Back Up Your M1 MacBook or All Your Macs with Synology Using Time Machine or Synology Drive
If you’re like me, you have a ton of digital data that keeps expanding: photos, documents, school papers, work files, resumes, tax returns and a giant library of “legally” acquired movies. Many years ago I was hit by a Trojan horse virus that destroyed a lot of my data, and I’ve been a freak about multiple backups in multiple locations ever since. This video focuses on how a Synology NAS can back up your Macs.
What’s a NAS?
NAS (Network Attached Storage) is an external drive that connects to your network, over Ethernet to your router or switch, so all the devices on your network can access it, great for a home with multiple computers needing the same files or backup location. Synology makes many sizes and prices: one for as low as $99 holds a single drive, but for redundancy you should have at least two drives (about $160), so if a drive fails you won’t lose data. A 1 TB NAS drive was about $59, so a two-bay DS220j with two 1 TB Seagate NAS drives is around $280, nothing compared to the emotional cost of losing your data. For more files or computers, there are bigger drives and four or six bays.
Synology’s DSM (DiskStation Manager) is extremely user-friendly, and the documentation on their website is easy to follow.
1. Time Machine
Apple’s backup software built into the Mac since 2009 works the same way. On the Synology, after creating a user and a shared folder: Control Panel > File Services > Advanced, enable Bonjour service discovery and enable Bonjour Time Machine broadcast via SMB; then click Set Time Machine Folders and select your folder, and apply.
On the Mac: System Preferences > Time Machine > Select Backup Disk, choose the shared folder, click Use Disk, and enter the username and password that has access. Check Show Time Machine in menu bar and click Back Up Now. The first backup covers your entire computer and takes a long time (hours, a day or more), especially over Wi-Fi, so go to the battery or energy settings and make sure your computer doesn’t sleep.
Restore: delete a test file, enter Time Machine from the menu bar (it opens from the current folder), pick the most recent backup, and restore. Over a network there can be a delay: it took about 60 seconds to load. Time Machine over the network can be a little slow because of sparse images, and I’ve seen reports of it saying it needed to restart the entire backup, which I haven’t experienced.
2. Synology Drive backup task
Synology Drive is two solutions in one app. The first is a file backup utility that’s more customizable than Time Machine and, in my experience, a bit faster. Install Synology Drive Server from the Package Center (Synology’s free app store); it creates a homes folder with a home folder for each user. Then install the Synology Drive client on the Mac and create a backup task: enter your QuickConnect name, username and password, then select the folders to back up (Time Machine backs up everything by default; here I chose Desktop). Options: continuous (backs up a new copy every time you save), manual, or scheduled (I chose hourly, like Time Machine, though you could do daily or every four hours).
Restore: delete the test file, open Synology Drive, click Restore, browse the backed-up files (you can pick a specific date and time), select the file and restore. It was much faster than Time Machine: no delay loading the files.
3. Synology Drive sync
Create a sync task: a folder (named Synology Drive or whatever you choose) that works like iCloud or OneDrive: drag files in or save from any application, and they sync in the background to the Synology and to any other computer with Synology Drive installed. I created a new folder under My Drive on the Synology, and the Mac’s ~/Synology Drive. Copy a file in, and it appears on the Synology.
Restoring a synced file is different: log in to the Synology web interface from the Synology Drive icon, go to the file, and for files with multiple versions, right-click and choose Version History to see every change and Download the version you want.
Which should you use?
Time Machine is probably the easiest, since half the software is built into macOS and you only configure a couple of things on the Synology. Drive sync is a great option if you want a folder where you decide what to keep. Personally I prefer the Synology Drive backup job: easy control over specific folders and files, on a schedule that suits you. You can use any or all of them together. Having a reliable backup and a tested restore should be a top priority, since you never know when something will happen to an important document or treasured photos. This is only the first step of a comprehensive backup strategy I hope to cover in another video.
Links
- UNLIMITED Cloud Backup for your Mac with Backblaze
- Synology DS220j
- Synology DS420+
- Seagate 1TB NAS Drive
- Western Digital 1TB NAS Drive
- Sony A6400
- Primary Lens Sigma f1.4 16mm
- Secondary Lens Sony f2.8 16-55MM G
- Sennheiser MKH-416 mic
- Zoom F6 recorder
- Rode VideoMic NTG
- iPad Pro 12.9
- Used DJI OSMO 3 Gimbal for some shots
- Tascam DR-10L Audio Recorder with Lav
In this video
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