Replacement for Time Capsule for Time Machine backup

I am starting to get notices that my Airport Time Capsule is too full to run Time Machine (it is 2 TB). Any recommendations on what to get to replace it?
Thanks!
-Jane

Wouldn’t it just manage storage itself? (remove older backups?)

One would think so.
Mine complains and complains about backing up to my near-full NAS, then eventually does a backup.

Yes, same here. It complains, but does it anyway :slight_smile:

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The complaining is annoying. I thought there used to be an option to delete older backups but I don’t see that anymore.

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Yeah, there used to be more options. Now it “just works”, but complains at times.
How long has it been since your last backup completed?

Edit: other people (in addition to @JKoopmans) are having the problem too. Nothing helpful at this link other than people saying, “me too”.

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How much data are you backing up? If it’s anywhere near the 2TB and/or you have frequent file turnover then you’ll hit this quite often. Is BackBlaze an option as a secondary backup. Also how about attaching a drive directly to your computer as a time machine backup where you could use a 4TB drive to give yourself some space.

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If you router has a USB port connect a drive and make it available on the Network.

I gave up on my Time Capsule too. It never delete the older backups, even though the entire drive is dedicated to Time Machine. It’ll fill up and I have to delete it all to start all over again.

Just this week I’ve started used ChronoSync to backup to my Time Capsule drive. It doesn’t do the versioning that Time Machine does, but I have a local Time Machine drive I connect nightly for that. Time Capsule + Time Machine just doesn’t work reliably, and Apple doesn’t even make them anymore, so I don’t expect it to get better from this point on.

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Have you considered upgrading the drive in it to a larger drive? IFixit has instructions for making the swap. A 4 or 6 tb drive should give you plenty of space and price of mind since it’s a new drive. Backup drives do fail too.

While you’re working on this it may be a good time to review your backup strategy. Do you have multiple backups including off site? Have you tested your backups? Considered other methods like cloning your drive?

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some options to prune the backups described here:

https://macpaw.com/how-to/delete-time-machine-backups

They might help.

I’ve in the past copied the entire drive to an external hdd as backup, and started a new time machine backup once it was copied off.

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I am also using BackBlaze. I also use Carbon Copy Cloner to another external disk.

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I was looking for recommendations for a new external drive to use. The current back up is close to the 2T so I want to get a 4T.

I think the conventional thinking is most external drives are OK – kind of luck of the draw.

For 4TB external drive I like a smaller, 2.5" size, if only because it can be bus-powered, and therefore one less power adapter to find a plug for.

Otherwise, I wait for sales on WD Elements or Best Buy Easystores. They have WD drives in them, slow (5400 rpm) but for my uses perhaps more energy efficient and (importantly) cheap. They have less of a warranty, but the price difference makes up for it … I’ve bought in bulk and then extracted the drives for use in other enclosures (or a NAS.)

Many options up your sleeve. First option is to purchase a larger HDD and slot it in to the Time Capsule. Depending on the version the process can be done pretty easily, a quick visit to iFixit will reveal how to do it.
If you have an old Mac sitting around, it can host time machine backups for other machines on your network, the process changed with High Sierra where it is in System Preferences or for older OS it is part of the OS X Server app. Setup is dead simple and Todd Olthoff’s YouTube videos have helped me a lot in setting it up.

Any usb external drive should be fine. Or if you want something networked, and has redundancy built in, look at a NAS.

I use my Synology as a TimeMachine backup destination.

Yes, my TimeMachine backups also go to my Synology DiskStation. They have various TimeMachine-specific options in the Control Panel (see, for example, under File Services > Advanced) and it’s worked happily for some years.

I should also mention that I don’t think I’ve ever had to try restoring from it in that time, though :slight_smile: