I have a Time Capsule that serves as a Time Machine (among other things) for multiple networked Macs (connected by ethernet). Since it’s a Time Capsule, you know it’s old.
Should I be concerned about the internal disk failing? I assumed yes, and purchased a new SSD to connect via the USB port on the Time Capsule.
My understanding is that the Time Capsule does not understand as APFS-formatted disk connected to its USB. Is my understanding correct? If so, would a workaround be to format the SSD as HFS with an APFS container?
Would it be better just to buy an SSD for each Mac that uses the Time Capsule as a Time Machine destination?
I would buy an SSD or spinning external hard disk, and cable it to a Mac in your network that is on all the time. Then share it, and select the option “Use as Time Machine disk”.
Thanks. I had seen mention of AFP going away, but I didn’t understand what it meant—and I still don’t, entirely. Right now, the Time Capsule ethernet provides access to a printer (which is connected to the Time Capsule by ethernet). Would that functionality go away? (If so, I could replace it with an ethernet switch, which I have somewhere.) I will plan on moving away from using the Time Capsule’s internal disk for anything.
Right now, I don’t have a Mac that is on all the time. If necessary, that could change, but I think I would just go with an SSD for each Mac. (All the Macs are selfish; none of them have sharing enabled.)
Your Time Capsule’s printing services should continue working.
If they are all desktops or are laptops that are used in the same location, that is perfectly reasonable. On the other hand, if any of the computers are laptops that move around the house routinely, connecting an SSD for backup routinely can be inconvenient or easily forgotten. For that scenario, automated networked backup solutions can have a real advantage. It may be worth investigating network attached storage (NAS) devices or third party routers that support Time Machine through USB-connected drives.
I must have seen that article recently, because much of it was familiar. Early in the comments was this gem, which I embrace:
I do have one laptop that would need manual intervention to back up, but it does not have information that I would miss if it went away. (I use it to read various sites and get the weather in the morning. If there is anything that needs a follow-up, I save a snippet to Notes or iCloud Drive.)
If such a thing existed, I would have a use (absolutely not a need) for a small (100 GB would be excessive) ethernet-connected NAS, preferably SSD, for sharing files. That is a role that the existing Time Capsule is fulfilling, but if it went away, it wouldn’t be a serious loss. Any pointers to cheap products?
I also fall into that camp. Network storage for something like TM sounds incredibly convenient and attractive. But in reality, solutions are either deprecated, slow, or finicky, or just plain unreliable. These days, I’m afraid it’s just a lot simpler to plug in a local drive.
Fortunately, thanks to inexpensive flash and sleek NVMe enclosures, these are small and light devices that can easily be plugged in on the fly. At home, for example, I tend to plug in an old MBA over night to juice up in the same spot. So instead of just plugging it in there, I got an inexpensive USB3 hub with USB-C PD support. The charger now goes into that along with a simple NVMe enclosure with some inexpensive flash. Now, when I plug that MB in to charge, it also gets to copy over all its hourly TM snapshots. Zero extra effort required.
Yes, I just bought two of them (based on your recommendation in some other thread; thanks).
In an extreme example of a first-world problem, I would like to find one of those with a 2-3 foot long attaching cable rather than the common 8 inch long cable. That way, the disk and hub would not be annoying me when I sat in my chair. In other words, it would mimic my present setup. (I suppose I could get a USB-C female to USB-A male adapter, use one of several USB-A extension cables that are lying around, and a USB-A female to USB-C male adapter for the other end.)
Any hub that’s not junk should let you use a different cable. Just make sure it’s supports the bandwidth your require and the amount of power you think it may need to carry (e.g. if it’s charging your laptop).
A quick Amazon search finds this cable. Cable Matters is a good brand and this 3’ USB C-to-C cable is certified for 10 Mbps and 100W power delivery.
So I see. I did a search and you’re right. It appears that most of the type-C hubs (unless you go for a very expensive docking station) seem to have short hard-wired cables. How annoying.
This is compared to hubs with type-A ports, where the powered models usually have a great big type-B connector, allowing you to swap the cable at will.
This depends a lot on exactly what type of USB hub you’re getting. But for USB-C hubs for 10 Gbps, a vast majority indeed comes with attached cables. Even quality gear (like this). The reason for this is likely that many users (especially Mac people) use these as desktop docks where a short built-in connection is convenient.
USB3 hubs (as in those with USB-A ports) tend to more often offer detachable host cables. Also, USB4/TB4 hubs usually offer that. Here’s a quality TB4 hub that has a removable host cable, but it’s also $100.
If you’re planning on connecting just 10 Gbps USB-C devices such a TB4 hub is likely overkill. Just get a USB-C 10 Gbps hub that fits your bill (here’s a $61 example with PD support, here’s one without PD for $20, and this $24 hub has PD support but no video). The solution you propose makes sense. No reason to limit your hub selection due to a short cable that can be fixed with an $8 extension cable.
I hadn’t been looking, but I hadn’t seen a USB-C extension cable before. Thanks.
But it seems like adding a hub is not necessary. The laptop is a MacBook Air (M1), so it has two ports. I’ll just charge it like I’ve been doing, and connect an SSD to the other port for Time Machine. Since I would need to remember to unmount the SSD anyway, it’s little extra bother hook it up and unhook it, and then I don’t have the hub getting in the way.
Most all NAS products support emulating Time Capsule for a Time Machine drive. Synology, Q-NAP, TrueNAS, etc.
I did it myself on Linux setting up mDNS(Bonjour) and Samba (CIFS / SMB). It works perfectly fine with the latest macOS Sequoia. I have multiple Macs backing up to the native container acting as a Time Capsule.
I run it on top of ZFS and it has been rock solid ever since I set it up years ago. It just works.
Yeah, my Asus wireless router has Time Capsule functionality built-in. While I did set it up and use it, every time I had to reboot the Asus box (firmware upgrade, config update) it forgot the stored credentials for the client Macs, and I had to start over again.
Ah, never tried TimeMachine on my ASUS router and now I’m happy I never did . I use a disk attached to my TB hub now days. I do have a USB disk attached to my router used to store media but it is used much less frequently now when most media is streamed. One great advantage compared to the TimeCapsule/Apple routers is that the disk transfer speeds for attached USB disks is much faster.
. I use a disk attached to my TB hub now days. I do have a USB disk attached to my router used to store media but it is used much less frequently now when most media is streamed. One great advantage compared to the TimeCapsule/Apple routers is that the disk transfer speeds for attached USB disks is much faster.