Airport Extreme USB Disk Access

Airport Extreme 5th Generation with a 2TB SATA drive in a powered enclosure attached via USB.
When attaching the drive/enclosure to my 2011 MBP, I can read/write to it without issues. The drive is formatted as a single NFS+ partition.
When I attach it to the Extreme via USB and then launch the Airport Utility (5.5.3) and click Manual Setup, it times out trying to retrieving the configuration settings.
The Extreme's light is green throughout this process, unless I unplug/replug the router. When it comes back up the light is flashing yellow and Airport says to connect the drive to a computer to repair it. Doing so yields the drive works fine.
If I unplug the drive from USB and re-try the Airport utility, I can immediately access the Manual Setup feature, even without rebooting the Extreme.
I've also tried the 'Configure Other' option in Airport and typing the address manually, but that does not work.
Ive read many threads similar to this, but none exactly like it and none with a definitive solution.
Thoughts/suggestions? Any other information I can provide about setup or what Im seeing?
Thanks everyone.
.sal

Assuming that you have in fact set up your AEBS correctly and that AirPort disk is enabled, you should be able to connect to it several ways. The simplest way is to launch the AirPort Disk Utility and tell it to auto-mount the drive whenever you are connected to your AEBS. If you are like me, however, and don't like to have your external hard drive mounted all the time, then you can manually mount it by navigating to "Network" in the Finder, selecting your base station, and clicking the "Connect" button. You should then be presented with a list of the hard drives connected to your AEBS which you can select from and mount.

Similar Messages

I keep getting write errors (-50) when I try to create new files or folders on my Gen 5 Airport Extreme USB disk.

Write errors (-50) when I try to create new files or folders on my Airport Extreme USB disk. Restarting the Airport Extreme seems to solve the issue. Any idea why this occurring? It doesn't seem to be OS specific, meaning I can't write to the drive from a Windows PC or a MacBook Pro.

Although, I would consider it rare, it is quite possible that this drive is just not 100% compatible with the AirPorts. Typically, in these cases, the AirPort will not even recognize the drive at all ... or it will, but not allow you to access it. I actually haven't come across a case where you can read but not write to a drive consistently or vice versa ... except from Windows-based computers. Sorry!

Airport Extreme / USB Disk - please help!

I have an Airport Extreme which is connected to my PC running Vista, and provides wireless access to my iMac.
Recently bought a new 2TB external hard drive. Partitioned it 3 ways - one partition was set up as HFS+ to back up my Mac using Time Machine, the other two partitions were set up as FAT32 to back up the PC and provide additional storage that would be accessible to both.
After formatting, connected to the Airport extreme, and was able to see all 3 partitions of the drive listed. Set it up to enable file sharing secured with accounts. Was able to get the Mac to connect to the drive and run Time Machine flawlessly over wireless. However, whenever I access the other disks through the PC, it is intolerably slow, with most attempts to move files onto the disk failing or timing out. Not sure what might be wrong - tried turning off Windows Firewall, but that doesn't help. Tried all different disk security settings too. Really want to be able to use this disk on both the PC and the MAC without having to disconnect from my network and hook it up directly. can anyone offer some advice or suggestions as to how I can get Windows to play nice with the disk connected to Airport?

FundRopher wrote:
one partition was set up as HFS+ to back up my Mac using Time Machine
I hate to have to tell you this, but backing-up that way is "iffy" and +*not supported by Apple.+* See [Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Airport.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
This forum, and the Time Machine forums, have many, many posts about it working for some number of days, weeks, or even months, then the backups suddenly turn up corrupted, often beyond repair.

Airport Extreme USB Disk Sharing using MobileMe - Connection Failed...

After several hours of troubleshooting i've hit a brick wall.
I have just bought a brand new Airport Extreme Base Station (Dual Band etc) and it is all set up and working lovely.
I have now come to share my USB Disk using my MobileMe account. Add my mobile account to the configuration page, all ok still.
Connect to a completely different network (second home), where my Airport Extreme (William Moore's Airport Extreme) is present in the finder under Shared. However, when I proceed to connect to it, i am firstly presented with connecting.... and after it has failed the first time, each subsequent attempt immediately fails.
At first i could not access the configuration page remotely for the Extreme either - but after bypassing the firewall on my router i can now remotely connect to my extreme every time - but still the same above issue with connecting to the USB disk.
The router at my second home is currently a belkin router - although i have an airport express coming soon which i hope will resolve the problem and point to my current router setup - but this cannot be a long term solution as the express is to be used elsewhere.
However, i fail to see how my router is stopping the disk connection when i am able to receive the extreme's configuration. NAT is enabled on my router, as is upnp.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I am an IT Technician myself, and this is driving me crazy!

Thanks for those links - i'll look at the powering down tomorrow as the Airport isn't at the property i'm at at the minute.
However, I can safely say the airport is configured just as in the first link. Like i said, I can remotely access the airport so can verify that from here.
The article regarding the formatting of the disk is also interesting. I have tried three disks, each with the same end result (not being able to remotely connect) but all have been slightly different formatting.
1) 500gb HFS+ formatted, single partition, my timemachine disk
2) 500gb - 450gb HFS+ partition - 50gb FAT32 partition - interestingly, although according to that article two partitions aren't supported - both mounted perfectly when I was connected to my airport locally
3) 8gb FAT32 formatted USB Stick - same thing - fine locally, cannot connect remotely.
Come to think of it - i did read somewhere that the usb port isn't (hot-swappable) so maybe the complete power off and on may solve the problem - but i fail to see how this is different technically to a restart through the software - and doubt very much it will fix the issue - but i will definitely give it a go tomorrow.
Any other idea's or people in the same situation would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers

Airport Extreme USB disk password issue fix ETA?

Many people who have a USB drive connected to their Airport Extreme 802.11n have had problems where it repeatedly asks for the password to connect to the USB disk, but never allows you access until you reboot the router. This has been an issue for some time that I've had to just endure intermittently. Is there any ETA on Apple FINALLY fixing that issue?
Also, is there any relief for anyone that bought this Airport Extreme w/o gigabit ethernet a month and a half ago and got screwed by Apple ONCE AGAIN for being one of their early-adopters? Its really exhausting having Apple bring out a new version that should have been the first version w/o any notice of any kind. Personally, since all of Apple's computers had gigabit ethernet ports I assumed their flagship router supported their computers. I didn't realize until after it was too late. :-/ They should have just said "hey, here's a crippled router. you can buy this now even though its half finished or we'll bring out the real one for the same price in a few months. thanks -steve" so I could have gotten a crappy linksys to hold me over. :-/
Anywho...any firmware updates in the works to let me predictably connect to my USB drive or am I forgotten and unappreciated again?
(PS - Thanks for iPhone video out! That should have been in the original release and I was really worried that iPhone2 was going to come out in October or something and have that w/ the 16GB storage it should have sported too. :-D )
-Alex

Oops. This shouldn't have been in the "for Windows" section, sorry...didn't know they were segregated this way. :-| Why would anyone buy an Airport to use with Windows machines? :-/ That's like putting a beautifully manicured luxury brick roadway through a ghetto--it may look great, but it's only going to be used to transport crap.
(before I have to explain this to someone, lol, crap=the viruses and trojans and spy/adware that make surfing the web almost impossible--or the myriad programs that are needed to stop it that suck up so much precious resources that it's almost better to let the viruses in and the IE popups pop away)
:-D

Can I watch iTunes-purchased movies from an Airport Extreme USB disk?

With the newest Airport firmware (7.6.1), it seems I should be able to do this.
My scenario is so basic, I can't understand why I'm having trouble achieving this.
- I have a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.7.2 - since it's a laptop, I don't want to leave it on all the time.
- I have an AirPort Extreme with a USB disk on it (that I use for backing up my MacBook), recently upgraded to newest firmware 7.6.1.
- I have a recently purchased Apple TV hard-wired to the AirPort running firmware 4.4.4.
- I have purchased movies though iTunes on the MacBook Pro.
I want to watch my iTunes-purchased movies on my Apple TV even when my MacBook Pro is sleeping. That is, I would like the movies to be accessible via iCloud, or stored on the USB disk connected to AirPort Extreme, or something/anything.
It seems obvious to me that with an all-Apple set up, and iCloud, this should be easy to achieve.
What am I missing?
Thanks,
j

JasonFromSK wrote:
With the newest Airport firmware (7.6.1), it seems I should be able to do this.
Really? I need to check that out!
You should certainly be able to add content by reference to itunes from such a disk (even before the update) - so long as itunes knows the location of the file (set Preferences not to copy to local library when adding the media) it will stream it to AppleTV if the disk is available.
I hope you're right, but I'd be surprised if current Extremes can be upgarded to provide a full Home Sharing service - marvellous if they can but I'd be surprised as i've long said we need an Apple media server either based on TC or AE to do this kind of thing.
AC

Backup airport extreme usb disk with time machine

Can I use Time Machine to backup a usb disk attached to an Airport Extreme?

no.
TM does not back up networked drives. check out ChronoSync.

Airport Extreme USB Disk Sharing over Internet Without MobileMe

Hello
I just wanted to say I read this article http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/769126-airport-extreme-connecting-remotely-wit hout-mobileme/
and wanted to do what the title said.
So, I am able to share the disks fine over the LAN with both Mac and Windows PCs.
My Question is:
-some people have said that to map the disk over network, you need the AirPort utility installed onto the computer. Is this true?
-I am unable to access the disk over the internet.
I am wondering if I should configure the "Disks" then File Sharing section of Airport Utility or whether I should turn to the Advanced> Port Mapping section.
For the File Sharing Section:
1.     What is the username needed when trying to connect to the disk?
2.     Do I need to enable share disk over WAN and also the checkbox to enable the Bonjour service?
3.     What do I need to fill out for WINS server?
4.     Can I just mount the drive using the WAN IP?
Port Mapping:
1.     What exactly is personal file sharing? Do I need to use this to share my hard drive? And is it only compatible with Mac?
2.     Should I use the IP address 10.0.0.1 (default IP of router) as the place where I want to map to?
Thank you and sorry for this long post.

You do not need the AirPort Utility installed on your computer in order to access a shared drive from either a remote location or on the local network. This utility's primary purpose is for administering the base station.
You will need to both enable File Sharing and configure the AirPort for Port Mapping. It is pretty much described step-by-step in the article you referenced in the beginning of your post.
Ok, so let's go over the basic steps to see if anything was missed.
Start the AirPort Utility > Select the AEBSn, and then, note the IP address shown.
Select Manual Setup.
Verify that Connection Sharing = Share a public IP address is selected on the Internet > Internet Connection tab.
Select Disks, and then, select File Sharing.
Verify that both the "Enable file sharing" and "Share disks over WAN" options are enabled.
Verify that Secure Shared Disks = With a disk password. (Recommended)
Verify that AirPort Disks Guest Access = Not allowed. (Recommended)
Select Advanced, and then, select the Port Mapping tab.
Click the plus sign to add a new port mapping.
For Service, select the "Personal File Sharing" option. (Note: This option would only allow Mac clients to access the AirPort Disks. If you want both Macs and PCs to connect, you would need to leave this field at its default value and enter the appropriate SMB ports to the mix of ports to be opened.)
In the Public UDP Port(s) and Public TCP Port(s) boxes, type in a 4-digit port number (e.g., 8888) that you choose. In the Private IP Address box, type the internal IP address of your AEBSn that you wrote down in step 1. In the Private UDP Port(s) and Private TCP Port(s) boxes, type 548. Click Continue.
In the Description box, type a descriptive name like "AirPort Disk File Sharing," and then, click Done.
Click on Update.
To connect to the shared AirPort Disk from a remote location using a Mac:
From the Finder > Go > Connect to Server.
Enter the DynDNS-provided Domain Name or Pubic (WAN-side) IP address of the AEBSn, followed by a colon and the Public port number that you choose in step 11 of the previous procedure. For example: afp://www.mydyndnsdomain.com:8888 or afp://123.456.789.123:8888
Click Connect.
You should be prompted for your user name and password. The user name can be anything you like; the password should be the Disk password for the AEBSn that you created in step 6 previously.
Click Connect.

AirPort Extreme USB Connected Disk Drive Not Visible To Time Machine

My AirPort Extreme USB connected disk drive is visible in the Finder and desktop. It is not visible to Time Machine. When I open Time Machine and bring up the "Choose Backup Disk" the AirPort Extreme USB connected disk drive is not visible.
What am I missing here?

Hi Pete Mackie-
Nope. You aren't missing anything.
Mac OS X 10.5: Time Machine doesn't back up to AirPort Disks
Luck-
-DaddyPaycheck

Airport Extreme USB problems

I am posting this information as part of case number 757-73818. Level 2 support for Airport Extreme has not returned phone calls, despite giving me a specific telephone number to call.
I am new to the MAC world and I must say, I am disappointed. I have been having EXTREME problems setting up my with a USB-2 drive attached to the Airport Extreme. I have a brand new iMAC (Intel version) and OSX with all of the updates. I have Microsoft Office Suite for MAC - 2004 with all of the updates installed. I have also conducted tests with a new Maxtor 300G external USB-2 drive and a Lacie 500G external USB-2 drive. The drives were both formatted using Apple's "journalled HPF+. The problems encountered are repeatable with both products. I have spoken with Apple Level 2 technical support and they are unresponsive and have not followed through on any promises. Based upon personal investigation, I have been able to run the following tests which might help someone correct the problem. I am not an engineer, I am a lawyer, so I apologize in advance if you find the approached flawed:
HERE ARE THE THREE PROBLEMS - THE FIRST WHICH I RESOLVED.
PROBLEM 1: When a USB-2 drive is mounted to the AirPort Extreme and I logged-off as a user, the system hungs. After numerous tests, all of which are repeatable, I determined that one Airport Extreme configuration will cause the system to hang, and the other will log-out normally. See my notes below:
1 Log-Off User w/o hanging computer connected to Airport Extreme with USB Drive
Option Checked Option Unchecked MENU ITEMS
System Preference
Network
Options
Disconnect from wireless
network when a user
logs out Hangs Normal log-out
PROBLEM 2: When saving Microsoft Word documents to a USB-2 drive attached to the Airport Extreme, I get an error message and the program crashes. The same file with the same extension can be saved to the local drive without a problem and to the USB drive if directly attached to the iMac. The problem appears limited to the .DOC extension. The file, saved locally, can be copied from the local drive to the USB-2 Airport Drive without issue:
Here is the error message and the results of my tests:
Note 1: Microsoft Word Message
There is an unrecovable disk erron on file "Word Work File D-2" The disk you're working on has a media problem that prevents Word from using it.
Try the following:
* Try formatting antoher disk.
* Save the document to another disk.
When trying to save the file as "Test.doc", a file is created by Word called "Word Work File D_X"
In "Finder" get info. The icon shows the file as EXEC. The file cannot be opened as an Excel file.
I duplicated this problem on a Maxtor and Lacie USB drives connected to the Airport Extreme.
I tested the following file extensions and obtained these results
2 Saves Microsoft Word Document
EXTENSION LOCAL DRIVE USB/EXTREME USB CONNECT TO IMAC
.Doc Yes No (Note 1 above) Yes
.RTF Yes Yes Yes
Text Yes Yes Yes
.HTM Yes Yes Yes
PROBLEM 3: When saving Microsoft Excel Workbooks to a USB-2 drive attached to the Airport Extreme, I get the following error messages. If I save the same file using any Excel extension to the local drive, no problem and no problem with the USB drive connected to the computer. The problem appears to apply only to the certain Excel file extensions when saving to the Airport Extreme USB drive. The files can also be copied from the local drive to the USB-2 Airport Drive without issue:
Here is the error message
Note 2: Microsoft Excel Message:
Microsoft Excel cannote access the file '[servername] SERVER:\{username]:Documents'
There are several possible reasons:
* The file name or path does not exist.
* The file you are trying to open is being used by another program. Close the document in the other program and try again.
* The name of the workbook you're trying to save is the same name as another document that is read-only. Try saving the workbook with a different name.
None of the above recommendations had any utility. Here are the results of my tests:
Saves Excel Worbook:
EXTENSION LOCAL DRIVE USB/EXTREME USB CONNECT TO IMAC
Excel Workbook Yes No (Note 2 above) Yes
Excel 97 - 2004
& 5.9/95
Workbook Yes No Yes
Excel 5.0/95
Workbook Yes No Yes
Excel 4.0 Yes Yes Yes
If you have any information that can resolve these problems, please contact me. Thanks!

I have apples new Airport Extreme base station and I
am trying to get a USB harddrive working. I have a
USB hub connected to the Airport USB connector. I
have a USB Printer and a Seagate USB Harddrive
connected. When I run the Airport setup program, it
finds the drive and configuration goes well. The
drive also works fine when connected directly to my
notebook.
After the Airport restarts, the USB Drive can't be
found.
The Printer works fine. Does anyone know whats going
on here?
Macbook Pro
2.33 Dure core 2 Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Macbook Pro 2.33
Dure core 2 Mac OS X (10.4.8)
The USB drive ability or lack of really is very upsetting. I am sure Steve will have someone take care of it...
WR

My Time Capsule disk shows on my iMac but not my MacBook Pro. How do I get the Airport Extreme mounted disk to show as an available Time Machine disk on my MacBook?

I just replaced an Airport Express with a new Airport Extreme. My iMac recognizes the external hard disk I have connected to the Airport Extreme, and my Time Machine is backing up to it. But I can't get my MacBook Pro to recognize the disk as available for Time Machine. Both are running Mavericks, and the MacBook is only a couple of months old.

Hey Tim Cargal,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
This article explains how to mount an AirPort Extreme USB hard disk volume in Mac OS X and Windows.
AirPort: How to mount an AirPort Extreme USB hard disk volume in Mac OS X and Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1331
Have a nice day,
Mario

Airport Extreme + USB HDD = Time Capsule?

Hi!
(Sorry for my poor English, I hope it's possible to understand my problem/question).
I bought a MacBook in January 09. It's connected to the Internet via WLAN and a Fritz.Box (Wireless Router with built-in DSL Modem, unfortunately it uses the old slow LAN and WLAN protocol and a USB1-Port).
I want to backup my files with Time Machine via WLAN. I tried to connect a USB-Drive to my Fritz.Box but it was terribly slow (USB1...)
It's important, that the backups go automatically when I'm at home and connected to my WLAN.
Now I think of buying something that's more useful. I have three ideas and I'm not sure what to do...
1) Buying the Time Capsule. Pro: I think, it will work perfectly. I don't need to worry about a thing. Contra: It's terribly expensive. In Germany 1TB will cost about 600$. (Maybe I should buy the 500GB-Version and update it by myself to 1GB or 2GB).
2) Buying the Airport Extreme. Unfortunately I'm not sure if a Airport Extreme + USB-HDD is the same as the Time Capsule. Apple writes: "Time Machine in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard can be used to back up to many kinds of Mac OS Extended-formatted drives, but you cannot choose AirPort Extreme's AirPort Disk as a Time Machine backup volume. " On the other hand some Users wrote that they managed to get their TM-Backup on a AE-HDD (but did this work via WLAN?). With the Airport Extreme it would be easy to manage a itunes-stream-server (the Airport Express is not too expensive). And the Airport Extreme isn't too expensive as well.
3) Using a Network-HDD. It would be not too good, since I had to use my slow WLAN-Connection and since this wouldn't be supported by Apple at all. On the other hand this would be the least expensive version.
What should I do? Is it possible to work with the Airport Extreme and an external USB-HDD via WLAN and without any problems (like mounting the drive manually each time I connect to my Network).
It would be much more fun, if everything ran automatically, when I got in reach of my Network...
Thanks in advance! Gerrit

A couple of pointers.
The hard drive must be specifically formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to work with the AirPort Extreme's USB port. Check the documentation that came with the drive to find out how it is formatted at the present time.....it is likely formatted to work with Windows, which is not compatible with the AirPort Extreme.
Unfortunately, even if the drive is formatted correctly, Apple does not officially support Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port of the AirPort Extreme, so that will be the next hurdle to deal with.
Some users actually do seem to be able to make this work, but overall, it is not a reliable method to backup your data if it is important to you.

Airport Extreme usb hard drive connection loss after closing finder window

I just did a software update on my MacBook Pro and now I am experiencing a weird Airport Extreme usb hard drive issue. I can see the name of my airport extreme in the Shared section of my finder window. However when I click on it, the finder indicates the it's connecting, but it stops immediately and displays the 'Not Connected' message. When I click on the 'Connect As' button, I am prompted to enter my password and if I click 'Connect', it just spins out endlessly. However, when I re-enter the password and press Connect, my usb drive mounts. I can view, access and use the drive's contents, but if I close the finder window, the connection drops and I have to re-connect. What else is weird, is that once I see my drives, the finder indicates that I am connected as another user(not a user native to this computer). This issue did not exist before my software update.
My software log update indicates that the following items have been installed:
Canon Printer Software Update 2.3 and Security Update 2010-003.
I suspect it has something to do with the Security Update. Is there a way I can revert to the previous security version? Or is there any other solution that could help me avoid re-connecting to my airport extreme usb hard drives?
I will really appreciate any feedback.

Free Solution:
Sure there's a »fix« with Apple software. You'll need to install the Developer Tools (Xcode) from the Snow Leopard Install DVD, though.
After you've done that, you can use "SetFile" to clear the Alias bit from the misbehaving Volume:
/usr/bin/SetFile -a a /Volumes/<YourExternalDriveName>
Please keep in mind that using this command might be dangerous, so don't try this solution unless you feel confident on the command line. (See http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/m an1/SetFile.1.html or invoke /usr/bin/SetFile without arguments for more info on the SetFile command.)
...a similar discussion and answer can be found at: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2131824&start=45&tstart=0

Set up a Windows formatted Drive as an Airport Extreme USB drive

I have a USB hard drive that was formatted as a Windows NTFS drive. The drive does not have data that I want to keep. I assume I have to format it as a MAC drive to use it as a Airport Extreme USB drive. What is the best way to set it up? Should I format it with the drive attached to my Macbook Pro or can it be formatted attached to the Airport? Are there any things I should be aware of in attaching this drive to the Airport?
Although I don't think it matters, this drive is a Vantec Nexstar MX400 enclosure with two 3TB hard drives configured as a 3 TB RAID 1. If anyone has additional information I should know about working with an MX400 RAID 1 drive in formatting it for a Mac it would be appreciated.

You need to format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), FAT16, or FAT32 while it's plugged into a computer. exFAT, NTFS, and non-journaled HFS+ won't work.
You may also need to use an USB hub with its own power supply.
(111341)

Airport Extreme N problem accessing some websites

Hello,
I just installed an Airport Extreme N base station. When I go to the following website to access documentation, it hangs. When I put my old Dlink router back in place, I can get to the website and access the documentation just fine. I have no idea whats going on. Can some of the other Airport Extreme N users access the following symantec corp documentation site?
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/documentation.jsp?language=english&view =manuals&pid=15143
When you right click and try to save the .pdf files it just downloads a 0byte file. When you try to click on the .pdf to open it, it opens with nothing.
When I take the Airport Extreme out and hook my Dlink DI-624 router in, no problems opening the document or saving to my laptop.
Any help or insight would be appreciated!

No one seems to have an answer to this one yet - have you found anything? The thread below seems to be the same issue:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1845115
I'll keep working at a solution and will post if I can find one.

Airport Extreme USB Disk Access

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