AirPort Extreme and an AirPort Time Capsule
It’s not just Intel code — after a period of undeath, Time Capsule’s time is coming, with Apple cutting off support for Time Machine backups using the hardware in macOS 27.
Time Capsules, Apple’s long-discontinued network hardware, allowed users to back up their Macs and hardware over a home network. However, the days of the hardware still being usable by Mac users are running out.
X user @StellaFudge, formerly leaker @Choco_bit, posted about a change in the Time Machine settings of macOS 26. The screenshot discusses how an AirPort Disk being used for Time Machine backups is not recommended.
There is also a message advising that the next major version of macOS “will no longer support AirPort Disk, or other Time Capsule disks, for Time Machine backups.”
The message clearly advises that macOS 27 won’t allow Time Machine to use an AirPort Disk or Time Capsule for backups.
While there is no forthcoming explanation from Apple as to why support is going away, it is probably due to the depreciation of supportive technologies.
In enterprise release notes for macOS Sequoia 15, Apple advised that support for the Apple Filing Protocol, AFP, was being deprecated and removed in a future macOS release. Time Capsule relies on AFP for its connectivity, but it also works with SMBv1 (Server Message Block).
Apple has still included support for SMBv1 in macOS 26, but only as a deprecated measure when working with older software and devices. It prefers to use newer SMB versions for the sake of security.
So far, Apple hasn’t announced any change of support for SMBv1 in macOS, aside from being a fallback option when later versions of SMB are not available. That doesn’t seem like an eternal allowance, though.
For the moment, Mac users using the macOS 26 developer beta will still be able to use Time Machine with a Time Capsule. It does mean that they will have to consider other ways to back up their Mac over the next year, ahead of the end of support.
The change should not affect drives used for backups external to an AirPort or Time Capsule. This is under the assumption that HFS+ support sticks around for macOS 27, which it not at all clear.
