Time Capsule hanging frequently

I have a 1TB Time Capsule which I use both for backup and to store my iTunes library. It regularly hangs and becomes inaccessible. The only solution I've found is to power cycle it
The problem is intermittent, but does seem to be related to the volume of data being transmitted. It will stay up working fine for weeks if lightly used. But if I'm ripping CDs, then it hangs frequently - I've not managed to rip more than 20 CDs in a sitting and frequently it happens more often than that (I'm in the process of ripping an 800 CD collection, lossless).
The Time Capsule is connected via Ethernet to a BT HomeHub which provides internet connectivity. After it hangs, I can't connect to it wirelessly (I get a prompt for the WEP password, but then the connection times out) or via Ethernet. AirPort Utility reports that it can't find any devices. The only solution I've found is to power cycle it
Suggestions for what might be up would be very warmly received!
Thanks,

Hi Paul,
I'm having the exact same problem with my Time Capsule. I'm thinking it is time to take it back to Apple. I have also noticed that accessing a USB disk connected directly to Time Capsule often causes the TC to reset itself (yellow light blinking & wifi unavailable). It's very frustrating.
John

Similar Messages

  • Time Capsule hangs up

    Hi Community,
    since 3 Month I have now a time capsule and enjoy it very much. I have a MacBookAir (mid 2011) with Mountain Lion installed.
    But I have one problem.
    My Mac runs the hole night. I can start checking my emails in the morning etc. all fine. But when I start to use for example iTunes (was open the hole night) Time capsule hangs up. My Library from iTunes is stored on the Time Capsule. Time maschine is switch off.
    I am getting the impression that there is a problem when the HDD from Time Capsule has to start again from the sleep mode. When I use the Mac over the day all is fine. It does not happen all the time.
    When I start to look onto the Time Capsule via Finder it can happen the Time Capsule does not hang up.
    Can someone tell what I can do in order to avoid it?
    Kind regards,
    MacBistram

    Hi Chameleon,
    thanks for the fast reply.
    my Library is to big to move it somewhere else and it was one of the reason why I bought the time capsule.
    It does not only happen when I use iTunes. TC hangs also up when I try to copy a large amount of data from my local dirve to the TC (after the 'sleep mode').
    I use the TC HDD as my Server-Disk-Storage. It cannot be the case that it hangs up after it comes out of the sleep mode.
    Just as additional information. I access the TC over WLAN. Maybe it is the case that the TC hangs up when the WLAN has to mutch to do.
    Kind regards

  • Time Capsule hangs at end of full backup, Disk Utility "not responding"

    I'm running a Mid 2011 iMac 27" with OSX 10.8.4 and using a WiFi connected 3TB Time Capsule (4th Gen).
    I've noticed that the Time Capsule seems to get stuck at the end of a full back-up (let's say 260 GB of 260 GB) and won't end, even after hours of being left alone.
    When I mount the Time Capsule Sparse Disk Image Bundle and then try to run Disk Utility, Disk Utility is shown as "Gathering Information," but the Finder and Activity Monitor list Disk Utility as "not responding."  (No disk information is shown in Disk Utility.) This happens both when I connect via WiFi to the Time Capsule and when I connect directly using an Ethernet cable.  If I don't mount the Sparse Disk Image Bundle, Disk Utility works fine, immediately showing my iMac's Hard Drive, so it only happens when the Time Capsule Sparse Disk Image Bundle is mounted.
    1.  Is Disk Utility truly "not responding" or is it just taking forever to load because of the 3TB hard drive?
    2.  If it truly isn't responding, what can I do to see if the TC needs to be "repaired"?
    3.  What's going on with my TC that it hangs up at the end of a full backup?
    Thanks.

    thefliss wrote:
    I see an occasional deep node traversal, but sounds like that can be normal.
    Not normal, exactly, but TM's way of handling a problem.  See below.
    Aug 17 21:35:50 Erics-iMac.local fseventsd[48]: event logs in /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/.fseventsd out of sync with volume.  destroying old logs. (86990 10 86991)
    Aug 17 21:35:50 Erics-iMac.local fseventsd[48]: log dir: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/.fseventsd getting new uuid:
    Something went wrong with or on the TM drive (Time Capsule in your case), such as a power failure or abnormal disconnection, where OSX was unable to "close it out" properly, so is unsure if all the changes are in the File System Event Store.  If you're not familiar with the Event Store, see the blue box in How Time Machine works its Magic for details (it's talking about the one on your internal HD, but OSX keeps one on every drive/partition and disk image, including your TC backups.)
    Aug 17 21:36:07 Erics-iMac.local com.apple.backupd[1728]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
    That's one of the causes of a deep traversal.  The UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier, the long string of numbers and letters) for the Event Store on your internal HD doesn't match the one in TM's records from the previous backup, so it must do a deep traversal instead, comparing everything on your Mac to the latest (completed) backup.
    Aug 17 21:42:09 Erics-iMac.local diskarbitrationd[22]: mds [39]:22019 not responding.
    Aug 17 21:42:09 Erics-iMac.local diskarbitrationd[22]: fseventsd [48]:17923 not responding.
    Aug 17 21:42:15 Erics-iMac.local fseventsd[48]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/.fseventsd/0000000000362fde (No such file or directory). mount point /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/.fseventsd
    Trouble talking to a disk.  The first two probably involve the TC, the third one definitely does -- it's trying to create the new Event Store.
    Aug 17 21:44:03 Erics-iMac.local com.apple.imfoundation.IMRemoteURLConnectionAgent[1789]: [Warning] Denying xpc connection, task does not have entitlement: com.apple.private.imcore.imremoteurlconnection  (IMTransferAgent:1786)
    Aug 17 21:44:03 --- last message repeated 1 time ---
    Aug 17 21:44:03 Erics-iMac.local com.apple.imtransferservices.IMTransferAgent[1786]: [Warning] Remote loader crashed for request: <NSMutableURLRequest http://init-p01md.apple.com/bag>
    Aug 17 21:44:03 Erics-iMac.local com.apple.imtransferservices.IMTransferAgent[1786]: [Warning] Bag loading failed! Error (__kIMRemoteURLConnectionErrorDomain:-1): The operation couldn’t be completed. (__kIMRemoteURLConnectionErrorDomain error -1.) (null)
    Out of my comfort zone, but sure looks like some sort of connection problem . . . with something.
    Aug 17 21:48:08 Erics-iMac.local com.apple.backupd[1728]: Deleted 3 backups containing 299.76 GB total; 300.65 GB now available, 209.78 GB required
    TM did (finally) connect, figured out how much sp it needed, and started deleting old backups to make room.  Since it did, actual copying would have started just after that was sent.
    Aug 17 22:07:03 Erics-iMac.local com.apple.SecurityServer[15]: Session 100018 created
    Aug 17 22:07:06 Erics-iMac.local ScopedBookmarkAgent[1853]: CFURLCreateByResolvingBookmarkData failed with error [Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4 "The file doesn’t exist."].
    Aug 17 22:07:08 --- last message repeated 7 times ---
    Aug 17 22:07:08 Erics-iMac.local QuickTime Player[1845]: It does not make sense to draw an image when [NSGraphicsContext currentContext] is nil.  This is a programming error. Break on void _NSWarnForDrawingImageWithNoCurrentContext() to debug.  This will be logged only once.  This may break in the future.
    Aug 17 22:08:37 Erics-iMac.local WebProcess[1866]: objc[1866]: Object 0x7fec4841c8c0 of class NSUserDefaults autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking - break on objc_autoreleaseNoPool() to debug
    Aug 19 16:35:11 Erics-iMac.local mds[39]: (/)(Warning) IndexQuery in bool preIterate_FSI(SISearchCtx_FSI *):Throttling inefficient file system query
    Most of that is also out of my area, but doesn't seem related to the TC or backups. 
    Hard to tell so far, but it looks like problem is on your network, or power, or with the TC.  Trying backups to a directly-connected external HD would be a quick way to confirm that, and especially if these are your only backups, a wise thing to do anyhow. 
    It's always prudent to keep "secondary" backups, more so if your main ones are on a network, and especially if there's the slightest doubt about them.  See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #27 for more info and some suggestions.
    And/or, start through the list in the green box in #D2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

  • Time Capsule Hangs with USB Drive Connected after installing 10.5.6 update

    The 10.5.6 update basically made my External USB Disk connected to the Time Capsule unusable. I've repaired the permissions as suggested in other posts - this did not fix the problem.
    I was unable to perform any incremental backups initially after the 10.5.6 update, so I archived my sparsebundle and created a new one by doing a full fresh backup - which completed successfully. However, after the backup, I was unable to connect to the Time Capsule or the USB drive connected to the Time Capsule via Finder - when trying to connect, my computer hangs and I'm forced to do a hard restart of BOTH my computer AND the Time Capsule, if I just restart one or the other the problem persists. If I let the connection attempt run long enough I get an "Error Code: -8072" message and still have to do a hard restart. After the hard restart of my computer and Time Capsule I'm able to connect to the Time Capsule and the USB drive connected to Time Capsule just fine. However, once the Time Machine backup runs again - the same problem returns, I can no longer access the Time Capsule or the USB drive connected to Time Capsule via Finder and have to do a hard restart of BOTH my computer AND Time Capsule. This 10.5.6 update has been havoc, anyone have the same troubles or ideas for resolving this? Before updating to 10.5.6 my system was working flawlessly with Time Capsule and the connected USB drive.
    UPDATE: I've just verified that this problem only occurs with my external LaCie Hard Drive connected to Time Capsule via USB. If I disconnect my LaCie Hard Drive from the Time Capsule and restart the Time Capsule everything works fine (backups, access to Time Capsule Disk from Finder). If I connect the LaCie Hard Drive via USB to the Time Capsule, I am able to access the LaCie Hard Drive in Finder UNTIL the next Time Machine backup. After the first Time Machine backup with the USB drive connected, I can no longer access the USB drive from Finder - Finder hangs and eventually produces "Error Code: -8072". If I disconnect the USB drive, then plug it back in - Finder no longer hangs and I can access the drive connected to Time Capsule until the next backup occurs.
    Anybody have ANY ideas? This worked fine before the 10.5.6 update!

    I am having a similar problem. Never tried it before installing 10.5.6, but have a Time Capsule (500GB) with a 1TB WD MyBook Essential Edition connected via USB. Hardware is password protected by authorized users of network and needs separate login to access. When I initially set it up, it worked fine (though too difficult to set up). The WD storage drive showed up in Finder window as a subset of the Time Capsule after clicking on the Time Capsule icon. I had an "-8072" error message yesterday that I ignored, but then the file contents of the WD storage drive took forever to be viewed in Finder (though video files could be accessed wirelessly). Today started having a problem... coincidentally?... after a Time Machine backup, and got the message: "The operation could not be completed. An unexpected error occurred (error code -8072)." Now I am unable to get into the WD drive when I click on "Connect As" on the Time Capsule icon in the Finder menu... I just get the -8072 error. I no longer even see the Time Capsule disk as a subset of the Time Capsule icon in the Finder Toolbar.
    What is going on???

  • Time Capsule "hangs" Finder

    Hello,
    my Time Capsule started to become extremely unstable: it frequently becomes unavailable, i.e. if i try to open the disk, the Finder freezes and I have to reboot the Mac and the Time Capsule. Even Airport utility cannot open it (e.g. says "reading TC configuration", but freezes too). Most of the times i need to do a reset. Did soft, hard and factory reset, but the problem persists. Internet still works, however.
    On my TC I have the backups managed by Time Machine and some working folders.
    configuration: iMac with OSX Lion and 2GB TC connected wirelessly.
    Thanks in advance for your support

    configuration: iMac with OSX Lion and 2GB TC connected wirelessly.
    What model is the TC?
    You stated in the profile .. Time Capsule 802.11n (3rd Gen)
    Only the very last of the Gen3 came with 2TB disk.. if it is that old then the TC has now become unreliable.. they have a working life of around 3years.
    If there are files you want to recover do a full factory reset and use ethernet to the TC.. place the files on USB drive.. then wipe the TC. (You can do it directly via a USB drive of 2TB plugged into the TC and begin an archive which should work ok still).
    Wipe the drive in the TC and buy a new one.

  • Time Capsule hangs in initial backup after having deleted all data.

    Hi,
    I'm having a big problem trying to set up my time capsule after deleting all data on it again.
    In the beginning the problem was that I have used the time capsule as a file server and a backup volume. I guess it was the main problem was that the disk was full and time machine had no more place to backup any longer.
    So I always got an error that the time machine had a problem to backup.
    I decided to delete all data on time capsule and start from the beginning.
    After deleting all data and trying to start from zero, Time Machine is trying to initiate the backup.
    But nothing more happens. It seems to hang up while initiating. I tried to delete the disc several times but the problem is still occuring.
    Maybe you had the same difficulties and found a solution?
    Thanks a lot for your help!
    Carsten.
    Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo 2,2 GHz Mac OS X (10.5.4) 4 GB Ram

    same here although I get to "finishing Backup" and then mine hangs and it can be hard to shut down. I discovered the only way I could get it to stop once was to launch Disk Utility and eject the sparsebundle listed there. I have no backups at all.I will call Apple on Monday and see if they have anything floating around there that might fix us. I will report back-If you make any progress please let us know here! We will get this thing working I am sure of it!

  • Time capsule hangs on 18.5% no matter which backup used

    I've tried three different hard drives now.
    Status bar stops pulsing and just hangs at 18.5%
    I've tried backups from three months ago to 3 days ago, I've tried a new hard drive cable, I've tried every Ethernet cable known to mankind
    Anyone have a suggestion?
    The time capsule is 3 months old the MacBook is 2010

    If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
    Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
    ☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
    Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
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    from the menu bar.
    Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
    If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
    When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
    Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
    Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

  • Time Capsule hanging after few searches

    Can someone help please? My Time Capsule just hangs after a couple of searches. I'm using it with a MacBook and there's an Airport Express linked to the same network. It backs up ok, but I keep having to go back to using my BT Home Hub to get internet access. That's what the TC is using for a modem too, is that the problem? Any help gratefully received but please keep it simple, I don't really know my way round the technicalities.
    Thanks.

    Hi Paul,
    I'm having the exact same problem with my Time Capsule. I'm thinking it is time to take it back to Apple. I have also noticed that accessing a USB disk connected directly to Time Capsule often causes the TC to reset itself (yellow light blinking & wifi unavailable). It's very frustrating.
    John

  • Time capsule hanging up after OSX Lion upgrade

    Hello
    After my recent upgrade to OSX Lion, my MacBookPro is hanging up when trying to connect and update my Time Capsule update...
    After 8 hours of unsucessful trials for a 8 Go back up, I have given up.
    Something to be advised in order to get back on the same easy/seamless Time Capsule updates I enjoyed previously ?

    I am using a 2010 iMac and tried a completely new 250+Gb Time Machine copy to a WD Passport USB 2.0 500Gb external HD. It's taking like more than 2 days. Never took that long before. Not a web or wi-fi issue. Before Mountain Lion, should have taken 3-4 hours max. I tested the external hard drive on a another Mac with a large file transfer and there were no problems.  I also turned off all the spotlight choices. The issue has something with Mountain Lion.
    Has anyone heard from Apple acknowledging the issue and that they are working to resolve the problem?

  • Time Capsule Hanging on "Preparing backup"

    OK, I read some of the previous discussions here but I want to throw this out there, as my setup mightbe a bit weird.
    I have a GLYPH 2TB drive hooked via its USB  cable to an Airport Express. (The model I bought in 2012 or so)
    The drive shows up fine via the wireless connection and in the past Time Machine seems to have done backups OK. It was slow, but I was only doing it once a month or so.
    So, what happens. I decide to run a copy of TechTool on my computer after it crashes and won't start up (I got the status bar under the apple logo on startup, while the screen was still gray). I start it from an external drive I have it saved on. A little LaCie number. The computer runs OK when I do that.
    So I run TechTool. It tells me I have bad blocks all over. I tried Restore and Disk Repair and I get told that my Apple MacBook can't alter any information on the drive, though it can be read. OK I thought, I need to do a wipe. My last backup was in July.
    So I fire up Time Machine. It finds the big drive fine. Then it takes a long time to prepare, and then it started backing up. It only did about 13 MB and then hung for a long time, like an hour.
    So I stop Backup, and restart, and try again. This time it hangs on "Preparing." For another hour or so. I do a stop backup, restart, and the same thing. Hmm. I look on the discussion boards here and find Pndini's site with suggestions. I turn off On-Access Scanning in Sophos.
    So. It's been an hour and it still hangs but I might just wait to see what happens. I read that there's a spotlight file I might need to change, but I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing.
    Q: can I stop the backup, and just disconnect the drive from the Airport and link it via USB and try that? I wasn't sure if that was a safe thing to do. If I can't and I need to just wipe this thing that's OK, the stuff from July is enough as I moved the files I was concerned about to the LaCie drive with the finder (I just put them all in a folder) and I can always pull them back up. Plainly my MacBook hard drive is going to die soon but I need a computer for the next couple of weeks to work from.
    So, what should be my first step? Like I said, if necessary I can nuke the MacBook's drive as long as I can restore from my july TM backup.

    9rabbit wrote:
    THe system I started up from was a little drive I backed up a copy of the system on . . .
    When you did that, you copied Time Machine's instructions, along with everything else.
    Those instructions are kept in a file on the internal HD, along with all sorts of other preferences and setup information -- pretty much anything in System Preferences or your settings and preferences for applications is stored that way, and was copied to the clone.  That's kinda the purpose of a clone.
    Anyhow, understand, when it looked like my HD was failing, I ran the system from there so I could at least access some files if need be. I ran Time Machine's backup from the top of the menu nbar just like always,
    Time Machine used the copied instructions, unless you specifically changed them on the clone.  That means it was still (trying to) back up the internal HD, not the clone. 
    I did look BTW in the Restore OS 10.8 drive and go through the steps, after connecting via the network it shows the older backups.
    You may not have noticed, but that almost certainly names the internal HD near the top of this window, after "Restore from":
    I should be able to disconnect the glyoh from the airport, plug it into the mac, run TM and it will back up stuff to there. 
    Unless you change the exclusions, it will continue to (try to) back up the internal (not the external) to the Glyph.  But you may have difficulty seeing those backups, because of the change from network to local as in the blue box of the link above.
    if I can just wipe the internal drive, I can restore the copy of the system (10.8.3) and then do a TM restore
    No need to reinstall OSX, if the backups are intact (by no means a sure thing).  The restore erases the destination, then restores OSX and everything else from the backups.
    But since both your internal HD and backups are suspect, I'd strongly recommend getting another external and restoring to it first, before wiping the internal.  Then see if you can start up from it, and if it runs properly.
    If it doesn't, we've got another option, but it's also best to do on another drive first.

  • Time capsule is frequently crashing and has to be powered off and back on

    I have had my Time Capsule for several months with no problems. Last few weeks it is crashing several times per day and has to be powered off and back on. When this happens there is no light of any color. The reset button does not work and I have to unplug it and then plug it back in. I have the latest updates. A couple of times it wouldn't restart after I plugged it back in for 10-15 minutes. Any thoughts?

    At minimum power down your entire network starting with modem first. Then wait a few and power back on start with modem first.

  • Time Machine - Time Capsule hangs when finishing

    Recently upgraded to Leopard and added a 500 GB TC. After many hours the initial backup finally finished, but now whenever it tries to do the hourly backup, it hangs at the "finishing backup" stage. No error message, just stays in that state until I finally tell it to stop. Any clues how I get it to finish its backup?

    Looks like the situation resolved itself. I just needed to let the first "hourly" backup run as long as it needed to (a couple of hours). Since then, the hourly backups have run just fine, and only taken a couple of minutes.

  • Airport Extreme and Time capsule(s)

    Just got off the phone with Apple support and have been told I am afriad "thats the way Apple designed it" and dont really believe the reply.
    I have an airport extreme with a number of Macs using the wireless connection and four time capsules hanging off the airport wirelessly. Everything works fine for 10, 15 or 20 plus days and then we start losing the connection to the Time capsule drives. ( they are just used as disks).
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    The support person told me that apple designed the extreme to only support 3 devices including itself. However when I lose connections I can always connect to non apple devices like a NAS drive I have hanging off the ADSL router.
    Anybody any ideas?
    I am running Lion 10.7.3
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    To connect your Mac to the modem you may need to reset your modem to convince it to connect to a "new" device.  Depending on the model of modem, that can be as easy as removing power for a few moments.  If that doesn't work, remove power and wait 15 minutes.  Further reset steps can involve pressing a "reset" button or removing a battery if the modem has one.  In the worst case, your ISP may need to edit its settings to update to the MAC address of the new router.  If they won't or can't do that, powering down the modem for 16 to 36 hours can reset the connection.

  • Losing connection to Time Capsule share of slide show images

    My 10.6.latest iMac screen saver references a folder on my Time Capsule external drive over a WiFi network.
    Lately (10.6.5?), instead of seeing the screen saver images, I see a "unable to find" sort of message. I can still connect to the Time Machine through the FInder.
    My hunch is that the Time Capsule drive has gone to sleep and the OS X screen saver is timing out before it comes online.
    Anyone see anything like this?
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    Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to solve the problem.  ITunes still periodically complains that it can't find the library - this happens both when the Mac has been on for awhile and I first start up iTunes, or if iTunes has been running for awhile as well.  In either case, I have to click through to the Time Capsule share with the iTunes library on it.  I can tell the Mac has lost the connection because it takes some time for the share and its folders to show up as I click through the path.
    Anyone else run into this???

  • MacBook Air + Time Capsule  frequently dropping internet connection

    I too have been having frequently dropped wireless connections between my MacBook Air (MBA) and my Time Capsule(TC). My TC is connected to a cable modem and I also have an Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS) at a different part of my house which is used to extend my network connecting via ethernet to a PC running VISTA, and wirelessly to a printer and an older MacBook. I also connect wirelessly to my home network with two iPhones, a Squeezebox 3 with a server running on the PC. I have an Apple TV and a Squeezebox 2 connected to my TC via ethernet.
    When my connection drops I will either see a Time Capsule disconnect message or if I am surfing the web, the browser just hangs. The wireless ICON strength is still pegged a the max level. None of my other devices (wireless or ethernet) connected to the TC or the other AEBS seem to drop their internet connections. I can re-establish the connection on my MBA by either turning off my MBA's Airport wireless and then turning it back on or by running the network diagnostics. The latter method usually shows green lights for all but the "Internet" and the "Server" which will have yellow lights. Usually when I select my wireless network and press continue, it will prompt for my WPA2 password which I have to reenter even though I always check the box for it to remember the password in the keychain.
    After reading the various discussions on disconnect problems and trying the various "solutions" I was still having the disconnect problem.
    Last night, I decided to turn off my Time Capsule and was then able to maintain an internet connection for considerably longer than before. Perhaps it was one of the other "solutions" that caused that. After turning my TC back on, the disconnect problem reoccurred within about 5 minutes.
    Next, I did my too frequent Time Capsule remedy which was to disconnect the power and then reconnect the power. (Seems like some of these devices (APPLE TV included) could use power switches.) I then deleted the .sparsebundle backup file on the Time Capsule. I was then able to restart Time Capsule backup and things have been running uninterrupted for over 12 hours...still backing up (20GB in 12 hours? Doesn't seem very fast!). I can report back later if this actually "fixes" my disconnect problems in the future. I am dubious that it will.
    I have several questions about the MBA and the TC/Time Machine backup operation.
    1.) I often forget about the TC when I close the lid on my MBA and haul it off to work. At work (connecting via ethernet), I will eventually get a TC disconnect error. But I am wondering if there are points in the backup process where a random disconnect will cause some sort of TC corruption. What is the recommended way of handling this? Should I always stop the Time Machine backup before turning off my MBA? (A nuisance if so!)
    2.) What is happening when the TC backup operation stops functioning and hangs up the MBA's internet connection? (I see lots of messages logged in the system log when this happens; but, of course, I don't have much of a clue of which ones are normal and which are not normal. I could send a copy of the logs when it happens next (I am assuming it will).
    Also one other anecdote. A few months back, I had taken another AEBS to my work to use during a training conference. My MBA kept dropping its connection while the other PC laptops in the room maintained their connections...(very embarrassing!). Maybe one of the other "solutions" would have fixed the problem or maybe if I had just turned off my Time Machine backup it would not have disconnected. I will repeat that exercise when I get a chance now that I have some things to try.
    It seems pretty clear to me from my own experiences and the discussion reports of others that the disconnect problem lies in the MBA's wireless internet connection software or the configuration of it. It seems like it is having difficulty recovering from various wireless connection "mishaps".

    Folks, I was having a very similar problem for the last 6 months. My connection was fine until June 2008, after which my Macbook and my Time Capsule would constantly conflict. If I rebooted or reset the TC, or the MB, things would be fine for a few minutes or sometimes a few hours and the problem would recur soon thereafter. About a month ago, I had to do a clean reinstall and the problem vanished for about 5 days, after which it reappeared. My MB never had a problem at work, or at someone else's home or with other routers, only with TC. Apple sent me a new TC, then they replaced my Airport card but the situation did not change ... UNTIL ABOUT AN HOUR AGO.
    An hour ago, I called Apple for the nth time in the last 6 months, and the rep heard me out (just like the previous n-1 reps). He then asked me to to System Preferences --> Accounts --> Login Items and asked if Real Player Downloader showed up in my list. Indeed it did. He asked me to remove it, and told me that Apple had just figured out that the Real Player downloader was recently found to be causing a drop in the connection between Macbooks and the TC (as well Airport Express).
    The problem I've been having baffled everyone. All the previous reps, the guys at the Genius Bars, nobody had a clue. Joe (the rep I spoke with this morning) seemed very confident that the removal of the Real Player Downloader from the list of login items would resolve the problem. So far, so good. My connection seems solid (its only been an hour, but earlier it would drop after 5 minutes of use).
    I hope my problem that (literally!) used up hundreds of hours of my time has been finally resolved. I hope this solution will work for at least some of you as well. What gives me hope is that this solution is logically consistent with the history of my problems. I probably first downloaded Real Player in June 2008. And when I did a clean install, I remember downloading Real Player a few days after the reinstall. So I'm pretty hopeful that my issue has been finally resolved.
    Shame on Real Player for putting out a defective piece of software. And thank you Joe!

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