How do I back up my iBank document?

One of the best ways to protect your financial data is to back up your iBank documents regularly. iBank is designed to play nicely with Time Machine and other backup utilities, and saves your data in document files that are easy to copy for backup purposes. Sync utilities such as Dropbox or SugarSync are not recommended for backup purposes, as sync conflicts can corrupt your iBank documents.

If you don't use Time Machine, you can easily make a backup copy of any iBank document in the Finder. Locate the document you want to back up, hold down the Option key (to make sure the Finder copies the file instead of moving it), and drag and drop the file onto a backup folder. For better security, choose a location outside of your local hard drive, such as a flash drive or a shared folder on a network. Feel free to rename the backup file to indicate that it is a copy of the original, if you like.

If you are handy with Automator, you can easily create a workflow to back up your iBank data. You can then attach the workflow to a repeating iCal event to have your Mac run the backup automatically at specified intervals.

To restore your data from a backup, simply hold down the Option key and drag and drop a backup file onto your Documents folder (or any other location on your local hard drive) to make a copy in that location. You may choose to replace an existing iBank document, but be careful not to overwrite a file you need to keep for later use! When the file finishes copying, double-click it to launch iBank and open the document.