My 3 Macs are all on Tahoe. I would like to have a single external drive connected to my home network, and have all 3 Macs do automatic Time Machine backups to the drive over my mesh network wifi. Recommendations for a drive and the best way to set this up?
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 26.0
To back up your Macs over WiFi, the most straightforward way is to use a network attached storage (NAS) device – essentially a box for hard disks that connects to your network. Ideally, choose one that offers turnkey support for Time Machine out of the box, both Synology (setup instructions) and QNAP (setup instructions) do so.
Technically, you can stand up a Time Machine server in other ways (including using a Mac as a TM server), but an NAS is arguably the most straightforward way to set up network Time Machine backups.
Personally, I use a Synology DS223j with a pair of 10 TB HDDs installed to back up 5 Macs in the house with Time Machine (separate shared folder for each Mac sized at ~2.5x the internal storage), with the remaining space used as general file storage for everyone in the house.
To back up your Macs over WiFi, the most straightforward way is to use a network attached storage (NAS) device – essentially a box for hard disks that connects to your network. Ideally, choose one that offers turnkey support for Time Machine out of the box, both Synology (setup instructions) and QNAP (setup instructions) do so.
Technically, you can stand up a Time Machine server in other ways (including using a Mac as a TM server), but an NAS is arguably the most straightforward way to set up network Time Machine backups.
Personally, I use a Synology DS223j with a pair of 10 TB HDDs installed to back up 5 Macs in the house with Time Machine (separate shared folder for each Mac sized at ~2.5x the internal storage), with the remaining space used as general file storage for everyone in the house.
This would be called Network Attached Storage (NAS), and here specifically a NAS with Time Machine server support. Hard disks and SSDs can’t be connected directly to a network. Not serviceably, here.
NAS vendors include Synology, UGREEN, Ubiquiti, and others, and ZimaOS and TrueNAS among others for bring-your-own x86-64 server builds.
Your existing mesh vendor might support Time Machine server, though you haven’t mentioned which vendor and which gear.
The other (and also likely cheapest) option can involve configuring one of your Macs to export its locally-connected storage, and configuring the other Macs to reference it with Time Machine.
If you have a desktop Mac, attach the drive to that Mac and add an APFS volume for each of the other devices.
Really, for any number of network devices, you only need one other APFS volume. Set up the "host" Mac to use one of the volumes. Share out the other volume(s) using File Sharing and use the Advanced Options (ctrl-click on the drive) to set it as a Time Machine backup. Also in the File Sharing settings, allow Full Disk Access to all users.
I like to make a Time Machine "Sharing Only" user to access the TM backup drives. In Users & Groups, Add a new user and set it to be a Sharing Only user. Give it a name and password that you will use to connect to the shared drives. In File Sharing, add the Sharing Only user to have Read/Write access to the shared volume.
You will have to connect to the Host Mac so that the volume is available, then on each remote device, add the shared volume as the TM Backup destination.
I have been using this setup for over a decade without issues like you see here with NAS solutions.
Barney-15E wrote:
I've never seen a hard drive that can do that. I'm not sure why that would even be a question to "head off."
I’ve been asked. More often than I’d expect.
There are routers that have some semblance of file sharing, but I don't know of any that support Time Machine over SMB, but Apple does not support that as a Time Machine backup.
Synology routers do support this. ASUS routers apparently, also.
I suggested a Network Time Machine backup solution that is supported by Apple. If you already own a Mac that can be the server part of a NAS, you don't need to waste money on a NAS, assuming you can get it to work as the backup host.
Hence my “and also likely cheapest” comment in my reply.
NAS has advantages and options for host-based Time Machine and other services for some requirements and environments, and other environments can work well with a Mac and a few USB disks.
MrHoffman wrote:
Barney-15E wrote:
Can't quite figure out the difference except where the file server is located. Isn't the drive in a NAS enclosure not "directly connected to the network?" I see you actually understand that bit. Is the rest just wanting to be obtuse?
I was trying to head off a “can’t I just connect my HDD to the Ethernet?” question.
I've never seen a hard drive that can do that. I'm not sure why that would even be a question to "head off."
There are routers that have some semblance of file sharing, but I don't know of any that support Time Machine over SMB, but Apple does not support that as a Time Machine backup. I suggested a Network Time Machine backup solution that is supported by Apple. If you already own a Mac that can be the server part of a NAS, you don't need to waste money on a NAS, assuming you can get it to work as the backup host.
Hard disks and SSDs can’t be connected directly to a network. Not serviceably, here.
I have several doing so via my Mac Mini.
Depending on your home network, I used to have the Linksys Apple sells, you can put a large external HDD into the USB port of the AP and then map it. All Macs in the house used to backup to that.
Barney-15E wrote:
Hard disks and SSDs can’t be connected directly to a network. Not serviceably, here.
I have several doing so via my Mac Mini.
That’s not a direct connection.
That’s not a hard disk or SSD directly connected to Wi-Fi or wired.
You are using your Mac as a NAS, and your Mac is located between the hard disk or SSD and the network.
There exists storage that can connect directly to a storage network without an external controller, but that’s not all that interesting for the requirements in this thread.
Whether the mesh network has available USB connections (and Time Machine server support) remains to be determined.
MrHoffman wrote:
Barney-15E wrote:
Hard disks and SSDs can’t be connected directly to a network. Not serviceably, here.
I have several doing so via my Mac Mini.
That’s not a direct connection.
That’s not a hard disk or SSD directly connected to Wi-Fi or wired.
You are using your Mac as a NAS, and your Mac is located between the hard disk or SSD and the network.
Can't quite figure out the difference except where the file server is located. Isn't the drive in a NAS enclosure not "directly connected to the network?" I see you actually understand that bit. Is the rest just wanting to be obtuse?
Barney-15E wrote:
Can't quite figure out the difference except where the file server is located. Isn't the drive in a NAS enclosure not "directly connected to the network?" I see you actually understand that bit. Is the rest just wanting to be obtuse?
I was trying to head off a “can’t I just connect my HDD to the Ethernet?” question.
Which is a question I’ve been asked more than a few times.
As for this case, which mesh vendor and model is interesting, as can be the budget, as can be reliability and other expectations.
time machine backup to multiple macs on one drive on a home network
