Guide

How to back up a Mac to a QNAP NAS

Two ways to point a QNAP at your Mac's files: Apple's built-in Time Machine, or a continuous mirror. Here's how to set up the NAS side, mount the share, and configure either — or both.

Updated August 9, 2026. Menu labels vary by QTS version — the steps below describe the general flow.

Quick summary

There are two solid ways to back up a Mac to a QNAP NAS. Time Machine is built into macOS and keeps versioned snapshots, but it needs QNAP's own Time Machine option turned on for the shared folder you're backing up to. A continuous mirror tool like ThirdCopy is simpler on both ends — it keeps a folder on the NAS that matches a folder on your Mac, in real files you can browse in Finder, kept current automatically. Most people with a NAS end up happiest running both: Time Machine for whole-system version history, a mirror for fast, always-current access to what matters most.

Set up the QNAP side

Before your Mac can back up to a QNAP, the NAS needs a place to put the files and a login scoped to just that place. Do this once, from QNAP's web-based admin interface:

Create a shared folder. In Control Panel, under Privilege Settings → Shared Folders, create a new folder dedicated to backups rather than reusing one that already holds other data.
Create or reuse a QNAP user account. Under Users in Control Panel, set up an account (or use an existing one) and give it access to that specific shared folder, rather than backing up as the admin account.
Confirm SMB is enabled. In Control Panel, under Network & File Services → Win/Mac/NFS → Microsoft Networking, make sure Microsoft Networking (QNAP's name for SMB file sharing) is turned on. This is what lets a Mac see and mount the share at all.
If Time Machine is the goal, enable that on the folder. QNAP lets you set a shared folder's type to Time Machine directly in the folder-creation wizard, or in its settings afterward, which is what makes it selectable as a Time Machine destination from macOS.

Mount the share on your Mac

With the QNAP side set up, connect to it from the Mac that's going to back up:

In Finder, press Cmd+K (or go to Go → Connect to Server).
Enter smb:// followed by your QNAP's IP address or local hostname, then a slash and the shared folder name — for example smb://192.168.1.30/MacBackups.
Sign in with the QNAP user account you created, saving the password to your keychain so future reconnects don't need it retyped.
Once mounted, the QNAP should also appear under Finder's Network sidebar for easy reconnecting later.

Option A: Time Machine to QNAP

Open System Settings → General → Time Machine → Add Backup Disk, and select the QNAP share. It'll only be selectable if you set that shared folder's type to Time Machine, or enabled the option, in QNAP's Control Panel first.

The same protocol note applies here as with any NAS: Time Machine backup over the older AFP protocol is deprecated, and Apple has said it won't be supported starting with macOS 27. Set the share up over SMB — current QTS defaults do this already for Time Machine folders, but it's worth confirming, particularly on a QNAP that's been running the same setup for a long time.

Option B: a continuous mirror with ThirdCopy

If what you want is a current, browsable copy of specific folders rather than a Time Machine-only backup disk, point ThirdCopy at the QNAP share you mounted above. Setup is three steps:

Pick folders. Documents, Desktop, and Pictures are the common starting set, but any folder works.
Pick the destination. Choose the mounted QNAP share. ThirdCopy writes into its own subfolder there, never into the share's root.
Pick a schedule. Continuous is the default and watches your folders, backing up shortly after something changes. Hourly, daily, weekly, manual, and "when the destination connects" schedules are also available.

A QNAP-specific note worth knowing: a lot of QNAP owners use the box for more than file storage — Container Station, Plex, Surveillance Station, and other apps commonly run on the same hardware. That's a real strength of the platform, but it also means a QNAP can be busier and slower to respond over SMB than a NAS doing nothing but hold backup files, especially mid-transcode or during a container restart. That's not a sign anything is broken — it's just more going on. It's also exactly why a backup tool that quietly retries a slow or momentarily unreachable share, instead of failing outright, matters more on a QNAP than on a dedicated backup appliance. That's the behavior ThirdCopy is built around: a scheduled or continuous run that can't reach the NAS is skipped rather than reported as a failure, then picked back up automatically once the share responds again.

Why not both?

Time Machine and a mirror serve different needs, and a QNAP has plenty of room for both, especially split across separate shared folders. Time Machine's strength is version history — the ability to go back to how a file or an entire Mac looked at some earlier point. A mirror's strength is that what's on the NAS right now is a plain, current, browsable copy of your most important folders, reachable from any device on the network without going through a restore process. Running both costs a bit of disk space and nothing else.

Questions

Does QNAP support Time Machine backups?

Yes. QNAP shared folders can be set to a Time Machine type — either during creation or in the folder's settings afterward — which makes that share selectable as a backup disk from macOS under System Settings → General → Time Machine.

Why is my QNAP backup slow over SMB?

A few common causes: general network conditions (Wi-Fi versus wired Ethernet, distance from the router), the QNAP itself being busy running other apps like Container Station, Plex, or Surveillance Station, or SMB protocol version negotiation. Most of these aren't things you can fix from the Mac side — which is exactly why a backup tool that retries a slow connection instead of failing on it matters in practice.

Can I back up multiple folders to my QNAP at once?

Yes. Time Machine and a mirror tool like ThirdCopy can point at the same QNAP without conflict — Time Machine at one shared folder for whole-system version history, and ThirdCopy at the specific folders you care about most, continuously kept current in plain, browsable files.

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