Extracted Time Capsule Disk – Can't See Old Backups in Time Machine UI

Hello,
I was one of the unfortunate souls that purchased a Time Capsule in March of 2008, only to have its power supply die last month. Instead of buying a new one, I decided to take out the hard drive and attach it to an Airport Extreme.
The first few steps went fine: opened the TC, got the drive out, put it in a new case and hooked it up. Once I had it mounted, I told Time Machine to do a backup. And it did. And it was merely an incremental one. I was optimistic.
However, now when I "enter the Time Machine," I can only see the latest state ("Today/Now").
I'm wondering if anyone has an experience successfully extracting a TC drive, or if anyone has encountered my specific problem before. The fact that the backup action recognized the existing backups has me hopeful that there's simply some arcane preference somewhere that will make the Time Machine UI recognize everything properly. After all, the point of extracting the drive was so that I didn't have to start over.
Thanks!

Ok, immediately after posting I read Pondini's "Time Machine - TROUBLESHOOTING" thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2057525) and found a solution in E2:
Also, sometimes TM will start a new "sequence" of backups, as if they were from a different Mac.
To see these "other" backups, you need the (badly named) Browse Other Time Machine Disks option. It's available by holding down the Option key while selecting the TM icon in your Menubar, or by control-clicking (right-clicking) the TM icon in your Dock.
You'll see a selection screen showing all the disks/partitions that have TM backups on them. Select the one you want, and you'll be taken to the normal TM "Star Wars" interface, where you should see all the backups on that disk/partition.
In my case, there was only the one disk showing, but when i selected it, all of my backups were visible.
I'm not going to mark this as "Answered" yet, because the regular "Enter Time Machine" menu option still does not work, as described above. But at least now I have a workaround to access the backups.

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Can't see old backups on Time Machine

Originally, I noticed the issue when I went to do a backup and it failed because there was not enough space on the disk. Then I went to see if I could delete old backups. In Time Machine it shows today and one other backup, 6 days ago. It should be doing backups regularly. I have had the iMac and my external drive for years. I did update to Mavericks OS several months ago. That is the only change I can think of. I have seen older backups and used them before now. Not sure why I can't see them anymore and why it says my disk is full. Why isn't it deleting the old backups if it's full?
So I guess I have three main questions:
1 Why can't I see the old backups?
2 Why aren't the old files being deleted if it's full?
3 How can it be full if there is only one backup?
Thanks

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of an an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
☞ If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

"backup is too large" warning, yet I can't see old backups in time machine.

I plugged my Firelite drive into my Macbook Pro and was warned that I haven't backed up in 50 days (not so). When I try to back up I get a warning that there's not enough space on the external disk. When I enter time machine there are NO previous restore points visible, yet they are there when I open the backup disk in the finder. It seems it's trying to back up my entire system into the remaining free disk space instead of running the incremental backup it's supposed to be doing.
Is there any way to fix this? I know the simple answer is to buy a bigger backup volume but I don't see why I need to, since I didn't really change much between this and the most recent backup. Restart changes nothing.

Thanks James, great info.
When I hold down the option key I find that there are 2 drives listed. One is the backup with my computer's name "trilobite" and the other is called "trilobite 2". Choosing the proper drive reveals all my previous backups. The finder also shows the a folder on the disk called "trilobite 2" but when I delete it, TM just creates another.
Working through your suggestions, I just realized that the videocard/logic board replacement I had on Jan.12 may certainly have been a factor. I had a lot of video issues on Jan.2 and was restarting and zapping the PRAM etc. over and over (successful backups stopped on that day). Funny, TM never complained of any difficulties.
Since I don't have any recent backups anyway, I guess I'll just try erasing the whole backup disk and reset TM.
Here is the TM widget log:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/GUMBY/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: POKEY
Backup content size: 139.0 GB excluded items size: 7.0 MB for volume POKEY
Starting pre-backup thinning: 166.90 GB requested (including padding), 26.25 GB available
No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
Backup Failed: unable to free 166.90 GB needed space
Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.

I have set up my time capsule but can not see it in finder

I have setup my time capsule, I can see it on the network and have done an initial backup, I can see it under shared devices in finder but when I open it I cannot see any files in the folder

If you have backed up your Mac using Time Machine to the Time Capsule, you would not use the Finder to see the files on the Time Capsule.
If you want to see the backups, click on the Time Machine "clock" icon on the dock at the bottom of the screen and wait a few minutes for everything to load.
Use the scale at the right of the screen to move from different recent backup times or dates. Select the time that you want and use the Finder like interface to navigate to locate a file or folder.
More info on Time Machine is available in this Apple support document:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427

Time Capsule disk cannot be mounted nor found by Time Machine

Suddenly Time Machine can't find my Time Capsule disk to back up to.
I've tried setting up my Time Capsule in various ways, even resetting to default factory settings.
My network seems to work fine and Time Capsule is shining brightly green, but clicking on Time Machine Preferences, it asks me to Choose Backup Disk. Clicking on that I just get an empty list. No disks. My only choice is to Set Up Time Capsule, which I've now done a couple of times without change. The Apple Support suggest a change to a shorter name... Needless to say, this is not the problem. Tried that too.
When I click on Manual Setup and check the Disks tab, there are no disks available there either.
Patience running on empty... Anyone found a solution to this or is my only option to shut off this expensive machine forever (seeing as it doesn't back up and that it's started to hum annoyingly loudly)?
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

My last resort was to connect my laptop and the time capsule with an usb cable.
The bad thing is that nothing happened. So for me this means heading back again to apple care so they tell me whats wrong with it (i just received it today from apple care because it stopped turning on 2 weeks ago and they didn't knew what was wrong with it).

Time Capsule: disk can't be found

We're using a 2TB Time Capsule with two MBPs, one running Snow Leopard and the other Lion. We've been using the TC happily for about two years. Now, suddenly, backups are failing because the disk can't be found.
Salient points:
* No configuration has changed since the time it was working fine - that includes passwords, network settings etc.
* When trying to back up, an error pops up saying: "The backup disk could not be found. Make sure the backup disk is connected or open Time Machine preferences to select a different backup disk."
* The name of the TC appears in the sidebar in Finder, but clicking on it shows 'Connection failed'. If I try 'Connect as...' I get the error: "The backup disk could not be found. Make sure the backup disk is connected or open Time Machine preferences to select a different backup disk."
* Using AirPort Utility, I have no problem seeing the TC. I can also see the disk details. I've even reformatted the disk from here.
* There's no network problem reaching the TC.
* I've updated the firmware on the TC and rebooted it several times.
* From System Preferences -> Time Machine I have tried using Select Disk.... It shows the TC disk as an option by any attempt to select it produces: "There was a problem connecting to the server <name of TC>.local"
Is it possible the TC is failing?

TC is connected to my existing wifi.
Does this mean you are using join a wireless network as connection?? If so that is proven over and over to be flakey.. and why it is a hidden option. Plug the TC directly into the main router by ethernet. Use it either by ethernet or by wifi, but ethernet is definitely the preferred method.
Extend a wireless network to another apple router is different and much better configuration.
There is no magic bullet to the problem.
Hope this helps others and obviously hoping someone might shed some light on root cause of this issue.
Thanks
Root cause is clearly poor network stability since Snow Leopard and TC firmware 7.5.2 which I have run for ages and ages with zero issues.. but as soon as I play with later TC firmware, I run into problems.. Apple made a major change to SMB and AFP protocol in Lion. So far Apple have not fessed up. But if you check the logs.. which of course you cannot from 6.1 airport utility.. you will find a series of disconnections of AFP.. but again I am not sure if that is cause or effect.
If you want to pursue this to the end.. which might help but still not fix it.. I am happy to follow the thread "all the way." Most people give up rather quickly. This is a network hard nut .. you are not going to get silver bullet.. as it is clearly worse for some than others.
Stuff I need..
What OS is the computer running? Is it clean installed or upgrade? This is important for wireless in particular as Mountain Lion does not work properly on lots of computers with upgrade installs.
Explain the whole network layout? Mode the TC is running in.
And as a first step for you.. I do assume you are running ML otherwise you could just install 5.6 utility.
How to load 5.6 into ML.
1. Download 5.6 for Lion.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
Click to open the dmg but do not attempt to install the pkg.. it won't work anyway.
2. Download and install unpkg.
http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/
Run unpkg on the desktop.. it is very simple.. drag the AirPortUtility56.pkg file over to unpkg.. and it will create a new directory of the same name on the desktop.. drill down.. applications utilities .. there lo and behold is Airport utility 5.6 .. drag it to your main utilities directory or just run it from current location.
You cannot uninstall 6.1 so don't try.. and you cannot or should not run them both at the same time.. so just ignore the toyland version.. the plastic hammer.. and start using 5.6.. a real tool.

Wifi Working With New Time Capsule But Can't See It To Configure Settings?

I had an airport extreme but recenlty purchased an airport time capsule. When I initially plugged it in, by airport utlity saw it and it asked me to set up a password. But then I noticed there was no internet signal getting to the time capsule. We wound up replacing the DSL Router and now the internet is up and running. But now when I open the airport icon, the time capsule doesn't even show up. When I open the airport utility through finder it shows the time capsule but blocks me from accessing anything. So I can't go into any set up configuration for changing passwords, setting up guest network or setting up the back up to the time capsule. I don't see any downloads for a new utility for the time capsule, so I'm assuming it's the same as for the airport extreme? What do I need to do in order to be able access the configuration areas?

Reboot the TC.. it is hard for poor OSX to find it.
No luck.
Just press reset and start again.
Do a new clean setup.. please use all SMB names this time, short, no spaces and pure alphaumeric.
Ensure ipv6 is set to link-local on both the wireless and ethernet if you use it. Wireless is essential even if you use ethernet you cannot do setups without wireless.
Still got trouble??
What is the OS on the computer and therefore version of the airport utility.. you will have huge problems with Mavericks.. as that is its nature.

Using Time Capsule as a 'wireless' router and backup using Time Machine

I have a question about backup speed on my 1 TB Time Capsule. I purchased a Time Capsule about a year ago and have an imacg5 and two Mac laptops that I setup to use the wireless router capability and as the backup drive for all three computers.
I was experiencing a problem in that the backups from the imacg5 were never completing even though the Time Machine window said it was only backing up several MBs. In order to 'fix' the problem I finally 'erased' all of the backup files on the Time Capsule using Airport Utility. I had also run Disk Utility on all of the drives to verify and fix any problems.
When I initialized the wireless connections and initiated backups I connected to the imacg5 to the Time Capsule with an ethernet connection as well as via Airport and began 'backing up' my laptops, then started by backing up individually, various disks on my imacg5.
The laptops have rather small disks and backed up rather quickly. The imacg5 has hundreds of GB of data spread across several disks. I had decided to 'backup' the disks individually in case that had been the cause of my original problem.
My systems disk, Macintosh HD, backed up about 110 GB at the rate of 8 GBs per hour. I was encouraged.
My next 'data' disk, LaCie 320 #1, backed up about 209 GB at the rate of 2 GBs per hour. I was confused. This 'backup' took several days to complete. Once it completed, Time Machine has run about every hour as expected and completes the backup in about 3 minutes.
I still have two more disks on the imacg5 to backup. Does anyone have any idea what rate I should expect or should I just add the drives and let it take its course?

I say just do it!
When connected via ethernet I turn off the airport connection on the computer. I found that frequently my mom's macbook pro would choose the wireless connection to her Time Capsule rather than the ehternet connection to do the back up. This was slower than via the ethernet.

Time capsule - how can I see logs from other days?

I want to know who were connected or tried. I make sure that nobody else of our office were connected. I dont know if is that possible, I know that I can see who's connected rigth know.
Can I do what I want?
Thanks,

Sorry, but no.

Updated to Airport Utility 5.3.2 - now can't see my time capsule disk!

I updated to 5.3.2 of the Airport Utility through software update but, after rebooting both my Mac and Time Capsule, I can now no longer access my Time Capsule's disk. Airport Utility says 'no disks found'
A similar thing happened after the update to 5.3.1 but I could still see the disk in Disk Utility, and once I'd verified it, it all worked OK again.

Okay guys. I called apple support, and the guy there fixed it for me. Reset the TC, and go through AirPort Utility again. The disk is there! Very happy that it was that easy, but bummed that they let the firmware go out like that. Seems like they'd catch that sort of thing.
The support guy was great, though. Very quick.
Good luck, hope this works for everybody!
-B

How do I transfer files form a time machine backup disk to a time capsule disk to retain older backup data?

I have just purchased a Time capsule and wish to transfer old backups to the new system, but the disk image does not appear except during backups and even then will not allow backup files to be copied across from the old Backups.backupdb to the new one as was possible before.
Any ideas?

Backups are stored differently on a drive that is connected directly to a Mac compared to a network drive like the Time Capsule. Things can get real complicated depending on exactly what you are trying to do.
See Pondini's excellent document....Time Machine -- Troubleshooting for specific details about this subject:
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/18.html

How to get to existing files on external Time Capsule disk

Just got a TC, I like it, does what it says on the tin.
Now I have connected an external hard disk (which contains music & photos) to the TC because I figured my wife could access the same disk from her computer
The problem - although the disk appears as a shared disk on Time Capsule, I can't see any files. I figure this is an accounts problem - I have 2 user accounts setup on the TC but these will have different UIDs to the accounts on our computers.
If I save a file on the disk when mounted via TC, then disconnect and connect it directly to my computer, I see a new folder called 'Shared' which contains the new file.
So it is an accounts issue. But how do I sort things out so that both of us can see the shared files? Just move them all into the shared folder maybe? But is there a better way?
TIA
James

Open the Airport Utility, and select your TC and then Disk > File Sharing pane. Select secure shared disks with a disk password. Now use a single password to login and once login, you can see everything on the external hard drive.

Mounting Time Capsule disk breaks Time Machine

Mounting my 1TB Time Capsule Disk (location of my iTunes Library) breaks Time Machine. Time Machine says it cannot mount the disk. Ejecting TC's hard drive, fixes it. Is there a work-around for this or is this a bug? This makes using TC's disk a bit tedious.
Thanks
Graham

Graham,
That's interesting. While I don't use the TC hard disk for anything other than TM backups, I mounted the drive in a finder window so that I could see the sparsebundle of my backups. Then I initiated a "Back Up Now". I had no problem completing an incremental backup. But then again, I don't have other data occupying the drive.
I wonder if you have some other factor preventing the backups. Or do iTunes and iPhoto libraries externally stored on the TC somehow occupy bandwidth and prevent communication with TM?
Maybe someone already has setup what you wish to do and had better success.

I install LION on my mac pro 2008 and it's alway's pop with " there was a problem connecting to the server " Time Capsule" .How can i remove this popup. My Time machine is working fine and also rename it. But the popup keeps on coming with the old name.

I installed LION on my mac pro 2008 and it's alway's pop with " there was a problem connecting to the server " Time Capsule" .How can i remove this popup. My Time machine is working fine and also rename it with less than 7 karakters. But the popup keeps on coming with the old name.

I have a BT Infinity router plugged into the Time Capsule, not sure where the radio settings are?
They are able to use the network settings of the TC i.e. they can connect to the internet via the wifi through the TC but when they try and connect to the AirPort Disk this is where it is not allowing a connection.
I don;t have the drive shared out at all at the moment, is this necessary? How do I do this if so?
I have attached the screen shots of all the settings.
Thanks again for your help.

MacBook Air 11" can't access Time Capsule Disk

Hi:
I have two Minis, a MPB 13" and a MBA 11" connected to my Time Capsule. My MBP and the two Minis can access the Time Capsule disk with no problem. It's a different story for the MBA.
From the MBA, I can see my Time Capsule in Finder (Bonjour) and I can click on it, however the disk never appears. Clicking "connect as" doesn't do anything either. From Finder if I go "connect to server" and I type the IP address of my Time Capsule it connects without problems, but it won't connect with its name.
I am able to connect the disk on my other Macs from the MBA via Bonjour, just not the Time Capsule. As mentionned earlier, the Time Capsule disk is available from my other Macs and even from Windows.
I rebooted a few times and confirmed that the username/password are properly saved in the keychain of my MBA.
Any idea how to fix this?
Thanks!

Are your other Macs connected via Wifi or ethernet? It sounds like some sort of network configuration issue. If they are connected via Wifi then I'd make sure the MBA has the same settings for it's network. Alternately I'd get rid of the keychain entry on the MBA and re-enter it to make sure it's correct. As a last resort I'd restart the Time Capsule and see if it makes a difference. I'm connecting a MBA to a Time Capsule so it should work.

Extracted Time Capsule Disk – Can't See Old Backups in Time Machine UI

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