Additionally, hosting some form of media server, storing images, mirroring to another unit, and more are all other reasons to get one. Many also natively support Apple's Time Machine backup tool for Macs. Using Time Machine, if a file is ever deleted, you can browse back through different states of your computer through time to recover the file, or even grab a previous version. If a Mac starts acting up, you can completely restore from any point in the past as well.
Apple's Time Capsule was a great option as both a destination for Time Machine backups and as a wireless router. Now that Apple has officially discontinued them, many are on the market for a new NAS device, so we rounded up the best consumer-grade options for anyone with a Mac or iOS device. There are a variety of My Cloud variants out there, but the most basic and widely appealing option is the My Cloud Home model.
Time Machine support is included as well as media streaming with DLNA, remote file access, and even an iTunes server. We particularly liked the ability to right-click a folder on our Mac and choose sync to copy all the files to the My Cloud. Mobile apps for iOS and Android make it easy to access on the go, though they aren't the best-designed ones out there.
There is also a web interface available if you don't happen to have one of your devices around. Using the USB port on the back, you can attach USB flash drives or hard drives to import files easily. Aside from the My Cloud Home, My Cloud Home Duo ups the storage capacity up to 16TB in total.
If you need additional RAID options, the My Cloud Expert or My Cloud Pro models are a better bet.. 139.00. B&H will not collect sales tax on orders shipped outside New York and New Jersey (Colorado and Vermont residents, see here). Alongside Western Digital, Seagate is another common brand when it comes to storage solutions.
Seagate Personal Cloud is an excellent NAS device with 4 TB of storage. It has a modern design, with a sleek black body and a horizontal layout, compared to the vertical orientation of the My Cloud. Family and friends can be invited to join with secure file sharing through private emails. It also supports Time Machine, with it working as a local drive when connected through USB or across the network with Ethernet. Using the Seagate Media app, files can be accessed remotely on an iOS or Android device.
Alternatively, media can be streamed to a variety of devices, including Apple TV, Chromecast, and Roku. Many TVs from LG and Samsung also work via DLNA. Not to mention Playstation and Xbox. The Apollo Cloud 2 from Promise has one of the easiest setups around, all of which can be done from your iPhone. As a bonus, the device supports Apple's Files app on the iPhone and iPad directly, allowing for easy file migration to and from your mobile device.
Connectivity wise, this NAS device has a USB 3.0 port for backups and file transfers, and an Ethernet port for connecting to the router. We took a look at it in February, and found it to be a great "set and forget" device with Time Machine compatibility, but lacking niceties found in other devices like media library streaming. Synology is known for their high-end network storage solutions.
The DS218j is an upgraded version of their popular DS216 model from a couple years ago. Unlike some of the others, the DS218j is sold diskless, and it is up to you insert your own pair of drives. Those drives can be set up in Synology Hybrid RAID, Basic, JBOD, RAID 0, and RAID 1 configurations. Synology offers myriad applications to add capabilities to the unit. Apps like DS File, DS Photo, DS Video, DS Cloud, and others really offer a ton of features for the Diskstation.
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