Time Capsule question

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I've been using a Time Capsule for a couple of years now and find it works well--especially with Snow Leopard. One limitation, though, is the fact that I can't easily access backed-up files for one computer from another computer. Is there a reliable 3rd-party fix for this?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by somjay View Post


    I've been using a Time Capsule for a couple of years now and find it works well--especially with Snow Leopard. One limitation, though, is the fact that I can't easily access backed-up files for one computer from another computer. Is there a reliable 3rd-party fix for this?



    If someone could operate your Mac from his/her computer they ought to be able to pull up any file from your Mac's Time Capsule/Time Machine backup data set(s) and send it anywhere, from your Mac. Including to him/herself, of course.



    Well, 'someone' can! Just run (FREE) cross-platform Teamviewer at the same time on your Mac and on that other computer. Exchange ID numbers and passwords and Tada! you can see the other's desktop and work on his/her machine as if you were sitting in front of it.



    Got to try this particular thing myself though!

    I've run Teamviewer for 2 years on my iMac and MBP, on my mother's iMac, and on my sister's iMac, MBA, and iPhone (and she lives across the Atlantic Ocean...), because I'm their 'helpdesk' and 'sysadmin', but I've never yet tried to access their Time Machine backup data sets remotely. Gotta try it. I see no reason why that wouldn't work with Teamviewer.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    dr millmossdr millmoss Posts: 5,403member
    How is that better than the built-in screen sharing?
  • Reply 3 of 7
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss View Post


    How is that better than the built-in screen sharing?



    Afaik the MacOSX built-in screen sharing works on a LAN, not across the internet. Teamviewer does. Also, Teamviewer is cross-platform: works from Macs to Windows machines and v.v. I'm not sure the MacOSX built-in screen sharing is cross-platform.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    dr millmossdr millmoss Posts: 5,403member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rokcet Scientist View Post


    Afaik the MacOSX built-in screen sharing works on a LAN, not across the internet. Teamviewer does. Also, Teamviewer is cross-platform: works from Macs to Windows machines and v.v. I'm not sure the MacOSX built-in screen sharing is cross-platform.



    I'm pretty sure that's not the case. A router would have to be set up to port forward, but otherwise I don't think there's any local network restriction on OSX screen sharing (which I believe is a flavor of VNC).
  • Reply 5 of 7
    Built in screen-sharing works just fine across the internet. Even works with skinny pipes (but the video you receive of their screen gets choppy as the bandwidth drops.)



    Accessed through iChat (between Macs) ... other users can grant (or not grant) you access to their computer via screen-sharing. No port-forwarding required.



    That method does NOT work cross-platform.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    somjaysomjay Posts: 2member
    Hmmmmm--thanks, but I wasn't thinking of remote access. I mean if the computer you have connected to Time Capsule fails, is there any way of getting access to its backed-up data through another computer physically connected to the Time Capsule.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by somjay View Post


    Hmmmmm--thanks, but I wasn't thinking of remote access. I mean if the computer you have connected to Time Capsule fails, is there any way of getting access to its backed-up data through another computer physically connected to the Time Capsule.



    yes.



    You can open the file "Backups.backupdb" (on the Time Capsule volume), and search for the file ... when you get to a list of folders titled by dates, find the one titled "Latest"... it's an alias that'll point you to the most recent version of your files.
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