I cannot get time capsule back "on line" (green)

I cannot get time capsule back "on line" (green); tried reset button; tried unplugging everything; comes back on flashing amber, won't get back to green; computer now can't find my network.
what now?

Ok.. we still need to know how are you connected to the TC.. YOU not the cable side.. the YOU side.
Are you using wireless or ethernet to your computer? If not please plug in ethernet and turn off the airport in the computer.
Now reopen the airport utility.. can it find it..
If not press the reset on the TC for 10sec.. until the led on front flashes rapidly.
The AU should now find the TC.
Make sure you leave the TC in router mode.. unfortunately the later AU tends to bridge the TC without permission from you.. one of those extra helpful things Apple did.
If you are still on Lion download and use 5.6 utility. It is far superior.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
You can also load it into ML but it is tricky.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4172563?start=0&tstart=0
Apple have removed useful functions and ease of use.. although I guess they would disagree with the later.

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Six months later: still cannot get Time Capsule to back up my PowerBooks

I have a 500g TC and two Powerbook G4 (Al) computers. I have the same problem with both computers. I reinitialize the TC disk ("Erase" in the Airport Utility) then do an initial backup over hardwired Ethernet. Both PBs have about 60GB of data on them. The initial backups take the expected 12-18 hours. Thereafter, the automatic Time Machine backups work for about 3-5 days, then they stop. Time Machine gets into the "Preparing Backup" state and stays there for hours (I give up after 24 hours).
I tried turning off TM and doing the backups manually (selecting "Backup Now" from the TM menu). That has the same problem, although it takes longer to appear.
I have no reinitialized my TC disk 5 times and had the same problem 5 times.
I have turned off Spotlight indexing of the backup disk and of the PB disk. That has not helped.
Can anyone suggest anything to get this to work?

Rob & tubwreck,
Thanks for the redirect. However, I have already revised that info with new data. See below...
*_Spotlight And Time Machine_*
*Runaway MDS Process*
For Spotlight searching to work, it needs to have metadata. Every time a file is created, modified or deleted, the system notifies Spotlight that it needs to update the meta-data store (mds). First, Spotlight (mdworker) seizes the file, determines its’ type, and then assigns an appropriate importer (mdimport).
While some bits of metadata (modification dates, file type, path name) are easy to gather, most of the interesting data is embedded inside the file. To gather this embedded information Spotlight must use an importer (mdimport), a small plug-in that extracts information from files created by various applications. Each file type has its’ own importer. For instance there are unique Spotlight importers for JPEG, MP3, Word, PDF files and so on.
It’s the importer’s responsibility to read the data file and construct a dictionary that contains the appropriate metadata. When finished, the dictionary is delivered to Spotlight (mdworker), which then updates the meta-data store (mds). The original file is then released to the system to complete the originally intended action.
Ordinarily, this process is virtually instantaneous and invisible to the user. At times, however, it can hang, or loop causing Spotlight (mdworker) and the meta-data store (mds) to monopolize the CPU and interfere with other system events like Time Machine backups. The Console logs may report the following over and over again for perhaps hundreds of times.
+“mds(32): (Error) Import: importer:0x8f8c00 Importer start failed for 503”+
Eventually, the Time Machine backup may fail with the Console logs reporting
+“Indexing a file failed” / “Copy stage failed with error: 11”.+
Or a backup may be completely stalled in midstream, never seaming to end.
Go to Applications --> Utilities folder and launch Activity Monitor.
Clicking the “Process Name” column and scrolling down to the “m”s will reveal that one or all of the Spotlight components (mds, mdworker, mdimport) is maxing out your CPU.
Highlight “mds” and click “Quit Process” in the toolbar.
In the dialoge box that appears click “Quit”.
Enter our Admin password and click “OK”
The stalled backup should now resume and complete. If not, choose “Stop Backing Up” from the Time Machine menu or click the tiny “x” icon in the Time Machine Preferences. When the backup has completely stopped, select “Backup Now” from the Time Machine menu.
*Waiting for index to be ready (909 > 0)*
One of the processes Time Machine relies on for accurate backups is the indexing of the backup disk. With this index, Time Machine can quickly search the backup disk for files the user wishes to restore. When a routine backup begins, often the “Preparing…” stage will include a phase that permits Spotlight to update its’ index of the backup disk. Momentarily the Spotlight icon in the menu bar will pulsate and the Console logs will report “Waiting for index to be ready”. Generally, this phase is so quick that the user is unaware that it occurred.
Unfortunately, this phase can hang thus preventing Time Machine from completing a backup. During this period, the Spotlight icon will continuously pulsate. Clicking on the Spotlight icon will reveal a progress bar with no estimate of the remaining time or it will indicate many hours of indexing still remains. The Console logs will continually report “Waiting for index to be ready”.
Ordinarily, Spotlight indexing is a good thing. And at times, if an index has become corrupt or untrustworthy, Spotlight will require a period of time to rebuild the index. If it has only been a couple of hours then let the process continue. However, if it has been many hours, and the Spotlight menu progress bar still does not indicate an estimated time of completion, then things have hung. You will need to force Spotlight to clear its’ indexes and re-catalogue all volumes. [http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2409]
*Force Spotlight to Rebuild Indexes*
Go to System Preferences --> Time Machine.
Using the slider on the left, turn OFF Time Machine backups for now.
Next, click “Show All” in the toolbar.
Select the Spotlight Preferences.
Click the Privacy Tab.
First, drag your Macs’ internal hard disk from the desktop to the Privacy list.
Wait 10 seconds, then highlight the Macs’ hard disk in the list and click the tiny “-” button at the bottom to remove it from the list.
Spotlight will initiate a reindex of the hard disk. If you click on the Spotlight menu icon you may see the message:
+“Spotlight helps you quickly find things on your computer. Spotlight will be available as soon as the contents of your computer have been indexed.”+
A progress bar will indicate perhaps 10-20 minutes remaining depending upon how much data there is.
Once completed, drag your Time Machine backup disk into the Privacy list of the Spotlight Preferences.
Wait 10 seconds, then highlight the Time Machine backup disk in the list and click the tiny “-” button at the bottom to remove it from the list.
Spotlight will now initiate a reindex of the hard disk.
Once completed, if you have any other hard disk attached to your Mac that are also being backed using Time Machine, then force a reindex as well using the procedure outlined above.
*For Time Capsule / AirDisk Users*
To properly force a reindex of networked disks, you will need to mount the Time Machine disk image so that it appears on the desktop. This will appear as a white drive icon. There is no need to index the green Time Machine drive with the clock icon on it.
Drag the white backup disk image to the Spotlight Privacy list.
Wait 10 seconds, then remove it using the “-” button.
Reindexing disk images can often take much more time, particularly if this is being done wirelessly. Initially it may report upwards of 15-20 hours of indexing remaining. However after a period if time this estimate can begin to drop to just a few hours. Let is proceed without interruption. (Note: This period of reindexing can be reduced by connecting the Time Capsule to your Mac via ethernet cable, and then forcing the reindex to occur.)
Once completed, turn Time Machine Preferences back ON.
Now initiate a backup.
Naturally, the first backup after a Spotlight reindex may be a lengthy one.
*Deleting the .Spotlight-V100 Directory*
At times, simply forcing Spotlight to reindex a volume is not enough to clear corrupt indexes. Additionally, stopping a Spotlight index while in progress can itself introduce further anomalies. In these instances, it may become necessary to delete the .Spotlight-V100 directory on the backup disk entirely. [http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/stopspotlightindex.html] This can be accomplished with the following Terminal command:
+sudo rm -ri /pathtovolume/.Spotlight-V100+
where /pathtovolume is the path of the volume in question.
The volume can then be reindexed by any of the following methods:
Restarting your Mac.
Using Disk Utility to first unmount, then mount the volume.
Issuing the command: +sudo mdutil -E /pathtovolume+
*Redirect the Backup to a Different Hard Disk*
It may be that directing backups to a different hard disk, performing a full backup, then redirecting Time Machine back to the original hard disk clears this issue up.
One contributor reported: “However, I have fixed the problem by accident! Concerned at not having a backup, I did a new backup to an external USB drive which worked fine. I then set my backup device back to the Time Capsule, ran backup and it now works fine. Doing the backup to a different device appears to have cleared the Spotlight problem.” [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8272650#8272650]
Let us know if any of this helps further.
Cheers!

Cannot get Time Capsule to Work as anything but Airport

I have had this problem off and on for months and have never been able to resolve it. I have already reviewed all of the threads addressing this issue and none of them solved my problem.
My time capsule will not show up on my finder OR through airport. If I restart it 2 or 3 times, airport will find it at which point I will again reconfigure it to act as my back-up drive with time machine. However, immediately after the forced restart, my computer again fails to recognize it.
Notably, my wireless internet through time capsule always works. Essentially, my time capsule is nothing more than an airport as I can't use it with time machine OR as a server to store documents through my finder.

What OS is on the computer?
You can load 5.6 utility if you are running Lion or Mountain Lion as follows.
How to load 5.6 into later Lion & 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.
Leave the package open on the desktop so you can see the file. AirportUtility56.pkg
2. Download and install unpkg.
http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/
Run unpkg on the desktop.. If your Mac refuses to run the software, because it wasn’t downloaded from the Apple store, go to security in preferences and allow other software to work.. this is limitation of trade methinks. You can set back later if you like.
Now drag the AirPortUtility56.pkg file over to unpkg.. and it will create a new directory of the same name on the desktop.. in finder, open the new directory, 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 version 6 (now 6.3 if you updated) so don't try.. and you cannot or should not run them both at the same time.. although I have had no problems when doing so.

I am getting a message that my time capsule back up isnt backing up because my macbook is in use????

I am getting a message that my time capsule back up isnt backing up because my macbook is in use????

Stock standard Mountain Lion issues..
Reboot the TC.. or disconnect all users if you use v5 utility.
See C12 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

I cannot get time machine (with airport) to back up my mac. It worked previously but not now. It is working on my macbook. the message i get is "Time Machine couldn't back up to '(airport network name)'"

I cannot get time machine (with airport) to back up my mac. It worked previously but not now. It is working on my macbook. the message i get is "Time Machine couldn't back up to '(airport network name)'" Any help is appreciated.

OS is important.. What OS is on Mac and what is on the working macbook?
Was the Airport setup from the Macbook? That might be why it works from there..
Does the AE show up in Mac airport utility?
Can you mount the disk in finder and copy files to it/from it??
Did you try a TM reset after mounting in Finder.. so you know it is available?
What about a network reboot.. does it work post a restart for a few minutes/hours/days???

Trouble getting emails from a Time Capsule Back Up following HD Death

Happy 2015.
I am having trouble getting my old emails back from a Time Capsule back up.
I had set Time Machine to back up onto my Time Capsule which it seemed to be doing just fine. My hard drive then completely died. I took it to a reputable local repair shop who had to replace the drive as the Old Drive was completely fried.
I am up and running with the New Drive but Time Capsule wont recognise the back up of the Old Drive for me to get email (or anything else back). Isn't this the whole point of Time capsule? The back up is definitely there on my Time Capsule.
I only need to get the emails back. Would Migration Assistant help me to just get the emails back or would that mean I am effectively starting again with the back up copy of the Old Drive as my new starting point. I would prefer not to do this if possible as there is new file etc on the New Drive.
I suppose one thing I could do is save all my new file and emails created on the New Drive since the the Old Drive Death to an external device. Use Migration Assistant to start again on the New Drive with the last back up of the Old Drive and than import all the post Drive Death files and emails. Would prefer not to do this if there is an easier way.
I am on a mid-2007 iMac 24" running 10.9.5
All suggestions gratefully received.

You can import just the emails.
See Pondini. Q15 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
There is a special section for mail.
Assuming you mean Apple Mail
There is plenty of info here about Migration.
http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html

Cannot see Time Capsule for backup but internet perfect A

I've seen other posts about time capsule problems and most talk about wireless dropout and loss of internet connectivity. My situation is almost the reverse:
Full airport strength in menu bar. Full access to internet sites on at least one computer. Cannot see Time Capsule via Airport Utility or in Finder on any computer. Time Machine backups fail (marked as Delayed in menu bar item).
If I reboot (via unplugging) the Time Capsule, it shows up again in Airport Utility and backups are successful. This has happened three times now. I think the first time was prior to upgrading the firmware. The second two times were after the Time Capsule firmware upgrade. In the second two instances, it looks like the backups run for about 12-13 hours, every hour. No problems. Then, they drop out. Yesterday, it ran from 8:30 AM until 9 PM.
I've got two Macs (a Powerbook G4 and a MacBook Pro), each running latest software updates (security, 10.5.2, etc.).
Unplugging (rebooting) my Time Capsule each day is not an option. That's partly why I moved from an ancient LinkSys router that always needed to be rebooted since we lost local and internet access. Any help is much appreciated!
Cheers,
Drew

Have you set up the TC with user accounts??
Most people just use the TC password..
I have done very little with user accounts on the TC.. it seems fundamentally wrong headed to me.. If you have a domain controller with everyone using accounts to login that is fine.. and the TC would then exist in connection to the domain controller.. but it is a home device and there is no function to all that.
What will happen if you change over to standard security or even turn on the guest account I am too scared to suggest as you may not easily get connection back again.. The TC certainly displays a warning going to accounts.. I am not sure of warnings going away from accounts.
If you didn't setup the TC, do you have admin access to it??
Perhaps I am assuming too much before you tell me everything. But I may suggest things you don't want to try.. unfortunately I cannot say this will work.. the issue is widespread across the Mountain Lion TC combo and I have yet to see Apple suggest a solution or even fess up there is a problem. Daily reboots are just simply now a part of the scene for all windows and Mac users.
Is the TC the main router for the network.. 1 hour is not default lease in the TC and very few people even know how to change it.. standard is 1day. I would consider 1hr adequately short for all arp tables to be kept up to date.. the computer should be seeking new lease at 30min.. ie half lease time.
If the TC is bridged an not controlling the network.. that can contribute to the issue.
Setting a static IP on the TC if it is bridged my help.

Can time capsule back everything including pictures?

Will Time Capsul back up my pictures also?

Why would it not?
It would be a useless backup if it failed to backup something as important as your pictures..
But it is Time Machine that is the backup program. Time Capsule is a dumb box getting the backup files.
iPhoto stores its library in strange and various ways according to version. So read up now how to restore.
http://pondini.org/TM/15.html
Also if this is an external drive you are talking about you need to make sure it is included in the TM backup.
TM cannot backup network drives.. so having no idea where you are storing this I can only point you to actually read about how Time Machine works.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

Will time capsule back up Sooloos Store Ones?

I have a Sooloos system with two Store One devices holding almost two terabytes of music. Can the Time Capsule back up Sooloos? I assume through iTunes? If so what about auto backup?

Time Capsule can do NOTHING..... it is a dumb hard disk inside a pretty much standard Airport Extreme Router.
It is a target for Time Machine.. all the smarts are in the computer and TM which does the backup.
BUT TM cannot backup network drives.
So neither TC or TM can do anything.. in and of themselves.
I have no idea what a Sooloos is but if it can backup itself to SMB or AFP target network disk, then it can work.. otherwise no.
Edit.. I did read up this basic review
http://www.meridian-audio.com/sooloos/pdfs/sound-vision.pdf
But I still don't know the networking abilities of the unit.
iTunes will not be able to backup a network drive either.. only if it is locally stored on the computer, then TM can back it up locally.. or perhaps you can get itunes to cloud store the material.. but 2TB is an awful lot to do that with.

Time Capsule backing up all my media again after Mavericks upgrade

Hello.
Since I've upgraded to Mavericks my Time Capsule is trying to Backup all my media since location of iTunes Library (media) changed in iTunes 11.
The problem is I have a huge music library (over 300GB), therefore I don't and won't let my Time Capsule back it up again. It would take days.
By now I've just "excluded" the "music" and "podcast" folders from my Backup thread, but this is a temporary solution. I don't want to lose all my music in case something goes wrong with my HD.
The question is: Is there any work around to this situation or the only solution is to Backup everything again?
Appreciate any help.
Thanks.

My oh my, slightly exceeds your lifespan.. three score and 10 or if you are strong four score..81,000 years hmmm..
Are you using Lion.. 10.7.5 to be exact .. you are subject to a serious bug, created by Apple and not fixed before release to all computers.. great the level of testing Apple does now.. think of yourself as a beta tester..
Here is the patch to update to the patch.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1599
If you are on a different OS tell us.. ML can have similar if not quite so bad issues.
The bug may have corrupted the old backup which is why it needs to be replaced. Unfortunately once it restarts the backup I doubt you can recover what was there.. it seems your backups now need backups if there happened to be anything you actually want.
I strongly recommend at the moment getting another software backup program.. superduper, CCC, chronosync.. something designed to create a single image.. and not self corrupt.

Will the new time capsule back up Windows on an iMac running Parallels Desktop?

Will the new time capsule back up Windows on an iMac running Parallels Desktop?

Windows home version MSBackup, cannot backup to network drives.
That was a little bonus from Bill for those who didn't fork out for Pro or Ultimate.
Like people with home versions would never need to backup to network drives.. oh no.. never!!
You need to mount the hard disk in windows for it to work.
It will help a lot if you load the airport utility for windows into your windows OS.
http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1547
Open windows explorer and type the network address of the TC.
\\TCname.local (where TCname is the correct network name of the TC).
The TC should have all names that are windows compatible.. ie
Fred Blog's Airport Time Capsule is just wrong. It is too long, it has spaces and it has apostrophe which is illegal.
A good name for the TC is TC
The default hard disk share name of data is fine. It should not be Time Capsule or anything again that is over long .. has spaces or is otherwise incompatible with windows.
A good name for the TC wifi is TCwifi
Then you can mount it \\TC
typing that directly into the address bar of windows explorer.
There are still issues with windows naturally and running in parallels I have no idea what other issues might come up.
Tell me if you have issues.. but you will need most likely to check the network.
Open a command window and ping the TC by name and by IP address. If IP address works just mount by IP.
\\10.0.1.1 for example .. and that is the default TC IP address when in router mode.
If you still cannot access the TC my recommendation is to use a USB drive and use that.. it is 10x easier and more reliable than mixing Mac and windows backups on the TC.

Does time capsule back-up files which I am currently working on in a program?

Hey everybody,
If I am working on a file in a program, does time capsule back this file up? So if the program(third party) crashes after half an hour for example, can I still get the file back or would it be incomplete because it was open during back-up?
Thanks in advance.
Jelle

Most apps don't work with the actual file on disk; they copy it into memory and make the changes there.
Like most backup apps, Time Machine doesn't (can't) back up anything in memory, only things on disk.
When you Save a file you're working on, or done with, it goes to disk and will be included on the next backup.
Similarly, if the app has an "autosave" facitity, that will copy the "working" version to disk. Many apps do that to a separate file (often named the same as the original, but with something like "autosaved" appended). Lion apps that support Lion's AutoSave facility save it to the original file.

Can't get Time Capsule to appear in AirPort Utility

Have been mucking with my new Time Capsule and somewhere during that process have done something which is preventing Time Capsule from appearing in my AirPort utility which is frustrating as **** cause now I can't change any of its settings.
I'm within range. Have attempted to connect via wireless and ethernet. Have turned on and off several times. Have reset it with the pin hole at the back.
The wireless network it is currently configured to host will appear after a reset in my wireless menu. But will still not appear in AirPort utility.
How do I get Time Capsule to re appear in AirPort utility so that I can properly configure it.

Have you followed the steps on page 30 of your TC Setup Guide?
Did you do a factory reset?

How can i ensure that the time capsule back up all my data?

how can i ensure that the time capsule back up all my data and no any data missed during the back up? becz i was backing up my mac to time capsule for the first time and it takes only 5 hourse for 279GB which is doesnt make sense
any idea, how to ensure that all my data been backed up

well this tells you why you are having issues.. since you have a filevault and unless you are logged on as that user TM has no way to backup the vault.
so that is why the backup is so small.
And you cannot remove the file vault because the disk is too small.. you are in catch 22..
You cannot backup and you cannot remove the vault..
Login as the user who has the file vault and copy the files off the computer to a directory on the TC.. Then just delete the files on the computer.. that will then allow you to remove the file vault.
But never will I ever use file vaults so I am being theoretical .. please read it up yourself.
http://pondini.org/TM/25.html
You are not doing the background reading you need to understand what you are doing..
read the whole of pondini's info.. or at least skim it so you know what is there.
Avoid like the plague file vaults..
When disks go belly up, as they always do.. your files will be lost. Somewhere they need to be stored in the clear.. so why bother .. put better security on the computer and forget vaults.

Retrieving iCal data from Time Capsule back up

My system crashed and onfortunatly i had to install a new system. Now i want my 'old' data back in iCal. What do i need to get back from my Time Capsule back up to get the data back in my iCal???
I already retrieved users -> myname -> library -> calendars but this has no effect at all.
plsssssssssssss help me

Hi,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Try this:
Make a copy of the ~/Library/Calendars folder from your backup and put it on your Desktop.
Rename the folder 'Old.icbu' (without the quotes).
There will probably be a dialog confirming that you want to make this name change.
It should now look like an iCal backup file (which is actually a package).
Double click 'Old.icbu' on the Desktop.
(Hopefully) iCal will open and confirm that you want to revert all your calendars to this version.
Let me know how it goes.
Best wishes
John M

I cannot get time capsule back "on line" (green)

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