Back Up macOS with Time Machine and Synology NAS!

So recently, I received an M1 Mac Mini that I have rack-mounted for many different purposes in my house. As part of configuring this machine, I wanted to utilize Time Machine to my Synology NAS for my backup solution. I have an RS819 for reference, but any Synology NAS should work. This is something that I have previously done on my other macOS machines. I have the Mac Mini automatically mount the drive upon boot and macOS will periodically use its Time Machine protocol to back up the machine.

1) To get this started, you first need to login into the Synology Control Panel and create a shared folder. I called my folder Time Machine Backups.

2) Once this is created, you should make another User account on the Synology device and assign it to read/write permissions to just that folder. I did this because this is the account I will have access to macOS devices to use.

3) After this, go to the File Services Section to make sure you have SMB or AFP enabled. This depends on how you are going to be connecting from your macOS devices.

Once this is complete, we are able to login to the mac and start to get it backed up.

4) Once you are logged in on your mac, you will need to go to your finder and connect to a network drive. Select File > Go and type in the server address that you are connecting to. When it prompts you for login credentials, make sure to use the account that you created on your Synology NAS.

5) After that open up Time Machine by either searching for it or opening up your System Preferences and selecting it there.

6) Once you have this opened up, create Select Disk. It asks you for a location to store the backups and here is where you would select the network drive that you created.

After this, your macOS will back itself up periodically as long as the network location is available.

7) The last thing that I like to do is automate the mounting of the drive. Since this computer is always going to be online, I add mounting the network drive as one of the startup items. You can do this by going into the System Preferences > Users & Groups pane and dragging the network drive into the Login Items section.

After this, you will be good to go!

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Back Up macOS with Time Machine and a Synology NAS!

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