APFS or exFAT for storing both old and future Time Machine backups

The Seagate Expansion Desktop 8TB hard drive is preformatted in exFAT, but it can be reformatted to APFS - which I would prefer as after the new big macOS Tahoe 26 update (I still have Sequoia 15.6 on my MacBook) will not go well with the Time Machine function to the Time Capsules.

To be clear Time Capsule support won't be going away until macOS 27, but the reason is that its network communication protocol is limited to Apple Filing Protocol (AFP).

Time Capsule has always used Mac OS Extended (HFS+) as its file format. It does not recognize disks formatted for APFS or anything else — its internal hard disk drive as well as any external hard disk drives connected to them use HFS+ for Time Machine backups.

That limitation is unrelated to a particular network attached storage device's file format, which can be anything. An NAS has its own operating system, its own storage system, etc and the disk formats they use do not matter.

For external storage devices connected directly to your Mac use APFS. TM cannot use disks formatted for legacy Windows PCs. Although you can still use Time Machine backup disks formatted for HFS+ Time Machine will silently convert them to APFS.

Your question implies that you have content (pictures and videos) stored on various Time Capsules, and that you anticipate a future need to retrieve that data. You will need to restore those items prior to upgrading to macOS 26. If it is your intent to archive those items be advised that Time Machine is a backup utility that was never intended to be an archival utility. You may have effectively pressed the TCs into service that way by placing them on a shelf for safekeeping, and that's ok, but Time Machine is not very well suited for that purpose. For example it would be a shame if you were to make one of those old TCs available to Time Machine only to have it immediately start a new backup of a device on which those items were deleted and no longer exist. If you allowed that to occur, there would be a significant likelihood TM would find many old "expired" backups and delete them to create sufficient storage space for a new backup. Connect the TCs as you find the time, restore the item(s) that you require, and store those items elsewhere.

Types of disks you can use with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support

"Time Machine can’t back up to iPhone, iPad, or iPod or to a disk formatted for Windows."

Looks like for Time Machine use, APFS is supported and exFAT is not.

Apple's Time Capsule does not recognize exFAT or any other disk format. MacOS Extended (Journaled) only. It also requires AFP as its communication protocol, support for which is expected to cease with the release of macOS 27.

Will the Time Capsules be useless after the MacOS 26/27 - by not being able to store backups or get files from it ?

I misspoke earlier. macOS 27 is the end of the line for Time Capsule support, not macOS 26. For now they remain supported and your Time Machine backups will continue to work as they always have.

Restore any required files from Time Capsule prior to upgrading from macOS 26 (or anything earlier) to macOS 27. Whether there will be some way around that in the future cannot be determined.

By the way, I do open for manually transferring photos and video files - if there are other ways to do my backup-transfers now and in the future.

I am not quite sure what you mean by "open" or "manually" but to be clear, read Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support. Any other method is not supported. For example if you drag items from a TM backup disk using the Finder, it will work, but you introduce a significant likelihood of corrupting the entire backup disk, making it useless.

Apple recently made Time Machine backups "read only" which makes such corruption unlikely, but given the number of Time Machine implementations and the many intervening Time Machine updates over the past two decades I cannot be certain your backup disks have been so protected. When in doubt be sure to follow the above Apple Support document.

The way I understand Time Machine is that it has the function of being able to go back to completely deleted (also after emptying the trashcan) - and that you can put it to more regularly do backups (every hour, twice a day, once every week, etc.) ?

Yes but my recommendation is to turn it on and forget it. There are no advantages to micromanaging its operation.

Also, it's worth reiterating this frequently misunderstood aspect of backups — if you delete an item from your Mac, it becomes a "candidate for deletion" when Time Machine requires the space a backed up item occupies. Time Machine guarantees an absolute minimum of one and only one complete, restorable backup of the source Mac. Any more than that is "nice to have" but not guaranteed. Time Machine deletes old and "expired" backups only after creating a subsequent backup, which satisfies that absolute minimum "one and only one" guarantee. It also causes confusion when people see lots of available space on their backup disk yet TM complains it's not enough.

That's drifting a bit off topic though. Briefly stated don't confuse backups with archives. TM is not an archival utility.

PeerNorway wrote:

The way I understand - and I might be horrible wrong here - this is that right now the three Time Machines I have are in exFAT

They are not.

I think my MacBook is also exFAT

It is not.

the additional 500GB hard-drive (backup of mostly photos and videos from PC) is exFAT

That might be true. You would need something that both PCs and Macs can access.

I need to move all photos and video files from these over to my new Seagate. So before I transfer all this over to my Seagate - and I reformatting it to APFS - will I be able to do the this, and then later when this switch to the new MacOS, then I am good to go ?

APFS is the only recommended storage format going forwards. Technically Apple devices can read older formats. Apple is also experimenting with new exFAT drivers. But remember these are strictly "experiments". People report many problems with them on new systems.

By the way, I do open for manually transferring photos and video files - if there are other ways to do my backup-transfers now and in the future.

Transferring what to where? Generally speaking these days, if you need to share files with other computers, especially other types of computers, you should do that over the network.

It bears re-emphasizing that what's being deprecated is not any DRIVE format but the protocol used to talk to the Time Capsule as a File Server, Apple File [Server] Protocol, AFP. (Not to be confused with a newer Drive Format, Apple File System, APFS.

The format of the drives in the Time capsule will remain perfectly readable for a long time. Those drives could even be moved to a SATA drive enclosure and continue to be updated.

You could connect that former Server-drive to a local Mac for its backups, or connect it to another Mac on your network and use it as a Shared Backup Destination (requires MacOS 10.13 High Sierra or later)

When you store Time Machine files on a File Server of ANY description, that Backup Destination is inside a sparse bundle disk image. That is an entire virtual File System inside a single, expandable file on the Server. What drive format the Server uses natively is a "Don't Care". Time Machine just creates the File System it likes inside the sparse bundle disk image.

FWIW, if you're potentially interested in network-attached storage akin to Time Capsule, remote backups to network-attached storage devices with Time Machine Server capabilities (including macOS, UNAS Pro, Synology, TrueNAS, etc) are also supported on all recent macOS versions, including on macOS 26.

Previous discussions:

• Time Machine will no longer support Time … - Apple Community
• Apple will stop supporting the AirPort Ti… - Apple Community

My plan is to do regular "time machine" safety updates from my MacBook (for newly stored photos and video files) about 2 to 3 times a year on my Seagate 8TB and just store it away without it being on - for long time safety storage of my new and old pictures and photos...

It's your data, but I do not understand that plan. Backing up about 2 to 3 times a year means you are always willing to forego about four to six months of data. Do as you please though. Everyone's backup needs are different.

MrHoffman wrote:

Previous discussions: ...

All this is reminiscent of Snow Leopard means no more Appletalk - Apple Community. Somehow we managed to cope.

History doesn't always repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

PeerNorway wrote:

The way I understand Time Machine is that it has the function of being able to go back to completely deleted (also after emptying the trashcan) - and that you can put it to more regularly do backups (every hour, twice a day, once every week, etc.) ?

Maybe I am just overthinking....

Yes, it does let you "go back in time" – but it isn't guaranteed to keep an infinite history of every change. As it records new changes, it may prune old ones. So if you delete a file, and keep updating your TM backup, there might come a day where it prunes all or most of the old history in which that file existed.

2) Then do the backup from all the three Time Capsules

Ok, but "do the backup from" appears to be incorrect terminology. We back up to Time Capsules, and restore from Time Capsules (or any other backup device).

To restore items backed up with Time Machine, refer to Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support.

I realize terminology can be confusing. Apple doesn't help with similar wording for different concepts — a prime example of which is Time Capsule (the white plastic box) and Time Machine (the backup software). Then there is APFS (a file storage system) vs AFP (a networking protocol)... we could go on ad nauseam. Let's not get started with Lightning and Thunderbolt.

But we restore, we don't download. Once you use the correct terminology, the answers often reveal themselves.