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Can time capsule be used as NAS

I was hoping to use my new time capsule multifunctionally. First I want to use it as a router. Second, I want to use it through time machine to back up my Mac. Third, I wanted to store my music ,library on there


The second works fine. The first works as long as sonos isn't connected to it. That is a different discussion thread. My problem is the third.


Apple says I can't store my music on it or it will cause problems. Instead they want to sell me iTunes Match. I'm a little annoyed. Why did I buy a device with 3T on it if the only thing I can put on it is time machine backups for a much much smaller Mac?


Is this truly the answer?

iOS 7.1

Posted on Apr 4, 2014 6:13 AM

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10 replies

Nov 27, 2017 1:31 PM in response to furniture77

You posted to a 3+ year old thread. I suggest that you start a new post to allow it to get the attention it deserves to, hopefully, get a solution quicker.


For example, your image shows the contents of an WD Elements drive. This would not be a Time Capsule. How Time Machine stores backups are different between a Time Capsule and a directly attached external drive.

Nov 27, 2017 1:42 PM in response to furniture77

Sorry but i am not sure what you are expecting.


What are you using the TIme Capsule for??


Just time machine backups or did you copy lots of files to it.


What your seeing in Finder is your files on the WD Elements drive plugged into your computer.


Your TC is not showing up at all.. which is a common problem with Sierra and above.


Reboot your whole network .. at least for a short time after the reboot the TC should appear.

Apr 4, 2014 2:19 PM in response to thomassteph1

The answer Apple has given is correct.. You can do it but you should NOT do it.


The reason you have a large disk with a small laptop is Time Machine will do incremental backups until it fills the drive.. so it uses a lot of space.. eventually when it runs out of space it will delete the old backups.


Your question is not uncommon ..


Store files on the TC.


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5748414?answerId=24380694022#24380694022


This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.


The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.


It cannot be partitioned. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.


Major issues.


1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.


2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great.


3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no controls.


4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!


5. iTunes will constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is too slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.


6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.


7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.


Read pondini for some work arounds.


Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html


Can time capsule be used as NAS

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