#Add synology drive to mac how to#
#Add synology drive to mac pro#
#Add synology drive to mac mac#

A good rule of thumb is to set the quota at four times the amount of storage space on your Mac. Step 5: On the user quota setting page you can designate the amount of space on the volume you’d like to reserve for Time Machine backups. Step 4: On the assign shared folders permissions page, click the checkbox next to the Time Machine shared folder for Read/Write. Step 3: Click next on the join groups page. Step 2: Fill out the Name field with “Time Machine” (without quotes) and enter and confirm a desired password. Step 1: Open Control Panel → User → Create to open the User Creation Wizard. Step 4: Click Apply on the Confirm settings page. Step 3: Click the Next button on the Encryption page. I usually choose a name like “Time Machine.” You’ll also need to use the Location field to select a volume. Step 2: On the basic information page of Share Folder Creation Wizard, insert a name into the Name field. Step 1: Open File Station → Create → Create New Shared Folder to establish a new shared folder to house your Time Machine backup. Note: This tutorial assumes that you’ve already established a Volume on your Synology NAS.

#Add synology drive to mac mac#

Next, set up a Time Machine backup storage location, and lastly, configure Time Machine on your Mac to use your Synology NAS. Secondly, create a corresponding Time Machine user.

First, you’ll need to create a Time Machine shared folder on your storage volume. Having 32TB of storage inside this little guy is admittedly a bit of an overkill for Time Machine, but I plan to do a lot more *cough* Plex *cough* with it.Įstablishing a Time Machine backup with a Synology NAS is extremely simple and can be broken up into four key steps.

My review unit that Synology provided came preconfigured with two 16TB drives, which, when configured as RAID 1, will provide me plenty of storage to house Time Machine backups from my 256GB base model 2020 iMac. With that being said, the DS220j comes in a diskless configuration for $169.99, but you can add a pair of 4TB NAS drives for around $200 more. Not only does this save on costs, but it also allows users to choose the exact disks they wish to use, and/or it allows them to reuse media that they already have on hand. Note that Synology NAS boxes are often sold in a “diskless” configuration, which means that the user is responsible for installing the hard drives inside. Video: Synology NAS Time Machine backup system

#Add synology drive to mac how to#

But with this initial tutorial, I wanted to showcase a basic Mac staple: how to set up Time Machine backups using a Synology NAS. We’ll explore some of that potential in more posts and videos to follow. Thanks to the software, Synology NAS boxes are capable of wearing many hats. With the DS220j’s rather modest specifications, this fact stands out even more. When it comes to Synology, the hardware is important, but as I’ve explained before, it’s the excellent DiskStation Manager operating system that makes these boxes such a joy to use. RAID 1 protection to avoid sudden drive failure.In this first hands-on video, I’ll walk you through what it takes to set up the DS220j as a Time Machine backup solution for your Macs. I’d also like to begin regular discussions of more common needs for the everyday Mac user, such as Time Machine backups, private cloud storage, etc.īeing an entry-level model, the DS220j is marketed as a personal cloud solution for data sharing and backup, and I find it to be a good fit for those applications. Today, I’d like to flip the script and talk about Synology’s entry-level NAS, the compact DS220j.

#Add synology drive to mac pro#

In the past when I’ve covered my experience with Synology NAS products, it’s usually been from the perspective of using one of Synology’s more powerful offerings as a media server for Final Cut Pro X libraries.