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Warning: Apple Says macOS 27 Won't Support AirPort Time Capsule Backups

I still use three Time Capsules. All working faultlessly. Two have had new drives, for capacity reasons. I keep my data archive on a 2014 Mac Mini, the legendary 2-core beast, running Monterey. This backs up to an 8TB Time Capsule. It shares the data with my more modern Macs via SMB. This setup will work forever, as I won't upgrade the Mini
 
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mannyvel said:
You're actually wrong. My parents had a Time Capsule for a really long time - he died last year, and his TC is still sitting there, waiting for a backup. Hard drives actually last a pretty long time, as long as they aren't from the Seagate 3TB era.
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Time Capsule heat problems – the following was from a quick search, but there are thousands of other links:
Just because you've experienced a given result, that doesn't mean there isn't a problem.

I ran a Mac repair business where I experienced this heat problem firsthand, for both the squat Time Capsules and the column-style ones. The issue was that a certain industrial designer and his boss didn't want to include fans to cool things because they would've made too much noise. They also couldn't countenance any actual air exhaust vents or holes because that would've ruined the look of the design. As a result, these ran not just warm but actually hot. As a result, the hard disk had a much shorter lifespan.
 
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Oh no! I use my beloved Airport Extreme and external SSD. What do I do now? At least thanks for the one-year warning.
 
No_comment said:
I have an Airport Extreme, if I connect drive to it - will it work doing backups with Time Machine in MacOS 27?
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No, it will not work —

assuming:
(a) the Extreme (like the Time Capsule) will only file-share with AFP (I’m virtually certain this is true), and
(b) Apple really does remove AFP support in macOS 27, as announced.

Edited for clarity
 
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Ultramove69 said:
Would you really want to trust archival needs to 7+ year old hard drives? Thats crazy, it's time to get newer drives and move on.
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I think the bigger issue is breaking support for external drives connected to a TC/AE. I'm not even using a TC at this point (my first gen finally died earlier this year) but have an AE with an external that has been very solid with backups.
 
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It's sad that Apple doesn't offer a network backup drive option that's reliable.

The Airport backups seemed to be the most reliable network backup option. They for the most part worked, although relying on it as your only backup was a bit risky because if there was a problem, well, your backup is screwed.

Third party support for Time machine backup has been attrocious. There was even one solution I saw that didn't allow username/pw protection of the network share if you wanted it to be a backup destination. Guest access had to be on and that's what you had to use! Yikes.

Even using the time machine share option through file sharing on another Mac has been problematic in many cases. It either just stops working, or does weird things like only allowing you to use an internal drive as a destination.

I know it's a pipe dream, but it would be really cool if Apple made a home router/access point/backup/homekit solution available that was simple and secure.
 
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CharlesShaw said:
Ah, it's been years, but I remember there was a reason that I changed to a unique WiFi network name and began using the maximum number of random characters for the password (it's a headache to enter manually). Did my action make it any harder to exploit?
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Does not matter, WPA2 exposes enough data that the password can be derived no matter how long it is.
 
HMWausau said:
It's sad that Apple doesn't offer a network backup drive option that's reliable.

The Airport backups seemed to be the most reliable network backup option. They for the most part worked, although relying on it as your only backup was a bit risky because if there was a problem, well, your backup is screwed.

Third party support for Time machine backup has been attrocious. There was even one solution I saw that didn't allow username/pw protection of the network share if you wanted it to be a backup destination. Guest access had to be on and that's what you had to use! Yikes.

Even using the time machine share option through file sharing on another Mac has been problematic in many cases. It either just stops working, or does weird things like only allowing you to use an internal drive as a destination.

I know it's a pipe dream, but it would be really cool if Apple made a home router/access point/backup/homekit solution available that was simple and secure.
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Yep, we run Time Machine but consider it a throw-away backup. If it work, it works, if not, then we will access our real backup solution Carbon Copy Cloner, which has been rock solid in-spite of all the bugs Apple has allowed.
 
I know people that use them today and they have no other backup option currently. I don't have a Time Machine myself yet, just the base stations. Wireless backup or even wired backup to the base station is was so nice.

Very sad time, since I use AFP for other Mac connections etc. all the time. This kind of axing stuff makes no logical sense to me.

Apple: Creating digital islands for your digital life!™

That about sums it up.
 
nt5672 said:
Does not matter, WPA2 exposes enough data that the password can be derived no matter how long it is.
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This makes more sense why Apple won't allow a connection to WPA2 base stations (not including their own). Had this issue in the coffee shop, everyone else can connect but I couldn't with Monterey. Apple said it wasn't safe and wouldn't allow it. Most embarrassing for the Mac that day.
 
cateye said:
Yes, but with an asterisk. WPA2's encryption was formally broken in 2017, although it's a non-trivial exploit. WPA3, which all newer routers and most new devices support, solves this.
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Also a little more bad is that it advertises (and includes) support for TKIP, which was the interim after WEP was broken using a roll of aluminum foil, an egg, and a mirror (#MacGyver) and before WPAv1 (which wasn’t really a standard either), while waiting on WPAv2. So yeah, an BIG asterisk on the WPA2 support.
 
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My hope is that the Proxima development will be used as a foundation for a new-age AirPort system - or even better - enable mesh networking built within updated HomePod solutions.
 
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JAQ said:
So... because they haven't bothered to update the software on these to support SMB, they're no longer up to date.

Back when I worked in the Apple Store, I tried to sell a Time Capsule to everyone who bought a Mac, because it was such a great combination of features that they really ought to have. But now, instead of a plug-it-in-and-it-works Apple appliance, you need to wade into the Sharing features on a second Mac, or buy a third-party NAS and get involved in a finger-pointing session when it doesn't work right. It's all part of Apple's neglect for local-backup... because they want us storing everything in their cloud instead, holding it for annual ransom payments.
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This was back in the day when the slogon "it just works" was pretty apt. I recall having a demo of a Mac back in 2008 and was blown away how simple everything was. Bit by bit everything has become more complex and Time machine no longer just works. Over the last 5-6 years or so I've had various Time Machine errors where I am to reformat the Time capsule drive and start again. F**king cheers. Thankfully, I have a further 2 USB drives that I also use Time Machine with, but the Time Capsule is such as good slution because you don't have to remember to plug in drives, it just did it's thing every hour. Also when my parent's Mac died about 10 years ago, the replacement refused to rebuild from the time machine backup (thankfully, again I had several different time machine backups for their system too).

I guess this may be the impetus to bin my TC and move to a WiFi6 mesh system with a USB3 attached drive for Time Machine backups.
 
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I'm kind of surprised they aren't ditching Time Machine Entirely. I've still got a Time Capsule but essentially it backs up nothign important, everything important is in Onedrive/Icloud. I've been thinking about just stopping the backup for a while but hadn't done it yet. Looks like the decision is being made for me.

Will you be able to access data on Time Capsules at all? Or is that it?
 
mitty said:
I'm kind of surprised they aren't ditching Time Machine Entirely. I've still got a Time Capsule but essentially it backs up nothign important, everything important is in Onedrive/Icloud. I've been thinking about just stopping the backup for a while but hadn't done it yet. Looks like the decision is being made for me.

Will you be able to access data on Time Capsules at all? Or is that it?
Click to expand...

iCloud doesn't offer versioned backups.

It's a really useful feature, especially to have it locally.
 
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mitty said:
I'm kind of surprised they aren't ditching Time Machine Entirely. I've still got a Time Capsule but essentially it backs up nothign important, everything important is in Onedrive/Icloud. I've been thinking about just stopping the backup for a while but hadn't done it yet. Looks like the decision is being made for me.

Will you be able to access data on Time Capsules at all? Or is that it?
Click to expand...
If they didn't have Time Machine I'd have to buy some other backup software. Yes, I also use iCloud for a few key folders, but no way I can put ALL my data on an internet based backup -- it would take too long let alone the extra cloud storage I'd need to purchase. With Time Machine, I can have a Mac destroyed, buy a new one, and be right back where I was after a few hours of automated restore.
 
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