{"slug": "netatalk", "name": "Netatalk", "category": "files", "category_name": "Files, sync and backup", "description": "", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 7, "warners": 0, "score": 4.988, "rising": -1.64, "first": "2026-04-27", "latest": "2026-07-08", "why": "I use this for networked Time Machine backups for multiple Macs in my household. Works just as well over tailscale VPN.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I use this for networked Time Machine backups for multiple Macs in my household. Works just as well over tailscale VPN.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/netatalk/netatalk", "official_url": "https://netatalk.io", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Netatalk", "netatalk"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 766916080, "item_id": 47932255, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47932255", "by": "dwaite", "date": "2026-04-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "they'd be better off just creating a driver and server around the open source Netatalk implementation", "excerpt": "The AFP protocol was deprecated in 2013. The AFP server was removed in Big Sur, so over five years ago. This is removal of AFP client support. Apple's source is not public, but the protocol is still fully documented if someone wanted to create a new client and server. https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Networking/Conceptual/AFP/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40000854-CH1-S", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple is dropping AFP/TimeCapsule support in macOS 27"}, {"id": 766840400, "item_id": 47927525, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47927525", "by": "daneel_w", "date": "2026-04-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've used the Netatalk server for more than 15 years.", "excerpt": "Netatalk has been around for like 25 years: https://github.com/Netatalk/Netatalk Relevant to the discussion is that the project comes with an AFP client as well. I have no experience with the client but I've used the Netatalk server for more than 15 years.", "context": "", "use_case": "AFP file server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple is dropping AFP/TimeCapsule support in macOS 27"}, {"id": 766837568, "item_id": 47927348, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47927348", "by": "ecliptik", "date": "2026-04-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Netatalk [1] with AFP to share files between my Macintosh 512ke and MacBook", "excerpt": "This update broke my workflow! I use Netatalk [1] with AFP to share files between my Macintosh 512ke and MacBook via AppleTalk. Look, my setup works for me. Just add an option to re-enable AFP [2]. 1. https://github.com/Netatalk/netatalk 2. https://xkcd.com/1172/", "context": "retro Macintosh user", "use_case": "AFP file sharing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple is dropping AFP/TimeCapsule support in macOS 27"}, {"id": 766778496, "item_id": 47923656, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47923656", "by": "trillic", "date": "2026-04-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use this for networked Time Machine backups for multiple Macs in my household. Works just as well over tailscale VPN.", "excerpt": "I use this for networked Time Machine backups for multiple Macs in my household. Works just as well over tailscale VPN. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Netatalk", "context": "", "use_case": "networked Time Machine backups", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple is dropping AFP/TimeCapsule support in macOS 27"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "ecliptik", "context": "retro Macintosh user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47927348", "date": "2026-04-27"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["afp file server", "afp file sharing", "afp file sharing on nas", "networked time machine backups"], "compared": [{"slug": "samba", "name": "Samba", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47923010", "title": "Apple is dropping AFP/TimeCapsule support in macOS 27", "mentions": 6}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48827325", "title": "How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 781279299, "item_id": 48829956, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48829956", "by": "MrDOS", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I will continue to run Netatalk side-by-side with Samba", "excerpt": "Some other things I find useful on NASes: Install avahi-daemon. Samba will automatically register with it to advertise SMB/CIFS to macOS and Linux clients over DNS-SD. Install wsdd2 so that your server will be auto-discovered by Explorer on Windows 10+ clients with SMB 1.0 disabled, too. Your Linux hostname is probably lower-case, but by default, Samba publishes a capitalized rendering of the hostname to NetBIOS and ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS"}, {"id": 766916080, "item_id": 47932255, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47932255", "by": "dwaite", "date": "2026-04-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "they'd be better off just creating a driver and server around the open source Netatalk implementation", "excerpt": "The AFP protocol was deprecated in 2013. The AFP server was removed in Big Sur, so over five years ago. This is removal of AFP client support. Apple's source is not public, but the protocol is still fully documented if someone wanted to create a new client and server. https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Networking/Conceptual/AFP/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40000854-CH1-S", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple is dropping AFP/TimeCapsule support in macOS 27"}, {"id": 766847664, "item_id": 47927979, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47927979", "by": "jychang", "date": "2026-04-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "I've already built it: https://github.com/jamesyc/TimeCapsuleSMB This runs Samba 4 on the Apple Time Capsule.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple is dropping AFP/TimeCapsule support in macOS 27"}, {"id": 766840400, "item_id": 47927525, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47927525", "by": "daneel_w", "date": "2026-04-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've used the Netatalk server for more than 15 years.", "excerpt": "Netatalk has been around for like 25 years: https://github.com/Netatalk/Netatalk Relevant to the discussion is that the project comes with an AFP client as well. I have no experience with the client but I've used the Netatalk server for more than 15 years.", "context": "", "use_case": "AFP file server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple is dropping AFP/TimeCapsule support in macOS 27"}, {"id": 766837568, "item_id": 47927348, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47927348", "by": "ecliptik", "date": "2026-04-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Netatalk [1] with AFP to share files between my Macintosh 512ke and MacBook", "excerpt": "This update broke my workflow! I use Netatalk [1] with AFP to share files between my Macintosh 512ke and MacBook via AppleTalk. Look, my setup works for me. Just add an option to re-enable AFP [2]. 1. https://github.com/Netatalk/netatalk 2. https://xkcd.com/1172/", "context": "retro Macintosh user", "use_case": "AFP file sharing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple is dropping AFP/TimeCapsule support in macOS 27"}, {"id": 766834161, "item_id": 47927135, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47927135", "by": "wtallis", "date": "2026-04-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I don't recall when I stopped running netatalk on my NAS", "excerpt": "That's when Samba gained official easy to use support for being used with Time Machine. I'm pretty sure it was possible long before then, IIRC by changing a setting on the Mac to allow selecting unsupported network volumes. I don't recall when I stopped running netatalk on my NAS and switched to pure Samba, but I think it was before 2018.", "context": "", "use_case": "AFP file sharing on NAS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple is dropping AFP/TimeCapsule support in macOS 27"}, {"id": 766778496, "item_id": 47923656, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47923656", "by": "trillic", "date": "2026-04-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use this for networked Time Machine backups for multiple Macs in my household. Works just as well over tailscale VPN.", "excerpt": "I use this for networked Time Machine backups for multiple Macs in my household. Works just as well over tailscale VPN. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Netatalk", "context": "", "use_case": "networked Time Machine backups", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple is dropping AFP/TimeCapsule support in macOS 27"}]}