External HDD connected to a Mac can another Mac use it as time machine backup?

[MrMister111]

I have an iMac and since I got rid of my time capsule I now use an external USB for time machine.

There is now a MacBook in the house, is it possible, when on the same network at home, for the MacBook to use the external HDD connected to my iMac asit’s time machine destination?

Would mean as the external HDD is connected to the iMac all the time that wouldn’t have to connect another USB to the MacBook for time machine.

Has anyone done this or isn’t it possible? If not is there a anyway to only have one drive for multiple Macs in a household, Ind heard NAS drives are unreliable.

Thanks

 

[davegoody]

Yes, it's pretty easy really. Here's something link that will help. I have a 27" iMac 5k, a 12" MacBook, a 13" MacBook Pro, all backing up to an external 4TB USB3 Hard Drive connected to a Mac Mini I use as a server (you don't need MacOS Server for this), and as a Plex Server too. Works faultlessly.

On the host machine (the one that will hold the Time Machine backup), ensure the destination drive for backups is ready (formatted to HFS+, as don't think APFS is valid (yet) for TM Machine backups, and create a folder called Time Machine (or whatever you want) Go to System Preferences / Sharing, Click the + button and navigate to the folder you want to share.

Once it's set to shared, right click the share that appears in the Shared Folders list and click Advanced Options. One of these is a "Share as a Time Machine backup destination".

You should then be able to add this as a time machine destination on the client machines.

Have fun.