Connect UGREEN NAS to Mac: Finder and Time Machine Setup

Use SMB to mount UGREEN NAS shared folders directly in Finder. For Time Machine, enable SMB and Bonjour in UGOS Pro, designate a backup folder, and add that folder under System Settings > General > Time Machine.

Choose the Right Mac-to-NAS Connection

For most Mac users, start with SMB. It works with Finder, supports shared folders, and provides the network connection Time Machine needs.

Connect UGREEN NAS to Finder with SMB

Connecting through Finder gives your Mac live access to files stored on the NAS. Opening, editing, moving, or deleting a file in the mounted folder changes the copy on the NAS. Mounting the folder does not create a second local copy.

1. Enable SMB in UGOS Pro

Sign in to UGOS Pro and open:

Control Panel > File Service > SMB

Enable the SMB service and apply the change.

UGREEN NAS usage tips: use an individual standard account instead of sharing the NAS administrator login.

2. Connect from Finder

Make sure the Mac and NAS are connected to the same local network.

Open Finder and press Command + K, or select:

Go > Connect to Server

Enter either the NAS device name or its local IP address:

smb://NAS-device-name

smb://192.168.1.100

You can also specify a shared folder:

smb://192.168.1.100/SharedFolder

Select Connect, enter your UGREEN NAS username and password, and choose the shared folder you want to mount. The folder then appears under Locations in the Finder sidebar.

UGREEN NAS Note: To find the IP address of your NAS, just enter: find.ugnas.com in your favorite web browser. This should provide you with any UGREEN devices on your local network and their respective IP addresses.

3. Reconnect after restarting your Mac

For a share you use every day, add the mounted folder under:

System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions

Add it to Open at Login while the share is mounted. The NAS must be online and reachable when macOS attempts to reconnect.

If you prefer to manage files through the desktop application, download the UGREEN NAS app for macOS. Finder remains the more direct option for working with SMB folders on the local network.

Set Up Time Machine on UGREEN NAS

This UGREEN NAS Time Machine workflow supports UGOS Pro firmware 1.9.0.0035 or later and macOS Monterey 12 or later.

Time Machine creates the first full backup of your Mac and then saves incremental changes. A dedicated NAS folder and storage quota keep those backups from consuming the entire storage pool.

1. Create a dedicated backup folder

In UGOS Pro, create a shared folder specifically for Time Machine. Avoid mixing ordinary documents, media, and Time Machine data inside the same folder.

2. Enable Bonjour and designate the folder

Open:

Control Panel > File Service > SMB

Confirm that SMB is enabled. Then open the advanced settings and enable Bonjour Service.

Select Set Time Machine Folder, choose the dedicated shared folder, and save the configuration.

Bonjour allows the Mac to discover the NAS as a Time Machine destination. Finder access can work even when Bonjour is disabled, which is why a NAS sometimes appears in Finder but remains missing from Time Machine.

4. Mount the folder on your Mac

In Finder, press Command + K and enter:

smb://NAS-IP-address

Sign in with your NAS account and mount the folder designated for Time Machine.

5. Add the NAS in Time Machine

On your Mac, open:

System Settings > General > Time Machine

Select Add Backup Disk, choose the UGREEN NAS folder, and select Set Up Disk. Enter the NAS credentials if macOS requests them.

Enable backup encryption when the option appears. With Time Machine encryption enabled, the Mac encrypts the network backup before storing it on the NAS. Someone who knows only the NAS share credentials cannot read the backup contents without the Time Machine encryption password.

Store that password somewhere secure. Losing it can make the encrypted backup unrecoverable.

The current Time Machine interface also lets you adjust backup frequency and exclude folders that do not need to be included.

6. Run the first backup over Ethernet

The first Time Machine backup copies the complete selected dataset. Later backups contain only new and changed data.

Wi-Fi performance varies with distance, interference, router capacity, and the Mac’s wireless connection. Use wired Ethernet for the first full backup when practical.

If Finder Works but Time Machine Cannot Find the NAS

Finder access proves that SMB and the account credentials work. It does not prove that the NAS has been configured as a Time Machine destination.

Check the following in order:

1. Confirm that SMB is enabled in UGOS Pro.
2. Confirm that Bonjour Service is enabled.
3. Confirm that a shared folder is designated as the Time Machine folder.
4. Mount that folder in Finder with the correct NAS account.
5. Verify that the Mac and NAS are on the same local network.
6. Check the shared-folder quota and available storage-pool capacity.
7. Confirm that the NAS firmware and macOS version meet the current requirements.
8. Remove and re-add the destination in Time Machine settings.

If the backup starts and later fails because the destination is full, check the folder quota, NAS Recycle Bin, and total storage-pool capacity. Time Machine normally removes older backup history as space becomes necessary, but it cannot exceed the quota set in UGOS Pro.

If the network connection is stable and a previous backup completed successfully, press and hold Option while opening the Time Machine menu, then select Verify Backups. This checks the network backup for problems.

Do not manually remove individual files from inside a Time Machine backup. The backup is a single sparsebundle image, not a browsable folder tree, and editing its contents from the NAS side risks corrupting the whole image rather than freeing space. Reinitializing should be the last resort because it deletes the existing backup history and starts another full backup.

What happens when the NAS is unavailable

When the NAS cannot be reached, Time Machine continues creating local snapshots on a Mac using APFS. These snapshots provide short-term access to previous file versions, but they do not replace the network backup.

Time Machine creates local snapshots roughly hourly and normally retains them for about 24 hours. It also keeps one snapshot from the most recent successful Time Machine backup until the Mac needs the space.

macOS counts snapshot storage as available and removes snapshots as they age or when another task needs capacity. Reconnect the Mac to the NAS to resume normal network backups. Apple explains this behavior in its guide to Time Machine local snapshots.

Give Time Machine Enough Storage

Apple recommends a Time Machine destination with at least twice the storage capacity of the Mac. A larger destination retains more historical versions before Time Machine needs to remove older backups.

These figures use the Mac’s storage capacity rather than its current amount of used space. A nearly empty 1TB Mac can still grow substantially during the life of the backup.

If several Macs use the same Time Machine shared folder, plan the quota around their combined capacity. For example, one 512GB Mac and one 1TB Mac need roughly 3TB as a starting point under the two-times guideline.

Each Mac creates its own sparsebundle inside the destination folder, but the shared-folder quota limits their combined storage. One Mac with rapid data growth can therefore reduce the space available for the others.

A quota protects the rest of the NAS from uncontrolled Time Machine growth. If you set it too low, the Mac will retain less backup history and may eventually report insufficient space.

Set Shared Folder Capacity Quota

To prevent Time Machine from using unlimited NAS storage, it is recommended to set a capacity quota for the shared folder:

1. Open the “Files” app and go to “Management” > “Shared folder management”.
2. Locate the shared folder set as the Time Machine folder and click “Edit”.
3. In the edit popup, switch to the General tab and scroll down to Capacity quota.
4. Check “Enable”, set the maximum quota, and click “OK” to save.

Choose the NAS that matches the Mac workflow

For Time Machine and ordinary household Mac files, the UGREEN NASync DH2300 provides two SATA bays and 1GbE networking. It supports SMB, Bonjour, and Time Machine. It does not support Docker, Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby.

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The UGREEN NASync DXP2800 is the stronger two-bay option when you need 2.5GbE networking, M.2 slots, expandable memory, Docker, or virtual machines.

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All UGREEN NAS models are sold diskless. Before ordering storage, check the exact HDD or SSD in the UGREEN NAS compatibility list.

If you are still comparing hardware, use the UGREEN NAS Selector to narrow the lineup by workload. You can also browse and filter UGREEN NAS models by bay count, network speed, and application support.

Do not run the live Photos library from a NAS share

Apple advises against storing the active Photos library on storage shared over a network or the internet. A live Photos library should remain on the Mac or on a directly attached drive formatted with APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Use Time Machine to back up the Photos library stored on your Mac. If you want independently accessible image files on the NAS, export the originals from Photos and store those exports in an ordinary shared folder.

This avoids library corruption and gives other authorized users access to the exported files without opening the Photos library package. See Apple’s Photos library storage guidance for the current limitation.

Use NFS only when the workflow requires it

NFS fits Linux, Unix, hypervisor, and application-specific workflows that expect NFS permissions or mount behavior.

1. Log in to the UGOS Pro system and go to [Control Panel] > [File Service] > [NFS].

2. Check the box to enable the NFS service, then click Apply to activate the settings.

3. Create or select a local folder on macOS to use as the NFS mount point.

4. In the “Applications” folder, open “Utilities” > “Terminal”. Drag and drop the target mount point folder into the Terminal command line, and the actual path of the folder will be shown in the Terminal. Copy this path.

5. In the Terminal on macOS, enter the mount command in the following format:

   sudo mount -t nfs -o resvport NAS_IP:/path/to/share /local/mount/point

   UGREEN NAS Example: If the NAS shared folder is “bak”, the NAS IP address is “172.17.70.242”, and the local path on macOS is the “abc” folder under “Downloads”, the command will be as follows:

   sudo mount -t nfs -o resvport,nfsvers=3 NAS_IP:/path/to/share /local/mount/point

Protect the Time Machine Copy

Time Machine protects files stored on the Mac by copying them to the NAS. It does not back up files that exist only on the NAS, and it does not protect the NAS against theft, fire, storage-pool corruption, or complete device failure.

RAID can keep the storage pool available after certain drive failures. It does not replace an independent backup.

Keep another copy of irreplaceable data outside the NAS. That copy can be an offline external drive, another NAS at a different location, or a properly configured cloud backup with version retention. Our guide to automating NAS-to-cloud backups explains the available methods and their tradeoffs.

After the first Time Machine backup finishes, verify the network backup and restore one test file. A completed backup job is useful only if the files can be recovered.