Time Capsule as partitioned media server

I recently made the big switch to Apple - purchasing a Mac Mini, Imac and Time Capsule - and wish to use the Time Capsule to back-up the Imac (in office) via Time Machine and serve media to the Imac and Mac Mini (HTPC). The reason I want to do it this way is because I want to use Front Row to play media via the Mac Mini. I initially had the Mac Mini linked to Itunes media on the IMac (where I currently store all of my music) using Home Share, but every time the Imac went into sleep mode, I would lose access to the media.
I have successfully partitioned the Time Capsule into two virtual drives - one for Time Machine back-ups and one for media to be accessed by the imac and mac mini (no easy feat). I copied all of my media from the Imac to the proper Time Capsule partition. Additionally, I was able to "point" itunes on each computer to the itunes file on the Time Capsule.
The problem is, when one computer is pointed to the Time Capsule, I lose the connection on the other and it diverts back to the old location of the media files. My questions:
1. Is it possible to do what I am trying to do?
2. Is there a better way of creating a permanent connection to Itunes between two computers so that I don't lose the connection when they "sleep"? (I tried using the function where the computers would wake on network access, but it didn't seem to work.
Thanks for you help!

Over my head wrote:
I have successfully partitioned the Time Capsule into two virtual drives - one for Time Machine back-ups and one for media to be accessed by the imac and mac mini (no easy feat).
Were you able to do that without physically removing the drive? If so, how?

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Time Capsule as a Media Server

I repurposed an old 500Gb Time Capsule into a media server by placing an iTune Library (160 movies and 5000 songs) on its HD. I can access from any Mac in the house by pressing OPTION and selecting the iTunes Library.
Is there a way to access the iTunes library on the Time Capsule from an iPad or AppleTV? I can play a movie or music from a Mac and AirPlay it to an AppleTV but would like to 'cut out the middle man' if possible and access directly from an iPad or AppleTV.
Is it possible?

Yes, I’m using my TC as a media sever, both audio and video, without any problem. At my home I have two laptops running Windows XP, one Scaleo media center running Windows MCE and a MacBookPro running Leapord. It was a hasle keeping media and docs upto date for all and backups as well. TC solved the problem. Sharing videos , docs and pictures was straight forward. For sharing audio on iTunes, I had to make more than one attempt. Now I have same iTunes libraries on three computers sharing mp3s from TC, I can even play same song on two computers at the same time. Only thing I did was unchecked ”Keep iTunes forlder organised” and ”Copy files to iTunes folder when adding to library” under the ”Advanced” tab of ”Preference”.

Can we use Time Capsule as a Media Server????

Hi
I know time capsule is used for backups and you can connect your external HDD through USB to TC. Can we somehow use TC as a media server so that my PS3 picks up TC as media server and is able to stream all my digital files stored on my external HDD (connected to TC) to my PS3?
Can this be done?
Message was edited by: wickkd

Can we somehow use TC as a media server so that my PS3 picks up TC as media server and is able to stream all my digital files stored on my external HDD (connected to TC) to my PS3?
Sorry, but no. The TC is not a DLNA-compliant media server. However, it could be used as a media drive. (ref: Gigaom: Using Time Capsule as a Media Drive)

Have Apple done something to disable Time Capsule as a media server?

Hi Guys,
Ever since I bought my Time Capsule I've used it as a media server for my iMac and two family MacBook Airs. The reasons are simple. It enabled all three Macs to access music in iTunes, store photos, video and correspondence. Plus it frees up a huge amount of space on each Mac and saves on duplication.
I also have a USB external connected to my Time Capsule so I can run a routine back-up to ensure our media files are never lost through a TC failure. All well and good.
I have included the TC in my Login items so it always appears on my desk at start up making it instantly available. This has worked fine up until recently and the volume has always been accessible like any other external hard drive. Now however I get a message on start-up effectively saying that the alias cannot find the original. Even if I try to 'fix' the alias I cannot access my media files.
I can see the TC in my Finder and when I try to access it I can only see it as a Sharepoint. In the meantime my iTunes is defaulting to the standard library folder and I can't access my thousands of photographs.
What is going on? Do I need to set something up differently or is this an Apple attempt to nail us to using TC as a Time Machine back up only?
Really fed up... :-/
Cheers
rich

As far as I'm aware there have been two updates to Airport/TC software/hardware yet I still cannot get my TC to mount on my desktop except as a 'sharepoint'. If I double click the icon it tells me the alias can't find the original item.
This makes it really awkward to use as I appear to have to disconnect and reconnect the TC until it lists the contents in a Finder window.
I'm thinking about binning the TC altogether and getting one of those LG NAS drives with a Blu-Ray burner built in. Does anyone have any user experience with these?
Does anyone from Apple ever read these pages? Surely they can fix this? I only inherited it after updating to Snow Leopard and indeed I'm still running Leopard on another partition and the TC works exactly as it should.
It isn't exactly a cheap piece of kit to just dispose of (especially in 1TB guise) and I really see no reason why that decision is being forced upon me because of a glitch in a purchased Apple software upgrade.
Come on Apple, sort it out!
Cheers
Rich

Can I use the Time Capsule as a media server

As many, I have hundreds of CDs. I was hoping I could store all of my music on the time capsule as well as movies I have purchased and pictures, and use it as a media server. I've heard yes and no in other forums. Any ideas?

The Time Capsule is a dumb hard drive with no brains. It is not a media server and will not ever be one.
If you want to put your music and movies on the Time Capsule, you can do so, just like you could place them on any external hard drive.
But, you will need to have a DLNA server running somewhere else on your network to be able to do anything with the data on the Time Capsule.
Best to use the Time Capsule as it was designed and intended.....for backups....not any active or everyday files.
Speaking of backups, if you place your music and movie files on the Time Capsule.....how will you then back up those files to another hard drive?

TIme capsule as home media server - possible?

Hi
looking to have all my music and pic's in one spot to access from our 3 MBP's
can TC do the job or how would you recommend we do this wirelessly
besides having it on the net? as we're talking a lot of gb's here here...
Thanks already for your help
Christian

ct08 wrote:
looking to have all my music and pic's in one spot to access from our 3 MBP's
can TC do the job or how would you recommend we do this wirelessly
besides having it on the net?
It's not clear what you mean by "do this wirelessly besides having it on the net".
I believe you can do what you describe, but you might want to consider putting those files on a USB disk drive attached to a Time Capsule. That way would leave the Time Capsule disk free for Time Machine backups.

Can I use a time capsule as a itunes server to which my Atv v2 can connect to?

I have currently an Apple tv second generation, which streams video's from my Itunes computer when it's powered on. What I want to accomplish is to have all my library on a NAS somewhere and that my appletv can stream my whole library without any computer turned on. Can the time capsule do this?
Thanks,
filip

No. A Time Capsule has no media serving logic.

Airport Time Capsule as a Internet Server

Please, has anyone here formatted the Time Capsule as a internet server?
Is the a special way to format the Time Capsule for,
Macintosh Pro 5.1 Quad Core OS Mountain Lion 10.8, with Airport Extreme base station?
Thank you in advance for any shared informations.
RhythmCulture

Just note Apple states specifically not to store the iphoto library on network drives.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168 Although mostly about FAT32 it adds network drives.
In fact I think it dangerous to have any live files ie ones you are actually working on stored on the TC and not your local drive/s. If you store files on the TC be aware at least that you will also experience some slow operations of some things.

Time Capsule as Itunes Media Storage

I'm thinking about buying a Time capsule, but I want to know if that's what I really need.
1) My main problem is that I can't use my MacBook to hear music, watch movies or sync my Iphone 4 through my apartment 'cause my Library is in an External hard disk that needs electric power to function, so every time that I need to buy/hear music, watch a movie from my MacBook I have to be connected to my External HD. So, if I buy a TC can I sync/stream wirelessly my devices?
2) Also I have an Apple TV and much of the times I buy music/movies/videos from there. If I connect the Apple TV to the TC, My library stills in just one folder in the TC?
3) The TC is always on? or it starts up when a device is trying to connect to it?
Thank you very much in advance...

Please check out the following article to get one author's opinion on using the Time Capsule as a Media Storage device: theAppleBlog: Using Time Capsule as a Media Drive

Can time capsule be partitioned so as to back up osx with time machine and bootcamped windows drive with win 7 ulyimate

have imac 27 inch. I plan to bootcamp the drive and install win 7 ultimate to run AutoCAD. I want to backup the imac using time machine and the boot camped drive to one device. Can time capsule be partitioned to use time machine for osx and win 7 backup for bootcamp drive.

You cannot backup a Windows partition or system using Time Machine. Nor can you partition a TC as far as I know although Airport Utility may allow that now. See:
A whole lot about Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.
Of course you should carefully read the documentation that came with your TC to find out what options are available.

Can I use the available space on Time Capsule to store media files?

I recently bought Time Capsule and set it up to do backups of my iMac (Snow Leopard).
Since, the Time Capsule has a 1TB HDD, I decided to use the Time capsule to store media files. However, when trying to resolve a Time Capsule issue with the Apple Care technician, he informed me that storing media files on Time Capsule is not recommended. He suggested buying an additional portable disk to store the media files. Wanted to confirm if this is truly the recommendation for Time Capsule.

The Time Capsule was designed for Time Machine backups and that is the recommended use for the device.
If you have plenty of space on the drive, there is probably no harm in using the drive for other data, but as space becomes tight, there is going to be struggle between Time Machine and other files regarding space allocation.
But if you are storing your media files on the Time Capsule disk.....how are you backing up these files?
The advantage in having a separate drive for your media files is that Time Machine will back up both your computer and the separate hard drive. Then you have backups for everything when....not if....a drive fails.

Can you use Time Capsule as a print server for printers connected via Ethernet or wirelessly?

Can you use Time Capsule as a print server for printers connected via Ethernet or wirelessly?
I know that it works marvelous for printers connected via USB, but I'd like to know if you can use it as a more general print server.

No, you can't, but what do you expect to gain by doing so?
The main advantage of the print server is to provide multi-user network access to a printer that typically only supports a single connection. Since, by definition, your printer already has a network connection and can be used by multiple users.

Time Capsule as a File Server - to replace existing Airport Extreme

Hi
I have a 4th Gen Airport Extreme connected to my cable modem. I was thinking of getting a 2013 Time Capsule to replace my existing 4th Gen 2009 Airport Extreme, to use for Time Machine Backups and also for storing other files which I can access from anywhere only.
Is Time Capsule just a great wirelsss router and backup device or is it any good as a basic file server / nas drive.
Thanks in advance.
Matt

Is Time Capsule just a great wirelsss router and backup device
Yes, it is that.
is it any good as a basic file server / nas drive.
It is not a good NAS.. primary issue.. no internal backup. No way for the TC to back itself up.
No way for Time Machine to backup a network drive.
It still lacks any proper high speed connections for a second hard drive.. usb2 doesn't cut it.
The tools are poor.. actually almost non-existent. No partitioning.. so mixing backups and data is not a great idea.
See Q3 Pondini. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
Nothing has changed with this new one.
There are no media servers. no ftp, http, or any other access method for files such as is common to the basic NAS of the world.
To say nothing of rsync and all those kinds of things.
It is still slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. fine for data.. not so great for streaming media.
Remote access can be difficult if you cannot get the TC as the main router in the network.

Time machine as a media server.

Can you use Time capsule for Time Machine back up, AND as a Media Server?
If I copy my iTunes Library to TC, then change the Music Folder location to TC in iTunes preferences, will Time Machine just back up over it? Over the iTunes library I mean.
On a slightly different subject, is it possible to erase older back-ups of Time Machine to save space?

billyg wrote:
Can you use Time capsule for Time Machine back up, AND as a Media Server?
Yes, but you cannot create a separate partition on the TC HDD. Just a separate folder, if that's okay for you.
If I copy my iTunes Library to TC, then change the Music Folder location to TC in iTunes preferences, will Time Machine just back up over it? Over the iTunes library I mean.
No. Time Machine has its own separate folder. Note the TM will NOT backup the iTunes folder located on the TC HDD.
On a slightly different subject, is it possible to erase older back-ups of Time Machine to save space?
You can , but do so only via the Time Machine interface.

Using Time Capsule as a File Server

In my current set-up, I need to use my 3TB Time Capsule as a router, time machine destination for a couple of Macs and as file server (about 1TB in size).
The file server files will not be on any of the Macs so need to be backed up separately to a 1TB USB drive.
Apple has confirmed that the TC can be partitioned easily and, although unsupported, you can use third party apps to back up the file server to an external drive.
Does anyone have any real experience of doing this?
I have the option to us e a different router and to sort the time machine back-ups without needing the TC which means the TC would be used only as a file server. Would you recommend another product to the TC if you only needed a home file server?
Any help much appreciated!

To answer your question, yes but I would not use two Time Capsules. Just purchase one Time Capsule and then one external hard drive (cheaper than a Time Capsule) and connect the hard drive to the Time Capsule via USB. You can use the Airport Utility to archive the contents of your Time Capsule to the external hard drive using the Archive feature (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1281).
In fact, it may be worth buying two external hard drives so you can keep one offsite in case of disaster, theft, etc. You then rotate the external hard drives weekly (or whatever you choose) so you always have a current backup offsite.

Time Capsule as partitioned media server

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