Best way to back up macs

[sawman]

I have been running an apple timecapsule for at least 10 years i think. I no longer use the router function, but its still backing up my similar vintage macbook pro. The mbp is on its last legs i think, only works plugged and for some reason mail will no longer run on it. Thinking about upgrading to a current mb air, but also wondering about back up.
The time capsule is obselete, what do i need for back up just a NAS? Any recommendations?

[steveatesh]

Not sure on available ports on the M1 Air, I’ve used 2 USB hard drives on my iMac for nearly 8 years and of course Time Machine.

Appreciate it’s on site but it’s a reliable cheap option. If you want more you can use the cloud of course.

Edited by steveatesh on Thursday 16th June 23:08

[colin79666]

I’ve got a M1 Air. Started backing up to a NAS as you can use Time Machine to a SMB share. It was a total pain as if I took the MacBook out the house it would start complaining about not being able to mount the network drive.

I have up on that and just use a fast usb c ssd for backups most of the time and a slower hard drive occasionally at a family members house so I have something offsite. Both through time machine.

You could also look at cloud based stuff like crashplan.

[Captain_Morgan]

Just because the time capsule is eol doesn’t mean you can’t use it, there are guides out there that document how to connect it to your current router and use time machine.

That said if you want a nas then lots have a time machine “server” built in where you can allocate all or some of the nas storage to the time machine function.

I use Synology, other makes are available just check they have that function.

[bitchstewie]

Time Machine
iCloud
Google Drive
NAS

Depends on your workflow as to what is "best" I think.

[Jenny Tailor]

SuperDuper - Entire clone of hard disk. Bootable too.
Time machine

[benny.c]

For me, everything is on iCloud and the HD cloned by Carbon Copy Cloner once a week on an external drive.

[stewies_minion]

Likely linked to mu use case but I just use iCloud drive.

Use case here is multiple macOS devices. Personal use / light gaming / O365 / iMessage / Browsing etc.

If a device needs rebuilding I just sign back in to iCloud. Pictures / files / things I care about are there.

I guess that would be a bigger issue if I was heavily reliant of "software X" and its configurations.

[Blown2CV]

time machine isn't properly supported over a network now (Apple support told me this). So, you would be best with a USB drive in order to use this method.

[camel_landy]

FWIW - I backup my Macs to a Western Digital My Cloud NAS thing, via TimeMachine.

M

[eeLee]

Time Machine to Synology NAS over a Tailscale connection

[LeeM135i]

Photos etc automatically go into iCloud.
Anything I am currently working on also automatically goes onto iCloud, I have it set to save a copy of a certain folder and work from there.
Completed projects / non current work goes onto the companies One Drive / Teams for archive.
Time machine backup every couple of weeks to keep settings and any other files I pick up along the way.

[thebraketester]

sawman said:

I have been running an apple timecapsule for at least 10 years i think. I no longer use the router function, but its still backing up my similar vintage macbook pro. The mbp is on its last legs i think, only works plugged and for some reason mail will no longer run on it. Thinking about upgrading to a current mb air, but also wondering about back up.
The time capsule is obselete, what do i need for back up just a NAS? Any recommendations?

Missing information required to make a firm recommendation.

How much data do you need backing up?