Time Capsule (APFS) on Big Sur

I’ve been using Time Capsule for years and read that with Big Sur APFS is now supported for backups. I have an Apple Time Capsule and want to know if I can reformat it to use APFS and gain faster backups or if that happens automatically/ is even possible.

If anyone can shed any light I’d be really grateful.

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Nov 15, 2020 6:27 AM

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18 replies

Dec 3, 2020 1:10 PM in response to Lesfromhants

Time Capsule is now a design for older Mac system.. based on AFP protocol. No actual firmware improvement was made in many areas of the TC from 2008 to 2018.. even if models changed the firmware was kept very consistent.

Apple has since High Sierra been moving more and more to SMB and that is too difficult to add to NetBSD as used by the TC.. because it has to be SMB3 (SMB2??) The TC only supports SMB1 which is now deprecated and a major security weakness.

I think Apple would prefer you to get rid of the old airports but never say that out loud.

Do download CCC as I mentioned before. It is totally free to test for a full month and has much better design for network backups.

Dec 5, 2020 4:13 AM in response to LaPastenague

Thinking a bit more about this......is it worth doing a factory default reset as here...?

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201945

My TC is 802.11 ac and has 7.9.1 firmware, but is in bridge mode. I have numerous other devices attached...will I need to re-attach each of these or will connections remain?

Dec 5, 2020 6:05 AM in response to Lesfromhants

is it worth doing a factory default reset

Yes, if you are having issues, or have been changing some settings on the Time Capsule. The reset gets the Time Capsule back to a fresh start, so you can set it up again from scratch.

The fact that Time Machine has not been all that reliable with backups to a Time Capsule over the last few years will not change though. So, a factory default reset might help things for a bit......or it might not.

My TC is 802.11 ac and has 7.9.1 firmware, but is in bridge mode.

In Bridge Mode, the TC can act as a wireless access point to create a wireless network, but the TC does not assign IP addresses to each of the clients on the network. It is the job of your "main" router to do this. The TC simply passes this information through from the main router to all connected network devices.

If you call Apple Support, they will tell you to set up the TC as a router.......not a bridge......so the TC will be in charge of providing IP addresses to all connected network devices.

There are both upsides and downsides to this type of setup, which might bring more discussion. There are of course no guarantees that Time Machine will work more reliably this way.

will I need to re-attach each of these or will connections remain?

If you decide to perform a factory default reset on the TC.....and......you set it up again to use the same wireless network name and password as before, then other devices should be able to connect. Conversely, if you set up the TC with a different wireless network or password, then you will have to log on with each of your other WiFi devices to select the "new" wireless network to be joined and enter the password to connect.

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Time Capsule (APFS) on Big Sur