Looking for something to replace my 2015 Time Capsule. The two things I want to do are 1) backup using Time Machine and 2) have a disk on my local network that my AppleTV can access (mainly to play movies through VLC). I don't need remote access to my files or anything like that. I think around 4-6TB is sufficient. I'm hoping whatever I end up with will be much faster when browsing my Time Machine backups which can be painfully slow on my Time Capsule. Any recommendations?
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recommendations for Time Capsule replacement
- Thread starter snail22
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I'm in the process of doing the same thing, replacing my 2015 TC. I plan to replace the storage with a NAS, but as an interim step which can double as on-the-go storage, I opted for the SanDisk Extreme Pro. For the Wi-Fi router component, I'm leaning toward the Netgear Nighthawk. I use Plex for playing movies and TV shows, and will ultimately have Plex installed on the NAS.
I hope this helps!
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I hope mine works for while before I need replace mine. I did use NAS WD My Cloud for Time Machine but so many issues. I search online better options but that time nothing reliable like Time Capsule. So I end up buying Time Capsule even though Apple discontinue it and it been perfect. I hope stay perfect for much longer. Cannot remember when I got it but defo before 2019 though.
Hopefully NAS now is better with Time Machine. Main issues that it keep disconnecting while Time Machine trying do backup.
Hopefully NAS now is better with Time Machine. Main issues that it keep disconnecting while Time Machine trying do backup.
To be fair, I've never used Time Machine. I prefer Carbon Copy Cloner for backups, and don't need TM's capability to "roll back the clock" to recover accidentally deleted files. I"m more concerned with disaster recovery, so a bootable clone works better for my purposes. I have, however, read good things about Time Machine backups on a NAS, such as the Synology family of NAS devices.
I back up my Mac to my Synology NAS and haven’t had any problems.
I had a Buffalo LinkStation NAS for almost a decade. It replaced a Time Capsule and, at the time, the LinkStation was one of the few NAS enclosures that could act as a Time Machine backup. It served me well but was recently retired for a QNAP NAS.
These days, you'll probably have difficulty finding a NAS enclosure that doesn't support Time Machine. There's a couple of additional but easy hoops to jump through to set up TM on a non-Apple backup device but, once it's done, the operation is seamless.
FYI, I believe you will have to partition the backup drive in order to have non-TM content on the drive as TM cannot coexist with other file types. You will need to factor this into your purchase decision (i.e. how much capacity you need on your NAS).
However, rather than messing with partitions, what I have done is add an external drive to my Mac on which I store all my media, and I back it all up - including the external drive - to my QNAP NAS. The external drive is an SSD for speed and quietness, while the NAS is loaded with beefy HDDs for cheap capacity as response time and noise is not an issue.
These days, you'll probably have difficulty finding a NAS enclosure that doesn't support Time Machine. There's a couple of additional but easy hoops to jump through to set up TM on a non-Apple backup device but, once it's done, the operation is seamless.
FYI, I believe you will have to partition the backup drive in order to have non-TM content on the drive as TM cannot coexist with other file types. You will need to factor this into your purchase decision (i.e. how much capacity you need on your NAS).
However, rather than messing with partitions, what I have done is add an external drive to my Mac on which I store all my media, and I back it all up - including the external drive - to my QNAP NAS. The external drive is an SSD for speed and quietness, while the NAS is loaded with beefy HDDs for cheap capacity as response time and noise is not an issue.