Find Federico on MastodonFind John on MastodonFind Alex on MastodonFind Club MacStories on Mastodon

Setting up Time Machine Backups from a Mac to a Linux Machine over the Local Network

THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

Setting up Time Machine Backups from a Mac to a Linux Machine over the Local Network

About a month ago, I upgraded my desk setup with an 11-inch iPad Pro that I’m now using as a secondary display. I am still loving this setup. Unfortunately, though, because I want to keep the iPad Pro plugged in to my Thunderbolt dock at all times in order to use Sidecar in wired mode, I had to free up a USB port and unplug the external SSD that I was using as my main Time Machine backup destination. Since I was then out of available ports, I started looking for a wireless solution to keep my Time Machine backups running on a daily basis.

While I could have simply found a way to add more ports on my desk, that would have meant investing in a bigger dock, or adding one more dongle to my poorly-hidden cable mess on the desk. So instead, I wanted to leverage the Linux machine in the living room that I’ve been using for a bunch of experiments lately. The idea was to plug my external SSD into the Linux machine, share a folder from the SSD on my local network, and then set that shared folder as a Time Machine backup destination on my Mac.

This story is for Club MacStories, Club MacStories+, and Club Premier members only.

Join the Club and get access now.

Already a member? Sign in