Using time capsule solely as a back up device

I have a very advanced AC router that is a great home network. I want to use my time capsule solely as a back up device -- for my imac, which is ethernet wired to my router, and my kids' two macbook airs, which connect to the ac router wirelessly. Can I hook up the time capsule by ethernet cable to the exiting router, and disable the wireless functionality of the time capsule? I dont want two competing wireless netorks in the house.

It is counterintuitive, but you must first set up the Time Capsule to create a wireless network.......which you don't need, but it will automatically choose the correct Bridge Mode setting for the Time Capsule....which you do need.
Once the Time Capsule is setup to create a network, then you have to go back in using AirPort Utility and turn off the wireless function of the Time Capsule.
Here is how to do it:
Connect an Ethernet cable from one of the LAN <--> Ethernet ports on your AC router to the WAN "O" port on the Time Capsule
Click the AirPort icon at the top of the iMac's screen and look for a listing of Time Capsule under a heading of New AirPort Base Station. The illustration below pictures an AirPort Extreme.
Then, click on Time Capsule
The setup utility will open up automatically and suggest that you create a new network, with a screen like this, except you will see a picture of the Time Capsule:
Type in a short name for the Network
Type in a name that you want to call the Time Capsule. Use a short name. Mine is TC
Type in a password for the Time Capsule
Verify the password
Click Next
The utility will set up everything for you. When you see the message of Setup Complete, click Done.
Now click on the picture of the Time Capsule
Click Edit and enter the password if required
Click the Wireless tab at the top of the screen
Change the setting for Network Mode from Create a wireless network to Off
Click Update at the lower right of the window and wait a minute for the Time Capsule to restart.
You are all set.

Similar Messages

Can I use Time Capsule to both wirelessly back up 2 Macs and as a file storage device that both Macs can access wirelessly?

In a perfect world I’d like to be able to download movies and music to my computer, both through iTunes and other ways, but rather than transfer everything to a portable hard drive and then plug the hard drive into a media box to get it on the TV, simply be able to wirelessly move it to the TV, or in the case of music the airport express or some such system.
I’d even like to take this one step further and have a central drive that the home computers are networked to, or at least can access files from (wirelessly), have it backed up to the cloud, and have it be the ‘hub’ for files, music and video.
Can Time Capsule serve this purpose?

Can Time Capsule serve this purpose?
No .. it cannot.
Here is why.
The TC can be pressed into service.. it is not designed for it.. and in fact is really poor mainly due to no backup..
You can plug in a USB drive which is slow but does work fine for wireless access.. ie wireless is even slower than the slow disk.
Take the following into account.
Store files on the TC.
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.
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. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no control. In fact the TC is so lacking in controls for even the router side.. that you cannot do more than the most basic of setups.
The following are controls on the hard disk side.
Reformat it. You can name the share. You can do a full archive of the whole disk. This will go at a speed of aprox. 30-50GB/Hr so calculate how long an archive of a full 2TB will take.
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!!
Even apple btw say don’t do it.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168 Although mostly about FAT32 it adds network drives.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198
5. iTunes can constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is 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
A much better albeit slower device is the WD MyCloud.
It has no inbuilt wireless but you will just plug it into your wireless router.. hence wireless access.
You should still not use it to store iphoto library.
And the idea of streaming wireless from a central store basically is not going to work. Wireless networking is too slow, and has many limitations.
Buy a Mini and use that as a HTPC or media computer and use it plugged directly into the TV.

Using time capsule model A1409 and trying to use it as only backup. Already have Verizon wireless router. Do not know which cable port to use in back of time capsule. And also it is asking for password. Have tried all of mine and it will not work.

Want to us my time capsule model A1409 as only backup. 2 TB hard drive.
Already have Verizon wireless router. Do not want to use Time capsule as router, only back up for iMac.
Do not know which cable port to use in back of time capsule to Ethernet port back of my iMac.
And also it is asking for password for the server John Garland's Time Capsule so Time machine can access it..
Have tried all of passwords can think of and none work.
Held the reset button for one second on back of capsule and do not see if anything happened.
What a conundrum.
Appreciate any help to get this working.
Thanks,
John R

I have a 2TB Timecapsule and really only use it for Time Machine backups. But the Wi-Fi side is used to sync my iPad at times.
Mine is wiredup thus;
Eth cable from iMac to modem (not the WAN port should you have one), then eth cable from modem to T/Cap in the WAN port (bottom port with an O sign above it)
I believe when its connected up you may have to set up a wireless network. Follow the instructions to set up Wi-Fi and Network
and then give it a password. The WiFi icon should appear in the menu bar where you can switch it on or off.
Its been sometime since I set it with the help of Apple Techs so I might be a bit rusty.
Alan

Hi can I use Time Capsule 4th generation as a back up at the same time between my iMac and HP PC

HI Just bought a 4th generation Time Capsule and after a bit of trouble, I was able to do the following...
1. Connect TC to my modem via ethernet cable
2. Set up my first time Machine from my iMac to Time Capsule
3. Set up my HP PC via ethernet cable to Time Capsule
4. Set up HP Printer Scanner to USB port in Time Capsule, can now print from my PC and iMac using the same printer.
Here is the question...
Can I use Time Capsule (2TB version, not that this should matter, I think) as an external back up for my HP PC, running Windows 7?
I asked this question at Apple Store and they said YES, now I have my doubts as I cannot see Time Capsule as an external drive when I check my PC and computer part there, can see my C drive, D drive (internal backup drive in my PC), E drive (DVD drive) and that is it.
Installed AirPort utility for Windows, have version 5.5 something. I can see TIme Capsule using this at my PC but can I somehow save my HardDrive to Time Capsule, even manually?
Or is the problem that as I started Time Capsule with Time Machine Backup first, it has formatted Time Capsule to support only Apple version, and this is why I cannot see Time Capsule as an external harddrive?
Any help would be appreciated!
I have already an external HD for my Windows PC, just thought this way I could potentially have all the data in one place and also able to use 1 printer...
Many Thanks

Remember Apple Names are not fully SMB compatible..
Reset the TC and do the setup with all SMB naming.. ie.. short, no spaces, pure alphanumeric.
That means TC name eg TC
Wireless name (different for 5ghz) eg TC24ghz and TC5ghz
And hard disk share name.. eg Data
Make sure all passwords also match that convention.. but you can use more characters.. up to 20 or more if you are paranoid. Pure alphanumeric though.
In the file sharing area. set the right workgroup. And it makes life easier turning on the guest account to read and write.
Then in windows explorer simply type
\\TCname or \\TCIPaddress .. obviously you change the names with the actual name or IP.

Using Time Capsule to back up Mac Book Pro and external drive

we're changing our main computer in the house to our mac book pro, which is not currently backed up, so i'm thinking of buying a time capsule. our current main machine is an old pc with two external hard drives connected....one used as the main file storage location and the second as a back up location. the main large files on these drivers are photo's, videos and scanned documents. can i use the time capsule to back up the mac book with an external hard drive connected to it? i'm thinking of leaving all the photo's, videos, documents, etc. on the external harddrive but want to be able to back it up to the time capsule as well as backing up the mac book pro. can backing up the external hard drive be set up to activate automatically daily as I think the mac book can? thanks

This is not as simple as it could be..
Firstly the Mac can read the external drives via the PC if they are shared to the network.. it cannot read them directly plugged into the Mac or the TC.
Also the TC is not really designed to store files.. it is a location for backups by TM..
Read some of the stuff Pondini.. our local Time Machine expert.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
Q3 here is relevant. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
The hard drives would have to be plugged directly into the Mac to be backed up and they would have to be reformatted to Mac format. So you would need to offload the files.. format and then load the files back.. no trivial task.

I am using a macbook pro with system 10.6.8. I just discovered that no recent files have been backed up to the external disk using Time Capsule. There is a long list of backups including most recent but no recent files, for some weeks, have been backed u

I am using a macbook pro with system 10.6.8. I just discovered that no recent files have been backed up to the external disk using Time Capsule. There is a long list of backups including most recent but no recent files, for some weeks, have been backed up. I did a full reset of Time Machine. I disconnected the external drive and reconnected it. It is not a matter of file types, no files and no folders have gotten backed up. Everything looks normal though unless one goes hunting for recent files on the back up.

Many thanks.
With those symptoms, I'd try the following document:
Apple software on Windows: May see performance issues and blank iTunes Store
(If there's a SpeedBit LSP showing up in Autoruns, it's usually best to just uninstall your SpeedBit Video Accelerator.)

Can I use Time Capsule to just back up my iTunes catalogue?

Can I use Time Capsule to just back up my iTunes catalogue? or will it back up everything on my Mac?

Set Time Machine to exclude everything else, or keep Time Machine turned off and drag the catalogue to the Time Capsule manually.
(63467)

How to use time capsule for wireless back-up but not internet?

Hello,
I have a tower and recently a laptop at work. The tower is connected to our local network with an ethernet cable and the laptop with wireless. So, the internet connection is fine for both.
I was hoping to use my time capsule to do time machine backups on my laptop. Do you have any advice on how to configure this? I do not want to use the time capsule to extend my Internet, as I believe my work I.T. would prefer to handle all access to their network.
Perhaps there is some documentation about doing this that you could point me to? I have not been able to find it.
Thank you for your help.

Your original question was How to use Time Capsule for wireless back-up but not Internet?
There is no reason for you to connect the tower....or anything else...using Ethernet if your goal remains that same as you stated.
If you are asking if you can backup the Tower using Ethernet, and not wireless, then you can connect the tower to one of the LAN <-> ports on the Time Capsule....not the WAN port.
Yes, it appears to work without plugging into my tower.
Correct, it will work.
I just have to select the network that it created. Of course, I have no access to the Internet while this is happening and it can not auto backup, unless I am on that wireless signal.
As I stated, that is the downside to trying to back up without an Internet connection. You have to establish another network...and backup over that network.
If you are asking if you can stay connected to the work network while also backing up to your non-Internet "private" network, that is not possible.

I was just wondering if I can use time capsule with my iphone for both back up and to access the hard drive on the capsule?

I was just wondering if I can use time capsule with my iphone for both back up and to access the hard drive on the capsule?

I don't think backup is supported but you may be able to access the TC's internal drive, from the iPhone, with an application like: NetPortal
Note: I haven't actually tried this app, so if someone else has and was successful in accessing the TC's drive they can certainly chime in.
Follow-up. Just downloaded and installed this app ... and I can now verify that it, indeed, can access both my TC's internal and externally attached USB HDD.

Using Time Capsule only for back-ups, not as a modem

Hi, We have Comcast modem and router for internet connection. Is it possible to use Time Capsule only for Time Machine-generated back-ups of our Macs?
Is there any complication setting up TC for use as back-up only device?
Thanks!

You can use TC this way. And it's very simple to setup.
Check out the setup guide here:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/enUS/Time_Capsule_Early2009Setup.pdf
EDIT:
I've just noticed that they've removed the section "Using Your Time Capsule on an Existing Wireless Network" from the new manual.
Anyway here is a copy of the text under that section in the old guide:
To set it up:
1 Open AirPort Utility (located in /Applications/Utilities/ on a computer using Mac OS X,
and in Start > All Programs > AirPort on a computer using Windows), select your Time
Capsule, and then click Continue.
2 Follow the onscreen instructions to join your current wireless network.
3 After your Time Capsule is set up, you can use Mac OS X Leopard to set up Time
Machine to back up the Mac OS X Leopard computers on your network. See “Using
Time Machine with Your Time Capsule” on page 27 for more information.
If you’re using an earlier version of Mac OS X, or if you’re using Windows, you can
connect to Time Capsule to share or back up files.
Message was edited by: dchao99

Can i use time capsule for back up my movies and watching them with my bravia tv

can i use time capsule for back up my movies and watching them with my bravia tv.
i mean can i use this for external hard disk drive to back up my movies and watching them with tv that has a lan port or wi-fi technology.

Only if the TV is a media player.. the TC is dumb as a board router with a hard disk.. there is no DLNA which I suspect the TV requires.. you can get a player like the WDLive and it will play movie files from the TC to the TV.. remember the TC is nothing but a file store.. no servers .. no nothing.

Can I use time capsule to store music and video files as well as use it to back up.

Can I use time capsule to store music and video files as well as use it to back up.

Sure.
Why are so many peolple asking this?
Just store your files there.
And when using Time-Maschine for the back-up select the Time-Capsule (whatever name your has) as the place to store the date.
cheers, anne

Hi, I want to use my Capsule just as a back up via wireless. How do I set this up without connecting it with an ethernet cable to either a router or the iMac??

Hi, I want to use my Capsule just as a back up via wireless. How do I set this up without connecting it with an ethernet cable to either a router or the iMac??

I misunderstood what Time Capsule is and had hoped for a wireless backup device that didn't have to be connected to the router.
The TC is a wireless backup device.. it does not need to be connected to the main router..
The problem is the computer.. not the TC.. the computer has only one wireless card.. if your current internet is by wireless.. then you must choose.. internet or backup.
But my other suggestion will work.. get a wireless USB stick compatible with Mac OS.. there are plenty and cheap.. since you are in the same room as the TC they will work fine.. plug it in and load the driver.. taint hard.
You should do the first backup by ethernet though.. wireless is too slow.. once you have that, you will do fine.
Search ebay for wireless n usb.. Mac compatible..
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-EDUP-Mini-Wireless-11N-300M-USB-LAN-Card-WiFi-Adapte r-Nano-Card-Soft-AP-/150864362939?pt=US_USB_Wi_Fi_Adapters_Dongles&hash=item2320 377dbb#ht_3553wt_1165
As you can see.. they are getting smaller and neater.
I have no idea if it works .. haven't tried one.. but I have used USB wireless stick on the Mac to overcome this issue.
You will need to set static IP .. not hard but you need to set specifics if you do buy one post again for the setup.

Using Time Capsule and Mac Mini to replace a PC.

I have 4 macs of various vintage in the house and 1 PC. I use the rather robust PC as the server for my itunes library. I'm fully uploaded to iCloud. I'd like to replace this final PC with a Mac Mini but none have a harddrive large enough to accomodate my iTunes library. (about 785G of music and video) Can I use a Time Machine as the storage device for my iTunes library? Can I connect the Time Machine and Mac Mini via Thunderbolt for fast data access? Also, if I can use the Time Machine for storage of the iTunes library, should I consider the iCloud to be my "Back Up" or should I get an additional Time Machine for back up? Also, I use and AirPort Extreme as my wireless router with 2 AirPort Expresses to expand my wifi network. Can I simply add Time Machine to my existing network or will I need to replace the AirPort Extreme with the Time Capsule?

Can I use a Time Machine as the storage device for my iTunes library? Can I connect the Time Machine and Mac Mini via Thunderbolt for fast data access? Also, if I can use the Time Machine for storage of the iTunes library, should I consider the iCloud to be my "Back Up" or should I get an additional Time Machine for back up? Also, I use and AirPort Extreme as my wireless router with 2 AirPort Expresses to expand my wifi network. Can I simply add Time Machine to my existing network or will I need to replace the AirPort Extreme with the Time Capsule?
Don't use Time Capsule for media storage.. it is not suitable and although pressed into service it is a pain. (Time Machine is software backup on the computer and is completely unrelated to the TC).
The problem with using Time Capsule to Time Capsule, is simple.. it doesn't have any software to do it.. The TC is a backup device.. not a NAS. Do not try and use it as a NAS.
You can add a TC to the network without doing much.. just bridge the TC and it will work fine plugged into the AEBS.. but again it is expensive waste. You are buying a router with enclosed hard disk drive and turning off the router.. so all you have is a hard disk which is networked.
If you get a mini use firewire external drive.. you can get 2 or 3 TB fairly cheaply and plug it in. Then back up to a TC if you really want, but any NAS with Time Machine extensions will do the job. Or a hard drive in another Mac made available to the network.

I was using time capsule to extend a network. now i want it to be the primary base station. how do i convert this?

i was using time capsule to extend a network. now i want it to be the primary base station. how do i convert this?

Thanks for the info. Since this is a cable modem, you will need to fully reset it so that it will associate correctly with the Time Capsule when it is reconnected.
I don't have the manual for your Ubee model handy, but most modems will reset if you power them down completely. That means pulling the power cord from the back of the device or unplugging from the wall. Leave the modem powered off at least 30 minutes...longer will not hurt a bit.
Next, perform a Factory Default Reset on the Time Capsule per this document:
Resetting an AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule FAQ
After the modem has been powered down and Time Capsule has been reset, connect an Ethernet cable from the modem to the WAN port (circle icon) on the Time Capsule.
Power up the modem and let it run for 2-3 minutes by itself
Then power up the Time Capsule and let it run a minute or two
Next, open AirPort Utility and configure the Time Capsule to "Create a wireless network". Let us know what operating system you are using on your Mac or PC if you have additional questions or need more details on this.

Using time capsule solely as a back up device

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