Time Capsule Disk Doesn't Appear in Finder or Disk Utility

I have a 500G Time Capsule (single band, I think) that I want to partition (just into disk images, not volumes) so that I can maintain separate-sized locations for my family's music library, photos, and Time Machine backups for the non-media files on each of a Mac Mini and 4 laptops. But I will ask more about that later.
My more immediate problem is that the Time Capsule Disk Volume generally just doesn't appear in my Finder or in Disk Utility at all. A couple weeks ago, for some reason, it did appear once and I took the opportunity to create a 215G Disk Image--leaving 250G for the rest of the Disk Volume which was indicated as having 465G rather than 500G actually available. But since then (as before) the Time Capsule volume hasn't appeared in Disk Utility at all, and only rarely in the Finder.
In the Finder the Time Capsule appears under the Shared heading in the left panel, with the Time Capsule disk volume appearing as a folder in the right panel (if it connects, which it usually requires a password for, but sometimes it doesn't...). If I open the folder then the right panel goes blank (indicating, I think, that I have opened the volume but there is nothing inside) and the volume (usually) eventually shows up under my own Mac in the Devices heading. (That is, the Time Capsule disk volume shows up along with Network, Macintosh HD, and Remote Disk in the right Finder panel when I select my Mac under Devices in the left Finder panel.) At that point the TC volume shows up in the Finder as a 220G Volume and the disk image shows up indented under it as a 215G Disk Image; indented under the Disk Volume there is also a 5G Sparsebundle file from a Time Machine backup. If I open the 220G Disk Volume in the right Finder panel then it shows only the 215G Disk Image and the 5G Sparsebundles in the right Finder panel. This seems to suggest that the 215G Disk Image and the 5G Sparsebundles are both treated as 'used' and the 220G size given for the Disk Volume represents what is left (although 215+5+220=440, so where the extra 25G went I don't know).
If I open the 215G Disk Image in the right Finder panel then, after a while, it shows up as a Disk Image in the right Finder panel when my Mac is selected under Devices in the left panel. I can create folders in the Disk Image and copy documents to those folders, at least.
But in any case, regardless of whether I open the 220G Disk Volume or the 215 Disk Image in the Finder, the Disk Volume never appears in Disk Utility so there is no possibility of reformatting it. The 215 Disk Image has sometimes shown up in Disk Utility (and once it apparently allowed me the option of partitioning the Disk Image into further Disk Images), but sometimes it doesn't show up and I haven't been able to figure out why it does or doesn't.
I find this all very confusing and the Finder and Disk Utility behavior seems downright erratic. I'm not sure whether something is broken or if I just don't understand how it works (starting with the difference between the Devices and Shared headings in the left Finder Pane). I would appreciate any advice on how I can reliably access the Time Capsule disk volume in the Finder and Disk Utility. Thanks.

Same problem after 10.8.2 update yesterday,
Time Machine functions but disk does not mount in finder.
The disk also shows up in disk utility when TM is running
as mounted (beneath a sparse image file) but not visible.
Is this a bug, or a feature?
LW
MBPro. OSX Mountain Lion, backing up to Time Capsule

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Since I upgraded to Mavericks, Time Machine no longer finds the Time Capsule Disk on my network

Hi,
Since I upgraded to Mavericks, Time Machine no longer finds the Time Capsule Disk on my network.
Five minutes before upgrading it however performed successfully a last backup.
I found several posts on this forum and proposed solutions:
- restarted both the mac and capsule
- deleted the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist (twice rebooting in between)
Still have the issue.

What brand of drive is it?
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Time Capsule disk wont Mount

Please help: I have scoured the discussion topics, etc., for hours and hours now, and though there are some out there who have similar problems, any answers given don't work.
After "upgrading" the firmware to 7.4.2 the disk for the TC is gone. It won't appear in the finder, nor the Airport Utility (5.4.2), nor Disk Utility. Internet is fine for both my computers and PS3, the disk won't appear on either of my computers. I have tried:
-resetting, hard resetting the time capsule.
-downgrading to 7.4.1, then back up again (after trying numerous fixes)
-verified disk/checked/repaired permissions.
-numerous starts/restarts
-adjusted file sharing, etc., on the TC via Airport Utility
-tried setting up the TC with no password
-and more.
The disk simply won't appear anywhere. In Airport Utility (which claims everything is just fine), clicking on the "disks" tab simply says "no disks found." Time Machine, when accessed via sysprefs, when "off" says choose disk, then when that is pushed it doesn't come up. When I turn Time Machine on, I get a screen showing no disks to choose from, but a radio button saying "set up time capsule", which leads me back to the Airport Utility which says all is fine. As I mentioned, I have gone through the setup numerous times. Disk Utility simple doesn't show it, and it mounts nowhere in any permutations of the finder.
Is it mechanical? The thing is only a couple months old and have had no problems until the upgrade.

How to erase?
Temporarily connect an ethernet cable from your computer to one of the LAN <-> ports on the TC and open AirPort Utility to see if that will "find" the TC.
If you still cannot "see" the TC, you'll need to reset the TC back to factory defaults as follows:
Power down the TC
Hold in the reset button and keep holding it is as you plug the power back in
Release the reset button after approximately 5-6 seconds
Click Manual Setup
Click the Disk icon at the top of the Setup pane
Click the Disks tab just below
Click Erase
The most secure erase will take forever...maybe a day or two depending on how much data is on the disk. So try one of the other settings unless you have plenty of time.

MacBook Air 11" can't access Time Capsule Disk

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

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

Time Capsule disk cannot be mounted nor found by Time Machine

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

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

Access to Time Capsule Disk via MobileMe Web

I would like to see my Time Capsule Disk appear in my MobileMe account when I'm logged into it via Safari, similar to the way my MobileMe iDisk shows up on my MobileMe login via a browser. Is this possible?

no. You won't be able to access it via mobileme website. although using mobileme login details, you will see it as a drive in your finder window if you set it up right.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/03/03/airportextreme_time_capsule_gain_mobileme_sharingsupport.html
not sure of the details yet.. am trying to do same thing.

Why does Tiger always mount Time Capsule disks automatically?

I have a Time Capsule (early 2009) with wireless connections to an iMac running OS 10.5.7 Leopard and a PowerBook G4 running OS 10.4.11 Tiger. The G4 always automatically mounts on the desktop the TC Data disk (i.e., backup volume disk) and any disks physically connected to the iMac. Even if I unmount them, they will come back to the G4 desktop. The iMac requires manual mounting of disks except for the Data disk which mounts automatically during a backup. How do I stop the G4 from automatically mounting disks?

I had looked in the G4 (OS 10.4.11) System Preferences/Accounts/Login Items and found an item called Airport Base Station Agent listed as an application. This also appears in the Login Items on the iMac (OS 10.5.7). So I didn't see that as the culprit. I didn't see the Time Capsule listed in the Login items on either computer. Maybe this application or some preference file is corrupted on the G4. I don't know how Airport Base Station Agent got installed so I am reluctant to remove it and later find out that wireless no longer works. Maybe when Airport Utility is installed? I was unable to locate it using Find File. The G4 remounts the Time Capsule disk on a Restart so it must have something to do with the Login. But I don't know what.

Your Time Capsule disk is low on storage space - error

I am getting the error "Your Time Capsule disk is low on storage space." and it now flashes amber. I use the time capsule to set up a wireless network and I can no longer access the internet from my MapBook Pro in another room, only if I am next to the Time Capsule. Help!!! Why is my time capsule low on storage space? I thought it is suppose to delete the old backups to make room for the new backups.

MacDoz wrote:
I too am getting the same low disk space issue on my Time Capsule, and have not been able to find an answer anywhere given that I thought the Time Capsule was meant to automatically delete old back-ups.
Those are two different, independent, things.
Since you can use a Time Capsule for things besides backups, there's a built-in warning (the flashing light) when it gets near full (exactly how full is not clear).
Time Machine is separate; when it doesn't have space for a new backup, it will delete the oldest backup(s) as necessary, if it can, to make room for new ones.
The handling is a bit different, though, for Leopard vs. Snow Leopard.
In Leopard, if you have the +Warn when old backups are deleted+ box checked in Time Machine Preferences > Options, it will fail with a message. All you have to do is remove the check.
In Snow Leopard, it will delete old backups as necessary, do the backup, then send a message if you have the box, now worded +Warn after old backups are deleted,+ checked.
See #C4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for details.

Time capsule disks not showing folders.

I only use time capsule as a hard drive source. But after i upgraded to mavericks i cannot access any folders I saved in my time capsule disk cause they just won't appear on finder. I have a picture to help you genius understand a bit clearer. Can anyone please help??? Thanks in advance.

I have NOT upgraded.. and will not until it has done a few updates.. due to exactly the fun and games you are having..
There is a major issue with the change in Mavericks to using SMB as preferred protocol.
Eject the TC..
Manually mount the TC.. using go, connect to server.
AFP://TCname or APF://TCIPaddress
Or use
CIFS://TCname etc.
Is your TC available via airport utility? Is it on 7.6.4 firmware.. if not update??

Latest 3TB Time Capsule disk offline after Time Machine backup

I just replaced my 3 year old 2TB Time Capsule with the latest 3TB Time Capsule. I also replaced both of my wireless network extender Airport Extremes with the latest model. The Time Capsule disk goes offline after a Time Machine backup. I have to reboot my Mid 2010 Mac (Yosemite 10.10.1) to get the disk back online, only to have it go offline again after the next Time Machine backup. I am not sure if the problem is with my new Time Capsule or if there is a problem with my iMac.

The fact that it is the Mac you are rebooting indicates the issue is the OS.
Are you using wireless or ethernet?
As you can see with a quick glance down this page.. and the last few pages.. the introduction of Yosemite has not been without issues.. network in particular has been poor.
I am keeping myself out of fray.. having introduced a test Yosemite machine which caused the network to go completely berserk I have left well alone.
But I am tracking the issues.. so far nothing much is known.. so I can only suggest a few things to try.
One user has just suggested turning off AFP in the system preferences.
the simple method: System Preferences, Sharing, File Sharing, Options button, un-check AFP.
SMB should still be checked.
You should be able to manually mount the TC in finder.
Use Go, Connect to Server.
SMB://10.0.1.1
(Thanks for the screenshot as that makes it much easier).
Finder should locate the network resource and mount it.. asking you the password.. please save that in the keychain so it doesn't forget.
Here is apple's list.
OS X Yosemite: Time Machine problems
It has not got anything close to locating the problem. But there are some things that may be important.. ie it can be several bugs in combo not just flick this switch and now everything works.

ARD&TC Apple Remote Desktop & Time Capsule (disk access, remote management)

Hello!
Could You help me? I have two problems with access to my Time Capsule.
I have wireless network at home based on Time Capsule, with *one static IP*. I have conected it (wireless) with two iMac's. Me and my girlfriend we have also two macbooks and when we are out of home we want to acces data on our Time Capsule disk. I need access to disk to edit data on it while being long way out of home. Second problem is to access data on our iMac's. I bought Apple Remote Desktop software, it's incredible what it can do but only when I'm connected to my wireless network LAN. I need to control my iMac while being out of home. How to configure Time Capsule and ARD to acces disk and control iMac's? Let me remind You that I have *one static IP for Time Capsule router WAN*. Please help and I would be very very thankful for screenshots of configuraion, I'm newbie in this.
Thank You very much.
Kind regards.
Adam Milwiw-Baron

Yeah for some reason I cannot get this to work right. Even if I scan the 5 VPN IP's I have setup I cannot see their machines when I am connected to the VPN. I tested it the other day by connecting one of the systems to an outside internet connection, then logged it into the VPN. I then connected my own to a different source and logged into the VPN, but Remote Desktop just won't find it.
Just not sure why it doesn't work. I can see the computers on our internal network though, just not any connected via VPN.

Unable to delete files from Time Capsule disk

A while back I copied my user folder from my iMac on to my Time Capsule disk, which is mounted as a drive on my iMac's desktop. I now want to delete that copy. After some struggling with locked files I have managed to get it so that all I have left is a small hierarchy of folders containing no files. When I try to delete any of these folders, though, I get the error message: "The operation cannot be completed because you do not have sufficient privileges for some of the items." Info says that I have read & write privileges to every folder in the hierachy.
Can anyone suggest a way that I can get rid of these few remaining folders? They are really bugging me!

Some of you are going to love this!!
Ok, after talking with someone at Apple, I was reminded of a simple Unix Command to do the job, even on Time Capsule. Here's what worked for me:
Time Capsule is connected to my Mac, via an Ethernet cable-- I don't know if this matters or not, maybe it will work over the wireless connection too, let me know!
You'll need to pull up Terminal in Applications > Utilities. It's a dangerous tool that Unix and Linux people use with skill all the time, but you have to be careful, cause it will cause permanent changes-- that is what I want here, of course. Just be extremely careful, ok? You have been warned.
type "cd /Volumes"
press Return
Now you're in the "Volumes" folder
type "ls" (as in the letter L)
press Return
You should see your Time Capsule folder (whatever you named it)-- type "cd " and that particular name
Navigate till you can type "ls" and you can see the folder you are trying to delete.
Then, the command that worked for me is this:
(Please double check that "myFolderToDelete" is indeed the one that you want to delete!)
sudo rm -rfd myFolderIWantToDelete
After a few seconds for the hard drive in the time capsule to spin up, it worked! Yea!
In fact, to be safe, if I were you, I would even go into Finder first and try to rename that folder, call it "myFolderToDelete" !!!
Why didn't I try this before? I've used Terminal, I should have thought of it before! bad nerd!
But the important thing is, problem solved .
A few things to note is that I was trying to delete a folder full of "Locked" files. If I wanted to delete several locked files that are not currently in a folder, I could make a new folder, and drag those files into it... now you have a folder you can delete. Just rename it "toBeDeleted" or something like that.
Finally, note that I am not currently using Time Machine (the automated backup program) with this Time Capsule, so I don't know if it will delete the Time Machine backup -- haven't tried that yet.
Good Luck!

Problems accessing Time Capsule disk on Desktop

I'm having problems connecting to my Time Capsule (used as a NAS shared disk) from my Snow Leopard machine. (If it makes any difference) I don't use it for Time Machine backups.
If I click on the Time Capsule in Shared in Finder's sidebar it will access the disk and I can access the files on it OK. If I click on the Time Capsule icon on the desktop I get the following error message:
The alias "Time Capsule" can't be opened because the original item can't be found.
The only thing on the Desktop is the Time Capsule icon as a mounted disk, not an alias of it.
I also get this error message if I open a Finder window and go to Computer (the very top icon) in the sidebar and then try to open Time Capsule from there. I've also noticed that I can't drag the Time Capsule share from the desktop or Finder window into the Devices section of the Finder sidebar. It won't let me do this.
I have a Mac mini running Leopard and don't experience any of these problems. I can also drag the Time Capsule share from the desktop or Finder window into the Devices section of the Finder sidebar without any problems.
Is this a Snow Leopard bug? If not can anyone help?

I'm having the same problem since upgrading the Snow Leopard. There's another thread that discusses a possible solution but is not yet solved: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10115033
Message was edited by: Tak-Seng

My time machine does not want to save any more the data from my powerbook 13" Snow Leopard; i get the message "Time Machine could not suppress the disk image of saving "Volumes/Time Capsule Disk/PowerBook _2011_03_21_123627 sparsebundle" What should I do?

My time machine does not want to save any more the data from my powerbook 13" Snow Leopard; i get the message "Time Machine could not suppress the disk image of saving "Volumes/Time Capsule Disk/PowerBook _2011_03_21_123627 sparsebundle" What is the problem? What should I do?
Thanks !!
Alain

Could that read " . . . could not access . . ."? If so, try repairing your backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
If not, or if that doesn't help, see #A1 there. Use the TM Buddy widget it details to copy and post the messages here.

Lost time capsule disk

Hello,
I was trying to make airport express allow me to connect to Sky anytime+. Instead I have somehow lost the back up disk on my time capsule. I watched some You tube jobs on making a bridge (?!) which at the time, five hours ago - seemed logical. Up to today my time capsule worked beautifully but now I just have a flashing amber light and when I go to airport express it can't even find a disk. Can anyone help me in but in dummy or idiot mode? I am an absolute beginner when it comes to all the technical terms and a prat for even attempting to meddle in something I have no knowlege of. Please help me!

To the original poster,
so the internet comes into your place viat the Sky+ thing, which is supplying internet to your Time Capsule. This is the way that it should be. I remain confused about your reference to the Airport Express, but I don't think it really matters. The Time Capsule is essentially the Airport Xtreme product for Wifi/Routing, plus a hard disk drive for backups...the software component on your computer may reference an Airport Express as being the Wifi/Routing part of your TC-just not sure why.
Back to your problems, you should verify that you are connected to your Time Capsule. First lets check which WiFi connection you are using. Click on the Airport Icon ))) at the top of your screen and make note of which wireless network name you are connected to. Next, lets physically connect to the TC. The easiest way to do this is to connect your computer to the back of the TC using an ethernet cable plugged into one of the ports on the back of the device-leave your WAN port plugged in to your Sky thing.
Next lets run your Airport Utility on the mac and locate your Time Capsule. Use the MANUAL SETUP option to look into its configuration. Click on the AIRPORT icon and then select WIRELESS and see what WiFi network name the TC is providing. Does this one match the one you saw before?
If there is a mismatch then this should explain why you couldn't see your TC HDD.
Next, if you previously could see the Time Capsule Hard Disk Drive and it simply disappeared without making any changes to anything then I suppose it is possible that your TC's HDD died. I think the easy way to check for this to connect to the TC as described above and continue using the AIRPORT UTILITY. Go and click on DISKS and see if you can see a HDD listed under the heading TIME CAPSULE DISK. If none show up then I think that says that your HDD died.
If your HDD is dead then it is fairly simple to replace. You can also get a much larger disk than what you had previously and the cost should be well under $100 shipped to your door with the replacement taking only about 20 minutes and then several hours to get your initial Time Machine backup completed.
-please chime back with your results.

Time Capsule Disk Doesn't Appear in Finder or Disk Utility

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