Can the 2013 airport time capsule be used as an external hard drive

or do you have to purchase a separate external hard drive and connect it to the time capsule??

Under the same network, I do use it as a music server (iTunes library) and files to share.
If you have an apple ID, you can get access to this drive any where via Back to My Mac

Similar Messages

Can the time capsule be used as an external hard drive

Can the time capsule be used as an external hard drive

If you mean by usb to a computer no.. it is a network device only and has to be used via ethernet or wireless.
It can be used standalone,, ie not plugged into an existing network.. but there are some steps required to make it work if you want internet connection at the same time. It is generally much easier to have the TC bridged into the network.

Can an Apple Time capsule be used as a external hard drive?

Hello I have a 4th Generation time capsule and I've had it for some time now and never used it and I was wondering if it could be used as a external hard drive instead of just a back up disk. Also I am planning to install a copy of Windows 7 on my Mid 2011 21.5" iMac and I was wondering if Windows would recognize the TC as a external hard drive and would alow me to use it as such.

It is not an external hard disk.. you cannot use it via USB if that is what you mean.
It is now and forever more a Network drive. You can store files on it as a network drive.. with the following provisos.
Store files on the TC.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/24380694#24380694
This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
It cannot be partitioned. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
Major issues.
1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great.
3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no controls.
4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!
5. iTunes will constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is too slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
Read pondini for some work arounds.
Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
Windows can also use the TC for files. Much the same warnings apply.

Can time capsule be used as an external hard drive for storing media

Can you use it in such a way that you put movies and music and home vidoes on there to be accessed on when on the network along with using it for backing up data. Could it be used in such a way that you can access your files when on wifi from anywhere?

TC is not designed to be a NAS.. principally it is lacking any means to back itself up. And TM cannot backup a network drive.
If you put data on it like your movies and music in raw format that is fine.. if you put your itunes or iphoto etc library on it.. you will find it is slow to start, quick to stop, stutters and has issues. Also wireless frankly is just not that good.
I am not sure how far away is anywhere?? Do you mean remote access? That is possible via btmm using icloud.
The problem is, TC is not a media player.. it is a dumb as a board hard disk in a router.
How are you going to play your videos or music unless you move itunes library onto the TC??

How Can I Migrate My Time Machine Backups To A New External Hard Drive?

I have a external hard drive that has 500 GBs left, but I want to buy a larger drive.

ivan wrote:
How Can I Migrate My Time Machine Backups To A New External Hard Drive?
I have a external hard drive that has 500 GBs left, but I want to buy a larger drive.
Hi iVain
Fire up *Disk Utility*, click the Restore tab, then drag your old and new TM drives into the Source and Destination fields. Click Restore, and a complete copy of your old TM files will be made on the new drive. Go to TM preferences and select the new drive, and it will continue backing up just as it left off.
Hope this answers your question. See:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2595485&tstart=0

How do I get Time Capsule to back up an external hard drive?

I need Time Capsule/Time Machine to back up my external hard drive. How do I do this?

The external drive is plugged into the Mac??
Just open the Time Machine preferences, Options, and include the external drive.. done!! (The menu is exclude.. so just ensure it is not excluded.. don't use no double negatives.. is grammar rule apple could learn).
You cannot backup the external drive if plugged into the TC directly.

How can I use Time Capsule for backups and an external hard drive?

I have a large file/program on my iMacs hard drive that is 62GB and I would like to keep only things I need on my iMac. I have a 2tb time capsule currently used for backing up. It has roughly 1.66 TB free. How can I move the 62GB program onto my Time Capsule and still use it for backups? Also, is this stable? And don't worry about backing the program up because it came on 8DVD discs.
Thanks.

1. Mount the Time Capsule as a drive and drag the application over to it. If the application requires system components, those won't be transferred; if those are only data files, you may be able to drag them over as well and then create a symlink or alias to a folder enclosing their current location.
2. The application may work slowly if this is done. Note that Time Machine will eventually use up all the free space on the Time Capsule that isn't reserved by being allocated to a disk image.
(66649)

How do I get time machine/time capsule to back up my external hard drive?

I have been trying to find a way to back up my external hard drive (a Hitachi G-Drive from the Apple store) with time machine and my time capsule. I left it plugged in so it was visible on my MacBook Pro when I did the initial backup yesterday, but it's not showing when I enter time machine. Anyone have any ideas?

A few things to check.....
The external drive attached to your Mac must be formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Check Time Machine Options to make sure that the drive is not excluded from Time Machine backups

Can Time Capsule Be Used Only as a Hard Drive, Not as a Router?

I have been using a Time Capsule as a router and as a wireless backup system for a year, but had endless trouble with the dual use, since my personal Macbook is on the second floor of my house and the router must reside in the basement, where we have other computers. Wireless backups are much too slow. So I replaced the Time Capsule with an Airport Extreme Base Station, which works fine. I'd like to continue using the Time Capsule, but solely for backups and not as a router, and connect the TC by ethernet or usb directly to the MacBook. Can this be done, and if so, how? Thanks!

Hello JohnFrancis. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
I'd like to continue using the Time Capsule, but solely for backups and not as a router, and connect the TC by ethernet or usb directly to the MacBook. Can this be done, and if so, how?
Yes it can. You would just need to disable its wireless radio. You will also need to connect it by Ethernet as the TC's USB port is only for connecting it to USB hard drives, printers, and/or hubs.
To disable the radio: AirPort Utility > Manual Setup > Time Capsule > Wireless tab > Wireless Mode = Off

Can time machine be use like an external hard drive

like to put a windows partition on time machine use it for more espace

305Sebas wrote:
like to put a windows partition on time machine ..
Do not do this... TM works best on its Own Dedicated Hard Drive.
Would suggest another EHD for your windows usage.

Can the new Mac Mini boot Snow Leopard from an external hard drive?

I currently boot my 2009 Mac Mini from a FW800 external drive with 10.6.8. If I just plug my external drive into a new 2011 Mac Mini, will it boot into Snow Leopard if I set it as the startup disk or will I get a kernel panic?

I bought a 2011 Mac Mini, which came with Lion installed. I thought maybe I could repartition it and have a Snow Leopard partition. So I repartitioned it (500gb split into two 250gb partitions). I named the new partition "SnowLeopard" just to make it easy for me to tell the difference.
I attached the external DVD and put in a Snow Leopard installer disc, holding down the C key so it would boot and install from that, but it just spun for awhile. Doesn't appear to work.
Then I read somewhere else that someone had managed to clone a copy of Snow Leopard onto an external drive and boot from that. In their situation they were talking about a MacBook, but the principle seemed sane.
So I rebooted, holding down the T key to put the Mac Mini into Target hard disk mode, and attached it via Firewire to another MacMini (circa 2008 or so, not sure of year, but it was upgraded last year to Snow Leopard and has been upgraded along and along). Then I used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy Snow Leopard (that is, the entire hard disk-- System and all applications and data) to my newer Mac Mini's "snow leopard" partition.
For yucks, when it was done cloning, I restarted the older Mac Mini, and had it boot from the newer Mac Mini's snow leopard partition--- it worked! To make it easy to tell the difference, I changed the desktop background to something completely different. I think I tried booting from Lion but I can't remember if that worked.
Then I rebooted the newer Mac Mini, which booted up in Lion, of course. Going into System Settings, I changed the startup disk to the "snow leopard" partition, and rebooted, and it booted up in Snow Leopard.
I have yet to test the applications on the Snow Leopard partition. Another problem has arisen.
Because with both of the Mac MInis being active on the network, they both had the same computer and user name. So I renamed the newer Mac Mini to something completely different, and changed the password.
Unfortunately, now I cannot change any other setting in the System Settings that requires a password. While the newer Snow Leopard lets me log in with the new user and new password, whenever I try to click the "lock" icon to change something, I'm prompted for a username and password. Apparently this is some different username and password than either the new or old username/password.
I've tried various combinations of both: new user/old password, old user/new password, old user/old password, etc.
So if you do what I've done, be careful about changing the username and password on your cloned computer. I think it may be wiser to create a new user and then delete the old cloned users. I may just have to re-clone the old Mac Mini to the new one again.
If anyone has any ideas about this password conundrum, please pass along!

I have used Airport Time Capsule with my iMac for several years. I recently purchased a MacBook Air and when it tried to backup to Time Capsule it couldn't because Time Capsule is full. How can I now use the 3TB Airport Time Capsule to back up both?

I have used Airport Time Capsule with my iMac for a couple years. I recently purchased a MacBook Air and when it tried to backup to Time Capsule it couldn't because Time Capsule is full. How can I now use the 3TB Airport Time Capsule to back up both the iMac and MacBook Air? I don't mind losing earlier backups. I have excluded some items from backing up, but since the Airport Time Capsule is full, I can't even begin to back up the MacBook Air.

On your Mac.......
Open Finder > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
Click on the Time Capsule icon, then click Edit in the smaller window that appears
Click on the Disks tab at the top of the window
Click Erase Disk
On the next window that appears, select the Quick Erase option, then click Erase
The operation will only take a few minutes.
Now you are ready to start new backups of both Macs. Back up one Mac first, then back up the other. Do not try to back up both Macs as the same time.

I can't connect to the drive on my airport time machine and am receiving the message: "AirPort Time Capsule" can't be opened because the original item can't be found.

Time capsule has been working perfectly for months.
Suddenly I can't connect to the drive on my airport time capsule and am receiving the message: “AirPort Time Capsule” can’t be opened because the original item can’t be found.
Time machine appears to be still backing up (last backup within the last hour), but drive is not visible and I have files stored on it.
I have tried rebooting everything in order as suggested for other issues, anyone got any ideas how to see the drive again??

What OS are you running??
It is very typical Yosemite issue.
1. In airport utility does the TC show up.. if so click it.. and see the summary page which will include its IP address. That is what you are after.
From my screenshot you can see the TC address is 192.168.2.57
It might well show up briefly after a reboot or in ipad / iphone version utility. Yosemite is hopeless. The airport utility hardly works.
2. In Finder use Go, Connect to server.
Type in SMB://192.168.2.57 (replace with IP you discover).
If it is possible it will request a password.. type that in and DO NOT FORGET.. to store it in your keychain.
This will work until the TC changes IP which won't happen if it is main router.. but will happen if it is bridged.. so you need to tell me the whole network setup.
Mavericks is nearly as bad and the above instructions should be universal except I would use AFP instead of SMB. Apparently Yosemite is now totally Windows oriented.

I purchased a new airport time capsul to use with my older MacBook Mac OSX 10.6.8 and am having trouble downloading the updated software for it .

I purchased a new airport time capsul to use with my older MacBook MAC OSX 10.6.8 Can't seem to download the upgraded software. Can anyone help?

Please review the System Requirements for the Time Capsule.
http://www.apple.com/airport-time-capsule/specs/
Setup and Administration
iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 5 or later and AirPort Utility 1.3
Mac with OS X Lion v10.7.5 or later and AirPort Utility 6.3

My computer is macbook white with iOS 10. 6.8, will i able to use the new Airport Time Capsule 2TB and what does it mean administrate the Airport Time Capsule 2TB ?

my computer is macbook white with Mac OS X (10. 6.8), will i able to use the new Airport Time Capsule 2TB and work properly with Time Capsule on my computer to back up wirelessly?
And what does it mean "to administrate" because it was written in requirement of the Airport Time Capsule 2TB ?

You must use a Mac running Lion (10.7.5), Mountain Lion or Mavericks to be able to set up the Time Capsule and make any changes to the settings.
A recent version iPhone or iPad could also be used for this task.
From the Specifications on the Time Capsule:
Setup and Administration
iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 6 or later and AirPort Utility 1.3
Mac with OS X Lion v10.7.5 or later and AirPort Utility 6.3

Can the 2013 airport time capsule be used as an external hard drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for