Since macOS Golden Gate released Apple has killed the support for making Time Machine backups on TimeCpasules because they removed AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) and ever since Windows 11 24H2 you can't access the SMB (Server Message Block) server on your TimeCapsule because Microsoft also removed support for older SMB1 protocols.
So you have to use 3rd party apps and change some SMB settings in Windows 11 to be able to access your data on the TimeCapsule.
In the article I'm going to show you how to update your TimeCapsule's SMB server for using it on macOS Golden Gate as the Time Machine backup source or how to access your data using Windows.
A developer James Chang and few other developers have created an application that updates the Samba server on the TimeCapsule and according to their GitHub page their application resolves these issues:
"Apple AirPort Time Capsules only support AFP and SMB1 natively. Apple has removed AFP support in macOS 27 (and removed SMB1 support from macOS a long time ago). TimeCapsuleSMB is a Samba setup that runs directly on the Time Capsule itself and makes it compatible with macOS 27+ computers. A computer running macOS 27+ can connect to the Time Capsule as a network share, and use it for Time Machine backups. Your old backup will automatically work after updating, no wipe required!"
So using TimeCapsuleSMB you can revive some lost functionality on Golden Gate but for me the story was a bit different I didn't need to use my TimeCapsule for Time Machine backups but I was using it as my file server on both macOS and Windows so when I first came across this application I was happy to get access to my TimeCapsule's data on Windows but after updating the Samba server on my TimeCapsule I've noticed a significant transfer speed drop while using Windows.
After doing some research I've realized the issue was because of the security enforcement for using old SMB server/clients on windows. Well we all know how old SMB protocol is and if you don't it's ok. SMB was introduced 1983 and yeah that's how old it is and over the years it got improved so there's no wonder why Microsoft killed it in Windows 11 24H2, it posed lots of security risks and none of the new devices where relying on SMB 1.0.
The instructions on their GitHub page will perfectly guide you through the steps you need to take to update you TimeCapsule so I'm not going to bore you with that but if you are using Windows and need to transfer large files between your Windows machine and your TimeCapsule you need to follow these instruction, but remember if you are using the following commands you have to be careful because they will disable the encryption for the SMB protocol on your Windows machine and it will be a security risk so once you're done revert back these settings to their original settings:
Open PoweShell on Windows and disable SecuritySignature for the SMB protocol in window to have full speed access to your data on the TimeCapsule:
To disable it:
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false -EnableSecuritySignature $false -Force
Restart-Service LanmanWorkstation -Force
And once you're done enable the SecuritySignature
To enable it:
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $true -EnableSecuritySignature $true -Force
Restart-Service LanmanWorkstation -Force
The latest version of TimeCapsuleSMB have the settings to disable or enable the SMB signing and encryption but I still needed to disable it on windows so I could transfer files at the normal speed.
