Using Time Machine and Tailscale for remote backups

Time Machine is a great feature and a great way to take advantage of your NAS if you have one.

A common limitation, however, is that it only works when you are on the same network as your NAS. For some, this isn't a problem, but if you travel regularly, this becomes an issue.

A great solution I found is using Tailscale. In short, Tailscale is a product that uses the WireGuard VPN system to help different computers directly connect with one-another. This means your computer is now able to connect to your NAS regardless of where you are. That's pretty cool!

Another essential aspect to bring up is security: Your data remains end-to-end encrypted meaning Tailscale can't read the data you send or receive from your NAS.

Currently, Tailscale is free for small-scale operations. You just need to create an account and install it on your Mac.

Now, you need to install Tailscale on your NAS. They provide multiple packages that can be installed on the most popular systems (in particular Synology and QNAP).

If your system isn't listed, a solution they do not mention directly is the use of a Subnet router: It would work in all cases but has the minor downside of requiring another server. The idea is that the router would proxy the traffic to the NAS. Thankfully, you do not need a powerful machine and any Raspberry Pi will do just fine.

Now, you just need to connect to the NAS with the private IP provided by Tailscale (it's the one starting with 100. ). And that's it you're done!

Wanting to use Time Machine over a VPN is common. It raises two main challenges:

The first point is now handled, but performance remains a problem. The underlying protocol we use to connect to the NAS is SMB, which struggles with latency. You should check the configuration of your NAS, especially to ensure that SMB Multichannel is enabled, as this will help. But even then, latency will degrade performance. Tailscale (and underneath Wireguard) helps as the connection to your NAS should be direct, contrary to what normal VPNs do. Data also flows through a UDP tunnel, which helps, as opposed to only using TCP.

I look forward to trying this system from another continent to see how well it holds up. My guess is that it will work, but only for minor backups. If you need to start Time Machine and upload hundreds of GBs, that might not be possible.

Good luck!