I have a time capsule which is obsolete for backups now that I have mac os 27.
I have bought an external hard drive and wondered if I could connect that via the time capsule for simplicity rather than connect it directly to the laptop which takes up one of the ports and I will need to remember to eject before removing the laptop from its home base.
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 27.0
According to the internet this is possible but I have never managed to make it work. Every time I've connected a disc to one of my Time Capsules the green light on the front changed to amber (or maybe red). It might have been a PSU problem so if your disc is powered separately from USB give it a go. I also suspect that Tahoe onwards dropping AFP might prevent this working in the future; I'm sure someone will chip in to confirm or deny.
You have a couple of other options.
Your router might have a USB port that supports a HDD. Many routers have such a port but all the ones I've used have serious limitations on them. My current router requires the disc to be FAT32 and, from memory, <1GB, which makes it impractical to use. Yours might be different.
I use a Raspberry Pi which wirelessly (or ethernet cable) connects to my network and I've configured it so I connect a USB drive to it and Time Machine backs up to it. There are some very good tutorials online - start with the Raspberry Pi Forum if you're interested - and it took me about half an hour to set it all up and get it working.
Connecting an external hard drive to Time Capsule
