Airport Extreme and Time Machine. Despite now being officially supported, does it work?
The subject says it all. After purchasing the new tall Airport Extreme and connecting a WD 2TB drive (as I had with the earlier AE) I have yet to have a backup execute properly. It will be fine for a few days then TM will announce it's done a verification and a new backup is required. Thank goodness I have offsite backup since TM is doing absolutely SFA for me at the moment.
Yuri van Hoof wrote:
Now I connected this USB External Disk to the Airport so I can use it as an network disk. This is working as well. I can get it mounted and read and write on it. Nice...so far.
Now I want TIme Machine to update/compleet my latest back-up, and here the problems start.
I hate to have to tell you this, but backing-up that way is unreliable and not supported by Apple. See: Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk.
But then I got the message; disk is full. Hmm?
Yes, because Time Machine stores backups differently when done over a network, it doesn't see the ones made while directly connected. See the blue box in #17 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
Does anybody now how to get the old 'Backups.backupdb' connected ore recognized as the ONE which TM should compleet?
Realistically, you have two choices:
Knowing the considerable risks, as detailed in the first link, if still you want to back up wirelessly, connect the disk to your Mac and erase it. Then connect it to your Airport and let Time Machine start fresh.
To return to backing-up while directly-connected, delete the <Computer Name>.sparsebundle from the top level of the drive.
Similar Messages
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I have been using a Mac Mini with an external hard and Time Machine. I bought an Airport Extreme and have had problem setting up the hard drive using the USB port on the Airport Extreme. I also just recently bought a Mac Book Air and hope to have both computers back up to the external hard drive using Time Machine and Airport Extreme. I have been using the optical drive from the Mac mini to load programs into the Mac Book Air. I think I'm just getting confused in Finder. I am just not seeing the hard drive. I ended up plugging the hard drive back into the Mac Mini and that is work fine again. How do I setting the external hard drive up to the AirPort Extreme and use for both computers? Or at least to start with the Mac mini.
It's critical to understand that Time Machine (TM) stores backups differently between local and network drives. That would mean the TM backup on your locally attached USB hard drive will not be directly useable when it is connected to the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS). There is a way to copy a local version to a network version, but it is not fool-proof. When you do connect this drive and point TM to it, TM will start a brand new backup, leaving your existing backup as is.
If your current backup is critical to you, you may want to consider getting a second USB drive to attach to the Extreme and use your existing one as a backup ... or use TM's multi-backup process to backup to more than one destination drive alternatively.
So, at this point, you may want to make a decision on how you want to go forward to help provide a solution for you.
To directly answer your question, when you go to select a destination for a Time Machine backup, the drive(s) that show up under "Backup Disks" are those that TM already recognizes and has backed up to. Those listed under "Available Disks" are drives (either local or on the network) that TM can back up to. -
Problem with Airport extreme and Time machine
I recently purchased a 320gig external hard drive for Time machine. I connected it to my Airport extreme but it is not being recognized for some unknown reason. If I directly connect it to my iMac it works perfectly. I've updated with the latest firmware and it should work via USB with Airport extreme. Any suggestions why it is not working?
angelop wrote:
I have used the following for about two years.
-MBP, Airport Extreme, External HD (1TB) for my time machine.
You probably know, that's "iffy" and +*not supported by Apple.+* See the Using Time Machine with a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
To get around this issue, I have switched off the Time Machine, and am only turning on once a week or so, to grab any changes or additions I've made. I've been doing this for about 6 months now with no problems.
Now whenever I do this, (It should only be backing up an album or two from iTunes,) it tries to back up my whole system again. EVERY TIME. It did not do this before.
If you go too long between backups, Time Machine will do a new, full backup. And once it decides to do that, it will keep trying until it succeeds. There are some other possibilities as well. See #D2 in the Using Time Machine with a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme *User Tip,* also at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum.
If none of those seem to explain it, see #A1 there; download the TM Buddy widget, copy and post the messages here.
Why are you only backing-up once a week? Time Machine was designed to back up changes hourly, as long as your Mac is awake and the TC is in range. It will protect you best that way, and unless there's a problem, those backups will usually be very quick.
But if you're only going to back up once a week or so, then Time Machine is not the best app for you. See Kappy's post on Basic Backup, complete with links to the web sites of each product. -
Issues with Airport Extreme and Time Machine
I have a Airport Extreme that is connected to a cable modem, that airport extreme is then hardwired connected to a time machine.
Recently, I have had trouble connecting wirelessly to the airport extreme. Even more troubling is that I can no longer can connect via ethernet to the time machine directly. In other words, the only way I can connect is by directly connecting to the airport extreme.
Any help would be great. Oh I have a MBP with the latest updates and a MB that is not connecting to the time machine or wireless to the extremeangelop wrote:
I have used the following for about two years.
-MBP, Airport Extreme, External HD (1TB) for my time machine.
You probably know, that's "iffy" and +*not supported by Apple.+* See the Using Time Machine with a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
To get around this issue, I have switched off the Time Machine, and am only turning on once a week or so, to grab any changes or additions I've made. I've been doing this for about 6 months now with no problems.
Now whenever I do this, (It should only be backing up an album or two from iTunes,) it tries to back up my whole system again. EVERY TIME. It did not do this before.
If you go too long between backups, Time Machine will do a new, full backup. And once it decides to do that, it will keep trying until it succeeds. There are some other possibilities as well. See #D2 in the Using Time Machine with a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme *User Tip,* also at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum.
If none of those seem to explain it, see #A1 there; download the TM Buddy widget, copy and post the messages here.
Why are you only backing-up once a week? Time Machine was designed to back up changes hourly, as long as your Mac is awake and the TC is in range. It will protect you best that way, and unless there's a problem, those backups will usually be very quick.
But if you're only going to back up once a week or so, then Time Machine is not the best app for you. See Kappy's post on Basic Backup, complete with links to the web sites of each product. -
Airport Extreme and Time Machine backups using a USB drive
Hi there,
I checked through the threads/FAQ's for an answer to this but couldn't find anything...
I have an AE set up with a USB drive attached as my Time Machine backup drive. When I start my MBP up and initiate a forced backup, Time Machine will go and find my drive (via the AE), mount it and carry out the backup without a problem. However, if I start my MBP up and wait for the scheduled hourly backup, TM doesn't see the drive (or perform the backup) unless I go and manually mount the drive first.
I realise I can put the drive in my login items to auto mount on boot but I wondered if there was a way to get the scheduled backups to work without doing this (as with the forced backups).
Thanksmattschenker wrote:
Pondini,
Actually, I wasn't thinking about theft. I was just thinking that for security in a possible data-loss "event," it was better to have the backup drive physically separated from the main computer. But maybe that's not necessary.
That's unlikely. A power surge could take out both your Mac and connected external HD. You do have your Macs on good surge protectors or, better yet, U.P.S. systems, right? If not, see [Using a U.P.S. System with a Mac|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/UPS.html].
But wherever the external HD is, unless it's on a surge protector or U.P.S., it's still exposed.
Other things causing data loss are even less likely to affect your Time Machine drive (especially if there's no other data on it).
Yes, I could hook something up to my Mac Mini. Good point! And that would really keep it separated, since it would be in an entirely different floor. But then again, Time Machine backups done wirelessly would probably take forever.
The first one, yes. But if you have a good WIFI connection, subsequent ones shouldn't take too long or be too obtrusive, except when you've updated a lot of data (like installing an OSX update).
See #22 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for setup instructions.
But this just shows that there are a lot of options.
Yes.
I do wish Apple would solve the problem of Time Machine working via the Airport Extreme. That would be my favorite option.
Not likely. Time Machine's been out since Leopard, about 3 years, and backups via an Extreme have never been reliable or supported. Just why they work well on a Time Capsule, or even a USB drive connected to a TC, but not an Airport, is a mystery, but that's the way it is.
But it's always a good idea to keep secondary backups. See #27 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for some suggestions. -
I didn't realize that Time Capsule will only support the print function of a wireless multifunction printer. So I want to use Extreme for my network to have full use of my printer and use TC as the Time machine backup only. How to I make the connections?
Thanks for your response and this is getting complicated but I just purchased a new iMac as well as the Airport TC. I've had the Airport Extreme for a year or so. The Airport Extreme worked perfectly with my old iMac wirelessly and I had all functions of my printer with no problems. I was expecting the same with the TC. But the instruction that came with TC say to connect the printer to the TC via USB...which I did. And the print function worked perfectly but nothing else. In researching I discovered that when wired that way the TC only supports the print function...not scan or fax or anything else. I tried going wireless since my AE worked perfectly via wireless but I got no printer functions at all that way. But I'm wondering also if I tried that during a time I was having other issues...I had to delete and re-add my printer which solved some other problems. I may try that again...and see if I can get all print functions with just the TC connected
As far as connecting both your AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule on your network, we're not clear on exactly how you want to do this. Will the AirPort Extreme connect to your modem using an Ethernet cable and the Time Capsule connect to the AirPort Extreme using an Ethernet cable?.......or......do you want the Time Capsule to connect to the network using wireless?
Well... first of all I would like not to have to use the AE at all...I would prefer using just my TC for network, all print functions and Time Machine backup if that's possible. My printer will not accept Ethernet connections (Canon MX512).
After failing at getting this to work, I decided I would try to use my AE for net and print functions and just use my TC for Time Machine backup. I tried several different connection configurations with no success until finally I connected cable modem to my AE via Ethernet and went wireless with the AE and printer. but connected the AE to the TC via Ethernet and amazingly everything worked like a charm (for a while) and I was patting myself on the back for being so smart. But now I find that the connection only lasts for a short time. If I leave it for a while the TC goes invisible...or at least I see a message saying the Ethernet is unplugged...but it is not... and I lose internet connection even though I have a green light on my AE. So now I'm at a loss. I don't know why I keep losing network signal and why my system thinks the Ethernet is unplugged.
So... after all this...I figured I wasn't so smart after all and I must have things wired incorrectly.
So... it sounds like you are saying I should go back and try again to get my new TC to work as I want it to via wireless instead of connecting via USB...is that correct? Could you tell me exactly how I should wire my equipment from cable modem to AE and/or TC to achieve net capability, full functions of my printer and Time Machine backup...
Thanks... -
Am replacing airport extreme with Time Machine and want to upgrade from Tiger to Snow leopard. Am told I should manually back up into T Machine before OS update but set up utility won't allow anything with OS below 10.5 and I'm 10.4.11. What to do?
I think you mean you are replacing your Airport Extreme with a Time Capsule. Time Machine is software integrated into OS X 10.5 & 10.6 used to automatically backup a system to an external HD. Time Capsule is an Airport Extreme that has a hard disk integrated into it that can be used for storage or as a Time Machine backup drive.
Because you are currently on Tiger 10.4.x you can backup to a external HD using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. Having a backup is very wise before doing any major system update. After you have created the backup and have successfully upgraded to Snow Leopard you can still use the external HD for many things. The strategy I'd recommend is to use the new Time Capsule as your Time Machine backup and then use the external HD as backup using SuperDuper or CCC. Redundant backups is wise because backups can (and do) fail too! In addition both SD and CCC are bootable clones, this is useful in that if your internal HD crashes you can boot from a cloned drive and continue working until the internal HD is replaced.
Below are some links to some articles from MacWorld, I would recommend reading them where you find a common theme, redundant backups. Backup Plan I, Backup Plan II & Backup Plan III.
Roger -
Just bought a brand new airport extreme and having trouble with it being recognized. My mac is version 10.5.8. What should I do?
The new AirPort Extreme needs the 6.x version of AirPort Utility, which comes packed in with Lion 10.7.5 or Mountain Lion 10.8.x......or......you can also configure the device using an iPhone or iPad running a recent iOS.
From Apple's Specifications:
Setup and Administration
iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 5 or later and AirPort Utility 1.3
Mac with OS X Lion v10.7.5 or later and AirPort Utility 6.3
A few options.....
Borrow another Mac running Lion or Mountain Lion for 10-15 minutes and set it up. The Mac running 10.5.8 will be able to connect to the wireless....but it will not be able to make any changes to the configuration of the Extreme.
Update to Lion or Mountain Lion.....but check first to make sure that your Mac will support the operating system first.
Use....or borrow an iPhone or iPad to set up the Extreme -
Still possible to use airport extreme for time machine?
I know apple doesn't officially support it but I remember with one of the airport utility updates, it allowed you to use an external HDD with an airport extreme for time machine backups. I tried hooking my external western digital to my airport extreme and it showed up as an airport disk, however I couldn't get time machine to access it. Is there a way I can get this to work?
I followed the instructions found on the link above and had a couple of issues:
1) Instructions state "Make sure 'Share disks over Ethernet WAN port' is checked." Could not find that check box anyplace.
2) Using first disk and then airport passwords as security, the disk does not show up in the Time Machine preferences. Am I to mount the disk first? Does not state that in the instructions.
3) If I mount the disk in the finder (security is a disk password), I am then able to see the drive in Time Machine and the back-up commences. The disk icon appears on my desktop and contains machine.sparcebundle. Another "disk" also appears on my desktop with the name "Time Machine Backups" and which contains the folder Backups.backupdb. I am also able to remotely attach to the machine doing the TM backup from another mac on the network and login.
4) Back-up started and appeared to go well (240G backed up with several partials after that) until I rebooted.
5) After reboot, it was frozen in "Making backup disk available" Opened preferences and it locked up. Had to force a reboot.
6) After restart, manually mounted the extreme external, opened Time Machine prefs, and when selecting back up location saw one with a red "∅" which I could not select and the other the extreme drive with 240G used. Attempted the back-up to the drive and I got "Making backup disk available" on the menu bar and the same message on TM system prefs with a spinning beach ball. Have been able to force quit system prefs and sent to error log to apple, but a forced reboot is still required because the TM icon on the menu continues to spin. Even a "sudu shutdown -r now" in terminal will not reboot the machine. Get to a blue screen with the spinning tick marks and it just sits there.
I wonder if the fact that I could not find "Make sure 'Share disks over Ethernet WAN port' is checked." is the issue. It does not appear to be available in the current version of the extreme base 7.4.2. Could those of you who were able to configure it with a previous version get grandfathered in? I wonder if I need to manually mount the extreme hard disk each time I reboot the machines. I am not sure how to do that but will try and see if it works.
I will be losing internet and e-mail access for a few weeks so will look at this thread again when I return. -
Airport extreme with time machine
Airport extreme with time machine bought in September 2007 can it be reformatted to use as a back up drive for other than time machine and how. It is 1TB but can only seem to get two disk images of e
Airport extreme with time machine
This sounds like you have a Time Capsule, correct?
can it be reformatted to use as a back up drive for other than time machine
You can place other type of files and folders on the Time Capsule hard drive. No additional formatting is required for this.
and how
Use the Finder to click on the Time Capsule under the SHARED heading on the left side of a Finder window
Click on the Time Capsule icon, then double click on the folder named "Data" (unless you have renamed the drive), and "Data" will mount on the desktop.
You can drag/drop or copy/paste files to "Data" just like any other hard drive
t is 1TB but can only seem to get two disk images of e
The disk images contain all of your backups. Leave them alone. -
My Airport Extreme and Time Capsule both cannot do not mount my Seagate USB external hard.
My Airport Extreme and Time Capsule both cannot do not mount my Seagate USB external hard.
I am running OS 10.7.5
Both the TC and AE are updated to 7.6.1
The Seagate drive in formatted: Journaled HFS+
I tried everything on Apple's Article: HT1331 and the basic reboots and restarts.
"Next"It sounds like you may be confusing "mount" with "recognize".
Connect the drive to the USB port on the AirPort Extreme
Open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
Click on the AirPort Extreme icon, then click Edit
Click the Disks tab
Does the AirPort Extreme "recognize" your hard drive? If yes, it will be displayed in the window.
See example below of a WD 500 GB drive connected to the AirPort Extreme.
If your drive is formatted HFS+ and it does not appear here, then you will almost certainly need to use a powered USB hub with the hard drive.....even if the hard drive has its own power supply. The USB port on the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule is under powered.
Post back when the drive is "recognized" and we will next "mount" the drive.....although you likely already know how to do this. -
Cisco router RVS4000 with Airport extrem and Time capsule.
Problem droping connection to internet when is Time capsule in extended wifi mode. When I turn off wifi on time capsule Airport extreme work fine.
Airport extreme and Time capsule is conected via ETH.
Any idea ?
Thaks
B.If you use ethernet to connect the AE and TC .. you must NOT extend wifi.. you use Create a wireless network. And setup with same name and security. You are using roaming network.. not extended wireless.. if you want to use extended wireless no ethernet
see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4260 -
I have installed my Airport Extreme and have conencted it directly to a modem. WIFI works fine. However I do not see my LAN network (printer. NAS,..).
Analysis:
Scen#1: When I connect the LAN port of the Airport Extreme to a switch (as input) and connect the other LAN devices also to the switch, those LAN devices do not have access to the internet. Also connecting the iPAD with WIFI to the Airport Extreme I cannot find my LAN printer and other devices.
Scen#2: When I connect the LAN port of the Airport Extreme to a router X (as input) and connect the router X to the same switch, and the LAN devices to the switch, those LAN devices do have access to the internet. Also connecting the iPAD with WIFI to the router X I can find my LAN printer and other devices in the LAN network.
Question what has impacted the behaviour of the Airport Extreme, not to detect the devices in the LAN network. Why is the use of a switch directly behind the Airport Extreme not working (no internet access for the other devices and Airport Extreme is not the basis station for the LAN network)?Your scenario #1 is a correct configuration and should work. It seems as though your Extreme is not acting as a router as I believe you intend.
Most likely, you need to reset your modem. Power it down and let it rest for a few moments. Some need longer than others. Then, I recommend you "hard reset" your Extreme (see below) and configure it again, after the modem has been reset. From then on do not change what is connected to your modem without powering it down first.
Once configured, confirm your Extreme's wireless network works as expected and that your iPad and every other wireless device can load web pages. Then, connect the printer directly to one of the Extreme's LAN ports and confirm that it works as well. After that it should work equally well with a switch between it and the Extreme, as should every other wired device connected to the switch. This assumes your switch is an unmanaged device requiring no specific configuration.
Scenario #2: Having a router connected downstream of another is not a normal configuration, so don't pursue that as a solution. It will only distract you from determining the problem. If you want to repurpose Router X as another device do so only after everything else is working to your satisfaction.
To "hard reset" an AirPort Base Station: make sure it's powered up, then press and hold its tiny reset button and keep it depressed for five to ten seconds, long enough for its LED to flash amber rapidly. Release the reset button. Then, the LED will glow amber steadily for about a minute. Then, it will flash amber, slowly, about once every second or two, waiting for you to configure it with AirPort Utility. -
External Drive connected to Airport Extreme, need Time Machine 3 Mac's Help
I own an Airport Extreme and just recently added two new Macs with the Time Machine feature to our household. I would like to use Time Machine to backup to my Airport Extreme that has a 500 GB hard drive connected. It seems Apple has this blocked since they have released the Time Capsule version of the router. Is there a work around this feature so I don't have to go out an purchase what I basically have already got? Please help. We would like to upgrade our older macs to Leopard and us the same system to back them up as well. Please advise. Thank you.
I had my USB drive on my APE working with Time Machine under 10.5.1 very reliably. A few days ago however, I needed to suspend a backup operation, and when I came back to restart it, time machine refused to mount the disk image on the drive. After several attempts to get it to connect with no luck I decided to delete the image (the sparce image file) and start over. Now TM refuses to create a new image.
BTW, on the Mac OSX hints site there have been suggestions to start a backup with the drive directly connected, then stop the backup, move the sparce image file to the root of the drive, reconnect the drive to the APE base station to get it working. I tried this again, but I think Apple has changed something in 10.5.2, because when directly connected TM no longer creates a sparce image file.
Anybody else seen this behavior after upgrading to 10.5.2? -
I'm confussed about which would suit me better and was looking for a comparison chart to quickly see the differences of each. Is there a site I can quickly compare the Airport Express, the Airport Extreme and the Time Capsule? The Time Capsual is a little more obvious seeing as it lets one back up one's hard drive, but I'd still like to see it's other features in comparison.
There is. Look at the AirPort Express page....Mac > Accessories > AirPort Express.... or look here:
Compare Apple Wi-Fi base stations AirPort Express AirPort Extreme Time Capsule
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