Time Capsule no longer shows up in Airport scan.

I was having trouble with my Time Capsule not backing up; kept getting "backup disk is not available" error message.
I had a couple of duplicate passwords for TC that I deleted from Keychain Access.
Now TC doesn't even show up in Airport Utility. How do I get it back?

sheltonfromnashville wrote:
Grrr...I did the reset button, which fixed things literally for five minutes. Now I have a network that shows up, and my Time Capsule shows up, but, ah, I can't seem to connect wirelessly to the Internet. I appreciate everyone's help, but I think at this point that I'm going to have to bring in a professional.
How old is the TC? They can become flakey just before they die.
Are you running Lion? It has made networking painful.
I recommend you do the full factory reset.. which means power off the TC and power on holding in the reset for around 15sec. This gets it back to strict factory.
Setup the wireless with manual settings.. change the name of the 5ghz so it is different to 2.4ghz. That stops the client swapping around.. join to one or the other depending on your setup. Fix the wireless channels.. to stop the TC swapping around .. there is just too much auto swapping going on for the things to be stable.
If it doesn't work get the TC checked.. it could be broken.

Similar Messages

My three Time Capsules no longer show up anywhere in the Finder.

I have two older Time Capsules and one new Airport Time Capsule. They show up nicely in the AirPort Utility, but do not show up anywhere in the Finder—neither on the desktop nor the sidebar.
The Yosemite software is all up-to-date on my iMac5, and I have employed all the suggestions offered on this website—including adjustments to “Back to My Mac” and trying to adjust the router (both of which have made no difference). I have successfully shifted my Time Machine backups over to three Drobos, but I would like to employ the Time Capsules for ™ backups, if at all possible. I would appreciate anyone’s help—thank you.

Some things are going to be necessary .. and you are going to hate me but I must insist..
You have used the pipe symbol in a name.. Some characters are illegal .. I think pipe could be one of them.. ie |
Your setup now seems to have even more issues.. so I am going to need to get you do some fixing up and network rearranging..
If I confused you with the comment to connect the TC directly to the computer I am sorry..
Here is what I would do for a full manual setup of the TC.
Airtport Utility can't find Airport Time Capsule on either of my 2009 Macs
The older Mac running Yosemite won't help..
Here are some other details of getting this to work.. ie this is my standard setup under yosemite bug heaven.
A factory reset of the TC is the start.. it is required so you can find it again.
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/
There is a few other things to be aware of.
When you have a whole chain of TC.. it can be a lot better to use static IP instead of bridge.
But the setup for this is pretty tricky.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/25135547?ac_cid=tw123456#
The one thing I think is important is to turn off all the TC.. and start from just one.. get that one working then add the next one.. either in bridge or static IP and work from there.. but the first one to setup off network if you need to as the setup looks rather complicated.. a laptop or something could be used..
Perhaps even test using the iOS version airport utility which can work better than utility in Yosemite.
I think I am failing to give you cookbook.. but some of the sections I hope are pretty close and you need to fix the parts to get the whole to work.

HT3728 When I reconnect my Time Capsule after a factory reset, the Airport Utility shows ther message"Unexpected error. Try again." I also get this if I redo the factory reset.

The Time Capsule is not providing a wireless connection.
When I reconnect my Time Capsule after a factory reset, the Airport Utility shows ther message"Unexpected error. Try again." I also get this if I cancel the Airport Utility app and restart it. I performed the factory reset again, restarted the Airport Utility and received the same error. What are the steps to debug and fix the wireless problem?
My Time Capsule is connected to my FIOS router and to my Mac Mini. I am still able to connect to the Internet from the Mini via ethernet. It seems that the Time Capsule acts as a bridge for the ethernet connections between Internet to FIOS, FIOS to Time Capsule, and Time Capsule to Mac Mini.

Which model TC is this? The A1xxx number from the base please.
Try the setup in full isolation from the network.. so unplug the TC from the network.. and turn off wireless in the mini.. so you have mini--ethernet--lan port TC.. and nothing else.
Do the factory reset.
Now check if TC comes up in airport utility..
If it fails, turn on ipv6 local link.. if you are using 6.3 utility this could be necessary.
Still fails, try loading the v5 utility.. you will need to plug the computer back into the FIOS to get internet. Then depending on OS.. Lion according to your profile.. you can just down the utility.. ML takes more steps.
See below.
Do you have an iphone or ipad.. download the airport utility app and use those for the setup.. that can sometimes work better.
How to load 5.6 into ML.
1. Download 5.6 for Lion.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
Click to open the dmg but do not attempt to install the pkg.. it won't work anyway.
2. Download and install unpkg.
http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/
Run unpkg on the desktop.. it is very simple.. drag the AirPortUtility56.pkg file over to unpkg.. and it will create a new directory of the same name on the desktop.. drill down.. applications utilities .. there lo and behold is Airport utility 5.6 .. drag it to your main utilities directory or just run it from current location.
You cannot uninstall 6.1 (now 6.2 if you updated) so don't try.. and you cannot or should not run them both at the same time.. so just ignore the toyland version.. the plastic hammer.. and start using 5.6.. a real tool.
For screen shots see this post.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4668746?tstart=0

Time Capsule - no longer responding

I've had my TC for about 6 months and have been using it so far only as a wireless backup drive. I am connected to internet via ethernet to my iMac through a broadband modem. I have a high speed connection.
Last week I tried to set up a Wii to connect to the internet, linking with what I thought was a wireless internet connection. I perhaps failed to appreciate that it wasn't the TC it needed to find as a source, but my iMac. It found my TC since I recognised the TC's name, but nevertheless, resolutely refused to connect to the internet.
I fiddled about with the TC location - clearly still not appreciating its role in the fiasco - and have somehow managed to upset it to the point where it no longer appears anywhere on my iMac. The Aiport Utility scans forever before declaring that it can't find any Apple wireless devices. When I try to set up Time Machine again (the TC was doing this, but has now abandoned the idea), Airport Utility again fails to discover the Tc, despite it now being right next to the iMac.
I uninstalled Airport, hit the dreaded reset buton on the TC, reinstalled Airport and tried again, but the problem persists.
I's like to go back to a state where I can start from scatch, but all I get is the flashing amber light on the TC. I don't get a chance to do any kind of manual setup because the Airport utility can't find the TC. I tried setting up the TC as my internet connection using the ethernet cable from the modem (first switching everything off, then connecting and powering up as per a previous forum answer), and this time it won't give me any form of internet connection. I hit the reset button on the TC (again) whilst powered on, and it then got discovered, but the Airport Utility came back with an error message telling me that although the settings had been updated, no connection was found with the TC.
Any ideas where to go from here?
Thanks
Martin

Do I dare ask why you have the Time Capsule used only as a wireless backup drive and not as a part of your internet network? It's probably because you never really needed a wireless internet connection. But now you want a wireless connection for your Nintendo Wii and the Time Capsule can provide that. I would recommend moving the Time Capsule in your setup. Something like this: modem - ethernet to TC (WAN port) - ethernet (LAN port) to iMac. Once you have it all connected, run Airport Utility and follow the setup "I don't have a wireless network and want to create one".
Although I don't recommend setting it up this way; but if you don't want to move everything around, the reason the Time Capsule does not show up must be because you are not connected to the network (wired or wireless). If you really reset the Time Capsule, go to your system preferences>network settings and select airport. (Turn it on if necessary) look for a wireless network named "Apple Network..." and try to connect. If it requires a password try "public" then run Airport Utility again.

Time Capsule won't show when trying to extend my network

I am not too bright at networking, but I will try my best to explain my problem. I have an existing wireless network with a non-Apple router. I use both a PC and a MacBook on this network. I am trying to use my Time Capsule to extend my network into another room. I start by resetting my Time Capsule. I then open the Airport utility, and my Time Capsule shows. I then go through and set all the new settings. While doing this, the utility also lets me select my existing network, and enter my password for that. It then accepts my settings, and beings to set my Time Capsule. It is at this point it can't seem to find the Time Capsule anymore??? I tried a few times and got the same thing. Help! Thanks.

The Time Capsule creates both a 5 GHz band and 2.4 GHz band on the Main network using the same wireless network name (SSID). The 5 GHz band offers faster communication between devices.
But, there's always a trade off. To get the higher speeds, this band must give up distance and penetration power, so it's pretty much a "line-of-sight" deal between your computer and Time Capsule.
The 2.4 GHz band penetrates walls, ceilings and other obstructions much more effectively. So, if your computer is in the same room as the Time Capsule or a close adjacent room, it will probably connect to the 5 GHz band. Down the hall and around the corner, or upstairs, it will probably connect to the 2.4 GHz band.
Your computer(s) will automatically connect to the best quality signal, not necessarily the fastest signal, (which could be much weaker).
If you enable the Guest network, your "guests" (or kids, perhaps) will be able to access the internet, but they will not be able to see any of your drives, computers, etc on the Main network. Nice feature.
Here's the downside. When you enable the Guest network, you are taking some bandwidth away from the Main network. So, it makes sense to enable the Guest network only when you have "guests".

Time Capsule Not Visible In Finder Or Airport Utility

I recently purchased last week a 15" mac book pro and a 2 tb time capsule. This is my first mac and first experience with time capsule.I am running Lion. Ever since initial setup and a few calls to apple care the time capsule does not show up in finder or airport utility at times, sometimes it just re appears for a short while then disappears again. Apple care has had me hook directly up via cable to the capsule to switch channels thinking I was getting interference and also had me reset the keychain. I am still having the same problem. Has anyone else experienced this problem, or does anyone have a suggestion to fix this problem? Thanks!

Is the time capsule the main router in the network? If not try and rearrange the network so it will be.
I am not sure that Lion is working very well with TC. There are too many issues popping up.

Cannot get Time Capsule to Work as anything but Airport

I have had this problem off and on for months and have never been able to resolve it. I have already reviewed all of the threads addressing this issue and none of them solved my problem.
My time capsule will not show up on my finder OR through airport. If I restart it 2 or 3 times, airport will find it at which point I will again reconfigure it to act as my back-up drive with time machine. However, immediately after the forced restart, my computer again fails to recognize it.
Notably, my wireless internet through time capsule always works. Essentially, my time capsule is nothing more than an airport as I can't use it with time machine OR as a server to store documents through my finder.

What OS is on the computer?
You can load 5.6 utility if you are running Lion or Mountain Lion as follows.
How to load 5.6 into later Lion & ML
1. Download 5.6 for Lion.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
Click to open the dmg but do not attempt to install the pkg.. it won't work anyway.
Leave the package open on the desktop so you can see the file. AirportUtility56.pkg
2. Download and install unpkg.
http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/
Run unpkg on the desktop.. If your Mac refuses to run the software, because it wasn’t downloaded from the Apple store, go to security in preferences and allow other software to work.. this is limitation of trade methinks. You can set back later if you like.
Now drag the AirPortUtility56.pkg file over to unpkg.. and it will create a new directory of the same name on the desktop.. in finder, open the new directory, drill down.. applications, utilities .. there lo and behold is Airport utility 5.6 .. drag it to your main utilities directory or just run it from current location.
You cannot uninstall version 6 (now 6.3 if you updated) so don't try.. and you cannot or should not run them both at the same time.. although I have had no problems when doing so.

After lion upgrade time capsule no longer backs up

Time capsule no longer will back up after lion upgrade is anyone else having this problem?

The Time Machine application is part of the Lion operating system, so you will likely get a faster and more informed response if you post in the Lion support area for Time Machine. There are a number of posts there with issues similar to yours.
Mac OS X v10.7 Lion
Click on the Refine This List button under the Lion and then click on Time Machine to get to the support area.

Time capsule does not show the blue bars near backing up. Any idea why?

Time Capsule is not showing that it is backing up. Any idea why?

For some reason it was going in a loop. Support had me omit some com.apple....plist files. Retarted and Tiime Capsule started as though it had never seen the external hard drive. I set it up again and it worked fine.
Thank you,

Loaded Mountain Lion and time capsule no longer works, airport utility can't be configured, back ups have stopped, sparse bundle in use errors occur, what a mess!!!!

Should Airport Utility now be defunct for my time capsule because I have upgraded OS to Mountain Lion? I have tried every fix I can think of but AU will not set up. I'm also getting repeated time machine back up failures and now I have a new "sparsebundleinuse" error which is totally useless to me, I have no idea what a sparse bundle is, I have no idea what it's suddenly being used by and there's no information to say what to do about it. Apple is killing me here!!!

I've tried to but on the install for Airport Utility 6, after the download I get through the introduction then the license then I get "airport utility can't be installed on this disk. The version of Mac OS X on this volume is not supported" and that's it, no more options!?

TIme capsule is orange, not present in Airport Utility,

Hi
I have been using my time capsule for backing up but today it is not present in Airport Utiltity, it is flashing orange as well.
Airport utility is searching for it but there's a message stating "no configured airport base stations have been found. airport utility will continue searching".
Under System preference > TIme Machine > it states "back disc is not available" and when I click 'Select Disk', it is present under the heading "Backup Discs" but the only available button is "Remove Disk". And, if I try to search for a new one, it cannot find it.
I would be very grateful if you would kindly help me. I have tried switch the TC on and off at the wall, but this did not help…..Have checked with cable and all see ok.
Thank you

How old and what model is the TC?
Have you checked in other devices.. ipad or iphone etc to see if the TC is running ok? Use the airport utility for iOS if you have igadgets.
Otherwise what OS is on the computer? Did you recently upgrade or update? 10.9.4 just went out and may cause some issues.
I have tried switch the TC on and off at the wall, but this did not help…..Have checked with cable and all see ok.
Excellent start. A full network reboot is also in order. Restart the whole network thusly.
modem.. wait 2min..
TC.. wait 2min..
rest of the stuff.
Everything must boot from off, not sleep/standby.
No luck. Follow these steps.
1. Factory reset.
The Factory Reset universal
Unplug your TC/AE. Hold in reset. and power the TC/AE back on.. all without releasing reset and keep holding in for about 10sec. The time is not important.. it is the front LED rapid flashing that indicates you are in factory mode.
Release reset.
If it doesn’t flash rapidly you have released reset at some point and try again.
Be Gentle! Feel the switch click on. It has a positive feel.. add no more pressure after that.
TC/AE will reboot after a couple of minutes with default factory settings and will wipe out previous configurations.
No files are deleted on the hard disk.. No reset of the TC deletes files.. to do that you use erase from the airport utility.
2. Ensure ipv6 is turned on to link-local in the computer for both wireless and ethernet if you use it.
eg wireless.
3. Go to the airport utility. (or via the wifi icon in the top menu area). It will show a device ready for setup.
Run through the setup wizard.
Please do not use the proffered names. eg Fred Blog's Airport Time Capsule (Wireless)
It is far too long.. it has spaces and it has illegal apostrophe.
Please use a base station name like TCgenx (I fill in x with the actual generation).. short, no spaces and pure alphanumeric.
Please use a wireless name like TCwifi (I use TC24ghz and TC5ghz to keep the bands separate).
Complete the Wizard.
4. See if you can now mount the TC hard disk in Finder. If it fails, do it manually.
In the top menu Go> Connect to Server.
Type in AFP://TCgenx.local (Replace with your actual name. Local is the domain name and can help)
or
Type in AFP://10.0.1.1 (replace with the TC actual IP address .. that is the default when TC is router. This will only work when static though).
It will request your password. Type that in and store in the keychain.
5. Reset TM and point it to the newly named TC.
See A4 here for more details.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Do not worry if it shows it is going to start the whole backup. It will find the old backup once it starts. Nothing you are doing here will mess the original backups.
You are just correcting certain weaknesses is the network standards.
No luck post back with as much detail as possible.. modem, how the TC is connected to modem and computer, computer type and OS etc.

Time Capsule won't connect to internet, Airport Utility

Tonight we lost power, and ever since our Time Capsule been out of commission. The cable modem is working when I directly connect it to my computer via the ethernet cable. I've unplugged the Time Capsule several times. When I plug it back in the amber light comes on solid for about 30 seconds, then goes off. I have tried the hard reset by putting a pin in the reset button while plugging the Time Capsule in. The amber light will flash, but then I'll remove the pin and the amber light comes on for the same 30 seconds, then goes off again. It is not findable by Airport Utility.
Someone please tell me my Time Capsule isn't dead...

Someone please tell me my Time Capsule isn't dead...
Sorry but more than likely it is.. If the LED goes off completely there is no power.. the LED will always be on and doing something the whole time the TC is powered unless it fails.
What model is it? How old?
30sec is a long time for the power supply to run before failure.. put your hand on it and feel if the hard disk is starting up.. you will feel the vibration.. if you put your ear to it, you should hear the fan start up, within a couple of seconds of power on.. and turn off again at around 30sec mark..
Observe also the ethernet connectivity LEDs.. do they go green.. during startup they should all flash green briefly and then one of them should come on. Try leaving out the ethernet and see if just wireless works.
But all of that will prove is working or not.. if dead check age.. less than 3years and still have apple care on a computer, Apple will replace it. Otherwise you can get it fixed. but not via Apple, they will not open them.

Is time capsule no longer supporting IP cam setup?

My IP cam used to work with my Time Capsule. However, since i update firmware, i find my IP cam no longer work with my time capsule.
I even can not find IP cam set up from Airport tools.

No, that is not the case.. the firmware has the same functions..
I think you are confusing the airport utility and the firmware.. the new version of the utility is a toy.. for sure.. true. For Lion just the first download listed is enough.
If you run mountain Lion you can trick it to accept 5.6 airport utility..
How to load 5.6 into ML.
1. Download 5.6 for Lion.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
Click to open the dmg but do not attempt to install the pkg.. it won't work anyway.
2. Download and install unpkg.
http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/
Run unpkg on the desktop.. it is very simple.. drag the AirPortUtility56.pkg file over to unpkg.. and it will create a new directory of the same name on the desktop.. drill down.. applications utilities .. there lo and behold is Airport utility 5.6 .. drag it to your main utilities directory or just run it from current location.
You cannot uninstall 6.1 so don't try.. and you cannot or should not run them both at the same time.. so just ignore the toyland version.. the plastic hammer.. and start using 5.6.. a real tool.

My Time Capsule hard drive shows up in Finder, but I can't access the disk. I get a connection failed message.

I can not access my Time Capsule from the Finder. This was working, but on 12/25/2011, the disk can no longer be accessed. It shows up in the Finder, but when I try to connect, I get a "Connection Failed" message. If I cycle the power, it works for a little while and then fails again.

hello
No i'm connect via ethernet (cable) with TC. The problem is when I try to connect to my TC when I'm away from home like for ex. using a free wi fi spot!! Well in this case the icon appear on my Finder but refuse to connet!! ( connection faild ).

Time Capsule no longer being recognized

Hi guys,
I currently connect to the internet via a USB dongle. I bought a time capsule with the intention of just using it for storage purposes for the time being (and eventually also as a router once I arrange to have a proper broadband connection installed).
When I originally installed the time capsule, it was recognized by my iMac with seemingly no issues. At the same time, I was using an airport express with airtunes, which I also had no problems with. Even though I don't have an internet connection that could be used with the apple wifi gear, I was able to set up a basic wifi network using the iMac which seemed to work without any problems.
Now, however, my mac won't pick up either the time capsule or airport. I'm running airport utility and it comes back with zero results. Both the time capsule and airport flash amber lights. I'm wondering if I've made some change to my wifi network settings in leopard that is causing the problem? The issue seemed to manifest itself around the same time I downloaded the latest version of Airport Utility...
Out of interest, my powerbook won't pick up either of the wifi devices either. I don't have much experience with networking on macs, and I suspect if I had a 'real' internet connection running into the time capsule this probably wouldn't be an issue, but would like to get this sorted in the interim is possible. I've tried reseting both the time capsule and the airport express, and also playing about with the network control panel, all with no success. I'm a bit lost where to go from here. Any advice gratefully received!
For the record:
Aluminium iMac 10.5.5
Powerbook G4 10.4.11
Time Capsule
AirPort Express
Vodafone USB dongle
iPhone 3G

Shai-Hulud, (Dune fan?)
Try cycling Airport on your Mac.
*Cycle Airport Preferences*
Open Network Preferences.
Click “Turn Airport Off”, wait 10 seconds.
Now click “Turn Airport On”. Close Prefs.
Does it now show up in Airport Utilities?.
If not go to the “File” menu and select “Rescan”.
Does it appears now?.
If not, unplug the TC, wait 10 seconds, and plug it back in.
Does the TC show up now in Airport Utility?
Let us know if this resolves your issue.
Cheers

Time Capsule no longer shows up in Airport scan.

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