Time Capsule seems dead

I found I had no WiFi this am.
No light showing on my Time Capsule.
I replaced the plug-fuse (3amp) with some of the same I had left around, could not guarantee they were all OK but none of them brought it back to life.
It would appear to be dead.
I have my Mac since early 2008, the initial TC died after 18 months (Whose didn't?), which would make this TC some 4 years on the go, can't complain.I guess,
Just wondering what's the smart thing to do, seems too good to bin it!
I certainly liked to go back the Airport Extreme route again with or without capsule as an EHD.
My main drive seems OK and I have it cloned with another utility on another drive.
I would prefer to be able to restore from Time Machine.
Sorry for meandering, I have had to reinstall an old Zyxel to keep the show on the road, more perspiration than inspiration, I'm afraid!
Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.
Thank you

The power supply is dead .. again.. the Gen1 and Gen2 have an issue.. and if you got 4 years then you did pretty well out of the second one.
The TC can be fixed.. There are a number of repairers who do this.. outside of the apple system, since apple will not touch them or supply parts.
http://www.fackrell.me.uk/page3/page3.html
If you are a DIYer.. you can diy.. it is relatively simple.. IMHO to replace with an external power supply.
https://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modem s/apple-time-capsule-repair
There are several methods listed there. The easiest is to simply use the TC as a Airport Extreme and power the board from 5v hard wired to it.
This is horrible but really for $20 (15pound) you can buy a power supply 5v 3a nominal .. or 2a continuous and solder it directly to the board socket. Hard wire the whole thing. Just pull out the hard disk. And use it in a USB holder or use a long sata cable and plug that in.
Changing plugs over is possible.. snip them off the old power supply and dual voltages.
Anything is possible.. but to get it fixed will now cost you a goodly percentage of its value.. and it maybe simply time for a new one.
Oh, I should mention, do an ebay search for "Time Capsule power supply" international and you will find they sell brand new ones from Hong Kong..
They cost $55US. whatever that is in UK.. but you are delaying the problem. Hard disk is already 4years old.. and you are not fixing the main problem.. too b. hot for it to last.

Similar Messages

My time capsule seemed to have given up so I have just got a net gear router, I have no problem connecting wirelessly but when I connect an Ethernet cable it says it's connected but pages will not load

My time capsule seemed to have given up so I have just got a net gear router, I have no problem connecting wirelessly but when I connect an Ethernet cable it says it's connected but pages will not load

Do a factory reset .. nothing will be deleted from your backups and you will be able to get access to them again.
The Factory Reset Gen1-4.
Unplug your TC. Hold in reset. and power the TC back on.. without releasing reset for about 10sec. When the status light flashes rapidly; release it.
Be Gentle! Feel the switch click on. It has a positive feel.. add no more pressure after that.
TC 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.

Im completely new to Mac. Im swapping my windows laptop for macbook pro and looking for network storage solution which the Time Capsule seems to do. Is it possible to use this as NAS for my desktop Windows PC - windows 7

Im completely new to Mac. Im swapping my windows laptop for macbook pro and looking for network storage solution which the Time Capsule seems to do. Is it possible to use this as NAS for my desktop Windows PC - windows 7

Broadly speaking I want some sort of network storage( wireless or through my existing wifi router) that I can access files for both my windows PC and Macbook and also to access files to my iPad/ iPhone. Some sort of backup and sychronisation so that I can access certain files remotely.
Buy a real NAS.. synology or QNAP are the standard... although companies like Netgear and Western Digital and Seagate make them as well.
There is no problem sharing between Mac and PC now.. you do not even need a NAS to do that.. you simply share the hard disk directly. Mac talk SMB.. everything talks SMB nowadays.. so it is easy.
ipad and iphone are not designed to use NAS.. they are designed to backup only to the cloud or itunes.. but you can load an app like file browser if you want.
http://www.stratospherix.com/products/filebrowser/
Remote access to the Apple TC is somewhere between difficult, to impossible from a PC.. Apple use BTMM and iCloud but the service is not offered to PC.
A real NAS will offer HTTPS or SFTP or several other methods.. that both Mac and PC can use.
You simply plug it into the current wireless router.. it is a network device and assessable over the network. It is not necessary to buy another router.. in fact that is a waste.

I just did an Time Capsule firmware update and now my Time Capsule is dead. What happened?

I just did a Time Capsule firmware update and now my Time Capsule is dead. What happened?

tresbaileys wrote:
it may be important to note that when I put my ear to the box I can still hear the HD spinning (although no lights are lit and it doesn't show in the airport utility). Ideas??
That is very bad.. how old is it??
The Gen4 TC can die this way.. it is not usual but it happens.
Leave it for several hours to cool off. Do a factory reset immediately when you try to restart it.
The Factory Reset.
Power down the TC.
Hold in reset. and keep holding it in. Be Gentle! It is a tiny surface mount switch with a plastic lever.. Attempting to push it out the other side of the TC will not make the switch turn on better.
(I fix TC and have several reset levers bent over and jammed or broken off).
Power on the TC.. remember with the reset held in.. this needs three arms.. a friend or power switch you can get to with your feet..
Keep holding in reset for about 10sec until the front LED flashes rapidly.
Release reset and wait .. the boot will be slow as it deletes previous setting.. only from router side and pulls out the factory defaults. No files are deleted on the hard disk.. but the name of the TC may change.
Tell me exactly what the LEDs do throughout this process.
Both the main one at the front and the LED on the ethernet ports which should all flash during bootup.
If it is less than a year.. of course Apple will replace under warranty.. 2 years in some places.. Europe .. places with stronger consumer laws. If you have applecare on a computer it should still cover the TC.
I kind of doubt you are going to get this going again... but we can try.

Time Capsule seems to be doing nothing

I seem to be getting very intermittent results with Time Capsule. I'm using it to back up my G5 Mac Pro and my G4 Powerbook. After a couple of very hefty backups that lasted several days I seem to have an initial backup of both devices on my Time Capsule device.
Since the initial backup of the Powerbook, I've updated to OSX 10.5.5 and am waiting for the first time capsule backup to complete successfully. After "preparing for backup" for several minutes, the backup started with 5.6Gb of data to be backed up.
The problem is, the status bar has been stuck at 41Kb of 5.6Gb for over an hour. I can hear disk activity on the Time Capsule device but no data seems to be being sent. I've attached the most recent events from the system log but nothing untoward seems to leap of the page to me.
Can anyone help or suggest something. The Mac Pro seems to back up OK but the Powerbook is causing me some concerns at the moment.
Kind regards,
Cliff
Brighton, UK
Sep 21 14:00:41 Cliffs-PowerBook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[246]: Backup requested by user
Sep 21 14:00:41 Cliffs-PowerBook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[246]: Starting standard backup
Sep 21 14:00:42 Cliffs-PowerBook kernel[0]: AFP_VFS afpfs_mount: /Volumes/Time Capsule, pid 349
Sep 21 14:00:42 Cliffs-PowerBook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[246]: Network volume mounted at: /Volumes/Time Capsule
Sep 21 14:00:52 Cliffs-PowerBook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[246]: Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/Cliff’s PowerBook_000d932a0114.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Cliff’s PowerBook
Sep 21 14:00:52 Cliffs-PowerBook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[246]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Cliff’s PowerBook/Backups.backupdb
Sep 21 14:02:42 Cliffs-PowerBook com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.netauth.sysagent[349]): Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 352 PPID 1 check_afp
Sep 21 14:32:58 Cliffs-PowerBook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[246]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 6.78 GB requested (including padding), 126.61 GB available
Sep 21 14:33:14 Cliffs-PowerBook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[246]: Copied 1 files (0 bytes) from volume Portable .
Sep 21 15:03:45 Cliffs-PowerBook Activity Monitor[445]: * -[NSCFArray objectAtIndex:]: index (18) beyond bounds (17)
Sep 21 15:08:41 Cliffs-PowerBook /usr/sbin/ocspd[457]: starting

I was having a very similar problem. I would get through the preparing phase just fine, but the problem came at between 10-50kb. I tried to solve this by totally wiping the drive and restarting. I zeroed the drive (I was having other problems, too) and had no problems for about two weeks, then I got the same issue.
I solved it (at least for now) by excluding an encrypted sparseimage, repairing the drive with Disk Utility (it found no problems), and restarting. No problems for a few days now. I'm not sure which of these helped or if it was unrelated serendipity that solved my problem.

Data on time capsule seems to be erased after installing it as a server (?)

In have always used my Time Capsule as an external hard disk drive, connected via a LAN cable. I saved all my photo's and music on it and personal data. This is of course very valuable for me.
After purchasing a system to wirelessly play MP3 music, via the system setting I selected file sharing. However, the files on the Time Capsule were still not accessable. Via the airport Utility I selected file sharing.
Still the files could not be selected wireless on my music system.
After that I accessed the Time Capsule via Finder > Go > Connect to server. I filled in the IP address of the Time Capsule and I could see two partitions of the Time Capsule now. I had never intentionally installed partitions on it, but now 2 partitions are available:
1. Eteam1
2. EteamTimeCapsule
I think EteamTimeCapsule was the root directory all my files were saved in. Now it seems to be empty (except for a .sparcebundle file of the TimeMachine backup.)
I am a bit desparate, as I fear all my data is lost. Who has a solution for this? Would it be possible to recover any data?
Thank you very much for any help.
Everard.

The TC is designed to backup several laptops in a household. (yes its original intent was laptops since it is basically a wireless router with a hard disk inside) It is for incremental backups so each computer may use 2x or 3x the normal disk capacity. That means 2TB can be quickly consumed. The backup software needs a fair amount of free space on the drive to work. Let me assure you plenty of people fill up their drives. The backup is continually taking snapshots of the drive and saving all the files you are working on.. the idea is to go back historically to locate an earlier version if something goes wrong.
Now as to storing files.
Forgive me using a standard answer here.. this is being asked all the time.
Store files on the TC.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/24380694#24380694
This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
It cannot be partitioned. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
Major issues.
1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great.
3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there are no controls.
4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!
5. iTunes will constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is too slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
Read pondini for some work arounds.
Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
Would a NASS or a simple external hdd be betten then? I think it would have the same disadvantages right?
A true NAS has the following..
1. Raid for data integrity.
2. Backup for saving data in the event of total failure.
3. Disk access to replace a faulty disk.
4. Power supply access to replace a faulty power supply.
5. Controls.. disk controls, file store controls, access controls.
TC has none of those. It is a sealed unit.. designed for one simple function.. TM backup of laptops.
For Desktop computers an external drive.. even USB2 is faster, cheaper and much more reliable. With new computers and now USB3 that is far more the case.
External hard disk is always the first choice to overcome internal disks that are too small. To the point where I recommend people do not use laptops to do desktop work eg movie editing if it requires more disk space than is available.. or get the internal disk replaced for a larger one.
Or pay for thunderbolt.. but actually thunderbolt is still so expensive it is cheaper to replace the internal drive.
I do not expect everyone will agree.. But I do repair TC.. and I have seen people in your situation enough times to know.. storing files on the TC is a bad idea.

My time capsule is dead - where did the support article go?

Hi,
my time capsule just died - the known power supply issue, and it falls under the serial range referred to here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/jul/12/apple-time-capsule-recall- replace-fault
The article is old as well as the support article dealing with the issue (old link: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3351?viewlocale=de_DE) Now, I can imagine what the guys in my apple store are gonna tellme, when I show up with my dead TC, but at least I want to show them proof that I am right before they do me wrong. Does anyone know where this article was moved to (or happen to have an old copy / Screenshot?).
cheers,
Erik

It no longer applies.. that is why it was taken down.. warranty + applecare never extends beyond 3years.. all Gen1 TC are now more than 3years old.. if yours has lasted out this long.. more than 4years.. it worked exactly as Apple designed it to.. and is now in need of replacement.
But there is plenty of DIY fix it info if you want it.

Time Capsule A1409 DEAD

i need help.
i have a time capsule a1409 4gen. Its dead, the light is not blinking. i hear the fan runing. i dont know what to do.
its out of warranty, i dont have apple care.
Anybody can help me?

ecocca wrote:
nothing i can do?, just put the tc in the garbage?...
i changed the capacitor of the power supply, because they was in bad status, but next of that, only the cooler spin...
sad news..
thank you
I do not know how to fix a gen 4.. certainly most of them will not have power supply issues.. I am surprised you needed to change capacitors.. that would only apply to the Flextronics supply and they are very rare now since Gen3.. If you got a Gen4 with a flextronics you are the first I have heard of.
Open it again and disconnect the hard disk. If the light comes on, then the TC should be at least active. You cannot boot through a bad disk.
If you do at least have some lights come on.. then do factory reset.. and if that fails I recommend you solder in a Serial Console.
The pinouts are at the bottom of this page.
https://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modem s/apple-time-capsule-repair/new-issue-with-a1355-gen-3-tc
I am going to test if you can make a suitable connection with a ribbon cable.. if that is the case then you won't need to solder the connection which is rather difficult even for a good experienced hand with a soldering iron.
Once you have serial console access you will see the error messages in the boot. That is if it boots.

My time capsule is dead. Serial number 6F0120ZEACD. Is there something to do?

Time capsule dead. Something to do?

The the TC is in warranty, Apple will replace it for you.
If you have AppleCare in effect on one of your Macs, the TC may be covered if it is less than 3 years old.
If one of these conditions applies, take the TC to an Apple Store....if you have one near you....or contact Apple Support directly to start the process.
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/
If the TC is out of warranty, Apple will offer no help on repairs, but there are some shops that can do this for you. Instructions for repairs are also included, so a local shop might be able to do this for your with the information provided by forum TC expert LaPastenague. See the link below.
https://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modem s

Time capsule is dead

My time capsule is gone completely dead, no light even with hard reset.
I can hear the fan inside when powering on , but no led is lightening - even when making a factory reset/Hard reset.
Not possible to connect from airport utility.
What can be wrong?
Br

This is characteristic failure of the Gen4 TC.. look on the bottom and check it is A1409??
If so then I do not have a solution for you. I can fix the previous generation TC but this fault in the Gen 4 is a hard one.
Do you still have warranty on it? Or applecare on a computer or a device like the ATV might still cover it. There are complicated rules so ask, but if the TC has been bought within 2years of the computer it should be covered until it is more than 3years old.
If it is out of warranty.
Are you a DIYer??
Remove the hard disk which is likely still ok, and try to power it up without.. Then lift out the main board.. I can suggest some more tests to do.
http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Apple_Time_Capsule

Airport base station on Time capsule seems to shut Mac running OSX 10.5 down

We have a 2009 or older Power Mac that keeps shutting itself off for no particular reason - the following is the System Events Log within the System Profiler that I copied from the machine - does anyone have any clue what might be going on? Thanks
Aug 28 13:23:13 Database-Server Unknown[16]: Client application bug: DNSServiceResolve(Brother\032MFC-8480DN._pdl-datastream._tcp.local.) active for over two minutes. This places considerable burden on the network.Aug 28 13:28:10 Database-Server Unknown[16]: Client application bug: DNSServiceResolve(Brother\032MFC-8480DN._pdl-datastream._tcp.local.) active for over two minutes. This places considerable burden on the network.Aug 28 13:29:22 Database-Server mdworker[220]: CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.

I was having a very similar problem. I would get through the preparing phase just fine, but the problem came at between 10-50kb. I tried to solve this by totally wiping the drive and restarting. I zeroed the drive (I was having other problems, too) and had no problems for about two weeks, then I got the same issue.
I solved it (at least for now) by excluding an encrypted sparseimage, repairing the drive with Disk Utility (it found no problems), and restarting. No problems for a few days now. I'm not sure which of these helped or if it was unrelated serendipity that solved my problem.

Time Machine and Time Capsule don't seem to work well together?

Reposted.
I get the feeling there are some serious problems with the combination of Time Machine and Time Capsule.
This is extremely disappointing, as the idea of a centralized backup device on the network (instead of disks attached to each and every computer we have running Leopard) seemed like such a good idea and a good way to supplement our tape-based backup that takes place with Retrospect.
In reality, it's a disaster on both Intel and PowerPC systems. All systems and the Time Capsule are fully up to date with software updates from Apple. I have two 1TB Time Capsule units. It goes something like this:
1. I have a few systems (mainly Intel) that work perfectly with the Time Capsule. There are no complaints and no issues at all. These systems just quietly run their backups as they should. They are the definite minority--maybe one or two have worked properly.
2. I have some systems that complain from time to time (mainly PowerPC) but will back up with a little encouragement. These too are the minority.
3. And finally, I have systems that are nothing but pain. These are both Intel and PowerPC systems. They are also the majority of the systems I have. The most common problem is sudden loss of the credentials needed to access the Time Capsule hardware--a user will be going along about their business when the Mac OS asks for the Time Capsule user name and password--after it's already been supplied and backups have been running. This should simply never ever happen.
Another charming behavior I've seen is corruption of the sparse disk image file that each computer creates on the Time Capsule. Time Machine will complain that it can't perform the backup, and examining the disk image file with Disk Utility shows it to be severely damaged. Turning off Time Machine, deleting the corrupted sparse image file, and starting over fixes it. For a while.
Finally, there are the machines (again, both Intel and PowerPC) that just can't seem to actually get through the first backup run. They either go so far and can't continue, or never actually manage to get started. I've checked the disks in these computers and found no problem with the hardware or file system. The installations are fresh and fully up to date.
Meanwhile, I have computers running Leopard with directly attached disks configured for use with Time Machine. One is a QuickSilver that isn't even officially supported by Leopard, with a Firewire attached disk. It doesn't skip a beat. The other is an Intel Mac mini being used with Mac OS X Server 10.5.4 and a USB external hard drive. These machines just do their thing, and I never have to babysit them.
These problems with the Time Capsule have been so severe that I've just given up on most of the computers and shut off Time Machine entirely. We have tape backups that run over the week, so it's not a huge loss. But that's not what really made me throw up my hands and say "enough"...no, that was the speed. Even with just one computer backing up to it, the Time Capsule seemed terribly slow. Watching the progress indicator was just painful.
I put in a word about all of this to my independent Apple dealer, and they say I'm definitely not the first to complain about some or all of these problems. In fact, they told me they were going to set up a test lab in their shop to see if they could duplicate these findings. I have no doubt that they can.
There are a total of seven computers backing up to one Time Capsule. They all store maybe ~40GB worth of data including the OS. There are about six computers on the other. Because of the way the network is laid out, the Time Capsule is connected to a Gigabit switch (and that is the only thing it's connected to). It cannot be used as the router, although I know Apple suggests this. The Airport section is disabled--I have no need or desire to use it. Some computers link up at 100 megabits, others at 1 gigabit. There are no network problems--we have no problems moving large amounts of data across the same network to our tape backup machine.
Is anyone else seeing these kinds of problems? Am I doing something wrong or expecting too much from Time Capsule?

I may be on to something. The Time Capsules I have live in a telephone equipment room that is indoors but not directly air conditioned or heated. It doesn't ever get too hot to be comfortable in there--the highest I've ever seen the temperature was 80 degrees (F). Most of the time the temperature is between 60-78 degrees.
I happened to touch one of them the other day while it was in use, and I noticed that the casing was hot to the touch...not dangerously so I suppose, but much hotter than I would have expected.
So I turned a small fan on both Time Capsules and have left it running. And I've noticed that not only do backups seem to complete more quickly, the reliability is also better. I am going to try some of my most troublesome computers once again just to see what happens.
I know there is a fan pointed at the hard drive in the Time Capsule, but I can't see how it does much in the way of cooling things down. In my opinion, it's just surrounded by too many heat producing devices to do much good...after all, not only is there a 7200 RPM hard disk in there, but also a 500MHz Marvell processor and radio set.

Problems wirelessly extending 5Ghz network with Time Capsule

Summary:
My Time Capsule wirelessly extends a 5Ghz "n" network provided by my Airport Extreme, but the Time Capsule frequently fails and stops providing Internet access to connected computers. I'm not sure if the problem is with the Time Capsule or with the Airport Extreme it's connecting to.
Setup:
Airport Extreme (dual band) connected to cable modem. It provides a 5Ghz "n" network and a 2.5Ghz "b-g-n" network. This is in the bedroom.
Time Capsule (non-dual band) joins the 5Ghz network and extends it. This is in the office, maybe 40 feet away, line-of-sight. There is a laser printer connected to the Time Capsule via ethernet.
My MacBook is set to join the 5 Ghz network, and since it's in the office, it ends up joining via the Time Capsule. This is the desired behavior, as connecting through the Time Capsule seems to result in the fastest possible backup speed.
There are no wireless devices, such as cordless phones, in the house. The microwave is NOT in use when the problems arise.
*The Problem:*
Frequently, the MacBook loses its Internet connection, though it is still connected to the 5Ghz network through the Time Capsule. When this happens, it can only see the Time Capsule it's connected through (and other devices that are connected to it) but no other devices on the network.
When this happens, other devices that are connecting to the 5Ghz network through the Airport Extreme can no longer see the Time Capsule or any devices connected to it, such as the laser printer or my MacBook. This includes the living room computer, which has never been able to complete a backup due to this problem.
The Time Capsule's and the Airport Extreme's indicator lights both stay green.
If I change the Macbook's connection to the 2.5Ghz network, it can see the devices connected to the Airport Extreme, but can no longer reach the Time Capsule.
*Unsuccessful Solutions:*
This was happening in a previous incarnation of the network, when I had a non-dual band Airport Extreme providing the main network, the Time Capsule connected via 5Ghz, and an Airport Express connected via ethernet to the Time Capsule to provide a b-g network.
I replaced the Airport Extreme with a new dual-band unit to simplify the setup, but it did not solve the problem.
Since the Time Capsule seemed to be the weak link in the network, I reported the problem and got the unit replaced, but the problem still persists.
I've reset both the Airport Extreme and the Time Capsule to their factory settings numerous times, and set them up again from scratch (no imported settings). I've gone in and made sure that there were no WDS settings leftover from the earlier configuration, as the 5Ghz network does not need it to extend itself.
*Plea for help:*
Is anyone else experiencing a similar problem?

Update
The other day, I modified the setup so that the Time Capsule doesn't extend the wireless network wirelessly, only through Ethernet (so the attached printer will work, but the computers will connect directly to the AEBS. The Time Capsule stayed connected long enough for me to do a full backup (125GB) from the downstairs computer.
I thought I had it "solved" (though extending the 5Ghz network would be preferable so the office computers can have faster backup speeds.)
But yesterday, I went to print to the Ethernet-attached printer, and it got only one page out before it disappeared off the network again, and the print job failed. I noticed it did it again, today.
So the problem is not tied to wirelessly extending the network.

Time Capsule won't accept my user name and password for access - Help!

Hi all,
My Time Capsule seemed to stop working one day and I had to do a hard reset with the little button at the back. After that it worked and I restored my wireless network settings but now I can't access the Time Capsules hard drive with Time Machine.
When I try to choose it as my Backup Disk in the Time Machine preferences it says "Enter your user name and password so Time Machine can access the file server "Our Time Capsule" (the name of my time capsule). However, every time I try to enter my password I get "Sorry, you entered an invalid username or password".
I've already tried several resets of the Time Capsule and I've also tried logging on my computer as the Root user and changing my administrator account password back and forth but no go.
Help! and Thanks.

Norman & Harry,
Consider the following:
*_Time Capsule Keeps Asking Me For a Password_*
It will be important to know what is going on, or what you are doing when it asks for the password. Is it asking for a password only when Time Machine attempts a backup? Consider this:
It is NOT your username and password it wants when you try accessing the Time Capsule. (I know... it SAYS "username and password") But it means the Time Capsule's Name and Password.
You will find that by launching Airport Utility.
Select the TC on the left.
Click "Manual Setup".
Click the "Time Capsule" Tab.
You will see "Time Capsule Name:" and "Time Capsule Password".
Make sure “Remember password in keychain" is checked.
That is the information you need to enter when it asks for "username & password."
*I Don’t Remember What My Time Capsule Password Is*
You can see what your current TC password is by going into Keychain.
Open your Keychain and select "login" from the Keychains pane in the top left. Highlight "Passwords" in the Category pane from the lower left.
Sort all the items by Kind. Note everything labeled "Airport...". How many do you have listed? There should only be one "Airport base station password" for each base station that you have active. Also, there should only be one "Airport network password" for each network you have created. If there are more than these, then delete all but the ones with the most recent Modification date.
To see what passwords are being stored, double-click your Time Capsules' entry. A new window will appear.
Put a check beside "Show Password". You may be asked for your own Admin password so enter that.
Now the Password field will display the password you entered into Airport Utility for your Time Capsule
*It Still Won’t Accept the TC Name and Password*
Launch Airport Utility --> Manual Setup.
Select "Disks" in the tool bar above.
Click the "File Sharing" tab.
Is "File Sharing" checked? It should be.
What is selected beside "Secure Shared Disks"? If it says "With Accounts" or "With a Disk Password" then the system will ask you for a password every time it mounts the TC hard disk. If you switch it to "With Time Capsule Password" then use the password you designated earlier in the “Time Capsule" tab. It should only ask you once and then never again - because you had checked "Remember password in keychain".
If you have made any changes then click "Update".
Let us know if this resolves your issue.
Cheers!

Time Capsule backup for multiple users

I have my iMac setup so that each member of my family has their own account. I am the administrator. When I run a time capsule backup is it backing up their files as well or do I need to create a backup for their accounts.
If I create individual backups for their accounts will it backup the shared files like the applications or just files specific to their accounts? Is this something I need to control by selecting what files to exclude in the preferences
Time capsule seems great for simple backups but concerns me if I ever have a HD crash. It seems very difficult to restore a backup to a new mac if I ever have to do that. Does anyone else have this concern? I am considering buying another external drive and use SuperDuper to create full bootable backups at least once every 6 months or so.
Thanks,
Gil

It is much harder to check what Time Machine has backed up.. you can assume that everything currently needed to reproduce the same setup on another computer is there.
To double check you must spend a bit of time understanding both how Time Machine works and how to restore from it.
Read up a bit from Pondini's excellent KnowledgeBase of articles.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
Q7-9 are highly relevant.
Also go back to the main page and read the main articles on how TM works.
I must also say at the moment, on Yosemite in particular, I would not fully trust Time Machine.
I encourage people to make a bootable clone using Carbon Copy Cloner for example to a USB drive. You do not need to do it continually but the clone makes for a much easier return to normal.. since you can simply change boot disks. It costs $40 and is excellent value.. there are others you can buy.. and I am not connected to CCC in any way.. other than I use it and been amazed at what a great piece of software it is.

Time Capsule seems dead

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