running out of storage on 2016 MBP and need more

I use a NAS.

There are plenty of routers out there that claim NAS type capabilities. I tried a couple and the ones that I tried were totally useless in this regard for anything beyond basic novelty. I'm not sure how the Time Capsule fairs in that capacity.

 

Buy a small USB3 SSD.

Then take a hard, critical look at "the stuff" on the internal drive.

With each item, apply the questions:
Does this really need to be here?
How often will I access it?

Then move things you don't plan on accessing to the external drive.
When you need something, plug the external in.

If it's something like a movie, I would do this:
Plug in the external
COPY the movie to the internal drive (leave the original on the external)
Watch the movie.
Then... erase it from the internal drive.
It's still "archived" on the external drive.

I'm amazed at the folks who will pay Apple $700 for a 1tb internal drive, then fill it up with stuff they never use...

 

Sounds like you are ready for a NAS.

 

I think Plex is going away isn't it? I could be wrong.

I use a ZyXEL which acts as a Time Machine drive, has a media server (DLNA) etc. For iTunes I just dumped my local library on there, so I'm using my NAS to serve iTunes files, but not as an "iTunes Server". My MBPro just opens the files off the NAS. It also can pull torrents for me if I was into that.

I also have my android box, plugged into my TV, pull files off the NAS too, either directly (KODI) or though DLNA. It also

I'm not "sold" on ZyXEL, but I tried a few and this was by far the best one when I picked it up (several years ago). Buffalo Linkstation was the worst. I had problems with my drive and the tech support people were GREAT, but their answer was to buy an external drive enclosure to plug my drives into so that I could reinitialize them, or find a Windows computer to plug the hard drives directly into.

EDIT: I have the NSA-325v2, the current one is the NSA-326.
https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Storage-Remote-Streaming-NAS326/dp/B01BBXMEMQ

Syology are also a good brand. There are plenty of options, just be sure that whatever you buy can act as a Time Machine drive.

 

I’m using a QNAP TS-453b mini. It has (4) bays which I have 4 Western Digital Reds running in a Raid 1+0 configuration. It’s a Plex server and Time Machine backs up to it without a problem. It also has an IDrive App that I back up the whole NAS into the cloud

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/qnap-nas-backup-to-cloud/

 

Synology is great (not perfect, but great). Fast, reliable, tons of services you can install. Time machine works like a charm.

 

One thing to keep in mind when buying HDDs - you likely won’t materially benefit from the speed of “NAS” drives vs regular HDDs, if at all, but they do apparently run cooler. I don’t use them, but I don’t buy the basement drives either. Well, you know, second cheapest.

I connect to my NAS over wifi so even with 1.3Gb/s wifi, the cheapest drives aren’t the bottleneck in performance.

 

Synology is my choice for a NAS. They have great software and applications that work well.

I just replaced my older NAS with a Synology. It has worked great. I have Time Machine set up on it as well as regular file shares.

They have applications for everything you want to do and much more, including backup to cloud as well as remote access to the NAS.

 

I set up a friend’s MyCloud unit. I was really impressed. It was a great price and worked very well. As you mentioned as the features are limited compared to other units, but for the price... I don’t believe you can upgrade the drives at a later date, but I could be wrong. Anyway, for a basic NAS, I was impressed.

I also backup my NAS to an external drive every month. Cloud backup is good if you have versioning.

 

You might also look at Amazon's AWS Glacier cloud backup services. It is very cheap to backup, and great if you just want to be sure you have everything backed up and would not need immediate data recovery. Most NAS devices support Glacier. I am planning on using it to be the backup for those kid photos, important documents, etc. that I don't want to lose if the house burned down.

 

Thanks - good tip on Glacier, I'm going to look at that too.

 

Backing up Synology to BackBlaze:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/synology-cloud-backup-guide/

Backing up Synology to Amazon Glacier:

https://www.ceos3c.com/cloud/synology-nas-glacier-backup-ultimate-guide/

Backing up WDC MyCloud Mirror to Amazon S3 (Note: Only MyCloud Mirror products support cloud backups. The lower end MyCloud units do not, and will require command-line tweaks by the user to get it to work, which will not be supported by WDC if they have to call them for help. Also, MyCloud Mirror does not officially support BackBlaze):

https://www.wdc.com/content/dam/wdc...assets/eng/user_manual/4779-705145.pdf#page57

 

I am not sure why any of these NAS devices cannot meet both your short term and long term goals.

Here is what I would did with my NAS when I recently upgraded my MBP.

• Copied my /Users/myname folder from old Mac to the NAS (300GB or so). I wrote the data onto a new share on the NAS called my OldMachine
  
• Mount OldMachine share on my new MBP.
• Copied certain folders and files from OldMachine to new MBP

I reinstalled by base apps (Office 365, Xcode, Anaconda, etc). Then I am reinstall apps on the new MBP as needed. This eliminates a lot of cruf that had built up (i.e. Apps and associated data I tried once and never again used, ...)

On the NAS I have a Time Machine share (which is size limited so it does not eat up all NAS storage) and file shares for photos, documents, work items, etc. A subset of these file shares are what I will have automatically backup to the cloud.

 

I agree they are not a bottleneck, but the NAS drives are often bit slower than standard HDDs. WD "Red" (NAS) drives spin at 5400 RPM, instead of 7200 RPM for "standard" drives. But that gives them a few advantage in the NAS scenario. First, they are quieter. Which is good because a lot of people want their NAS to serve PLEX, iTunes, or other media and keep them right next to their TV or stereo system. Second, they generate less heat and have no issue being left on 24 X 7 for years. But, the NAS will like spin down the drives when not in use to save power and eliminate any disk noise.

I waste my NAS since I don't do much stuff with it, but it apparently can transcode video for Plex and other media services on their own. Also it can run VMs that a developer can use to run Windows, Linux, servers. I only use mine for basic file serving and Time Machine backups and soon cloud uploads, but they can do so much more.

 

I wouldn't call that wasted. You're still getting plenty of use out of it by the sounds of it. But yeah some of them are remarkably capable, more than a simple slow disk on a network. I also run a torrent client and a media service (DLNA) on mine. There are a bunch of packages that I've never bothered to really look at too. I suspect in terms of capabilities mine is somewhere in the middle of the road. It's an older unit (now) but relatively advanced for its time. Every module that is active is consuming memory and CPU of course, so I keep mine pretty bare bones. I actually even deactivate the DLNA server unless I need to use it. I use the DLNA server for streaming to my Oculus, but my Android (for TV) I just read everything over SMB. Neither scenario is perfect, but both are pretty damn good.

 

Just get a Transcend Jetdrive Lite to put in the SDXC card slot.

Oh, wait . . .

 

How much is a 4TB SDXC?