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Time Machine stopped backing up after macOS 27: Time Capsule and AFP fix

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If your Mac backed up to an AirPort Time Capsule or an older NAS, there’s a good chance Time Machine hasn’t finished a backup since you installed macOS 27 Golden Gate. This isn’t a bug, and waiting for an update won’t fix it. The original walkthrough comes from MacHabits.

Golden Gate removed the Apple Filing Protocol and, with it, Time Machine support for Time Capsule. Below: what changed, how to tell whether you’re affected, and the quickest ways to get backups running again. Before you start, check app compatibility and keep a restorable backup before changing your operating system.

What changed in macOS 27

AFP is gone. Apple’s original file-sharing protocol dates back to 1988. SMB became the Mac’s default in OS X Mavericks in 2013, macOS Big Sur removed the ability to run an AFP server in 2020, and Apple deprecated the AFP client in macOS Sequoia 15.5. Golden Gate removes the client entirely.

Time Machine now requires modern SMB. Network backups need SMBv2 or SMBv3, and Golden Gate enforces stricter network security, including TLS 1.2 as a minimum.

Time Capsule can’t meet either requirement. Every Time Capsule model relies on AFP and SMBv1, so none of them can serve as a Time Machine destination for Golden Gate in stock form.

Apple announced this a year ahead: Tahoe’s Time Machine settings showed a warning that the next major macOS version would no longer support AirPort Disk or Time Capsule disks for backups. If you upgraded straight from Sequoia, or dismissed the warning, it’s easy to have missed.

Check whether you’re affected

Open Terminal and run:

tmutil destinationinfo

You’re affected if the destination is a Time Capsule or AirPort Disk, or if its URL starts with afp://.

Then check when your last backup finished:

tmutil latestbackup

If the date is before your upgrade, you’ve had no new backups since. Terminal may need Full Disk Access (System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access) for these commands to report correctly.

Don’t forget other AFP connections. In Finder, choose Go > Connect to Server and look for saved afp:// addresses.

The important part: your old backups still exist

Your existing Time Machine backups on the Time Capsule are still there. What you’ve lost is the ability to add new ones from Golden Gate.

That matters in two situations:

  • If you need to restore a file from before the upgrade, you’ll need a Mac that can still reach the Time Capsule, such as one on Tahoe or earlier, or you’ll have to copy the backup off the Time Capsule’s drive.
  • If you ever want to roll back to Tahoe, your pre-upgrade backup lives on that Time Capsule. Keep it intact until your new backup setup has a few weeks of history.

Option 1: A USB drive (fastest, cheapest)

For a single Mac, a directly connected drive is the most reliable Time Machine destination there is, and it beats any network backup for speed.

  1. Get an external SSD or hard drive about twice the size of the data you’re backing up.
  2. Connect it, open System Settings > General > Time Machine and click Add Backup Disk.
  3. Select the drive and, if asked, choose to erase it. Keep backup encryption on.
  4. Let the first backup run with the Mac plugged in. It takes a while, because it’s a full backup.

The only downside is having to plug the drive in. On a desktop Mac, leave it connected permanently. On a laptop, plug it in whenever you’re at your desk; Time Machine catches up automatically.

Option 2: A modern NAS over SMB

If you back up several Macs, or want backups to happen without plugging anything in, use a NAS that supports Time Machine over SMB. Current models from Synology, QNAP, TerraMaster and others do.

The general setup is similar across brands:

  1. Create a dedicated shared folder for Time Machine, plus a dedicated user account for backups.
  2. Enable SMB and set the minimum protocol to SMB2 or higher.
  3. Turn AFP off completely on the NAS. Leaving it on alongside SMB has caused connection problems for Golden Gate Macs.
  4. Enable the Time Machine option on the shared folder, often labeled “Bonjour Time Machine broadcast” or “Enable as Time Machine target.”
  5. Set a quota on the share so Time Machine doesn’t fill the whole NAS.
  6. On the Mac, open System Settings > General > Time Machine, click Add Backup Disk and select the NAS share.

If the NAS doesn’t show up by itself, first connect to it through Finder > Go > Connect to Server with smb:// followed by its address, then add it.

Update the NAS firmware before you start. Older firmware may default to protocol settings that Golden Gate won’t accept.

Option 3: The community Time Capsule workaround

If you’re attached to your Time Capsule, an open-source project called TimeCapsuleSMB, developed by a Microsoft engineer, installs a modern version of Samba directly on the Time Capsule. That makes it reachable over SMB3 and visible in Finder again.

Know the trade-offs before you try it:

  • It’s unofficial. Apple doesn’t support it, and it modifies the device’s software.
  • Only the fifth-generation Time Capsule (2013) restarts the Samba server automatically. Older models need a manual command after every restart or power cut, which means backups can quietly stop until someone notices.
  • It starts a new backup. Switching the Time Capsule to SMB creates a new Time Machine backup chain, so you don’t keep adding to your old history.
  • The hardware is old. The newest Time Capsule dates from 2013, and the drives inside are probably a decade old. A backup device you can’t trust isn’t a backup.

For most people, the workaround is a reasonable way to keep an old Time Capsule useful as a secondary copy, not a good primary backup.

Keep a second copy

While you’re rebuilding your backups, it’s a good moment to follow the classic advice of keeping more than one copy. A simple setup:

  • Time Machine to a USB drive or NAS, for fast, automatic hourly recovery.
  • A second copy somewhere else: another drive that you store away from the Mac, or a cloud backup service.

A fire, a theft or a power surge that takes out your Mac usually takes out the drive next to it too. For the original step-by-step version, see the MacHabits guide to Time Machine, Time Capsule and AFP on macOS 27.

The short version

  • Golden Gate removed AFP and requires SMBv2 or SMBv3 with TLS 1.2 for network backups. Time Capsule can’t do either.
  • Check with tmutil destinationinfo and tmutil latestbackup.
  • Your old backups still exist; keep them until the new setup has proven itself.
  • Fastest fix: a USB drive. Fix for several Macs: a modern NAS over SMB with AFP turned off.
  • The Time Capsule workaround works, but treat it as a secondary copy at best.

More on this change: Time Machine after macOS 27, explained on MacHabits.

Source: https://machabits.info/articles/time-machine-time-capsule-afp-macos-27

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