his old man, is working on the student newspaper at his school.

This is why we do what we do each September, but over the years, my understanding and appreciation of what St. Jude does has grown to be much larger than our story.

Thousands of kids have been treated at St. Jude, and their parents have never been given a bill for that treatment.

St. Jude’s work is shared around the world. Around the world an estimated 400,000 children are diagnosed with cancer each year. And even more tragically, in many low and middle-income countries, 4 out of 5 will not survive, largely due to the lack of access to quality care. That is unacceptable, and St. Jude’s global work is slowly changing things for kids who never step foot on the hospital’s campus here in Memphis, TN.

As always, we invite you to make a donation! Donors who make an individual gift of $60 or more will receive a digital bundle including a wallpaper and macOS screensaver pack and those who make an individual gift of $100 or more will receive a set of stickers in addition to the digital bundle.

You can also start your own fundraising campaign and earn some really awesome exclusive merch, and even set up a matching donation fund to get your friends involved! All of the details are over on the campaign website. Go check it out!

Lastly, thank you. We are on the verge of raising $2.5 million in five years, and that fact takes my breath away. Relay FM has the best community on the Internet, and that is proven each and every September.

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