Time Capsule as Time Machine Back Up and External Wireless HD

Hi all,
I am a veteran owner of a Macbook Pro and a new owner of a new Time Capsule and a new Macbook Air. I am trying to backup both my Air and MacBook Pro to the Time Capsule, but also use it as an external hard drive to hold my music and photos so I can access them from both computers without monopolizing the HD disc space on the Air.
When I'm connected wirelessly, I created a folder for external HD usage, but I have slow wireless so I decided to connect the Pro to the Time Capsule with ethernet for the initial transfer of the photos and music from the Pro. The folders I created on the Time Capsule from the Air, however, do not show up when I connect the TC to the Pro.
Any idea what I should do differently?

George Bullis1 wrote:
Hi all,
I am a veteran owner of a Macbook Pro and a new owner of a new Time Capsule and a new Macbook Air. I am trying to backup both my Air and MacBook Pro to the Time Capsule, but also use it as an external hard drive to hold my music and photos so I can access them from both computers without monopolizing the HD disc space on the Air.
That's likely to be a problem, sooner or later. See #Q3 in [Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule|http://web.me.com/pondini/TimeMachine/TimeCapsule.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

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Where are my photos? just tried to access time capsule after my first back up and am unable to open iphoto to verify they were backed up.

where are my photos? just tried to access time capsule after my first back up and am unable to open iphoto to verify they were backed up.

You can't open your backups directly with apps.
But you can see some types of files in your backups. If you're still on Snow Leopard (or Lion with iPhoto '09 or earlier), see the gray box at the end of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #15.
If you're on Lion with iPhoto '11, you can use the Finder to see the iPhoto library, per the beginning of that same link. All you can see there is the library and size.

Will Time Machine back up and external hard drive connected to my TC?

Here is my desired set-up: older Powerbook G4 whose iTunes Music is saved on an external HD (WD MyBook offering USB, FW, and ethernet connections); backup wirelessly to a Time Capsule using Time Machine; connect the external drive to the Time Capsule either using USB or ethernet (whichever is faster); have Time Machine backup everything, ie, the laptop and the external drive connected directly to the Time Capsule.
Right now, the external drive is connected directly to the Powerbook using Firewire and everything is working as desired. I would like to have the external drive networked, however, so that I can enjoy music on the laptop without having it connected to the external drive. Seems like I could connect the external drive to the TC to provide a networked iTunes library, but I also want Time Capsule to back it all up together with my Powerbook.
Is this possible?
If so, which connection method is best between the external drive and the Time Capsule, USB or ethernet?

f.bomb wrote:
Seems like I could connect the external drive to the TC to provide a networked iTunes library, but I also want Time Capsule to back it all up together with my Powerbook.
Is this possible?
No. Time Machine will not backup a network share such as you describe. Sorry.

Time Capsule as file server, backed up to external drive

Hello.
Is it possible to use Time Capsule as a file server, and have it back up to an external hard drive plugged into the USB port? There will actually be two external drives, one plugged in, and the other stored off-site. They'll be switched every week or so.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

It isn't designed for what you want.
Yes, you can do it, but the problem is the TC has no internal backup mechanism except to archive the entire disk to the USB drive.. it takes many hours as it is extremely slow. It is also manual and will require the TC to do nothing else for up to a day .. or more once you get up to 2TB or larger.
The only other way to do it, is to use some sort of backup software on the computer.. that will incrementally backup the TC.. but actually changes in the sparse bundles if you are using them for backups will take a long time as I doubt the software will be able to see inside and just backup the changes. If the USB drive is plugged into the TC it will still be copied across the network and then back again to the TC.. so that is pointless, and slow as molasses in Jan. (in northern hemisphere). You may as well plug the usb drive in the computer and run the backup there. Then you think.. why am I doing that. I should just backup straight to the usb drive plugged into the computer.. so you see, it is not ideal. Doable.. not can you be bothered and what happens if you forget.
IMHO the very definition of a NAS is a device that
1. Creates a mirror of the files stored.
2. Has some easy backup method to a drive plugged into the NAS, that uses rsync or some simple automated way to keep the backup in sync with the storage.. without human intervention.. because humans are feeble and fragile and forget.
The TC is a backup device designed for Time Machine and particularly for laptops, where plugging in a hard disk is messy, and ugly. And people want to do it automatically over wireless. In the end, TC is a router (it is identical to the Airport Extreme of the time.. minus antenna placement) with a hard disk hanging off it.

Can I use a Time Capsule on a hard wired iMac and get wireless to other devices?

I have a 6 year old iMac that does not have an airport extreme card. I have it connected to a cable modem ARRIS model TM502G which is also the VOIP for my telephone. My question is, if I buy a Time Capsule, will I be able to have wi-fi for other devices like an iPad or iPhone even though my computer is not wi-fi? If so, can you describe the order in which to hook up the Time Capsule to the existing modem and computer. Thanks so much.

That is not the correct approach.. but you can do what you want.
Plug the TC into the cable modem.. Turn both off and restart the modem and the TC.. if there is a battery backup in the modem you may need to disconnect the coax cable in the back of the unit or drop the battery out.
Plug ethernet from the old mac into the TC.. use the wifi for the other devices.
Trying to route through the mac will be a pain.
A TC is not necessary for this.. if you don't want a backup disk.. you can use AEBS or any wireless router.

Restroing from Time Capsule with multiple machines backed up

Hi,
I have a 1TB TimeCapsule that has been backing up a Powerbook G4 and a Macbook succesfully for almost a year now. My Macbook's HD recenty crashed and I am trying to restore from the TC after I had my hard drive restored.
Problem is, everytime i go through the initial setup process the Assistant only displays the Powerbook G4 backups but not the backup for my Macbook.
I can see the TC has the sparsebundle files for both machines but can't see m to get the migration process to pick up my Macbook.
Anybody seen anything like this. I though I would get a dropdown that would allow me to select the backup i want to restore from.
thanks

So this time I proceeded with the initial registration without attempting to restore from the backup. Following this, I used the Migration Assistant and the backups for both my Macs showed up nicely. Have now succesfully restored my Macbook and everything is in place just as expected.
Just one piece of advice if you go down this route is to use a different username from the one on your old Mac when setting up the new Mac. If not, during the Migration process it will ask you to rename your older account (the option to replace the duplicate account was greyed out strangely)

I have partitioned my time capsule, but I can't get it to work as a Time Machine back up and permanent media server for both mac and PC. What format do I need to partition the drive to so that it works for both mac and windows and so that it will be visab

I have partitioned my time capsule, as I want part of it to act as a media server for both mac and windows. However I don't know what format that I need to partition it to. I also can't make it a permanently accesible drive. I want to restore the drive to the original format (which I don't know) and start again and re-partition the drive in a format that can be used for media by both mac and PC and for time machine back-ups and make the media part of it permanetly accesible so I can add and acccess my files.
Thanks

You are mixing up a couple of things here.
The TC drive cannot be partitioned without removing it.. did you do that?
If you partition it you must use a Mac disk utility and use the HFS+ ie standard Mac format. And GUID partition table not windows type.
You can select erase disk in the airport utility.. that will take the disk back to original format. No partitions. TC is deliberately not partitioned as it is not a media server.. it is a backup device for TM. Over time .. the disk will be filled with TM backups so you have a long history of file changes to your computer.
There is no media server in the TC.. it is merely disk storage.. you can serve files from it to a media device.. but the TC itself is dumb as dumb.
Now the actual format of the drive is irrelevant to the PC.. The TC offers SMB file services to the network. You can copy files to and from the TC as if it was a local disk without caring one iota about the format. The TC handles that .. it is not a local disk .. it is a network drive.
Although you cannot partition the TC. you can still copy files to it.. this does have implications for TM.. but as long as there is plenty of free space should not be a major issue.
You can create a disk image via the disk utility in a Mac.. and as stated you can create partitions if you do it on a Mac with the disk directly connected which means breaking warranty if any exists on the TC.

How do i use a time capsule as a shared drive and back it up to another time capsule using time machine ??

how do i use a time capsule as a shared drive and back it up to another time capsule using time machine ??

You cannot backup network drives with Time Machine.
You can simply setup the TC in the network.. it is a shared drive.

I have a Time Capsule on which I back up 2 MacBooks and on my wife's machine she keeps having Airport Utility popping up all the time with a yellow button flashing on the left and a Red button on the right side with a "1" in the middle of it.

I have a Time Capsule on which I back up 2 MacBooks and on my wife's machine she keeps having Airport Utility popping up all the time with a yellow button flashing on the left and a Red button on the right side with a "1" in the middle of it. Can any one tell me what is wrong. I read where when the yellow light was flashing there was a problem, but I am a novice at this and have no idea where to turn. It seems to be backing up on a regular basis.

On the Mac......
Open up Macintosh HD > Applicatons > Utilities > AirPort Utility
Click on the Time Capsule icon, then click Edit in the small window that appears
Click the Network tab at the top of the next window
Change the setting for Router Mode from the current DHCP and NAT to read Off (Bridge Mode), then click Update at the lower right of the window, and wait a full minute for the Time Capsule to restart to a green light.
Then.....very important
Power off the Time Capsule and your Arris modem/router for a few minutes
Start up the Arris first, and let it run a few minutes by itself
Start up the Time Capsule next the same way
Your network will now be correct, and your printing capabilities will improve.
If Time Machine backups do not occur now, post back and we will tackle that next.

Want to use Time Capsule as a back up AND external storage device-help!

I know there's been a few variations on this question but I can't seem to find the answer that relates to me so probably being dumb but help would be greatly appreciated.
I bought a 500gb Time Capsule yesterday and finally got it set up through AirPort Utility. I think I've done it right-there's a green light and it's going through the motions of backing up although VERY slowly. It's taken 10 hours to back up 20GB. I've used Time Machine before with an external Seagate drive so I know how to access/check those back ups.
I have a dish on the side of my house (on side of a mountain!) that brings the internet signal into a wireless router and then my MacBook accesses through that WIFI network. I plugged the ethernet cable from one of the standard ports out the back of the router into the WAN port on the Time Capsule as part of the setup and that seems to be right in that I can see the TC and surf the net.
So, now I just want to see the Time capsule as a normal external drive on my desktop and move other files to it so they can come off my Macbook completely but the only way icon I can see if the white one that says 'Backup of...' I've copied stuff onto this but I suspect that was the wrong thing to do.
Finally, I only want to TM to use the TC up to a certain max storage so I always have space free on it but can't find settings to allow me to do that.
I'd be really grateful if someone could tell me how to set this up properly!

Paretola wrote:
So, now I just want to see the Time capsule as a normal external drive on my desktop and move other files to it so they can come off my Macbook completely but the only way icon I can see if the white one that says 'Backup of...' I've copied stuff onto this but I suspect that was the wrong thing to do.
No. Don't transfer anything into the Back of... sparsebundle. That is your Time Machine backup.
Under Finder -> Shared -> Time Capsule -> Time Capsule Disk. This is where you can create a new folder to store your files. If you want to see this on your Desktop, via Finder, click Preferences. Under General, make sure +Connected servers+ is ticked.
Finally, I only want to TM to use the TC up to a certain max storage so I always have space free on it but can't find settings to allow me to do that.
Since the TC HDD isn't partitionable, you can't really do that. Best thing is to get another HDD for storage as TM works best if you give it enough room to grow.
I'd be really grateful if someone could tell me how to set this up properly!

I have a rMBP that needs to be backed up. The Wi-Fi in my house is poor and I do not have an Ex. Hard Drive. I want to get the new Airport Time Capsule, but can you accomplish it's benefits wirelessly?

So...
I have a modem across the house and my room is at the opposite side. I believe that you have to connect the Airport Time Capsule via modem cable in order for you to appreciate the benefits of the boosted up Wi-Fi. However, I want the airport time capsule in my room, without having any extra cables plugged into it AND also benefit from the Wifi boosts, as well as back it up wirelessly.
Is there any way to do this? I was reading up on it and there are search queries bringing up "bridges" and all that stuff, but I haven't found a clear answer on it.
So, to recap:
I want the Airport Time Capsule to not only back up my rMPB and help my wifi signal out, but to do all of this with no additional cables having to be plugged in.
Thanks.

Trust me when I say this coming from 20 years of experience.
Get a powered external drive, format it 1 Partition Option: GUID and OS X Extended Journed as the format in Disk Utility.
Download and install Carbon Copy Cloner, clone internal drive to external drive.
Set a schedule to remind you to do it at least once a week, keep it near your charger.
When you plug your charger in, do plug the clone and power the machine up, set the display to sleep only,
CCC will do the rest.
If you want to boot from it, hold the option/alt and select it Startup Manager.
I've seen many TimeMachine and TimeCapsule nightmares and so far haven't seen a problem from anyone using a bootable clone.
It's simple, it's easy, it's more reliable and more powerful than what Apple does and it only takes plugging in a extra cable.
Make as many clones as you want, keep them time seperated, off site etc. etc.
Cables don't have network issues, clones can be verified in seconds merely by booting from them.
Clones protect your productivity, your up in seconds on a clone despite even the hard drive dying.
Software problem? No sweat, boot of the clone and reverse clone your problems away.
If you want to fuss and muss with half implemented TimeMachine and TimeCapsule network headaches then prepare to suffer.
I don't like to suffer, I bought a Mac not to suffer, but it appears you do with TimeMachine and TimeCapsule.
Most commonly used backup methods

Can Time Machine back up an external hard drive plugged into a Time Capsule

I have iTunes and iPhoto libraries that have outgrown the hard drive on my laptop so I've moved them on to an external hard drive. Since I'd like to move around the house with the laptop, I've plugged the external hard drive in to the Time Capsule so that the files on the external hard drive will be accessible on the network. Now that my really important files live on an external hard drive, I want to back it up.
Time Machine is backing up my laptop's internal hard drive to the Time Capsule drive, but I can't seem to figure out how to make Time Machine also back up the external hard drive that's plugged in to the Time Capsule.
Is this possible?

I understand that [Chronosync|http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html] ($40 U.S.) can do that, but I've never used it.
If you do that, you'll want to back it up to a disk image on the TC's internal HD, or a separate HD. See #Q3 in [Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule|http://web.me.com/pondini/TimeMachine/TimeCapsule.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum) for details.

Cannot back up to time capsule using time machine on new MacBook

Have a time capsule that was seamlessly backing up my previous MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard. Recently got a new MacBook Pro running Yosemite. After a horrendous file migration using migration assistant from my Time Machine backup (non Apple programs were crashing after migration), I erased the MacBook hard drive, reinstalled Yosemite, installed non Apple apps from original disks and transferred files from my old Mac manually (drag and drop). Now everything works well on the new MacBook except for back ups via Time Machine to my Time Capsule. Airport Utility can find the Time Capsule and Time Machine starts a back up but it stops and produces an error that ends in ".sparsbundle" could not be accessed (error null)"

Hmmm that is one of our old errors.
Haven't seen that one for a while which suggests one of you apps might be a problem.
Look at C17 in particular here.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Although the error codes have changed the basic reason for the error can be the same.
It can also just be a network error.
It is most important if you want to preserve the old backup.. that you make sure you still have enough space. and the new computer has a completely different share name to the old one.
Look at the reference and it has some info about names.. these are vital to get Yosemite to work properly as Apple have changed default protocols between SL and Yosemite.
I would even go further and say.
1. Factory reset the TC.
2. Redo the setup via yosemite version airport utility.. but do not use the apple recommended names.. use extremely short names, no spaces and pure alphanumeric.
3. Use only WPA2 Personal security with pure alphanumeric mixed case and number password.
Tell me if you still have issues as there is some other stuff that might help.
What gen is the TC?
What firmware is it running?

Time machine iMac HD and external USB hard drive backs up to separate locations

I have an iMac 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 with 2TB HD backing up to a 5th gen 2 TB Time Capsule via Time Machine. I also have a 2TB USB external Seagate HD connected to my iMac (which contains lots of iMovies and stuff I don't have room for on my iMac) and a 2nd 2TB USB external Seagate HD connected to the USB port of the Time Capsule. I want Time Machine to alternate backing up my iMac (with the 2TB USB ext HD with iMovies etc excluded) to the Time Capsule and then backing up the USB external HD connected to the iMac (with the iMac HD excluded) to the 2TB ext HD connected to the Time Capsule. I know Time Machine can back up a single HD to 2 different back up drives alternately and it can back up multiple drives to a single back up drive. But I want it to do alternate backups of the iMac and the ext HD to two different locations. Is this possible?

Sorry no.. but there are far superior backup software like Carbon Copy Cloner to do the job..
Superduper is also popular and there are some others. Time Machine is singularly without controls.. a typical apple software really.

Time capsule sparse bundle reading "temporarily unavailable" and Time Machine files are not in order; what can I do to check on my backup systems?

I have my time machine set-up with my time capsule/airport. I cannot open my backups in the time capsule as it reads "spars bundle temporarily unavailable." Also, my time machine backup files are missing some files and not in oder by name as designed. It seems something is is not working. I have don a disk repair on the time capsule. I have closed and reopened my computer. Still unable to open time capsule. Does anyone know where else I need to check for errors?

There are two key but related bugs in Yosemite..
The big one IMHO at least is the network one.. and the secondary one is TM which is itself unreliable.
To fix the Network ones we have a long list of things to do.. but you do apparently have access to the TC so for now that is not the major one.
However some of your statements mean I am a bit lost on what you have done.
I cannot open my backups in the time capsule as it reads "spars bundle temporarily unavailable."
If you cannot open your backups how can you find that the backup files are missing. The files are missing from the sparsebundle which you cannot open??
my time machine backup files are missing some files
You cannot repair the disk of the Time Capsule.. only the Sparsebundle can be checked.. that means that you have accessed it and mounted it for disk utility to check it.
I have don a disk repair on the time capsule.
So I am confused about the comments.
What I would recommend is the standard set of fixes to Yosemite.
Factory reset universal
Power off the TC.. ie pull the power cord or power off at the wall.. wait 10sec.. hold in the reset button.. be gentle.. power on again still holding in reset.. and keep holding it in for another 10sec. You may need some help as it is hard to both hold in reset and apply power. It will show success by rapidly blinking the front led. Release the reset.. and wait a couple of min for the TC to reset and come back with factory settings. If the front LED doesn’t blink rapidly you missed it and simply try again. The reset is fairly fragile in these.. press it so you feel it just click and no more.. I have seen people bend the lever or even break it. I use a toothpick as tool.
N.B. None of your files on the hard disk of the TC are deleted.. this simply clears out the router settings of the TC.
Setup the TC again.
ie Start from a factory reset. No files are lost on the hard disk doing this.
Then redo the setup from the computer with Yosemite.
1. Use very short names.. NOT APPLE RECOMMENDED names. No spaces and pure alphanumerics.
eg TCgen5 and TCwifi for basestation and wireless respectively.
Even better if the issue is more wireless use TC24ghz and TC5ghz with fixed channels as this also seems to help stop the nonsense. But this can be tried in the second round.
2. Use all passwords that also comply but can be a bit longer. ie 8-20 characters mixed case and numbers.. no non-alphanumerics.
3. Ensure the TC always takes the same IP address.. you will need to do this on the main router using dhcp reservation.. or a bit more complex setup using static IP in the TC. But this is important.. having IP drift all over the place when Yosemite cannot remember its own name for 5 min after a reboot makes for poor networking. If the TC is main router it will not be an issue.
4. Check your share name on the computer is not changing.. make sure it also complies with the above.. short no spaces and pure alphanumeric.. but this change will mess up your TM backup.. so be prepared to do a new full backup. Sorry.. keep this one for second round if you want to avoid a new backup.
5. Mount the TC disk in the computer manually.
In Finder, Go, Connect to server from the top menu,
Type in SMB://192.168.0.254 (or whatever the TC ip is which you have now made static. As a router by default it is 10.0.1.1 and I encourage people to stick with that unless you know what you are doing).
You can use name.. SMB://TCgen5.local where you replace TCgen5 with your TC name.. local is the default domain of the TC and doesn't change.
However names are not so easy as IP address.. nor as reliable. At least not in Yosemite they aren't. The domain can also be an issue if you are not plugged or wireless directly to the TC.
6. Make sure IPv6 is set to link-local only in the computer. For example wireless open the network preferences, wireless and advanced / TCP/IP.. and fix the IPv6. to link-local only.
There is a lot more jiggery pokery you can try but the above is a good start.. if you find it still unreliable.. don't be surprised.
You might need to do some more work on the laptop itself. eg Reset the PRAM.. has helped some people. Clean install of the OS is also helpful if you upgrade installed.
Tell us how you go.
Someone posted a solution.. See this thread.
Macbook can't find Time Capsule anymore
Start from the bottom and work up.. I have a list of good network practice changes but I have avoided Yosemites bug heaven.
This user has had success and a few others as well.
RáNdÓm GéÉzÁ
Yosemite has serious DNS bug in the networking application.. here is the lets say more arcane method of fixing it by doing a network transplant from mavericks.
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/01/why-dns-in-os-x-10-10-is-broken-and-what-yo u-can-do-to-fix-it/
That is all to cover the network side of things.
Time Machine issue is a harder one because there is no simple work around I can give you.
My recommendations are to stop using a TC and test TM to an external hard disk plugged into the computer.. Do a whole new backup and see if that is fully working and accessible.
Or change over to third party program for backup.. I do recommend Carbon Copy Cloner as I use it personally but SuperDuper has a good reputation and there are others. It is far easier and quicker to test a bootable clone made with CCC as you simply boot from the backup.

Time Capsule as Time Machine Back Up and External Wireless HD

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