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3TB Time Capsule Replacement?

kcrossley

kcrossley

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 22, 2009
170
26
Virginia
I currently have a 3TB Apple Time Capsule ME182LL/A that I would like to replace. What router/hard drive combination will give me a similar setup, but with more hard drive space and improved performance?

BTW, I know that replacing the hard drive is an option, but I really don't want to continue to support a product which is no longer supported by its manufacturer.

Thanks!
 
I've been a user of the first and last generations of Time Capsules, together with Time Machine, over the last decade. During that time my bacon has been saved more than once by the disaster recovery functionality they provide.

Fate would have it that shortly after the announcement that Apple had discontinued development of the Time Capsule, and re-assigned its development team to other duties, my 3TB Time Capsule decided it was time to give up the ghost! I experienced repeated Time Machine reports of backup verification failure, deletion of existing backups and re-creation of new files, followed by Time Capsule disk errors that couldn't be repaired by Disk Utility's First Aid function.

Being unwilling to purchase a new, but now obsolete, Time Capsule I decided to research alternatives and have now successfully implemented the following backup strategy:
  1. I decided not to adopt a Cloud-based solution at this time, which is possibly the Time Capsule alternative that Apple is hoping its customers will adopt. While I understand the full security provided by off-site backups, the speed of data transfers of hundreds of gigabytes of data to and from a Cloud, even with a relatively fast Internet connection, are a deterrent for now.
  2. I decided upon a NAS solution and purchased a 6TB Synology DS218j which provided the added protection of RAID 1 mirrored disks (something the Time Capsule did not do for approximately the same price).
  3. Initial attempts to run Time Machine to the Synology NAS resulted in numerous backup verification failures so I gave up on this option. I felt I was between a rock and a hard place on technical support because I was using Time Machine to backup to a non-Apple device, which Apple wouldn't support and Synology referring user issues back to Apple!
  4. So, a Time Machine alternative had to be found. My solution is Acronis True Image 2018 as a standard non-cloud one-off purchase rather than the Cloud-based subscription product.
My iMac and MacBook Pro are now backing up incrementally to my NAS and I believe that I have successfully migrated away from Apple's Time Machine/Time Capsule solution to an alternative that meets my needs, although I recognise this will not be suitable for everyone.

I offer my own experiences of life after Time Capsule as food for thought or comment for others who may find themselves in a similar dilemma to me.
 
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I got an Amplifi HD mesh system when my time capsule went kaput a few months ago. I'm super happy with the router side of things - it's way faster and more reliable than my old time capsule. The AmplifiHD does have a USB port on the back, but I don't think it's able to be used with an external hard drive as a time machine destination. Instead, I have an external USB hard drive attached to my mac mini, which I use as a time machine destination for all the other macs in my house. This arrangement is surprisingly much faster than the old time capsule setup, even though the external hard drive is only running at usb 2 speeds.
 
Netgear Orbi for great mesh network in the house. For Time Machine I have a WD 8TB white label drive sitting in my Akitio Thunderbolt 3 Quad X enclosure. I don't want slow wifi backups or restores.
 
Personally I am using a Synology DS214Play with a 2TB RAID1 configuration (that's enough storage for my essential backup needs, but you can choose to install HDD's with more capacity). The HyperVault app from Synology works very well with my Macbook Pro.

I created a separate user account (username/pw) on this Synology with a disk quota assigned to it, to keep control over the amount of disk space TimeMachine will use for its backups. My most valuable files (edited photo's, documents etc.) are stored directly on my NAS and not on the SSD of my Mac.

Every time my Mac boots and connects to the NAS, TimeMachine starts the backup process. For me, this works very well. The initial backup took some time, but the performance (speed) is excellent.

In addition to the safety of RAID1 redundancy, I also backup my Synology NAS using a cloud based storage solution by Synology (C2). It supports versioning of your backups (sparse files, like TimeMachine is using). Very user friendly.
 
Cyprusian said:
I've been a user of the first and last generations of Time Capsules, together with Time Machine, over the last decade. During that time my bacon has been saved more than once by the disaster recovery functionality they provide.

Fate would have it that shortly after the announcement that Apple had discontinued development of the Time Capsule, and re-assigned its development team to other duties, my 3TB Time Capsule decided it was time to give up the ghost! I experienced repeated Time Machine reports of backup verification failure, deletion of existing backups and re-creation of new files, followed by Time Capsule disk errors that couldn't be repaired by Disk Utility's First Aid function...
Click to expand...

I just got my first "verification" failure after 7 years of smooth sailing. Fortunately, I have multiple redundant backups (cloud + archived rsync backups + a time machine backup on a different disk) but I'm still very disappointed about the mode of time machine failure. It should offer the option to backup the corrupted backup before erasing it. On top of that, it doesn't even seem to be a physical problem with the hard drive in the time capsule, and it's extremely disappointing to see this kind of bug left unattended by Apple.
 
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I did consider replacing the hard drive in my Time Capsule.

After research I came to the conclusion I was better off with an overall non-Apple backup solution because Apple had decided to discontinue the Time Capsule product line and re-assign its support team to other duties, therefore I see a risk that Apple could cease development/support of the Time Machine app as well.

My prime concern in all of this is has been to deploy a secure and dependable backup solution for which the Wi-Fi functionality of the Time Capsule was not relevant (I replaced the Time Capsule Wi-Fi functionality with that provided by the modem/router supplier by my iSP).
 
So if i'm not wrong the only apple-supported future-proof way to provide centralised, wireless time machine backups is mac os server, right?

EDIT:
I had to check. Since Mac OS High Sierra the Server option is no longer necessary to run a time machine server
 
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There is also iCloud, but I guess your question is best answered by Apple directly - both for the present as well as for the future. In this connection, I believe the future of the Time Machine app is a key factor......
 
iop said:
I just got my first "verification" failure after 7 years of smooth sailing. Fortunately, I have multiple redundant backups (cloud + archived rsync backups + a time machine backup on a different disk) but I'm still very disappointed about the mode of time machine failure. It should offer the option to backup the corrupted backup before erasing it. On top of that, it doesn't even seem to be a physical problem with the hard drive in the time capsule, and it's extremely disappointing to see this kind of bug left unattended by Apple.
Click to expand...
Hey thanks for posting this. I have a case with Apple next month as they don't believe their time capsule is to blame but I've had years of trouble free backups until this year with the 3TB device.
 
Further to my earlier posts: following the demise of my 3TB Time Capsule, and my subsequent implementation of a daily backup to a Synology NAS using Acronis True Image, I'm now running Time Machine backups to external USB SSDs on my iMac and MBP in addition to iCloud backups - all belts and braces are now in place:)

My attempts at using Time Machine to backup to my NAS kept failing after several days, however Time Machine has not failed backing up to external USB SSDs. I was unwilling to purchase another Time Capsule because Apple have discontinued them. Wi-Fi is catered for by running a MESH network through a Fritz!Box 7590 router and repeaters.
 
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