More Time Capsule problems

I'm having problems with my Time Capsule (doesn't everyone seem to?). Just checked my backups on the Powerbook only to be told the last backup was in July. Tried 'backup now' - 'preparing backup' message displayed but never progressed to 'Backing up'. Turned TC off & on again. Entered Time Machine only to find ALL Powerbook backups gone. Now when I try to backup I get a message saying there's not enough room on the TC (650GB required, only 450 GB available). How can this be as the Powerbook only has a 100GB hard drive with around 27GB available? Any ideas?
Update: Latest backup just kicked in. Message window says 'Preparing backup' but menu bar says 'Finishing Backup'
Message was edited by: larrycat

you must be doing the back up wirelessly. The robustness of the network is all important in the wireless scenario.

Similar Messages

Time Capsule Problems

I received my TC almost a year ago and up until a couple days ago I had only intended to use the time machine function to do weekly backups. Now that I am beginning to run out of space on my local drive I decided it is time to start to make use of the 1T of storage that my TC provides. I opened finder selected time capsule under shared and opened the Data file. Within that file I created a new folder titled Pictures. I began my attempt at copying my 12gigs of photos and a couple .mov's taken on my iphone4 (these .mov files were synced to my main Pictures folder via iphoto.) when i get through about 10gigs of the copy i get an error message about one of the .mov files and at that point no more files are able to be transferred and the copy process for the most part freezes (meaning it doesn't let me select the "stop copying" button and nothing else transfers over. When i restart my computer and look in my TC to the Pictures folder i see that around 10 of 12 gigs made it but the rest did not. How can I ever know what files were copied and what was not? Going through the photos in the TC Pictures folder individually is not practical and would take wayyy to long, and I certainly am not going to delete the files off mt C drive until i know FOR SURE that everything has successfully been copied to my TC. (How can I place any trust in a piece of equipment that is supposed to protect my information if simple tasks like copying files cannot be completed!!!) I really don't want to go out and buy another external HD when i have 1T of memory sitting on my desk hardly being used. So I guess my main questions are: How can I (step by step please) move data from my C drive to the time capsule? How can I (once the copy is done and double checked) remove it from my local hard drive to free up space? How can i set it up so whenever new photos are added to my Pictures folder they go straight to my TC rather than saving on my local drive? Oh and... How can I fix the error I am getting when trying to make the copy of my pictures folder to the TC?(I will try to post the exact error when i get back to my computer) and some more... Is there a better way to sync iphone4 videos b/c iphoto seems to be the worst for that. hmm maybe thats what is causing all the problems with the copy? i really need some pro help cause im dealing with years and years of irreplaceable information that I WILL NOT lose forever b/c of another faulty apple product (sorry jobs but im a bit sour over this whole ordeal.) Any help is GREATLY APPRECIATED and please bear with me as this is my first time posting on apple discussions. i usually just read over other peoples posts that relate to problems i encounter. thanks again!!

Helpmeplease111 wrote:
How else can I free up space?
(Taking things in reverse order), there are several tools to show what's using your disk space.
Some are free, such as:
[Disk Inventory X|http://www.derlien.com>
[OmniDiskSweeper|http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnidisksweeper>
[SupaView|http://twinside.free.fr/supaview>
Some of those also have other useful features.
But I recommend [WhatSize|http://www.whatsizemac.com/index.php] ($12.99 US) for the following features:
It's the only one with an option to show everything at once; the others only show things the logged-on user is permitted to see (click the +As User+ padlock icon in the toolbar).
You can use any of 4 different display formats (3 text and a pie chart).
There's a "Find Duplicates" feature.
It has very good and complete Help.
Do you have any suggestions on how to find and delete duplicate files easily?
I've not used the "Find Duplicates" feature (just experimented with it a bit), but it might of help. It finds what appear to be duplicates; you'll still have to figure out whether they're really redundant.

Time Capsule problems solved?

Hello apple community,
I´m a new member of apple family and now I would like to buy a Time Capsule to enlarge my little collection of apple products. But on timecapsule.org and in apple support community I read about the “sudden death” problems. That´s why I´m not sure if it would be a good idea to spend so much money for a time capsule. Therefore I would like to ask you which experiences you made over the past years and how long you could enjoy the performance of your time capsules.

Hi
I have now come to the conclusion that the Time Capsule is more trouble than it is worth - certainly in my experience over the past year. Mine has just caused me so many problems recently that it has wasted days of valuable time trying to get it to work again. You may see my earlier post where it would back up to 17.4 GB - then slow down and say it would take 26 days to do the rest! On another try last night it actually reported that it would take 1,497, 554 days! - yes - over a millon days to back up! I wish I could have that time to wait!
I bought mine as a 'belts and braces' - in case I had missed anything via my normal backups. I do all of my backups suing Super Duper. This has never let me down and the tech support is first class and often within the hour if any problems do arise. I like it because it also gives me a bootable backup alternative (which TC does not)
So you have to decide - if you need the hourly backups of TC - or if you can do this yourself with Super Duper.
Siince all drives will eventually die then my advice is to have your own system of double backups, especially if you have, like me, lots of valuable photos and video you cannot afford to lose!
You may find that using an external drive and Time Machine may be a better solution than TC - but, I would advise SuperDuper as well!
Hope this helps

Time Capsule: Problem connecting to the Server

Specs:
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15, Late 2013), 2.6 Ghz Intel Core i7, 16GB 1600 MHz DDR3, NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048MB, 1TB SSD, OSX Mavericks 10.9.4 (13E28)
Time Capsule 2013, 3TB, Firmware 7.7.3
"There was a problem connecting to the server "Xxxxx's Airport Time Capsule".
Check the server name or IP address, and then try again. If you continue to have problems, contact your system administrator."
I can access my Time Machine, but I cannot backup. Everytime I try to I get the above message. I had this problem in the past, but opening Time Machine System Preferences and Selecting and deselecting the current disk seemed to fix it. It was an odd fix, but every time I went into the settings to get to the bottom of the problem it resolved itself before I could get to the bottom of the issue. I thought I was imagining it at times! The Time Capsule is also giving my network sporadic connectivity issues to the internet. It will maintain a perfect wireless connection, but not provide a connection to the internet. Turning my notebooks WiFi on and off seems to resolve the issue upon reconnection.
What's going on and how do I fix it!
I also have AppleCare for the Time Capsule and would like to not get too crazy or involved with the solutions. Nothing that voids the warranty!

We would not suggest warranty voiding fixes on any device that has warranty.. we only suggest those when Apple refuse to help or the device is older.
Reset your TC to factory.
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 of the TC.. using all short names.. with no spaces and pure alphanumeric.
Apple changed Mavericks default network protocol to SMB and it has tighter rules.
eg.. A good name is TCgen5
A good name for the wireless is TCwifi
Use whatever you like.. up to max 20 characters but short and sweet is better.
Once you do that, mount the disk in finder manually.
Go, Connect to server.. From the top menu area.
AFP://TCgen5.local
OR even better use its IP address.
AFP://10.0.1.1 (but it must be static which usually means in router mode).
Once you have found the network resource.. put in your disk password and save it to the keychain. All passwords should be pure alphanumeric mix of case and numbers and 10-20 characters.
Reset Time Machine to the new path to the TC.
It will say it will start a new backup but in fact it will discover the old one and simply continue the backup.
If it still fails.. it is faulty and should be returned.
The drop out of the internet even when wireless is working points to faulty WAN connection which is a serious bug on these.

Very annoying Time Capsule problem - Not responding

Hi,
I have a really annoying problem with my Time Capsule and/or network setup. Although I did huge research on this matter, I still have no solution for the problem, nor any more ideas how to get rid of this misbehavior.
First of all, I would like to introduce a draft of my current network setup with all included clients, switches and routers:
As you can see, I have 3 Apple computers, 1 Windows 7 client, a Canon MX895 network printer, the said time capsule and an AVM Fritz!Box WLAN Router for internet access.
Both MacBooks are WiFi connected to the Fritz! which serves as the central WLAN accesspoint with simultaneous 2.4/5 GHz. The interconnection between the Fritz! and the Time Capsule is a wired 100MBit. Also it manages the IP adresses via DHCP enabled.
The Windows PC, iMac and MX895 are directly connected to the remaining 3 network ports of the Time Capsule. The Time Capsule is a 2ng gen one equipped with a Samsung 2TB drive. WiFi on the Time Capsule is disabled. Firmware is 7.6.3
And here is the problem description:
After adding the Time Capsule to the network, there was no problem configuring it as a switch with Time Machine sharing available to the 3 Macs. Everything worked as expected... until...
...the Time Capsule does not respond any more. In more detail:
The LED of the capsule is still green, not blinking or amber!
I can access the capsule with Airport Utility but as soon as I try to do a remote restart, the Time Capsule is not responding any more.
First I thought: "Okay, probably there has happened something" but I didn't care much about it and did a restart by pulling the power cord out and plug it back in after some seconds. Then it seems to work again... for some hours/days...
...then it happened again:
My MacBook's Time Machine tells me that "the network drive does not respond", "...does not exist" or "...identity has changed". It seems to happen randomly, I don't have a clue what is causing this!
What I have tried to fix this:
Tried another Time Capsule (1st gen) with the same hard drive
Tried this 1st gen with another Samsung 2TB HD
Reset the 1st and 2nd gen TC and started with fresh backups
Tried different TC settings, like transfering DHCP from the Fritz! to the TC, fixed IP
Reset the complete Time Machine settings on all Macs and configured it again
At the moment I'm trying, if a specific Mac in the network causes the issue by disabling the automatic Time Machine backups. I checked the TC log with the old Airport Utility - there is no error.
I know, this is a bit strange and maybe I make some mistake, but I don't know what to do next. Maybe someone has an idea or can give me a hint what to try.
Any help is very appreciated.
Thanks
Alex

I don't see anything wrong in your setup.
Unfortunately I think this is just network bug in mountain lion and the TC.. this is fairly common that the two will lose connection and a reboot will get things perked up again for times varying from a few hours to days or weeks.
I don't have a bug killing solution either sorry to say.
Let me recommend a few things.
1. Do not use 7.6.3 firmware on those old TC.. go back to 7.5.2
It has proven much more reliable. Do a factory reset after you flash back and redo the setup from scratch.
2. Names on the TC for network sharing to be kept short, no spaces pure alphanumeric. Do not use apple type names with spaces and particularly the apostrophe.
3. Whichever is running dhcp.. it should normally be the Fritz though, set dhcp lease to a very short time.. eg 30min. This will get the lease renewal faster and hopefully keep the ARP tables in the computers updated.
4. But even though the TC is in bridge it should have a static IP address. That can help so you can link not just to the TC by name but also by IP address. The static IP is better handled by the Fritz though via fixed host type setting.. I am sure the fritz offers that.
5. Just as a matter of interest why keep the link between the fritz and the TC to 100mbit.. both can do gigabit? It has nothing to do with the problem and there is nothing in the current setup that needs more than 100mbit link unless you are getting super speed on the 5ghz from the fritz.
Your post and picture of network are excellent.. helps when you are so clear.

HT201250 Time Capsule Problems - Flashing Amber

Hi, I just purchased Time Capsule to use as a storage device for Time Machine. This was my first attempt to use Time Machine. I tried connecting via AirPort, but ultimately couldnt get the restart to work...so i just went with the ethernet cable. I believe its working (i can see the back-up'd files in Finder), but the light continues to flash amber. Problem? How do i fix it?

See:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1589

Older Time Capsule problems

Hi guys, I have an older 500gb time capsule that was bought in 2008. In march I was having some problems with it so my unlce gave me a linksys e3000 router that I hooked up and have been using since then. Well my computer has been going down hill lately so I hooked my tc back up so I can back my computer up in case it dies before I get a new one. So my problem is, I hooked it up the linksys, set it up in bridge mode and the internet works fine, but the time capsule can't seem to back up. I was able to get into time machine and see my archives but it has been "preparing backup..." for almost 2 hours now. Does this sound normal? I don't remeber it ever taking this long to back up before. The first hour it was on the other side of my house so I thought maybe it was the connection so I moved my computer right next to it and it made no difference. I restarted my computer and now it is hooked up to a linksys network. I started the back up and it says "Preparing backup" again. Do I need to be linked to the time capsule network? Does any of this sound normal? Can/should I just hardwire a connection and back it up? How can I do that?
Thanks Tyler

Sorry, but the bad news is that your old AE cannot be read by Time Capsule if its network wirless settings are for a 5GHz, "n" only mode.The good news, is that they will "see" each other if the configuration is set to "802.11n(b/g compatible"). However, with the latter setting, your data transfer speed will be reduced.
The other alternative is to set up a "Dual Band" wireless network, but that would entail the AE being tethered directly to the TC via ethernet cable.
Hope that answers your question. You could, of course dash off to your nearest Apple Store and purchase the NEW Airport Express, that was released this past week. It will read your "n" network for a mere $99.00!(See how that "Apple conspiracy" works?)

Airport Time Capsule Problems Since Snow Leopard - Loses Connections

I did a straightforward install of Snow Leopard on the iMac 24 and it went fine. I have very few apps on it so nothing weird running to cause two issues:
1 - Time Machine backups to a Time Capsule have become slow and unreliable. Also, even 10-100 MB file transfers to a MacBook Pro 17", also on Snow Leopard, took the longest time.
2 - The Airport/WiFi icon will often go from being a static icon with full signal to one in which each curved concentric level bar flashes one by one up from the bottom dot to the topmost arc, and then back down, and back and forth. This often happens in the middle of Time Capsule backups. Holding down the mouse on the icon shows my network still connected, but the backup fails, and any web page attempted will also report there is no network.
I wonder if others have had similar problem(s).
Imran

I am also having very strange problems with 10.6.1 and TC. The network disconnects for no apparent reason, frequently. It seems to be tying up both of the phone lines too, because once the TC reconnects to the network, the telephone no longer works (it says "line busy" and remains that way until and unless I unplug the TC). Plugging directly into the cable modem works fine, no problems at all with the telephones or with the network disconnecting at random. All three macs on my home network (macbook, MBPro and iMac) are updated to 10.6.1. At first I thought the problem might have been the modem itself but it works fine; it's only when the TC is connected that the weirdness happens.

Big Time Capsule Problems

I'm having big problems with my time capsule.
I've had it a week and the first backup is not yet done. Today I have spent 6 hours watching it say 'preparing' but never backing up. Now it is saying 'failed' because 'The backup disk image could not be mounted.' What is going on?
Please help - I've spent nearly a week on this and I'm sick of it. It's not what I xpect from apple.

I have been having problems with Time Capsule being unable to create disk image or not mounting, on and off since I got it about a year ago. I have gleaned a series of different assists, which I apply en mass, each time I need to reset and start all over.
Here are the key things to do to rid it of gremlins. (I don't know whether they all help or one is the key to my problems)
1/ Network name. In system folder> Sharing make sure there is a name of your network. Less than eight characters and no punctuation.
2/ Run disk utility to verify and repair disks
3/ In TC preferences, select no disc.
4/ Turn off TC at wall.
5/ Delete the sparse bundle (Created by TC)
6/ Erase the disk (In disk utility), if it will allow you
7/ Change name of Time capsule in TC preferences. Same again, less than 8 and no punctuation
8/ Turn back on and select disk, newly named disc.
9/ Try backing up.
Even if you have done some of these before, I always need to make minor adjustments to the disc or network names to kickstart it again. This will necessitate a 24hour full HD backup to take place, and will wipe what is already on your disc.

No Time Capsule Problems!!!

I am not a networking genius. And I am not an Apple Fan Boy. I setup the time capsule and I haven't had any big problems. When it won't update or connect I used a cable and it worked. And Since then I have it running wirelessly. The first back up went fine. The thing is not perfect (xbox 360 wireless connection) and there are some small speed problems but those come and go. I'm just wondering I'm I the only person thats not having any problems? I understand that these discussions are mostly for problems and thats why I looked on them because I wanted to help people but I'm starting to think I have the only working TC out there!

Hey -- mine is working quite well, backing up two machines with no large issues and a nice speedy in-home network. The only issue so far is spotty internal network speeds. Sometimes file transfers from computer to computer will be super fast and sometimes extremely slow, no idea why yet...

Time Machine and Time Capsule Problems

I have a Time Capsule and my Time Machine no longer seems to work on my MBA.
It had been working fine for the past 2 months. It would do quick backups (between 1-3 MB normally) after my first long backup.
Now whenever I look at my MBA it will show Time Machine spinning but always says "Preparing Backup." It will stay in this state for days. If I try to stop the backup it will then be stuck in "Stopping Backup." The only way to get out of this is to turn off the computer. Then it will say "Last Backup Failed" and the next time it tries to sync the process will start over again.
In the past I would have some problems if the MBA went to sleep in the middle of a backup where the backup would fail, but it would work the next time it tried to backup. I don't know why it isn't working anymore.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

See this KB article. It may apply to your situation.
Mac OS X 10.5: Time Machine preferences may display "Preparing" for a longer time
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1516
One observation it has is that anti-virus software can interfere with the backup process.

Time capsule problems in mixed apple windows network

Hello
I am facing issues with my home network.
I am using a time capsule on the firm ware version 7.6, which is the newest to my knowledge (just updated)
I have setup my time capsule with costum name and password. Time machine is off at the moment.
I have setup a wireless network with costum name and password. I have not activated a guest network.
In the network we use one windows laptop running on windows xp and a mac book pro running snow leopard.
We both can acess the wireless network with our laptops. But the connection to the internet is shaky, Especially if there is another guest with a windows pc comming into the network (and we give him the network details) I loose connection to the internet for several days. Usually the issue resolves itself a couple of days after the guest has left.
What could cause such a problem?
Thank you in advance for your answers!
Wolfi

This type of question arises from time to time and is really hard to figure out.
If you restart the TC does the problem go away immediately?
What about if the TC is reset and redo the setup.. does it go?
If you connect via ethernet does the problem exist or is it purely wireless?
Does the PC that is added have a different computer name and different username and password on the local disk to yours?
Try doing a manual wireless configuration. Set channels to fixed value. Change the wireless name for 5ghz so it is different to 2.4ghz. See if that makes an improvement.

Time Capsule - problems with file sharing

Time Capsule is working great with Time Machine, but I can't copy files to it even after enabling file sharing in AirPort Utility. I'd really like to move my iTunes library to it since the external drive it currently lives on is full and the TC has about 1.96TB still free. Any thoughts on what the problem is? I see it under "shared" in Finder, but all I can see is the "data" folder and I get warnings that the drive is read only. Thanks for any help you all might be able to provide!

Not Bob .. but it is fairly simple.
When we say external drive we mean a drive plugged physically directly into the Mac.
It can then be backed up by TM.
Just open the TM preference and click on the options.. it should automagically include all disks connected to local machine. You can exclude a drive though. Make sure nothing is excluded .. if it is uncheck it.
TM cannot backup a Network drive but can use a drive as long as it is correctly formatted and accessible to Mac OS as a target for the backup.
I would also recommend you do a straight backup of your disk. 500GB drive is cheap. Get a USB holder and do that direct file copy or use a software like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. The later can make a direct copy of the disk in the freeware version. IMHO it is a lot easier to recover.. the increments if you already have the bulk.

Time Capsule Problems - No DNS Servers Where did they go?

I have an iMac and macbookpro using a TC connected to high speed cable modem. Everything has worked fine for a year+. All of the sudden I can't connect to Internet. Under airport utility it says I have no dns servers and has two empty boxes. Then it says something about choosing or not choosing the bridge option. Never had to deal with any of this before and don't know what to enter.
I checked and modem and everything leading to TC is working ok. I tried turning off/on, unplugging, some other guesses but no luck.
I work from home and could really use some help asap. It is extremely appreciated...thanks!

I am experiencing the same problem with my time capsule. I have owned the timecapsule for a couple of years and have had no connectivity issues with it.
Regarding the Double NAT:
I have tried switching to bridge mode, but I just loose internet connectivity completely. I would appreciate it if someone would post any common problems with using bridge that I should look for.
I would think that if Double NAT were an issue that the Airport would report it consistently rather then intermittently.
Regarding the lack of DNS:
I also switched to several combinations of DNS servers (comcast, google, and openDNS). No combinations solves the problem.
When I loose connectivity in NAT mode I go get a drink of water and comeback and the problem has resolved itself. I then reestablish my VPN link and continue work.
I have not noticed this when I am not using VPN; but I have a hard time believing that a VPN running on my MBP would affect the TC. I use VPN a lot, so the odds are that it will happen when I am using VPN.
I have had this ISP (comcast) since February. The problem (the TC reporting double NAT and no DNS) started to happen in June.
I have always had problems with my VPN dropping while I am using comcast. Under my previous ISP VPN rarely dropped.

Time Capsule Problems - Can't get initial back-up to work

Help!!! I've got a modem hooked up to an Airport Extreme to create a wireless network. I just purchased a Time Capsule to put upstairs to extend the reach of my network and also back-up my MacBook Pro. I set-up the time capsule, everything is visible, green lights and all, but all back-up attempts are failing. A couple have saved about 200 MB but that's as far as it's gotten.
Any words of wisdom?
Thanks.

CVDW, welcome to the discussions!
Are you trying to do your first backup wirelessly?
If so, use an ethernet connection for the first backup because it is likely 40 Gigs or more and you have much less chance of errors with a wired connection. Once your first backup is complete, you can probably use wireless for subsequent backups because they will be much smaller and faster.
Turn off the wireless on your MacBook Pro for the time being.
Connect the ethernet cable from one of the LAN ports on your TC directly to your computer.
Open Airport Utility, click on Manual Setup and click on the Disks icon at the top of the pane. Then click on the File Sharing Tab just below the icons and make sure there is a check mark next to Enable File Sharing. Click Update if you have made any changes, otherwise you can close AirPort Utility.
Now Open System Preferences from your dock and open Time Machine. If Time Machine is On, Turn it Off. You may need to click the lock to make changes. Close Time Machine.
Restart your computer. Go to System Preferences > Time Machine and turn it On.
Click Change Disk then click your Time Capsule to highlight it and then click Use for Backup. Close Time Machine.
Now you can click the Time Machine clock icon at the top of your screen and select Back Up Now. Depending on how much data you have on your computer, and previous errors, the backup process can take a long time....a very long time.
The best time to do this is late evening so the backup will run overnight and you can check progress in the morning. It may take a day or two to complete the first backup. Stick with it and resist the urge to cancel the backup.
Post back on your progress in a day or two. If this doesn't do it, there are more surgical steps to take.

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