How to wirelessly back up two Macs to the same shared external drive using Time Machine?

Hi, I am trying to wirelessly backup my 2024 MacBook Pro (running Sonoma) to an external drive attached to my 2023 iMac (running Ventura). The 4TB external drive has 1 partition. I successfully created a shared folder named "Time Machine" on the iMac which is visible from the MacBook Pro. I am successfully using Time Machine to wirelessly backup my MacBook Pro to the external drive. However when I go to set up Time Machine on my iMac for the same shared external drive, it insists on deleting the shared Time Machine folder on the iMac thus nullifying the Time Machine setup for the MacBook Pro. Any suggestions on how to get around this problem? Thanks so much!



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Posted on May 16, 2025 09:47 AM

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4 replies

May 16, 2025 02:42 PM in response to wsr429

You could use a NAS (Network Attached Storage) such as Synology.com. There are other consumer NAS vendors.


You can get NAS boxes with 2 redundant drives, with typical 4 or 5 drive bays. 6 or more bays then to lean more towards a commercial unit (maybe small business). Many NAS boxes can have add-on expansion bays, which can increase the totally number of drives and of course the amount of storage.


Generally speaking a NAS unit sets up either mirrored drives (one drive is a 1-for-1 copy of the other), or RAID 5 (1 redundant drive for the other drives in the box) or RAID 6 (2 redundant drives for the other drives in the box).


Some vendors also offer other services for your Macs, iPhones, and iPads, such as picture servers, your own personal Dropbox, a shared notes server, etc...

May 17, 2025 02:31 AM in response to wsr429

To add to the good advise from @tbirdvet 👍


Backing up to Network Attached Storage (NAS)


For primary backups, we recommend that you procure a USB or Thunderbolt hard drive and create a backup on that locally-attached disk.



3-2-1 Rescue Plan


To truly protect your non replaceable Data


Have a 3-2-1 Rescue Plan in place and always current


3 Backups using 2 methods and 1 off site incase of natural disaster or un-natural disaster.


Each of the above should be done to a Dedicated Single Purposed External Drive directly connect to the computer(s)


Below link is intended to augment what TM Backup does 


https://bombich.com

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How to wirelessly back up two Macs to the same shared external drive using Time Machine?

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