Since AirPort Extreme WiFi speed is only 100mps, I have disconnected it and installed a Spectrum router with over twice the speed. However, I've learned that also has eliminated my automatic Time Machine backups. Is it possible to connect the AirPort to the MAC or router and use only the Time Machine backup feature?
iMac 27″, macOS 10.15
Yes, possible.
We assume you are using a Time Capsule with internal disk not the Airport Extreme?
How old is this Time Capsule.. because the wifi speed suggests you have an older model?
By far the easiest solution is to plug a USB Mac formatted hard disk into the computer. Faster and more reliable.. for Catalina almost I would say required.
Plugging the TC straight to the computer by ethernet is possible.. if really not the best way and fairly complicated.
Plugging the TC into the router is possible but again can be unreliable. The setup is easy enough if you do understand a bit about networking.. otherwise honestly the USB drive is much the easier.
Tell us and we can give you some details.. but the starting point is fairly easy.
Plug the TC into the new router with ethernet. Reset it and run through the setup. Use short names, no spaces and pure alphanumerics for everything. Password same rules but longer.
Once completed turn off the wireless.
Once you complete that it should be available over the network.. but then it will disappear after a day or so due to some poor network choices Apple made. We can fix those.. if you get to this point.
I have the combo Airport Time Capsule and Airport Extreme, all housed in the one beautiful white tower, late 2013 vintage. Plugging in another hard drive for backup is easy, but does not provide off site data security that the cloud does. I am paying for 2 TB of Apple Cloud data storage, so I am currently trying a different approach to backing up my photos. All of my photos are stored in a folder named "Pictures". The Cloud looks for data in "Documents" and "Desktop", so I copied the "Pictures" folder to my desktop, and I notice all those files are now being uploaded to the cloud. A kind of work around solution, and I'll have to see how it works out. It is taking a long time to upload 470GB.
IMAC backup with Airport Extreme
