Hacker News Reader

Comment by astrange | Hacker News Reader

Have you found Time Machine?

How does it help? Can I use Time Machine to backup my iPod to AirPort Time Capsule?

You can use Time Machine to automatically back up your MacBook to the Time Capsule, and as .../MobileSync/Backup/ will obviously be a part of that backup, your iPod backups will come along for the ride as well.

I could be wrong, but my impression is kovrik wants to back up the iPod to the Time Capsule directly. In other words, the backup shouldn't go through the MacBook at all (or, speculating based on my experience, kovrik wants to avoid storing the entire iPod backup on the MacBook as a step in the process).

Yes. That is what I mean. My wife and I both have 6 Apple devices, 624GB in total (well, yes, they are not full yet, but still) + 1 2TB AirPort Time Capsule, which could store all these GBs easily. All devices (except for old iPod) have WiFi and can connect to the capsule.

Do you know how I transferred my photos to the capsule last time?

I had to:

1) Connect iPhone to Macbook (via USB cable, not wifi)

2) Run shitty Photos app

3) Copy all pictures to the capsule...well, NO! Select 50% of pictures (because I don't have enough space on Macbook), press Import all selected pictures (don't forget to check Delete after import!)

4) Wait, wait, wait

5) Then drag all imported pictures to the capsule

6) Wait, wait, wait

7) Then Google where Photos stores all photos

8) Delete them

9) Repeat for the rest pictures

It is even more difficult if you want to transfer YOUR music from iPod to the capsule. I had to make a backup, then google backup location, then copy everything manually (bad thing is that all files have cryptic names).

Apple loves to say that all their devices are integrated with each other. What I want is, for example, to press 'Transfer all pictures/music/whatever to Time Capsule' and just wait until it is done (via WiFi).

> What I want is, for example, to press 'Transfer all pictures/music/whatever to Time Capsule' and just wait until it is done (via WiFi).

It's not an Apple product, but "Plex" can transfer your photos to your own harddrive/library if you buy the pro version. You can for example run the Plex server on your Mac or on a Raspberry Pie, and then let Plex synchronize your photos to your Capsule over wifi or 3G.

Thanks for that, I'll give it a try!

Another solution (I'm using it with Apple devices but it might work with other type of hw) could be to use Image Capture app included in macOS/OS X which lets you access the photos directly and exporta them to a folder of your choice.

Edit: it also allows to delete them directly after import

Yeah, I found this app accidentally and would say it is much better than Photos because it just works the way you expect.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com