Time Machine Backups to Airport Time Capsule Remotely Over the Net?

[rhyzome]

I'm currently in Asia but have an Airport Time Capsule back home in New York. I haven't done a time machine backup but have taken lots of photos that I would hate to lose if anything happened to my rMBP.

Is there a way to do a Time Machine backup over the internet to your Time Capsule when you aren't on the same LAN anymore? Should I have just packed my time capsule?

 

[Brookzy]

You can do it (in theory) over a VPN. However it is slow, buggy, and unreliable, and requires that your backups were set to complete over Wi-Fi from the beginning, since Time Machine creates a different kind of backup for an attached drive versus a network drive.

A better option would be a third party online backup service.

Or, to back up just your photos, use iCloud Photo Library.

 

[rhyzome]

I see...I'm already using icloud drive for documents...might as well just bump up my storage for the time I'm away to store the photos too. Probably still cheaper than a big enough external HD or flash drive.

Do you gain any features when you use iCloud Photo Library in the Photos App? Like recognizing landscapes or other entities? Or does that happen regardless of whether you use iCloud Photo Library?

Also, if I use that service, can I still keep the master/highest resolution/original photos on my MBP? Nothing will be deleted from the MBP if I use it, right? (I have 1TB storage on the mac...I don't want it to replace originals with scaled down versions to "optimize" memory use...)

And can I set it up so that it is backed up to iCloud but still does not download (at any resolution) onto my iphone? (for security reasons I just want it to back up the library, not put it on all my devices as advertised...I like to use the iPhone as a camera from which I delete photos immediately after I upload them to the Photos App)

 

[TonyK]

For traveling I use a 4TB external drive that is bus powered. Purchased it from CostCo and have not looked back.

You could also get a 128GB USB thumb drive and backup important documents and such. I do this as well, having a redundant system while traveling.