Create a Time Capsule
Discover how to set up a shared Time Machine folder on your network.
IT WILL TAKE
15 minutes
YOU WILL LEARN
Set up a shared Time Machine folder accessible to all your Macs
YOU’LL NEED
NAS device with Time Machine support or large USB hard drive
Are you looking to replace your AirPort Time Capsule? If you’ve been relying on it as a network router, then it’s long overdue an upgrade. Choose a router with Ethernet ports, such as the Eero, and convert your Time Capsule into a standalone network drive to retain Time Machine support – the annotation above summarises the steps you need to follow.
If you’d like to have a centralised Time Machine backup drive without a Time Capsule, then you have several options: the first is to purchase an external USB hard drive to plug into your Mac, then configure it for use as a shared Time Machine backup location – as the first three steps in the guide opposite indicate.
Direct connection
The downside of this approach is that the drive will only be accessible to other Macs on your network when your main Mac is switched on and connected to the network. A better solution is a drive like the Time Capsule: connected directly to the network and so always accessible to others. Some routers allow you to convert USB drives by simply plugging them into the router’s own USB port, but support is flaky – and can vanish (just ask Netgear Nighthawk router owners after a 2019 firmware upgrade).
A better bet is to invest in a network-attached (NAS) hard drive with built-in Time Machine support. Steps 4-6 opposite reveal how to set up a QNAP NAS as a Time Machine backup drive; other NAS drives that support Time Machine – including Synology and WD drives – work in a similar way.