If your Mac backed up to an AirPort Time Capsule or an older NAS, there's a good chance Time Machine hasn't completed a backup since you installed macOS 27 Golden Gate. This isn't a bug, and waiting for an update won't fix it.

Golden Gate removed the Apple Filing Protocol and, with it, Time Machine support for Time Capsule. Here's what changed, how to check whether you're affected, and the quickest ways to get backups running again.

What changed in macOS 27

AFP is gone. Apple's original file-sharing protocol dates back to 1988. SMB became the Mac's default in OS X Mavericks in 2013, macOS Big Sur removed the ability to run an AFP server in 2020, and Apple deprecated the AFP client in macOS Sequoia 15.5. Golden Gate removes the client entirely.

Time Machine now requires modern SMB. Network backups need SMBv2 or SMBv3, and Golden Gate enforces stricter network security, including TLS 1.2 as a minimum.

Time Capsule can't meet either requirement. Every Time Capsule model relies on AFP and SMBv1. None of them, in their stock form, can work as a Time Machine destination for Golden Gate.

This was announced a year in advance: Tahoe's Time Machine settings showed a warning that the next major version of macOS would no longer support AirPort Disk or Time Capsule disks for backups. If you upgraded straight from Sequoia, or dismissed that warning, it's easy to have missed.

Check whether you're affected

Open Terminal and run:

tmutil destinationinfo

You're affected if the destination is a Time Capsule or AirPort Disk, or its URL starts with afp://.

Then check when your last backup finished:

tmutil latestbackup

If it's dated before your upgrade, you've had no new backups since. Terminal may need Full Disk Access (System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access) for these commands to report correctly.

Don't forget about other AFP connections. Check Finder > Go > Connect to Server for saved afp:// addresses.

The important part: your old backups still exist

Your existing Time Machine backups on the Time Capsule are still there. What you've lost is the ability to add new ones from Golden Gate.

That matters in two situations:

  • If you need to restore a file from before the upgrade, you'll need a Mac that can still reach the Time Capsule, such as a Mac on Tahoe or earlier, or you'll need to copy the backup off the Time Capsule's drive.
  • If you ever want to roll back to Tahoe, your pre-upgrade backup lives on that Time Capsule. Keep it intact until your new backup setup has a few weeks of history.

Option 1: A USB drive (fastest, cheapest)

For a single Mac, a directly connected drive is the most reliable Time Machine destination there is, and it's faster than any network backup.

  1. Get an external SSD or hard drive about twice the size of the data you're backing up.
  2. Connect it, open System Settings > General > Time Machine, and click Add Backup Disk.
  3. Select the drive and choose to erase it if asked. Keep backup encryption on.
  4. Let the first backup run with the Mac plugged in. It will take a while, since it's a full backup.

The only downside is having to plug the drive in. For a desktop Mac, leave it connected permanently. For a laptop, plug it in whenever you're at your desk; Time Machine catches up automatically.

Option 2: A modern NAS over SMB

If you back up several Macs, or want backups to happen without plugging anything in, use a NAS that supports Time Machine over SMB. Current models from Synology, QNAP, TerraMaster, and others do.

The general setup is similar across brands:

  1. Create a dedicated shared folder for Time Machine, and a dedicated user account for backups.
  2. Enable SMB and set the minimum protocol to SMB2 or higher.
  3. Turn off AFP completely on the NAS. Leaving it enabled alongside SMB has caused connection problems for Golden Gate Macs.
  4. Enable the Time Machine option on the shared folder, often called "Bonjour Time Machine broadcast" or "Enable as Time Machine target."
  5. Set a quota on the share, so Time Machine doesn't fill the entire NAS.
  6. On the Mac, open System Settings > General > Time Machine, click Add Backup Disk, and select the NAS share.

If the NAS doesn't appear automatically, connect to it first with Finder > Go > Connect to Server using smb:// followed by its address, then add it.

Update the NAS firmware before you start. Older firmware may default to protocol settings Golden Gate won't accept.

Option 3: The community Time Capsule workaround

If you're attached to your Time Capsule, there's an open-source project, TimeCapsuleSMB, developed by a Microsoft engineer, that installs a modern version of Samba directly on the Time Capsule. That makes it reachable over SMB3 and visible in Finder again.

Know the trade-offs before you try it:

  • It's unofficial. Apple doesn't support it, and it modifies the device's software.
  • Only the fifth-generation Time Capsule (2013) restarts the Samba server automatically. Older models need a manual command after every restart or power cut, which makes backups quietly stop until someone notices.
  • It starts a new backup. Switching the Time Capsule to SMB creates a new Time Machine backup chain, so you don't keep adding to your old history.
  • The hardware is old. The newest Time Capsule is from 2013, and the drives inside are likely a decade old. A backup device you can't trust isn't a backup.

For most people, the workaround is a reasonable way to keep an old Time Capsule useful as a secondary copy, not a good primary backup.

Keep a second copy

While you're rebuilding your backups, it's a good moment to follow the classic advice of more than one copy. A simple setup:

  • Time Machine to a USB drive or NAS, for fast, automatic hourly recovery.
  • A second copy somewhere else: another drive you store away from the Mac, or a cloud backup service.

A fire, theft, or power surge that takes out your Mac usually takes out the drive sitting next to it too.

The short version

  • Golden Gate removed AFP and requires SMBv2 or SMBv3 with TLS 1.2 for network backups. Time Capsule can't do either.
  • Check with tmutil destinationinfo and tmutil latestbackup.
  • Your old backups still exist; keep them until your new setup is proven.
  • Fastest fix: a USB drive. Multi-Mac fix: a modern NAS over SMB with AFP turned off.
  • The Time Capsule workaround works, but treat it as a secondary copy at best.