How to backup a network drive with Time Machine

You can't.

Time Machine can't back up from any network drive.

Some alternatives are: CarbonCopyCloner and ChronoSync, and possibly SuperDuper!. CCC is $40, but has a 30-day free trial. It's quite popular. I haven't used ChronoSync -- it's been around for quite a while. SuperDuper! is popular, too, but I don't use it and am not sure whether it can back up from a network location.

SuperDuper! is popular, too, but I don't use it and am not sure whether it can back up from a network location.

It can't.

Ah, good -- thanks for the clarification.

One built-in way to back up those drives while they're connected to the TC is to use the Archive feature of AirPort Utility (if it hasn't been abolished in version 6).

Time Capsule: Using AirPort Utility 5.3.1 or later to make a copy of the Time Capsule disk

Linc Davis wrote:

. . .

if it hasn't been abolished in version 6).

Yes, that's been removed (along with the Disconnect All Users button). There are ways to get Airport Utility 5.6.1 onto a Mountain Lion Mac, but it won't help in this situation:

The archive facility only backs-up the TC's internal HD (the whole thing, every time), not attached HDs.

Are the AirPort-formatted disks mountable locally?

Yes. But they're not formatted by Airport, or anything special -- you have to use them as produced, or connect to a computer and reformat them, as Mac OS Extended, FAT16 or FAT32 (NTFS and ExFAT aren't supported).

See AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule: USB storage device supported formats and protocols.

So if they're Mac OS Extended, it's possible to connect them to a Mac periodically and back them up to the TC, but that's not really practical.

that's not really practical.

I don't know. That's what I would do.

Once or twice, maybe, but as a regular thing, too many downsides for me:

Easy to forget for a few days or more, and have lots of stuff vulnerable.

Especially with Airport 6.x (no simple way to Disconnect All Users), very easy to unplug at the wrong time and cause directory damage.

Unless they're portable drives, too easy to drop or bump one if you're moving it frequently, risking damage.

If the TC's disk is fairly full, and can't keep backups for long, you risk losing all the backups of the drive if it hasn't been backed-up in a while, and TM deletes the last backup of it.

Sorry, I neglected to mention . . .

If you do decide to back up the drive to the Time Capsule via another backup app, be aware that mixing Time Machine backups and other data on the TC's internal HD can cause a conflict. See #Q3 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule for an explanation and some workarounds -- either limit the size of Time Machine's sparse bundle, or create a disk image for the external HD's backups.

That *****...I guess I'll greate a partition to hold an Aperture and iTunes library backup and have Time Machine back up the rest.

I can plug in the external to my laptop but it seems a little too much to keep changing library locations.

Hi all

I have the same issue as the original poster, but I'm using an Airport extreme.

I have a Time Maschine drive and a normal drive connected to the Airport Extreme, via a USB Hub. The Time Machine is backing my laptop up over the network, which is great, but I'd like it to back up the network drive as well.

Just wondering if anything has changed since the original post from early 2013 - I know Apple added the ability to use a network drive on Airport Extreme for Time Machine backups, cause it's working on my setup! Just wondering if it can backup the storage network drive with Time Machine as well.

Thanks for any help!

Identical setup, same question over here! Any recent changes, maybe with OSx Yosemite?

I have the same question.

Time Machine would be very useful for me to backup my NAS which are so common these days you would think Apple would have added functionality to do so long ago.