MacOS 27 Removes AFP Support, Breaking Time Capsule Backups

Published by Carl Sanson on June 17, 2026June 17, 2026

What You Need to Know

MacOS 27 Golden Gate removes AFP support entirely, breaking Time Capsule compatibility.
Time Capsule hardware relies on AFP and SMBv1, which no longer meet macOS security requirements.
Microsoft engineer created TimeCapsuleSMB, a GitHub project installing Samba to restore Time Capsule functionality.
Only fifth-generation Time Capsule models auto-restart Samba; earlier models require manual restart after power loss.

A Microsoft engineer’s GitHub project may be the only thing standing between aging Time Capsule hardware and the trash bin, as macOS 27 Golden Gate removes AFP support entirely in its first developer beta. The protocol’s removal was telegraphed: Apple deprecated the AFP client in macOS Sequoia 15.5, and a warning in System Settings during macOS Tahoe confirmed that full AFP removal was coming with the next major release.

AFP itself dates to 1988, built as part of Apple’s AppleTalk networking suite. SMB displaced it as the primary file-sharing protocol in OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and the ability to run an AFP server disappeared in macOS 11 Big Sur. The protocol lasted another five years as a client-side relic before Golden Gate finished the job.

The practical problem for Time Capsule owners is layered. All Time Capsule models rely on AFP and SMBv1, the 1987-era version of Server Message Block. macOS 27 requires SMBv2 or SMBv3 at minimum and enforces TLS 1.2 as a network security floor, a bar the hardware cannot clear in stock form. Anyone who relied on a Time Capsule for Time Machine backups now needs a compliant alternative before upgrading.

A community patch, with caveats

James Chang, an engineer at Microsoft, created TimeCapsuleSMB, a GitHub project that installs a Samba 4.24.3 build directly onto the Time Capsule. The device then advertises itself over Bonjour and accepts authenticated SMB3 connections, letting Finder connect via a standard SMB URL. Only the fifth-generation 2013 tower model auto-restarts Samba after a reboot; earlier models require a manual command after every power loss, which means backups can silently stop after an outage.

Switching to TimeCapsuleSMB also starts a fresh backup chain, with no continuity from previous Time Machine snapshots. No long-term restore testing has been published for the project.

Golden Gate is currently in developer beta, with a public beta due in July and general release in September. The update is compatible only with Apple silicon Macs, so Intel Mac users remaining on macOS 26 can continue using Time Capsule without interruption for now.

Source: macOS 27 Golden Gate Kills Time Capsule Support (macrumors.com)