Time machine backup to WD My Cloud NAS is slow

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Level 1

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Time machine backup to WD My Cloud NAS is slow

I have a 4-TB Western Digital My Cloud network attached storage device. I have three Macs configured to use Time Machine to back up to it. The backups of all three of them are on the share on the device labeled TimeMachineBackup, which is configured for a maximum size of 3.8 TB. There is no other data on the device. 3.01 TB of available storage remains.

At first, everything went great, but lately, backup has become extremely slow—it takes a few hours to back up less than 500 MB of data.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), macOS Sierra (10.12.6)

Posted on Sep 25, 2017 5:19 AM

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Answer 1

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John Galt

Level 10

140,942 points

Sep 25, 2017 6:13 AM in response to coryhart

To learn how to use Time Machine please read Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support. Non-Apple NAS devices are not supported and will not work.

If you want to use Apple's Time Machine software for backups, then don't use a non-Apple NAS. It will never be reliable, despite what their manufacturers claim.
If you want to use a non-Apple NAS for backups, then don't use Apple's Time Machine software. Use something else. No backup solution is as well integrated with macOS as is Time Machine though.

Anticipating your next questions: I know you've been using it for years without a problem. I know NAS device manufacturers claim it will work. I also know it will never be reliable, and if you continue to rely upon an unsupported Time Machine implementation you will eventually lose all your data.

I also know you don't believe me, so please research this site for hundreds of reports from others. Don't be one of them.

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

140,942 points

Jan 1, 2018 1:42 PM in response to coryhart

That's interesting. I had the almost identical experience with a different NAS manufacturer years ago. They insisted the problem was with the Mac, macOS, my network, etc... everything but their NAS. When I demonstrated everything to be configured on an Apple AirPort network whose topology could not possibly have been more simple, and in the exact manner they instructed, yet it could never be made to work reliably, they cheerfully (well, not so cheerfully) offered me my money back—the limit of their responsibility.

As I understand at least since the introduction of macOS Sierra, Synology has simply washed their hands of the matter. Whether they continue to market their products as "Time Machine Compatible!" or not, I don't know. The fact is it's not. My data are far too important to trust to some unsupported backup scheme, and I surmise that's not a unique need.

Since implementing a variety of unequivocally supported configurations on my installations, Time Machine has been 100% reliable. Not 99.999%. 100%. Not one single instance of a failure to back up or restore. Having an additional backup drive is still a good idea though. You can connect it directly to your TC's USB port.

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Answer 3

coryhart Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 1, 2018 7:19 AM in response to John Galt

John Galt, I took your advice and bought a Time Capsule, and I've experienced no problems.

I'm including some documentation here that verifies your answer for other readers.

Apple states that, when using a network-based disk for Time Machine, "both your Mac and the networked backup disk should have OS X v10.5.6 or later" (Backup disks you can use with Time Machine - Apple Support). WD My Cloud does not have OS X installed.

Also, Time Machine backup disks use a Mac OS Extended format. However, Western Digital units like My Cloud "use a proprietary file system and cannot be reformatted as FAT32, NTFS, or a Mac File System" (Reformatting a WD NAS drive as FAT32, NTFS, or a Mac File System | WD Support).

WD's documentation claims that My Cloud can function as a Time Machine backup disk (Starting macOS Time Machine Backups to My Cloud and Network Attached Storage | WD Support). However, as their documentation states and was repeated to me by a WD customer service agent (whom I'm quoting), "I will like to inform you that WD does not support Time Machine backup software related Issue as it is an Apple Product."

What results is an "I got it, you take it" situation when Time Machine doesn't work. WD won't do anything for you but shoot you links to articles on their support website that don't resolve the problem and then direct you to Apple. Apple won't do anything for you because they never claimed to support the WD device. I ended up returning the device and getting my money refunded from Amazon because they (the vendor) were the only ones willing to take ownership of the problem.

So do what John Galt says. Get Time Capsule, and don't believe the other drive manufacturers.

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Answer 4

John Galt

Level 10

140,942 points

Sep 25, 2017 11:52 AM in response to coryhart

coryhart wrote:

John, I appreciate your advice. Why did you tell me that you know everything I would say and that I wouldn't believe you?

The reason is that to date, 100% of Time Machine users encountering this problem don't. You'll hold the honor of being the first since Time Machine was introduced a decade ago.

Despite that period of time, Mac users continue to insist upon hammering Time Machine's round peg into the square hole of a non-Apple NAS device. I can't blame them for being angry, because they've been lied to by those device manufacturers. Apple never supported anything other than their own Time Capsule and directly connected hard disk drives. They hinted vaguely at such support the past, but stopped doing even that much a few years ago.

It's not my time I'm interested in saving though. It's yours. Use a supported Time Machine configuration, and your problems are over.

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Answer 5

coryhart Author

Level 1

7 points

Sep 25, 2017 10:22 AM in response to John Galt

John, I appreciate your advice. Why did you tell me that you know everything I would say and that I wouldn't believe you? Was it something I said?

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