HOW TO Set up your own Time Capsule
01 USB TIME MACHINE DRIVE
Create a dedicated folder on your new USB drive for sharing with other users. Now, navigate to System Preferences ≥ Sharing, verify File Sharing is checked, click Options and tick ‘Share files and folders using SMB’.
02 MAKE FOLDER SHARED
Click + under Shared Folders, then browse to the folder you set up – once opened, click Add. control-click the new shared folder name and choose Advanced Options. Tick the ‘Share as a Time Machine’ option.
03 SET SIZE LIMIT
If you’re sharing this folder with multiple Macs, tick ‘Limit backups to’ and set a per-user quota based on your drive’s overall capacity divided by number of users – say 500-750GB per Mac. Click OK. Jump to step 7.
04 HYBRID BACKUP & SYNC
QNAP users should open the new Hybrid Backup & Sync tool and navigate to Services ≥ Time Machine. To set up a single account for all Time Machine backups to use, untick ‘Access with local QTS Accounts’.
05 CHOOSE PASSWORD
Enter a password to protect the account, choose whether to set a maximum amount of storage space and click OK. You may see a prompt about the highest SMB version being 2.1 – this needs to be 3, so click OK.
06 FIX SMB VERSION ISSUES
Now navigate to Control Panel ≥ Network & File Services ≥ Win/Mac/NFS ≥ Microsoft Networking and click Advanced Options. Set the highest version to SMB 3. Click Apply, Time Machine should now work.
07 CONNECT FROM NEW MAC
Open System Preferences ≥ Time Machine and click Select Backup Disk if you’re setting up Time Machine for the first time, or opt for Add or Remove Backup Disk if you’re now adding a second backup location.
08 SELECT DISK
A list of available disks should appear – network drives are coloured blue. Select your disk from the list and tick ‘Encrypt backups’ for additional security if you need it. Click Use Disk followed by Connect.
09 ENTER USER CREDENTIALS
If necessary, enter the required username (TimeMachine if backing up to a QNAP) and password. If you’ve opted to encrypt your backup, you’ll be asked to password protect it too. Once complete, your backup should start.