AirPort Time Capsule as back-up device for my Mac

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AirPort Time Capsule as back-up device for my Mac

I have a 2TB AirPort Time Capsule, model A1470 (LPS52S), which is from either 2013 or 2015

It allows me to automatically and wirelessly back-up my Mac and also provides a wifi network. Although I don’t use the latter, the wireless back-up is very convenient

I understand that the functionality for wireless back-ups has now been discontinued

I am currently using 640 GB of my 1TB on my Mac hard drive, primarily for Photos and Music (my own library)

If Time Capsule is being discontinued, what solutions are people using to replace it?

2. I also have a 2TB iCloud plan but am unclear what that exactly backs up - is it the same as the Time Capsule?

Thank you

MacBook Air 15″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Nov 4, 2025 8:16 AM

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Answer 1

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Tesserax

Level 10

157,566 points

Nov 4, 2025 8:45 AM in response to Jerry Dammers

Jerry Dammers wrote:

I understand that the functionality for wireless back-ups has now been discontinued

The issue is not due to wireless, but the older Apple file transfer protocol (AFP) is no longer supported with the latest versions of macOS ... effectively rendering the Time Capsule as unusable for Time Machine backups.

If Time Capsule is being discontinued, what solutions are people using to replace it?

Unfortunately, there is no direct replacement for the Time Capsule. That basically leaves you with two choices:

Use a directly connected external drive, and/or
A Network Attached Storage (NAS) device ... that supports Time Machine backups. For example, the NAS's by Synology do.

I also have a 2TB iCloud plan but am unclear what that exactly backs up - is it the same as the Time Capsule?

Short answer: no. The iCloud drive is designed primarily as a means to sync data between your Mac(s) and the cloud. It is NOT designed for Time Machine backups.

Ref: iCloud User Guide - Apple Support

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