Problem with Time Capsule password

Hi everybody.
I have a Time Capsule and I'm trying to perform the backup of my system with Time Machine. I have replaced my old Airport Extreme base with Time Capsule and I've configured everything so that the solid green light is turned on. Now I have my Time Capsule as an Airport Base and Internet is working properly.
Once I'm opening Time Machine, it asks me what drive I want to use for backup. I choose Time Capsule and then it's asking me an username and a password.
Please, could anyone tell me what username and password I have to write? I'm trying with my administrator one but it doesn't work. I looked everywhere but I'm not able to find the right UN and PW!
Please, help!
Thanks
Matteo

Matteo, you might have chosen to secure your disk with accounts rather than a password. To check this, go into the Airport Utility and double click Time Capsule on the left to enter manual setup, then click the disks icon on the top. Choose the file sharing tab and make sure "enable file sharing" is checked, then see if you have it set to "secure shared disks..." with Time Capsule password, rather than with accounts.
Be warned: if you change this setting, you will lose access to any files already on Time Capsule.

Similar Messages

Problem with Time Capsule after backup session

I have a problem with Time Capsule after a backup session. Our two Macs (on Maverick) loose connection with the station and the only thing that seems to help is unplugging the Time Capsule and starting it again! After the next backup session the same thing happens again. The Macs seem not to be able to hold on to the connection and continually loose it. The iPhones and iPads that we have (4 units) are not affected - it is the Mac Mini and Mac Powerbook that experiences this problem!
I would be grateful for your help!
Thor

This is standard Mac issues and has been a bug floating around since Lion.. it hits some people worse than others.. but once it starts it is awful hard to get rid of.
Just to confirm the connection to internet is not a problem?? Just the hard disk drops out?
I recommend you
1. Reset the TC to factory.. and start over with all new names.. short, no spaces pure alphanumeric.
TC name and wireless name/s should conform. By default the disk share name is data which is fine.
2. Mavericks has changed over from using AFP to SMB for network filesharing.. why Apple why??
This is unhelpful to say the least. Many many people are struggling with TC and being unable to mount the network drive.
So do it manually and force it back to AFP.
In Finder use top menu, Go, Connect to Server.
Type AFP://TCname or TCIPaddress (it must be the network name of actual TC.. or its IP address)
When the computer locates the resource it will ask for a password.. it is public by default.. supply your password or public and save it in the keychain.
3. Delete the existing TM setup and start over.. See A4 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
I cannot promise this will fix it but should reduce the problem to now and then.. rather than every time TM needs to backup.

Hi, I have the following problem with Time Capsule: La imagen del disco de copia de seguridad "/Volumes/Data/MacBook Pro de Carlos.sparsebundle" ya está en uso. Please your comments to solve this problem, i can't made a backup. Thanks.

Hi, I have the following problem with Time Capsule: La imagen del disco de copia de seguridad “/Volumes/Data/MacBook Pro de Carlos.sparsebundle” ya está en uso. Please your comments to solve this problem, i can't made a backup. Thanks.

Try Here > http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
Perhaps P 2 > Time Machine could not complete . . . sparsebundle could not be accessed. (Error 109).

Since I upgraded to 10.7.2 lion I have these problems with Time Capsule. What is the problem? thanks

since I upgraded to 10.7.2 lion I have these problems with Time Capsule. What is the problem? thanks

Unable to access disk image backup "/ Volumes / Time Capsule / iMac Admin. Sparsebundle" (error -1).
Then?????

Suggestions, Observations and problem with Time Capsule shares

*Some Observations*
The Time Capsule can take a long time to become active. This is especially true if using an extended or WDS network. I would suspect this is due to the negotiation between devices that it needs to do. I have on occasion believed it to be hung, only to find that after walking away for a bit it comes up. This also impacts devices showing up in the Airport utility.
Using a time capsule with one Airport Express B/G will work, but adding a second creates problems.
Extending a network with an Airport Express N seems to work well.
Best bet is to set up separate B/G and N networks and run your N network as N only at 5Ghz.
WEP provides no real security, so think of it as you would an open network.
*My Issue*
I am having an issue where the time capsule shares become unavailable. It is an intermittent issue, and I have been unable to identify a test case. This happens for devices connected over ethernet as well as wireless. The Time Capsule shows in the Finder list, but the volumes are not available. Connecting to them fails.
The device also appears in the Airport Utility list, but when clicking on Manual Setup, or guided set up, it causes a hang.
This results in Time Machine hanging when trying to initiate a backup.
I have also noticed that when this happens, the signal does start to get a bit flaky with "Roam (Beacons Lost)" messages. Wireless connectivity still seems to be very useable though. I can connect to other network shares through the Time Machine, but not to the shares on the Time Machine. The only way to recover from this is to power cycle the Time Capsule.
One thing I want to investigate more tonight is whether there are any issues with my keychain and old passwords in case there are multiple failed attempts in the mix that are doing something. Although I know of no lockout feature on the device.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. This is the second Time Machine, so I have seen this on two different devices. I am also seeing this issue across 4 different computers simultaneously, some via ethernet and some wirelessly. Time Capsule is 7.3.2

Hi,
I have pretty much the same problem, 1TB Time Capsule that works fine most of the time as a wireless router. Up till recently Time Machine backups just worked (as one would expect them to) wired and wireless. I went away for a week came back and now every time Time Machine invokes a back up process all of a sudden my wireless network goes down, Time Machine can no longer see the Time Capsule and all other devices (iphone / apple TV other non apple devices) no longer have connections (they see wireless but no pass through to the internet or each other).
I have tried resetting all sorts of stuff, re-deployed my network, changed IP / LAN settings to make it less complex, Yasu'd my mac, connected only via wires, cleaned out my keychain etc etc and still get the same problems and as per Chris's point airport utility also hangs and the only solution is rebooting the time capsule.
I am fairly frustrated with this! any suggestions / help would be gratefully accepted.
thanks
alex

Wireless comm problem with time capsule or airport extreme using iMac G5

I did buy a Time Capsule and an iMac 20" G5 January 2009...Installed all the components and created a wireless network...MacBook, iPhone and iPod Touch connected perfectly...iMac connected but started to drop communications with Time Capsule...Safari, iTunes and other internet-access programs had problems to connect 100% with the web...After reviewing all the post here and "testing/trying" several parameters, I found out that you need to define a WPA/WPA2 password protection with more than 13 characters...FYI, Time capsule is configured using 802.11n (b/g compatible)...

Further to Bob's comments..
A Gen1 TC will be using marvel wireless chip and your 2008 and 2010 Macbook will use atheros and/or broadcom cards.. Just open your system profiler and look for info on the airport. We find the mixture of wireless chipsets especially older draft N and later N products can give very varied results.
The very fact you are linking at 270 and not 300mbps shows some reduction from theoretical max speed.. and really to get over 100mbps with any wireless you need perfect setup.. matched wireless chips etc.
Do a test uploading and downloading a file to the TC to see if the LAN speed is better than internet speed.
In reality I think you are doing especially well.. we see loads of people complaining about slow internet here who are getting less than 10% of the speed they get direct when routed through the TC. And on most occasions the limit in speed is not really going to affect what you do, as the real links to the internet are not that fast.

Problem with Time Capsule backup

My Time Capsule is a first gen (500 GB), and I recently upgraded to Lion on my iMac. It seems like right around the time I upgraded that I started having problems with Time Machine backups. They will complete, but then the disk does not eject from my desktop. I am running the Time Capsule buddy widget, and here's the log file:
Starting standard backup
Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TimeCapsule
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Disk image /Volumes/TimeCapsule/Stefano.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
100.0 MB required (including padding), 174.27 GB available
Copied 2353 files (2.0 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
100.0 MB required (including padding), 174.27 GB available
Copied 1656 files (718 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Backup completed successfully.
Waiting for Spotlight to finish indexing /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Waiting for Spotlight to finish indexing /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Stopping backup to allow backup destination disk to be unmounted or ejected.
Backup failed because the destination disk was ejected or disconnected unexpectedly!
You can see at the end where I ejected the disk manually.

I finally resolved this. However, I had to erase the entire backup on my 3tb and start with a new backup. I connected via hardwire to make it go faster. No problems now.

Internet Problem with Time Capsule (Wi-Fi) and AT&T U-verse Motorola NVG589 (Bridge Mode)

I'm having a problem with my Internet connection. For some unknown reason it keeps cutting out every 5 min for about 5 seconds. The wi-fi signal doesn't drop or anything like that, just the internet connection stops working for a little bit and then its fine again (pages don't load, etc).
Here is my current set-up:
1. AT&T Motorola NVG589 - set to bridge mode as per instructions here http://www.dslreports.com/faq/17734 (followed instructions step by step)
2. Apple Time Capsule (latest model 2TB)
3. Motorola is connected to the Time Capsule through an ethernet cable.
I tried contacting AT&T and they just sent me a new Motorola router, I installed it, put it in bridge mode and still the same thing is happening.
I am thinking maybe there is some problem in settings or something. Airport Utility is showing everything in "green", no problems there.
Please let me know if anyone can help.

Ok, here is an update on how I decided to deal with the problem. I will include all of my troubleshooting step by step for easy reference.
1. At first I put the NVG589 into Bridge Mode and used the TC as the main wireless router. This didn't work as my connection kept dropping for no apparent reason.
2. Second, I tried to put the Time Capsule in Bridge Mode and connect it directly to NVG589. This didn't work as my connection would still lag out for 5 seconds about every 5 minutes.
3. Third, I bought an ASUS RT-AC87U Wireless AC2400 Dual-band Gigabit Router to try and substitute the TC in previous steps and see if it helps. Same problem persisted when I put the NVG589 into Bridge Mode and RT-AC87U as the main router as well as RT-AC87U into bridge mode and NVG589 as the main router. The problem was exactly the same as when I tried using TC initially so my conclusion was this is NVG589's fault of being not compatible with other wireless routers.
4. I looked around everywhere and came up with the only feasible solution possible (for me at least):
Currently I use NVG589 as my main wireless router. I works pretty well and even though it doesn't have the specs of TC or the ASUS router my WI-FI connection is pretty fast and stable. In order to have Time Machine wireless backups, I purchased a Western Digital My Cloud Drive that is connected directly to the NVG589. Everything seems to sync and work well together.
I know this is not the ideal solution most people are looking for. But it works for me. Patiently waiting for AT&T to start offering NVG599 (http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r28967809-NEW-U-verse-Gateway-Motorola-NVG599-WI RELESS-AC-AC1600) in my area. Once I get my hands on it will report back on how it will react to all the steps above and hopefully work well with Time Capsule.
Shoot me any questions you might have. Hope this was helpful for some of you.

Problem with Time Capsule recognizing three USB hub hard drives at one time

I attached three external drives to my Time Capsule using a USB hub, but it only wants to recognize one drive at a time. I know that all three work individually with Time Capsule and the USB hub, because when I turn off the two other drives the third appears. I can turn these on and off sequentially, and all are individually recognized, but only one at a time. Does anyone know what I would need to do to get Time Capsule to recognize all three drives running simultaneously on the network? I turned Time Capsule on and off, to see if it would then recognize the three drives, but it didn't help. Could the hub be the problem, that it is underpowered? I do have an AC adapter on it. Any help would be appreciated.

I have the same issue and would love to know if you resolved it with a powered USB hub. Otherwise, i may just return to one external hard drive--though I will miss the double-backup idea. Anyone try the hub change?

Password problem with Time Capsule - Time Machine

Recently got a new 500 Gb Time Capsule. I am trying to set up Time Machine to back up on the Time Capsule. When I select the Time Capsule as the device to back up to, I am asked for a user name and password. When I enter what I am pretty sure are my username and password, and try everything else I can think of, I get an error saying that the user name or password are invalid. Any suggestions? Can I reset my user name and password on the device?

Both the Time Capsule (TC) and AirPort Disks (USB hard drives connected to 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Stations), can be configured for any one of the following means to provide access:
o With Base Station Password (default): With this method a single password is used to secure the base station’s settings and any attached hard disks.
o With a Disk Password: This method employs a password that controls access to all disks; this password is distinct from the base-station password.
o With Accounts: On partitions formatted with HFS+, you can set up individual user names and passwords, each with different levels of access; these accounts are distinct from any Mac OS X or
Windows user accounts.
If you elected not to set up a specific password, it will default to the TC's base station administrator credentials ... which should be public with no password. However, if this doesn't work, you can reset the TC's password by performing a "hard" reset.

Problem with Time Capsule WIFI Network

Here's what happened to me suddenly at 15.
I have 1 TB Time Capsule connected to DLINK adsl modem. Time Capsule is connected by Ethernet to a PC, by wireless an iMac, MacBook, PC Notebook, 2iPhones, 1 iPad. Password-protected network.
Start the iPhone to tell me that the password for network access is not right. Therewrite, same problem. It does not connect anymore. Then I try with iPad. Even theycan not surf, it asks me the password, says "Unable to access the network xxx".
I go to the PC and I have no problem connecting. I turn on the notebook, same problem, does not accept passoword and can not connect. Restart the iMac and thenworked up and surprise me asking for the password of the wireless network, I enterthe correct password, and does not connect.
Recovery Time Capsule, change the network name etc etc. ...
same Problem
Am referring again, do I reset everything, I create new network ..
With PC and iphone does not change anything, not even with iPad, beginning with the iMac is connected, but the connection is very slow ... and then stops.
When I connected the iMac via Ethernet and even navigate without any problems.
So I think that something is broken or damaged at the wireless Time Capsule.Yesterday I updated Airport Utility ... maybe you can 'hit something?
I also googled and I read that many TC died after 18 months. I have bought for Christmas 2010 ... and have now gone 18 months!

Maybe now it's ok. The problem was caused by the utility airport update on my Pc with Windows 7. I installed 5.5.2 version again, and now no problem with all devices.
Anyone can explain me if is it possible?

Problem with Time Capsule full system restore

I just had a calamity....dropped my new MacBook Pro and it's inoperable. I had my old MacBook Pro and to get going again tried to do a system restore to that from Time Capsule. Followed the Install disc instructions. Restored form the last full Time Machine backup seemed to go OK but I was unable to login to my user account.....said that FileVault could not be accessed. I have tried everything I can think of...even using the Master password to try to change my login password...it won't take anything I put in as a new password although it recognizes the Master Password. It seems that the Keychain access is corrupted and I can't fix it. I've tried to do a full restore two more times with the same problem. Can't get access to my files. Any thoughts appreciated.

thamill,
Welcome to the Apple discussions!
You can't do a "Restore System From Backup..." from one Mac to another. You need to use your Mac OS DVD for the MacBook Pro and do an Erase & Install and during the installation you will be able to Migrate your user data over form the TC.
*Erase, Install, & Migrate*
A final option, reserved for last resort, is to erase the hard disk, install a fresh copy of the Mac OS, and then use Migration Assistant during the installation to restore your user accounts. This is the Mac equivalent of ‘Slash and Burn’, and really should only be necessary if you require a completely fresh start.
Procedure:
Verify that your Mac has uninterrupted AC power.
For faster migration of user data, Time Capsule/AirDisk users should connect their Macs directly to their Airport device via ethernet.
Insert your original Mac OS 10.5 Leopard DVD and reboot while holding down the “C” key.
At the “Welcome” screen click “Continue”.
Click “Agree” to the user agreement.
Select you Macs internal hard disk and click “Options”.
Select “Erase and Install”.
Select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” for disk format. (Avoid selecting “Case-sensitive” unless you know what you are doing.)
Click “OK”.
Click “Continue”.
At “Install Summary” click “Customize” if you would like to eliminate certain Print Drivers, Fonts, or Language packages from being installed. Otherwise, click “Install”.
If you wish, you can click “Skip” when the DVD integrity check begins.
After the initial installation completes, your Mac will restart and you will see the video introduction.
At “Welcome” select your country and then preferred keyboard.
At “Do You Already Own a Mac?” you are asked “Would you like to transfer your information?”
+from another Mac+
+from another volume on this Mac+
+from a Time Machine backup+
+Do not transfer my information now+
Select “from a Time Machine backup” and click “Continue”.
At “Select a Backup Volume” choose your Time Machine backup disk and click “Continue”. (If you are attempting the migration wirelessly, then click “Join...” and select your network first.)
At “Transfer Your Information” check all the categories you wish to migrate over. If you wish your Mac to be in the same state as your last backup, then check everything. Give the installer time to calculate sizes.
Once that is complete, the “Transfer” button will become active and you can click it.
After the install, verify the registration information, click “Connect” and you are done.
After logging in, immediately go to System Preferences --> Time Machine, and turn “OFF” backups, even if a backup attempted has begun.
Next, Launch Disk Utility, select your Macs’ internal disk on the left, and click “Repair Disk Permissions”.
Interestingly, no Spotlight indexing appears necessary, so, once the permission repair is complete, turn Time Machine back “ON” in the Preferences. Time Machine should continue to backup to the same set of backups that it did prior to the restore. However, due to event logs being out of sync, the first backup will require a lengthy session of “Preparing...” as Time Machine performs a “deep traversal”. Allow this to proceed uninterrupted. Naturally, the first backup after a significant installation like this will be quite large so don’t be alarmed.
Cheers!

TS1589 Problem with Time Capsule Connectivity

I am in Italy using OSX 10.7.5, a Time Capsule, and a Vonage box (Motorola VT2442-TD). I switched from ADSL to Eolo Satellite, and everything was working until I tried to extend the network using a second wifi device. I really must have screwed up the Time Capsule configuration, because it is not working. It does not connect to the Internet, does not have the correct DNS settings, and the message in AirPort Utilities says the disk needs to be repaired.
I tried running Disk Utility, but the Time Capsule does not even show up. Plus, sometimes when I unplug then replug it, the solid amber light is on for awhile and then there is no light at all.
How do I repair the Time Capsule and reconfigure it to work with my system?
Since I have VOIP and that is not working as well, I cannot call Apple.
Thanks for any help you can give.

This is standard Mac issues and has been a bug floating around since Lion.. it hits some people worse than others.. but once it starts it is awful hard to get rid of.
Just to confirm the connection to internet is not a problem?? Just the hard disk drops out?
I recommend you
1. Reset the TC to factory.. and start over with all new names.. short, no spaces pure alphanumeric.
TC name and wireless name/s should conform. By default the disk share name is data which is fine.
2. Mavericks has changed over from using AFP to SMB for network filesharing.. why Apple why??
This is unhelpful to say the least. Many many people are struggling with TC and being unable to mount the network drive.
So do it manually and force it back to AFP.
In Finder use top menu, Go, Connect to Server.
Type AFP://TCname or TCIPaddress (it must be the network name of actual TC.. or its IP address)
When the computer locates the resource it will ask for a password.. it is public by default.. supply your password or public and save it in the keychain.
3. Delete the existing TM setup and start over.. See A4 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
I cannot promise this will fix it but should reduce the problem to now and then.. rather than every time TM needs to backup.

MacBook Air and problems with Time Capsule in 5GHz Radio Mode

We have our Time Capsule configured to 802.11n only (5 GHz). We've done this to work more efficiently in a particularly noisy wireless area. The problem is that the MacBook Air can't maintain a connection to it and when it loses the connection, the wireless interface seems to disappear from the Mac altogether - the wireless status indicator just shows an empty cone. The only solution is a restart. Sometimes it loses the connection after a couple of hours, sometimes within minutes, though it always goes eventually. All other machines on the network are fine, and switching the Time Capsule to 802.11n only (2.4 GHz) solves the problem, though there's a lot of noise at that frequency and our network performance as a whole suffers.
I know there's similar threads around dealing with the MBA and wireless issues (I've tried all the solutions vaguely related, e.g. deleting and recreating the wireless interface), though none that deal with this specific problem, which I'm convinced is caused by the radio mode of the Time Capsule.
All software / firmware is the latest:
MacBook Air 10.5.2 Wireless Card Firmware Veriosn Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (4.170.46.5)
Time Capsule Version 7.3.1
I was hoping the recent firmware updates would sort this... any one else running a Time Capsule in 5GHz mode with a MacBook Air?

I'm running my TC in 5ghz mode with my MBA. My original problem was the lack of signal strength coming from my AEBS caused the MBA to have a slow connection. There are a number of pipes in the wall that separates the two rooms where my MBA lives and the AEBS is.
So, I hard wired the TC to the AEBS and placed the TC in the room where my MBA lives most of the time. Now that the signal strength is really good I'm not having any issues.

A series of problems with Time Capsule

I was an early adopter of Apple's "Time Capsule," which in theory sounds like a great idea but has been a disaster for me in practice. This is the story of my nightmare.
In theory, Time Capsule is supposed to enable wireless, automatic backups of my hard drive via wifi. I liked the idea because I thought it would save me time and make backups so convenient that they'd be sure to happen.
In practice, it's been slow, aggravating and buggy as ****.
After I bought the device, I brought it home and set it up to do the initial backup of my laptop computer. My first mistake, as I learned later, was to try to do the initial backup wirelessly. The Time Capsule has an Ethernet connection that works faster than the wireless connection. (It ought to have a USB or Firewire port, which would be far faster than Ethernet, but apparently the Apple gods decided to save a nickle at the expense of quality and convenience.) It would also have been nice if the manual that came with the thing recommended using Ethernet for the initial backup, but it didn't, so I didn't discover that this was even an option until I had already wasted several days.
Yes, days. Not hours, but days.
I started the initial backup on a Wednesday night. My laptop's hard drive had about 130 gigabytes of files on it, and after the initial backup had run for a couple of hours, I did a calculation based on megabytes/minute and figured that it should finish up sometime that weekend. This meant that I couldn't take my laptop away from the house or turn it off, but after I'd already invested a few hours in the process, I figured I'd just let it run until completed.
Unfortunately, the longer the backup proceeded, the slower the megabytes/minute rate became. By the following Monday morning, it was only 2/3 completed, and the copy rate had slowed to such a crawl that I had no idea when it would finish. I therefore reluctantly interrupted the process, since I had meetings to attend where I needed my computer.
By that time, I had done some further research online and learned that people were recommending doing the initial backup via Ethernet, so when I got home that Monday night, I decided to do it that way instead of via wifi. However, it was unable to resume the interrupted backup, so I had to start over from scratch. Over the course of several attempts to do this, I discovered moreover that the interrupted backup had corrupted the disk somehow, so eventually I had no choice but to erase the Time Capsule entirely before beginning a new backup. Each of these attempts took a half hour or an hour, so I wasted my Monday evening doing nothing but try and retry to start the backup. (Somewhere in the middle of this I also did a tech support call to Apple, which also meant time on the phone, sitting on hold, etc.)
Finally, sometime on Tuesday I got the backup started, and by late that evening I had my first incremental backup. Hooray! Or so I thought.
The thing ran OK for a month or so, and then for no apparent reason I discovered that backups were failing. Why? No idea. I called Apple tech support again. An hour or so on hold, then talking to an operator, then trying various things. Eventually the tech support guy told me I'd have to erase the hard drive again and do a new initial backup. Great. At least I knew by then that I'd need to do it via Ethernet, but of course it took the better part of a day for the backup to run, and starting over meant losing all of the history in my previous backups. But I did it.
After that, I had a good run for several months...maybe six months. Then, for no apparent reason, the backups started failing again. This time I managed to get the backups working again by unplugging the Time Capsule, plugging it back in, and doing some reset procedures.
A month later, the Ethernet connection started failing.
I have an old iMac upstairs that I plugged in to the Ethernet connection so it can access the internet and file-share with my laptop. One day I noticed that the iMac's internet connection was no longer working. After some testing, it turned out that neither the iMac nor my laptop is able to connect anymore through the Ethernet connection. I tried several cables, tried playing around with settings, to no avail. I had a trip to Hong Kong coming up, so I decided I'd worry about the Ethernet connection after I got home.
On the Saturday before my Monday morning flight to Hong Kong, my laptop died.
It was working fine on Friday evening. I went to bed, got up, and the screen was black. In a panic, I drove to the Apple store and, after much pleading, got them to look at the thing in a hurry. Their tests showed that the logic board was bad. Fortunately, they had a replacement in stock, so they were actually able to repair the laptop in only two hours.
Since then, however, I haven't been able to get backups to work at all on my Time Capsule.
When the laptop died, I figured I might need to restore files from the Time Capsule, so I unplugged it and took it with me on my frantic drive to the Apple Store. After I brought it home and plugged it back in, the laptop recognizes that it exists, but instead of doing an imcremental backup, Time Machine wants to start all over with a backup of more than 140 gigabytes.
No ******* way.
My plan at this point is to make an appointment at the Apple Store and take it in to someone at their Genius Bar. Maybe they can figure out why Ethernet isn't working and why the incremental backups aren't happening. In the meantime, I don't know if any of the backups that it has done to date are any good, so it's an uneasy feeling. And, of course, I've wasted more time than I care to think about just tweaking and nursing the thing.
It just isn't worth it.
If anyone has any suggestions for what I should be trying at this point, I'd love to hear advice.

I've got some time here as I wait on my computer (more on that in a moment), so in the meantime I re-read Smokerz's reply to my message. Upon re-reading, I thought I'd respond again.
Smokerz is saying basically that Time Capsule is great for purposes OTHER than backing up my computer's hard drive: "Make your primary TM backup using an external FW800 drive first. ... I don't do TM on TC but use TC as my internet file server for my family who all lives far from one another and stream movies to my ATV. Much better use of TC, eh?"
There might be a case for that use of Time Capsule, but the product is advertised and sold primarily as a wireless backup device. The main page for the product on apple.com describes it as "Automatic wireless backup for your Mac. ... Time Capsule is a revolutionary backup device that works wirelessly with Time Machine in Mac OS X Leopard. It automatically backs up everything, so you no longer have to worry about losing your digital life."
Smokerz is therefore arguing that I should be happy with a product that doesn't work for the purpose for which it is primarily advertised and for which I bought it. I don't have any use for it as an internet file server or to stream movies. To say I should be happy with it for those purposes makes no sense.
Here's a little update on my experience with this thing. I made an appointment and visited the Genius Bar at the Apple Store yesterday. My appointment was at 10:40. I spoke with *** ****, who by the way is "Lead Genius" at the West Towne story in Madison, WI. I've got no problems with him. Like every other Apple employee I've dealt with locally, he was competent, courteous and and helpful. He quickly fixed my Ethernet problem, but the more important problem -- the failure to connect to my existing backups -- left him stumped as it did me. The problem apparently is that when Time Machine uses the MAC address of your computer's logic board as part of its way of identifying your system. There is a file on the backup drive that stores this information. It's filename consists of a period followed by the old MAC address. There is a procedure for renaming that file and changing some other settings which is supposed to make the backup work again. The procedure is detailed here:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080128003716101
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6893237
The problem in my case is that the file was missing when I went looking for it. (I hadn't been mucking around on my Time Capsule, so I don't see any way that I could possibly have deleted it.)
After some scratching his head, *** asked me to leave my computer and Time Capsule with him at the Apple Store and come back at 2:30 that afternoon. When I returned, not much progress had been made. He had found a way to make Time Machine do another initial backup from scratch within the same sparsebundle as my older backups and thought that once that backup completed, there would be a way to connect up with the the older backups. By 2:30, however, the backup had only completed 4 GB out of the 130 gigs on my hard drive. The Apple Store closes at 9 p.m., so I would have had to leave it with them overnight just to get through that stage of the process. I think I mentioned previously that I live an hour's drive from the Apple Store, and since I had already burned another entire day trying to get this thing working, I had *** give it back to me so I could take it home and try to complete the procedure myself.
Once I got it home, I let the backup run overnight. It took about 12 hours to complete. Now I'm going through the procedure *** gave me, which is documented in a little more detail here on Sean Kelly's blog:
http://seankelly.tv/blog/blogentry.2008-08-25.8041499927
I just finished spending an hour waiting for the computer to open my sparsebundle (step three of Sean Kelly's procedure). Only six more steps to go!
<Edited by Moderator>

Problem with Time Capsule password

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