Since its inception, Time Machine has backed up on an hourly schedule. It then retains hourly backups for the previous 24 hours, daily backups for the previous month, and weekly backups going back to the beginning of the backup. Once there is less free space on the backup drive, Time Machine deletes older backups to make room for new backups, always keeping at least one copy of each backup file. Traditional hourly backups are usually fine, but starting with macOS 13 Ventura, Apple lets you choose daily or weekly backups. One of these might be useful for Macs that are not turned on very often or where important data rarely changes. It may also reduce resource usage and the amount of data backed up by Time Machine. Most people won’t need to change their backup frequency, but if you’ve always wanted to, you can now.
(Featured image based on original image from iStock.com/STILLFX)