Future Time Machine Support on TP-Link Routers (macOS 27 Compatibility)
Hi there,
I just noticed that with the latest macOS 26 Tahoe beta, Apple has announced that AFP network volumes will no longer be supported for Time Machine backups starting with macOS 27.
Since I primarily use my Deco BE65 for Time Machine backups, I wanted to ask if there are any plans to support this functionality in the future – for example, by improving SMB support for Time Machine.
Currently, no TP-Link routers support the APFS file format required for Time Machine disks, and formats like exFAT or NTFS aren’t compatible with Time Machine over SMB either. So simply switching to SMB doesn’t work unless the router is explicitly designed to support Time Machine via SMB with a compatible backend (e.g., sparsebundle support and proper service advertisement).
Or maybe I’m just missing something – I haven’t found any additional Time Machine-specific settings in the Deco app besides the simple on/off toggle.
I’ve attached some screenshots from the current beta for context.
Thanks in advance and best regards!


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@Johndis same here. No update yet. I can't use Time Machine to backup to a usb-connected drive over deco.
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Do you have an update for the community on enabling this feature? (broadcast SMB over Bonjour)?
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Hi, thanks for your time and patience. I'm afraid there hasn't been any updated news.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Merry Christmas.
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TP will ultimately have to address this issue for new MacOS. Why not address it now for people who don't have a way to backup to existing macOS?!
TP has been dragging this for months and months. This should be a simple change to make usb disc available as SMB instead of AFP.
is anyone working on this? What is the timeline? When can we expect to be able to backup using Time Machine to a disc connected to TP?
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@C-Link Just to add on, I would also like to see this feature!
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