Replacing my Airport Time Capsule Router with a backup option

As Bob has mentioned, there is no direct replacement for Apple's Time Capsule. The closest would be to use a wireless router that also supports Time Machine. For those, I would suggest routers from either Asus or Synology. Neither have built-in drives, but do support an external USB drive for TM. Alternatively, get a replacement wireless router that maximizes Internet data throughput performance, and then, get a separate NAS device, that supports TM. For the latter I would also suggest looking at Synology.

We still don't know whether you have another router there that is providing your wireless network. If you do, it does not make a lot of sense to add another router (like a Time Capsule) to be able to back up your Mac(s).

However, if the Time Capsule is acting as your wireless router now, then it's clear that if you remove it, that you will need another WiFi router to provide your wireless network signal.

The Time Capsule was unique in that it was actually two products.......a router....and a hard drive......in one single package. No other manufacturers have ever offered a product like this. So, if you need a router to replace the router portion of the Time Capsule, you would want to look at one which included a USB port to allow you to connect a hard drive, so you can back up your Mac(s) over the WiFi network.

Very few manufacturers offer a router that will also support Time Machine backups to a hard drive attached to the router. Among the few that will allow this are Synology and Asus. If you opt for one of these routers, you will still need a USB hard drive to plug into the router.

So, instead of a one-piece solution that the Time Capsule offered, you will have a two-piece solution with a router and a hard drive attached to the router.

More information on the Synology router the Asus routers can be found in the links below:

https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/RT2600ac

https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1011283/

Finally, we will mention again that the simplest, fastest, cheapest and most reliable back up plan would be to simply connect a USB drive directly to your Mac and back up that way.......although this would probably not be all that convenient if you have a laptop, since the hard drive would need to remain connected to the laptop.

If you have desktop Mac, it would a simple matter to add a small USB drive to the desktop that would be virtually invisible depending on how you locate it.

I am going to look into the suggested Synology RT2600ac model with a separate hard drive. as an option. The Synology model looks to be $200.00 and what ever a hard drive would cost would still be a deal if it saves my operating systems, photos, videos, documents and ect. Any recommendations of hard drives to use with this router?

This is one of those questions where budget is more important than any other consideration.

Cheap laptop drives in neat self-powered USB box are great on a computer where you want something of medium capacity and medium speed with occasional use.

For a backup drive you are plugging into a router.. I would say it is precisely the wrong sort. Pulling current from USB port on a router with a 20W power supply is hugely different to pulling current from a computer with a 250W or larger supply. Bigger disks are faster and more reliable. So my preference is Desktop.

If you can stretch the budget buy a desktop USB drive which are based on faster 3.5" drives. And have their own plug pack power supply.. which is a nuisance but better than overloading the small router supply.

The normal suppliers, WD, Seagate etc are usually fine. These days they tend to use cheaper SMR drives which I try to avoid but it is difficult now to find out this info. LaCie which Bob recommends can be good. I used to buy Touro which was HGST brand or Toshiba.. but you might find they are unavailable or simple absorbed by WD who bought them up.

Honestly just go the cheapest on special drive you can find.

Previously you could buy 4TB desktop or 2TB laptop versions and be sure it CMR/PMR drive.. please just google yourself for this issue. SMR drive. WD got sneaky and started using SMR without telling anyone. I would not spend a lot of time worrying. Keep your eye open for specials on Amazon, Best Buy etc. Especially for bigger drives, >8TB there are plenty of bargains.

WD elements

WD mybook

Seagate backup plus. (naming is difficult but the bigger ones with power supply)

LaCie ??

Just to go back to the original question.. a router like Synology plus a USB drive is cheapest alternative when you need to replace the wifi router and backup functionality of TC.

This question is fairly popular now as you can imagine. Apple has exited the field and of what is available you actually have to do some work to both pick a suitable substitute and get it working.. whereas the Time Capsule was one neat (if somewhat flawed) package.

Please read the thread post I did yesterday.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251604031?answerId=253295716022#253295716022

I would strongly encourage everyone who is in this situation to consider a low end entry NAS over a wireless router.

You can get them for around $200.. DS220j although supply is an issue of course with global pandemic. Even an older one second hand from eBay.. etc. Not too old but say previous model or two.. They do last a long time. And people who bought entry level are after 4 bay faster processor models for running video servers and vpn and all that good stuff. So it is good exchange, as backup device an entry level 2bay is perfectly adequate.

You can buy just one disk for now.. and any size you like. In current models up to 12TB.

IMHO 4TB is a good size.. look at the cost per TB and work out sweet point for you.

Long term a NAS .. even entry level is faster, more reliable, better supported, longer life product. It is specifically designed for the job of storing files and backups. A router USB supported hard disk is no where near as good.

You can combine the NAS with any wireless router you like.. the ISP model you use now is probably fine.. and you can pick the right kind of wifi for your home.. be it mesh or ubiquiti etc.. which do not support hard disks of any sort.

Hunter0502 wrote:

So I would hook up a back up drive to the recommended routers and the TM software on my laptop would be able work to backup to that drive?

Yes, that would be correct. Our forum expert on these routers is LaPastengue. I'm sure he will chime in when he's available.

FWIW. In my case, I replaced my TCs (actually, I still use one as a pseudo file server) with the separate router/NAS combination. The Synology NAS that I use for TM has been in-place for about three years now and has been flawless. (Knock on wood) I've yet to experience a backup error. A completely different experience when using TM to a TC under macOS, starting with Sierra, and getting progressively worse, with Catalina. However, fair warning, since a NAS is basically a computer with drives, it will be more costly than just using an external drive.

Since the Time Capsule is both a router and a hard drive in one package, the first question here would be rather or not you really need another router when you retire the Time Capsule. In other words, do you already have a WiFi router that provides your wireless network?

The next question would be rather or not you really need to back up over a wireless network, knowing that you can simply connect a USB hard drive directly to your Mac and back up that way faster, cheaper, and more reliably.

Although Apple discontinued the Time Capsule over 2 years ago......new, refurbished and used Time Capsules are still available on Ebay and Amazon if you want to continue with an Apple product.

I am concerned with the information that is not on my Laptop and only on the Time Capsule.

This is the first time that you have mentioned this. If you are really saying that you have "original" or "master" versions of data on the Time Capsule.......and nowhere else......then you have no backup when.....not if.....the Time Capsule fails.

Before you do anything else, you must make a copy of that information and place it on another drive. Do not think of moving this information to the Lacie drive if the Time Capsule will be retiring........you will still only have one copy of this information....and no backup.

Can you make a copy of this information and place it on your Mac? That would be the recommended way to do things. Then, you have your "master" or "original" version of the information on your Mac and that information will be backed up when you run Time Machine on your Mac.

I'm assuming that you will be connecting the Lacie drive to the Synology router, is that correct? If not, and you have more than one Mac, then you will have to move the Lacie drive from one Mac to another when you want to back up, not a good idea because things tend to get overlooked and one of the Macs will go for a time without backing up. It's also not a good idea to be swapping a drive from one Mac to another.

In other words, you always want your backup drive connected to all Macs at all times. Thing will work this way if you are planning to connect the Lacie drive to the Synology router.

You would not want to connect the Lacie drive to the Time Capsule and back up that way. If the Time Capsule has a problem, or you retire it, you won't be able to easily connect the Lacie drive to a Mac and retrieve data, because Time Machine backups up to a "network" drive on or at the Time Capsule differently that it backups up to a drive that is connected directly to a Mac.

Please clarify on where things stand at this point.

Do you want to make a copy of all of the Time Machine backups on the Time Capsule....and....the other information that is stored there.......or......do you want to make a copy of only the other information and not all the Time Machine backups?

Obviously, if you want to copy all of the old Time Machine backups, that is going to take up a significant amount of space on the new hard drive. Few of us ever really need backups from weeks, months and even years going back, but it's your call.

If you copy all of the old Time Machine backups over to the new hard drive, Time Machine on your Mac will not be able to simply continue backing up to that same file. Time Machine will start all over again and make a new backup when the drive is connected to the Mac.

You won't then be able to move the drive over to the Synology again without Time Machine starting all over again with a new backup.

Things would be tons easier if you could move the information on the Time Capsule back over to your Mac.

To get at the data on the Time Capsule, it must be connected again to your network so that you can access it from your Mac over the network.

My thinking was to just transfer them to the hard drive as a segment and have access to them for the future if I need to explore for any missing photos. It is sounding more and more impractical to pull off.

You can do this, but when the Time Capsule "retires" or gives up, you won't have a backup of the information on the hard drive since the only copy will on the hard drive.

Is it really impossible for you to copy this information back over to your Mac? If you do this, when your Mac backs up......everything.....will be backed up to the new hard drive. So you have "master" or "original" files on your Mac and backups on another hard drive.

That would be a minimum backup plan. Most of us have more than one backup of our Macs. You can't be too safe. For example, I have my laptop backed up on a Time Capsule, but it is also backed up to a hard drive connected directly to the Mac.

Personally, I have only used Lacie drives for many many years with flawless results, so can't comment first hand on other options or brands.