As Apple are no longer producing the Time Machine (ours is now playing up) what do you recommend as a replacement Gary?
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Kathy George
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What Is a Good Time Capsule Replacement?
Comments: 4 Responses to “What Is a Good Time Capsule Replacement?”
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I don't have any specific recommendation. I've always used an attached USB hard drive to an Airport Extreme, not a Time Capsule. Since my main Mac is a Mac Pro, not a MacBook, I've had no critical need for wireless backups. I have a Time Machine drive attached to the Mac Pro and backup to that. My MacBook doesn't have any unique files on it (all iCloud Drive and Dropbox) so there's no serious need to back it up since those files are also on my Mac Pro and backed up to both that Time Machine drive and remotely via BackBlaze.
But if my primary machine was a MacBook, I would probably go with a Time Capsule-like solution, since it would be impossible to plug in the external drive on a regular enough basis.
If I needed to get a Time Capsule today, or replace one that has failed, I would simply attach an external hard drive to whatever I was using as a Wi-Fi hub. Unfortunately not all Wi-Fi hubs allow for an external drive, so I'd need to be picky about which one I chose. Not only that it allowed for an external drive that could be accessed by all devices connected to the network, but also that reviews and such showed that it handled the external drive well, and maybe even a few reviews stating that people used it for Time Machine. I don't have a recommendation since the only one I use right now is that Airport Extreme.
Failing that, I would use a small portable USB drive, one that only required the USB connection and no power. I would make it a habit of plugging it into that drive every night (at least) while it charged. Then I would also get a plan on a service like BackBlaze so it was backing up even while traveling.
But another strategy is to use only cloud storage for all of my files and services. If everything was on iCloud Drive, and my email was iCloud or Gmail, and my photos were in iCloud Photos, then I would feel more confident going with only a single backup, like a nightly-attached TM drive.
What about replacements for Apple's discontinued networking solutions - Airport Extreme etc. ? It appears the mesh solution Apple is selling doesn't have a USB port to allow connection of a drive to enable Time Machine backups.
MRR: I don't have any recommendations because I'm still using an Airport Extreme (no reason not to). If you really need a Wi-Fi hub with USB, then I would just look at reviews and see what seems reasonable.
My Time Capsule is still working, but I have used external HDD for Time Machine as well as Carbon Copy Clone backups. I attach these directly using USB ports (27â iMac).