APFS Time Capsule

[ganja24]

Will Apple Time Capsule get firmware update HFS to APFS?

 

[macbethfan]

I literally came here to ask this and the first thing that popped up when I typed in "Time Capsule" was your post! Well, that makes two of us that are wondering this now.

 

[Awjvail]

I highly doubt it.

It would break compatibility with older versions of the OS. Also, APFS is optimized for SSDs, while Time Capsules use HDDs. I don't even think High Sierra has APFS enabled by default for machines with an HDD.

 

[KALLT]

Apple has not said anything about its future plans on system backups. For the time being, Time Machine backups have to stay on HFS+ volumes due to technical reasons. You can still perform backups from an APFS-based Mac though.

 

[chrfr]

Will Apple Time Capsule get firmware update HFS to APFS?

My Time Capsule is backing up an APFS formatted Mac without a problem, and it continued to use the existing backup from before I installed the 10.13 beta. There doesn't appear to be any need for a firmware update.

 

[grahamperrin]

… break compatibility with older versions of the OS. …

Not necessarily.

APFS might be used to store the (traditional) image of the HFS Plus file system.

 

[Lucky736]

Anyone hear anything on this by chance? I haven't and was curious...... I had an issue with 10.13.3 that 10.10.4 fixed and backups are working again but wondering if they will update the file system on the backups.

 

[chrfr]

Anyone hear anything on this by chance? I haven't and was curious...... I had an issue with 10.13.3 that 10.10.4 fixed and backups are working again but wondering if they will update the file system on the backups.

There's not really a need to do so. Time Machine would need to be completely redesigned to back up to an APFS volume so maybe Apple is working on that for an upcoming major version upgrade, but I wouldn't expect it in 10.13.x.

 

[Lucky736]

I was thinking more along the lines of an Airport Software Update, but in conjunction with the move to APFS in general. My experience with 10.13.3 was just that it wasn't working correctly no matter how much I tried to even trick it into doing so. 10.13.4 resolved whatever the bug was.

 

[jpn]

Will Apple Time Capsule get firmware update HFS to APFS?

not related to your question, but after the update to macOS High Sierra today (macOS 10.13.4) my apple Time Capsule reported that no backup had been done for over 50 days. i knew automatic backups were working well until just before the update. so i just decided to delete the old backup and start anew.
i think that apple did some fine tuning this time to APFS as file transfers and duplicating large file libraries after today's update are taking much less time than before.
like you, i hope that Time Capsule will be able to indexed with APFS but as other posters have replied, its unlikely.

 

[Brownie77]

I highly doubt it.

It would break compatibility with older versions of the OS. Also, APFS is optimized for SSDs, while Time Capsules use HDDs. I don't even think High Sierra has APFS enabled by default for machines with an HDD.

Why would this break any compatibility?

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Why would this break any compatibility?

Previous versions of macOS can't read APFS drives.

Devices formatted as APFS can be read from and written to by:

• Other devices formatted as APFS
• Devices formatted as Mac OS Extended, if using macOS High Sierra

For example, a USB storage device formatted as APFS can be read by a Mac using High Sierra, but not by a Mac using Sierra or earlier.

 

[Brownie77]

Previous versions of macOS can't read APFS drives.

Devices formatted as APFS can be read from and written to by:

• Other devices formatted as APFS
• Devices formatted as Mac OS Extended, if using macOS High Sierra

For example, a USB storage device formatted as APFS can be read by a Mac using High Sierra, but not by a Mac using Sierra or earlier.

But this thread is talking about a Time Capsule device, which regardless of the FS type would present it over the network as APFS or similar so the client wouldn't know the difference.

 

[chrfr]

Previous versions of macOS can't read APFS drives.

Devices formatted as APFS can be read from and written to by:

• Other devices formatted as APFS
• Devices formatted as Mac OS Extended, if using macOS High Sierra

For example, a USB storage device formatted as APFS can be read by a Mac using High Sierra, but not by a Mac using Sierra or earlier.

The filesystem on a network shared volume, like a Time Capsule, is invisible to the client computer, and a Time Capsule shares an HFS+ formatted disk image to clients as a backup destination, so there's not a compatibility issue on that end. Given all that, there's absolutely no advantage to having a Time Capsule support APFS.
Also, Time Machine cannot work in its current incarnation on an APFS volume so not even the disk image can be converted to APFS.