HT4522 Time Machine's backup to Time Capsule has stopped working

TM reports "an error". The Time Capsule is visible in the "shared" tab of the Finder window, but is listed as "Not connected". It is visible and connected to another Mac on the net. Is there a solution short of using the Airport Utility to erase the drive?

Hi there Cinclus,
You may find the troubleshooting steps in the article below helpful.
Time Machine: Troubleshooting backup issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3275
-Griff W. 

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    Found this elsewhere so I will try it
    Go to App folder
    Open Utilities
    Click on AirPort Utility
    Highlight your Time Capsule
    Go to Manual Setup
    Click on Disks
    Highlight your Time Capsule
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    Go to the Menu Bar and click on the Time Machine Icon
    Click on Backup Now
    It should work

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    ab5689 wrote:
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    OS X Yosemite: Time Machine problems
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  • Time machine ethernet backup to time capsule works, wifi does not

    Hi all.
    I recently updated my old time capsule to one of the new tall ones ME182X/A with a 3GB drive.  I transferred over the backup file of my Macbook Pro according to the Apple instructions (Time Machine: How to transfer backups from the current backup drive to a new backup drive) and whilst connected via an ethernet cable, time machine works fine with the new time capsule.
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    I've tried deleting the ".inprogress" file, as per some websites, but this doesn't solve the problem
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    I have no anti-virus software running
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    The wifi side of the TC is working perfectly otherwise.  I can "see" it with Airport Utility, and mount the drive and explore it without any problems.
    Any suggestions?
    Thanks again,
    John

    Here are the steps I would use.. do not connect by ethernet at all whilst you do them.
    Factory reset the TC.
    The Factory Reset universal
    Unplug your TC/AE. Hold in reset. and power the TC/AE back on..  all without releasing reset and keep holding in for about 10sec. The time is not important.. it is the front LED rapid flashing that indicates you are in factory mode.
    Release reset.
    If it doesn’t flash rapidly you have released reset at some point and try again.
    Be Gentle! Feel the switch click on. It has a positive feel..  add no more pressure after that.
    TC/AE will reboot after a couple of minutes with default factory settings and will wipe out previous configurations.
    No files are deleted on the hard disk.. No reset of the TC deletes files.. to do that you use erase from the airport utility.
    Redo the setup with different names. Short, no spaces and pure alphanumeric. eg TCgen5 as base station name. TCwifi for wireless name.
    Make sure the password for disk and wireless etc.. are 8-20 characters pure alphanumeric mix of case and numbers.
    Reset TM then to the new drive location.
    See A4 pondini for a full reset.
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
    Strongly recommend you also verify the backup and install the Widget.. A5 and A1. The log you get from the widget is a big help to see what is going wrong.
    Ensure the ipv6 is set to link-local only in wireless.
    I would do the whole lot but you can test at each step if you want.. I just had it happen to me.. first time in 12months and regular posting in this area. Doing the above got me going again.. although it takes a bit of patience to work through the lot.

  • HT4628 my time capsule has stopped working - have a green light but get an error message saying "there was a problem connecting to the server..."

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    My Macbook, iPad and iPhone all connect to the network but i get "there was a problem connecting to the server..."
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    Any advice would be welcome before I try a factory reset or have to return to Apple for repair (the one thing they are offering as the thing is only 5 months old)

    I also noticed that when I go to finder I see two MacBook Air's that are in my name but have the number (2) and (3) next to the name.
    That is a well known bug in Yosemite.
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    Edit back to the correct name for your Mac
    This may...or may not help.  But, it won't hurt.
    The Mac's name may stay stable....or you may see (2), (3), etc again soon.
    Be sure to restart both your Mac and the Time Capsule after you do this.

  • My Time Capsule has stopped working.  Restoring default settings does not work.

    I have a 2TB Time Capsule (Model No. A1409).  I think that it is approximately 20 months old.  It has been working very well until around two months ago, when it began to display the flashing amber light.  At that time I performed a hard reset, restoring the default settings.  This worked and the capsule continued backing up perfectly for a further three weeks.  However, about three weeks back the flashing amber light returned.  As I have been busy elsewhere I was not able to attend to this untl recently.  It does not seem to matter how many times I reset the device, I cannot return it to a working state.
    The capsule has previously been set up to connect to the internet through my existing broadband service.  As such, it was initially set up and subsequently restored wirelessly.  I no longer seem to be able to achieve this.  Has anybody else experienced similar difficulties and if so, were you able to remedy it.
    Grateful for any advice.  I feel another trip to the Genius Bar coming on.

    Yeah absolutely - no problem.
    I had the same thing happen where I did a restore on my personal TimeCapsule (TC),
    and when I updated the device after installing it, it for some reason set the TC into bridged mode shutting off DHCP/NAT service.
    Which means, that it doesn't reserve an IP for any client trying to attach. This is what it sounds like yours is doing.
    So if you see that it says bridged, and that box with dhcp reservation is greyed out, change it from bridged to DHCP/NAT.
    This will allow any client (computer/device) to attach and reserve an IP address for access to the internet.
    Once that is set, and you update, hopefully the light should go green.
    I would also recommend checking the "internet" tab, and making sure that your IP address is assigned using DHCP. (It probably is - but that part is essential for communication with your Internet Service Provider (ISP)...
    SO - if the device goes green after the update:
    If it does, then go back into the router and click on the wireless tab and confirm your wireless settings are correct, if any changes are made, update.
    At that point, you should be able unplug your laptop to wirelessly connect to the router.

  • Time Machine hourly backup to Time Capsule takes 1 hr for 5MB

    Lately our iMac (Snolw Leopard 10.6.8) seems to be constanly backing up.
    I watched it carefully in the Time Macine preference window.
    When starting and it says Preparing xx,xxx items with the number going above 100,000.
    Then it says backng up Zero MB of 5.1 MB.
    Then it takes 35 minutes to copy the first 100 KB or so. Finally it gets happy and then finishes.
    Nex hour it goes through the whole sequence again.
    I got frustrated and deleted the backup from the time capsule and started from scratch.
    The full backup took 4 1/2 hours for 165GB. One hour later it starts the whole 1 hour to back up 5 MB process again.

    That should have said next hour it starts the whole 40 minutes to back up 5 MB process again.

  • My Time Capsule has stopped working after I tried to configure an extended wifi network

    My Time Capsule was working fine until I tried to configure it with an extended bridge. Now either the amber light is solid or the solid amber comes on for awhile and then goes completely out.
    The AirPort Utility says that there is no internet connection, the DNS settings are wrong, and that the disk need to be repaired. Using Disk Utility, the Time Capsule does not even show up so that I can repair it.
    I am running OSX 10.7.5, and besides the Time Capsule I have a Vonage Motorola (VT2442-VD) for VOIP, which of course is not working because it was connected behind the Time Capsule.
    I'm in Italy and cannot call Apple directly since I now do not have phone service.
    Any suggestions how I can check/repair the Time Capsule, and then configure it properly to my satellite broadband?
    Thanks for you help.

    How old is the TC?? The LED should never go solid amber.. that indicates disk failure.
    Or completely out.. that indicates power supply failure.
    As a note you cannot extend wireless to a non apple wireless router... you can only plug in by ethernet and use the TC to create a wireless network.. this can have the same name as the main router,, same SSID in other words and same security but set to different channel..

  • Time Machine same backup size every time

    Anyone have any idea why Time Machine would backup the same amount every time? Every hour mine backs up 1.8 GB, unless I've added more than that to my hd.
    I only back up the internal drive on my macbook to a 500 GB Time Capsule via wifi (802.11n only, 5GHz). Not that I figured it would make a difference, but it still does it if backed up via ethernet.
    I've also noticed that as soon as it completes the backup, it will backup all over again - and not because an hour has passed. I'm not sure if it does this every time (but I think i does), or if it does it more than twice when it happens.
    Thanks in advance!

    See if the following might give you some ideas as to why...
    *_Incremental Backups Seem Too Large!_*
    Open the Time Machine Prefs on the Mac in question. How much space does it report you have "Available"? When a backup is initiated how much space does it report you need?
    Now, consider the following, it might give you some ideas:
    Time Machine performs backups at the file level. If a single bit in a large file is changed, the WHOLE file is backed up again. This is a problem for programs that save data to monolithic virtual disk files that are modified frequently. These include Parallels, VMware Fusion, Aperture vaults, or the databases that Entourage and Thunderbird create. These should be excluded from backup using the Time Machine Preference Exclusion list. You will, however, need to backup these files manually to another external disk.
    If you do a lot of movie editing, unless these files are excluded, expect Time Machine to treat revised versions of a single movie as entirely new files.
    If you frequently download software or video files that you only expect to keep for a short time, consider excluding the folder these are stored in from Time Machine backups.
    If you have recently created a new disk image or burned a DVD, Time Machine will target these files for backup unless they are deleted or excluded from backup.
    *Events-Based Backups*
    Time Machine does not compare file-for-file to see if changes have been made. If it had to rescan every file on your drive before each backup, it would not be able to perform backups as often as it does. Rather, it relies on a process called FSEvents. This is a system log that records changes that occur with all the directories on your Mac. Moving / copying / deleting / & saving files and folders creates events that are recorded in this log. At the beginning of each backup, Time Machine simply looks at this log to determine what has changed since the last backup. [http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14]
    Installing new software, upgrading existing software, or updating Mac OS X system software can create major changes in the structure of your directories. Every one of these changes is recorded by the OS as an event. Time Machine will backup every file that has an event associated with it since the installation.
    Files or folders that are simply moved or renamed are counted as NEW files or folders. If you rename any file or folder, Time Machine will back up the ENTIRE file or folder again no matter how big or small it is.
    George Schreyer describes this behavior: “If you should want to do some massive rearrangement of your disk, Time Machine will interpret the rearranged files as new files and back them up again in their new locations. Just renaming a folder will cause this to happen. This is OK if you've got lots of room on your backup disk. Eventually, Time Machine will thin those backups and the space consumed will be recovered. However, if you really want recover the space in the backup volume immediately, you can. To do this, bring a Finder window to the front and then click the Time Machine icon on the dock. This will activate the Time Machine user interface. Navigate back in time to where the old stuff exists and select it. Then pull down the "action" menu (the gear thing) and select "delete all backups" and the older stuff vanishes.” (http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html)
    *TechTool Pro Directory Protection*
    This disk utility feature creates backup copies of your system directories. Obviously these directories are changing all the time. So, depending on how it is configured, these backup files will be changing as well which is interpreted by Time Machine as new data to backup. Excluding the folder these backups are stored in will eliminate this effect.
    *Backups WAY Too Large*
    If an initial full backup or a subsequent incremental backup is tens or hundreds of Gigs larger than expected, check to see that all unwanted external hard disks are still excluded from Time Machine backups. Time Machine will attempt to backup any hard disk attached to your Mac, including secondary internal drives, that have not been added to Time Machines Exclusion list.
    This includes the Time Machine backup drive ITSELF. Normally, Time Machine is set to exclude its’ own backup disk by default. But on rare occasions it can forget. When your backup begins, Time Machine mounts the backup on your desktop. (For Time Capsule/AirDisk users it appears as a white drive icon labeled something like “Backup of (your computer)”.) If, while it is mounted, it does not show up in the Time Machine Preferences “Do not back up” list, then Time Machine will attempt to back ITSELF up. If it is not listed while the drive is mounted, then you need to add it to the list.
    *Recovering Backup Space*
    If you have discovered that large unwanted files have been backed up, you can use the Time Machine “time travel” interface to recovered some of that space.
    Launch Time Machine from the Dock icon.
    Initially, you are presented with a window that represents “Today (Now)”. DO NOT make changes to file while you see “Today (Now)” at the bottom of the screen.
    Click on the window just behind “Today (Now)”. This represents the last successful backup and should display the date and time of this backup at the bottom of the screen.
    Now, navigate to where the unwanted file resides.
    Highlight the file and click the Actions menu (Gear icon) from the toolbar.
    Select “Delete all backups of <this file>”.
    *FileVault / Boot Camp / iDisk Syncing*
    Note: Leopard has changed the way it deals with FileVault disk images, so it is not necessary to exclude your Home folder if you have FileVault activated. Additionally, Time Machine ignores Boot Camp partitions as the manner in which they are formatted is incompatible. Finally, if you have your iDisk Synced to your desktop, it is not necessary to exclude the disk image file it creates as that has been changed to a sparsebundle as well in Leopard.
    Let us know if this resolved your issue.
    Cheers!

  • Time machine error - backup fails due to sparsebundle already in use

    Since upgrading, Time machine reports backup error:
    TIme Machine Error
    The backup disk image ...sparsebundle is already in use.
    Any thoughts?

    Thanks russ. After the initial upgrade to Mt Lion, no backups have been made. Every attempt reports the sparsebundle error. I recently updated to 10.8.1 and a whole new set of problems have shown up which is having me question the wisdom of continuing to invest in Apple product.
    I have decided to pack it in with regard to the timecapsule product, as it is just too unreliable, and certainly not worth the continued time and effort it has been taking to try and get it to work. I have instead gone with an online backup service, Crashplan. I have the backup service I am seeing and I am no longer frittering away valuable time on something that ought to just work.
    Problem solved.

  • Time Machine doesn't list Time Capsule as backup option

    I'm trying to restart Time Machine, but Time Machine doesn't show Time Capsule as a backup option even though I'm connected to it wirelessly on our network. I was successfully backing up to my Time Capsule until I changed its name. Any ideas on how to fix this.
    Thanks

    Sounds like the drive is dead.
    Take it to your local Apple Store or Authorized Repair location.

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