Apple Intelligence is now available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac!

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Looking for Advice on Using a NAS for Backups

I’m looking for feedback on backing up to a NAS, and any experiences with the Synology DiskStation DS220j in particular. My needs are pretty simple, two Macs in the house, a 2020 M1 MacBook Pro, and a 2014 Intel Mac mini, both running Monterey 12.6.9. I’d like to have the ability to backup both systems over wifi, with ChronoSync as well as Time Machine. What I don’t know (no experience with any NAS) is just how fast, or slow, I can expect the backups to run (18 to 20 GB total per machine). The initial backup I suspect will take some time, I’m more interested in the subsequent backups. Compared to a local SSD I would think a somewhat slower, but how much slower, if one can put a number to that. Don’t want to spend the money if I’m looking at something 4 to 5 times the time to do subsequent backups. Any help/advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Sep 19, 2023 6:47 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 20, 2023 10:15 AM

First, the Synology unit is not wireless, so you are going to need a wired connection to a WiFi access point. And if you're wiring the Synology unit to something in the first place, why not just do wired backups instead of trying to do it over WiFi? And if WiFi, what access point would you be using with the Synology unit?


Second, a TM backup disk should be exclusively TM, no other uses. And if I understand the DS220j specs correctly its internal drives are formatted as EXT4, which could not be used for TM anyway.


As to backup speed, you do understand that WiFi cannot beat wired speeds. I'd also add that in my own use of NAS (a Lacie D2Network2) the responsiveness was so poor even over 1GB wired Ethernet that I gave up using a NAS at all (and I had such high hopes for it ...). All my backups are direct connect drives; at this point they are all USB 3 Gen 2 (10Gbps) and the speed is very nice.


Under ideal conditions, 2.4GHz WiFi can hit 400-600 Mbps and 5.0 GHz WiFi can hit 1300 Mbps. And that's under ideal conditions. Both pale in comparison to USB 3 Gen 2 at 10 Gbps and Thunderbolt at 40 Gbps.


4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 20, 2023 10:15 AM in response to MargeHomer

First, the Synology unit is not wireless, so you are going to need a wired connection to a WiFi access point. And if you're wiring the Synology unit to something in the first place, why not just do wired backups instead of trying to do it over WiFi? And if WiFi, what access point would you be using with the Synology unit?


Second, a TM backup disk should be exclusively TM, no other uses. And if I understand the DS220j specs correctly its internal drives are formatted as EXT4, which could not be used for TM anyway.


As to backup speed, you do understand that WiFi cannot beat wired speeds. I'd also add that in my own use of NAS (a Lacie D2Network2) the responsiveness was so poor even over 1GB wired Ethernet that I gave up using a NAS at all (and I had such high hopes for it ...). All my backups are direct connect drives; at this point they are all USB 3 Gen 2 (10Gbps) and the speed is very nice.


Under ideal conditions, 2.4GHz WiFi can hit 400-600 Mbps and 5.0 GHz WiFi can hit 1300 Mbps. And that's under ideal conditions. Both pale in comparison to USB 3 Gen 2 at 10 Gbps and Thunderbolt at 40 Gbps.


Sep 20, 2023 7:48 AM in response to MargeHomer

I have limited experience with NAS, but I have used one.


Currently, we have five Macs. All have backup drives attached and all of them are just regular drives. At first they were all magnetic media, but in the last two years we've gone all SSD for a variety of reasons.


None of them will ever backup to a NAS. That's strictly my opinion based on my experience for our Macs. We've had only one drive failure out of a dozen or so since 2015. That's enough to make the simplicity of a discrete HDD or SSD for backup the better choice for us.


I'm sure others will have other opinions and that's a good thing.

Sep 20, 2023 10:53 AM in response to MartinR

Well, after a lot more reading online, I pretty much came to the same conclusion as expressed by those who replied above. That although what I'm thinking may be possible, but it would take much more time for each backup, and possibly upset things that are working perfectly now. Not worth the effort nor the expenditure of funds. I'll stick to doing my backups to SSDs and possibly put the funds towards a new Mac mini to replace my 2014 unit.


Thanks guys!

Looking for Advice on Using a NAS for Backups

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.