Problem using TimeMachine...

Backup, Restore, Netbak Replicator, Cloud Storage Services
Post Reply
Tiieto
New here
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jun 25, 2022 3:21 am

Problem using TimeMachine...

Post by Tiieto »

Hello Guys...

a few Days ago i updated the Firmware of my QNAP (TS-453A) to 5.0.0.2055...

Since this Update, i can't backup my Macs using TimeMachine..

I Used TimeMachine and the "integrated" TimeMachine "Server" of my QNAP for a couple of years without any Problems...
Now my mac says he can't find the Share...

What's going on there?
Any Ideas / suggestions?
nibbles2bits
Getting the hang of things
Posts: 50
Joined: Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:17 am

Re: Problem using TimeMachine...

Post by nibbles2bits »

EDIT: This post I made is wrong. I added a reply down the page.
Time Machine works with SMB.

==============================================

Time Machine requires AFP, and a number of us have had serious problems with AFP since upgrading from 4.3.6.
The tl;dr is revert to a working QTS.

AFP is an Apple protocol, and it competed directly with SMB from Microsoft. One way of thinking about it is Betamax vs. VHS.
In 2011 Apple announced they would be discontinuing support and ending work on AFP (because SMB had taken over like VHS).
Since that time, SMB has gone up to version 3.1 afaik, but AFP is still old af. SMB is considered mature and is used by all platforms.
SMB is very fast and reliable nowadays. IMHO, you will have to revert to your previous OS or move to SMB and lose your Time Machine
to NAS capability. There are likely excellent ways to back up your Macs incrementally to the NAS, but I don't know them. What I do
is clone my Mac HD to an external SSD or nvme M.2 once a week and rotate clones. Critical files get backed up to the cloud.
There are tests of SMB vs AFP vs NFS online that found SMB is as fast or faster 98% of the time.

Have I filed a report with QNAP? No not yet, and maybe nobody else has.
If I could do a clean install on this QNAP 451+, I'd make a reproducible test case for Support to consider.
Last edited by nibbles2bits on Sun Jul 31, 2022 1:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
justinwubo
Starting out
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2022 10:31 am

Re: Problem using TimeMachine...

Post by justinwubo »

nibbles2bits wrote: Sat Jun 25, 2022 7:16 am Time Machine requires AFP, and a number of us have had serious problems with AFP since upgrading from 4.3.6.
The tl;dr is revert to a working QTS.

AFP is an Apple protocol, and it competed directly with SMB from Microsoft. One way of thinking about it is Betamax vs. VHS.
In 2011 Apple announced they would be discontinuing support and ending work on AFP (because SMB had taken over like VHS).
Since that time, SMB has gone up to version 3.1 afaik, but AFP is still old af. SMB is considered mature and is used by all platforms.
SMB is very fast and reliable nowadays. IMHO, you will have to revert to your previous OS or move to SMB and lose your Time Machine
to NAS capability. There are likely excellent ways to back up your Macs incrementally to the NAS, but I don't know them. What I do
is clone my Mac HD to an external SSD or nvme M.2 once a week and rotate clones. Critical files get backed up to the cloud.
There are tests of SMB vs AFP vs NFS online that found SMB is as fast or faster 98% of the time.

Have I filed a report with QNAP? No not yet, and maybe nobody else has.
If I could do a clean install on this QNAP 451+, I'd make a reproducible test case for Support to consider.
'Time Machine requires AFT' mean I should enable AFP on the share folder. Only SMB enabled doesn't work?

Or it really means I should use "AFP://<NAS IP>" to access the share folder, using "SMB://<NAS IP>" with AFT enabled still doesn't work?
nibbles2bits
Getting the hang of things
Posts: 50
Joined: Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:17 am

Re: Problem using TimeMachine...

Post by nibbles2bits »

EDIT: This was also wrong. Time machine works with SMB too.

======================================================

If you want to use Time Machine, yes enable AFP. I thought you had AFP enabled already and that Time Machine backups were failing with it enabled. My apologies.

SMB is not needed at all for Time Machine.

You mentioned connecting to your shares via typed address. It turns out that access via Finder can
be as easy as double clicking the NAS name under the Network section. But in reality, double clicking
is just a shortcut for Connect to Server > afp://ip.of.the.nas

As a side note, AFP in general uses Bonjour discovery to help Finder and printers find your NAS.
If you have an option to enable Bonjour on the NAS, do so.
If you do so, you could also connect in more ways than double click or IP address.

Given a NAS with the name MegaStore using AFP and Bonjour,
  • the NAS gets the nickname MegaStore.local (is not case sensitive)
  • Finder can connect with afp://megastore.local
  • Terminal can connect with ssh admin@megastore.local
Last edited by nibbles2bits on Sun Jul 31, 2022 1:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Tiieto
New here
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jun 25, 2022 3:21 am

Re: Problem using TimeMachine...

Post by Tiieto »

Until the Update to the New Firmware everything works as aspected...

I think there is a change in the Firmware, who changed something in TimeMachine Settings... (I can't find these settings at all in the new GUI)
AFP still works, SSH connection to the NAS via Terminal & NAS-Name still works too...
Also the connection via IP...
I Created some Aliases (Shortcuts) on my Macs to the NAS Shares, this works fine, too...

Only TimeMachine has this Problem...
I think the "integrated" TimeMachine User & Share is disabled since the Update... Can someone Validate this?

There is something Strange too:
I set up the TimeMachine Share to HDD4 in the NAS, This HDD is for TimeMachine Backups Only...
But: The HDD seems to be complete empty, now & the Backups are Located on HDD 2 now... 🤪
The FileStation don't show me anything on HDD4...
Miratony
First post
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2022 1:49 am

Re: Problem using TimeMachine...

Post by Miratony »

HI

I spent 40min with Apple support with similar problem. Apple tech says it's a QNAP driver issue that should be fixable with a download from QNAP. Time Machine backups started failing after upgrade from Big Sur to Monterey. Apple called it a "driver mismatch"
nibbles2bits
Getting the hang of things
Posts: 50
Joined: Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:17 am

Re: Problem using TimeMachine...

Post by nibbles2bits »

Excellent debugging. I lol'd when you said HDD4 was empty but 2 had the data.
Good Lordy. Are you going to open a support ticket with QNAP soon?
safir
First post
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2013 4:10 pm

Re: Problem using TimeMachine...

Post by safir »

Got the same problem. I have posted a support ticket on this.
nibbles2bits
Getting the hang of things
Posts: 50
Joined: Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:17 am

Re: Problem using TimeMachine...

Post by nibbles2bits »

Thank you please come back and let us know what they say.
Neliger
New here
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 10:59 pm

Re: Problem using TimeMachine...

Post by Neliger »

Hi,

I lay have the same problem.

Have you got any update on this ?
nibbles2bits
Getting the hang of things
Posts: 50
Joined: Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:17 am

Re: Problem using TimeMachine...

Post by nibbles2bits »

I was wrong when I said that Time Machine requires AFP or implied that SMB doesn't work with Time Machine.
I had not read enough about it on QNAPs documents, nor did I bother to test my hypothesis. I regret that a lot.

Searching DDG for qnap SMB time machine the first hit is the official guide on
Using Time Machine to Back Up Macs to a QNAP NAS via SMB 3

If this works for your issue, let us know.
I'll test it out myself but wanted to correct my errors asap.
TorsteinKongshem
First post
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2022 9:06 pm

Re: Problem using TimeMachine...

Post by TorsteinKongshem »

Hi all ! I got the same problem some months back, after having used QNAP to backup my Mac with Time Machine for several years without problem.
So I searched communities, went through all the steps, looked at logs on my Mac even - but no success. But then by chance I found something : I got the idea to backup my QNAP to Dropbox in case I got disk failures, and for this I opened Hybrid Data Sync (HBS) 3. And voila, what do I see : an option to setup QNAP to work as a backup drive for Time Machine on Mac as a sort of "wizard" without all the manual steps. It was easy as hell, just clicked my way through and started the backup and it was a success ! Hope this can help some of yoú guys as well. Maybe it was HBS that was blocking Time Machine to work, because it was set to "disabled".
sromley
New here
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun May 27, 2018 12:10 am

Re: Problem using TimeMachine...

Post by sromley »

First of all, I thought Time Machine worked over smb now, and that was the preferred protocol. Secondly, Time Machine support on QNAP has degraded over the last year or two. I've had three instances over the last year where the sparsebundles become corrupted and had to be rebuilt. I actually had to start a new Time Machine instance because the sparsebundle wasn't repairable. Luckily, I maintain a cloud backup. I constantly check the data integrity on my hard drives, they are fine.

I know everything fails over time, and you need a good strategy to not lose data. In this case, I am not confident in my Time Machine backups and will look elsewhere for a solution. Any suggestions are appreciated.

BTW, I started using QNAP because they came highly recommended for Mac users and Time Machine in particular. Time Machine is not a piority anymore since QNAP started to expand their offerings.
ari_a
First post
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2015 6:22 pm

Re: Problem using TimeMachine...

Post by ari_a »

@TorsteinKongshem, you saved my day! Just use HBS 3 as instructed in the later half of "https://www.qnap.com/en-us/how-to/tutor ... -via-smb-3" and it works perfectly! Minor differences in UI vs the instruction, though. :D
Post Reply

Return to “Backup & Restore”