Time Machine, AirPort Utility, and Time Capsule broken in Mavericks?

Question

Hi all, I’ve got a befuddling Time Machine/Time Capsule/Airport problem that I can’t seem to sort out.
On my pristine 2-day-old iMac (late 2013, running 10.9.1), I’m trying to set up Time Machine to back up to a new-ish 3TB Time Capsule. Initially it worked fine for the first backup, but subsequent backups failed because “backup disk could not be found.”
So I tried giving the TC a shorter name. The first backup under the new name worked a treat, but subsequent backups failed.
In Time Machine system pref pane, I deleted the Time Capsule, intending to try again with a new, even shorter name. But then when I went into AirPort Utility to change the Time Capsule name, it told me that “no configured AirPort base stations have been found.” I assumed that I was just deleting it as a choice on the  backup disk list, but now I'm wondering, did the Time Machine pref actually delete the actual disk? In the AirPort Utility window, Time Capsule appears in the "other wi-fi" devices list, yet when I click it, it says "error reading settings."
Here are some other random details that may or may not pertain:
On the new iMac, I tried to mount the TC disk image, but Connect To Server reports that the connection fails because “the server may not exist or is unavailable.”
Although the Time Capsule shows up in the sidebar of the Finder window, “getting info” just produces the spinning wheel.
Although AirPort utility says that it can’t find the Time Capsule, the TC is nevertheless connecting to the internet just fine. All household devices are online, including iPhones and iPads.
On the old Mac Pro running 10.8, Time Capsule, Time Machine, and AirPort Utility all behave normally.
I thought I might try resetting the Time Capsule, but will this erase all the backups (from other computers around the house all running 10.8x without problems of any kind) that are on there? The other computer users will definitely squawk about that!
I hope this tirade makes some sense. Thanks for reading!

Answer 1

1. In Time Machine system pref pane, I deleted the Time Capsule, intending to try again with a new, even shorter name. But then when I went into AirPort Utility to change the Time Capsule name, it told me that “no configured AirPort base stations have been found.” I assumed that I was just deleting it as a choice on the  backup disk list, but now I'm wondering, did the Time Machine pref actually delete the actual disk? In the AirPort Utility window, Time Capsule appears in the "other wi-fi" devices list, yet when I click it, it says "error reading settings."
Here are some other random details that may or may not pertain:
2. On the new iMac, I tried to mount the TC disk image, but Connect To Server reports that the connection fails because “the server may not exist or is unavailable.”
3. Although the Time Capsule shows up in the sidebar of the Finder window, “getting info” just produces the spinning wheel.
4. Although AirPort utility says that it can’t find the Time Capsule, the TC is nevertheless connecting to the internet just fine. All household devices are online, including iPhones and iPads.
5. On the old Mac Pro running 10.8, Time Capsule, Time Machine, and AirPort Utility all behave normally.
6. I thought I might try resetting the Time Capsule, but will this erase all the backups (from other computers around the house all running 10.8x without problems of any kind) that are on there? The other computer users will definitely squawk about that!
I hope this tirade makes some sense. Thanks for reading!
Rather than chop up your post I have taken the liberty to number the points.
1. When you deleted the TC in the airport utility you simply changed its ability to display the errant device. You did not actually delete anything on the TC itself.
Getting back a lost Airport.. more below.
2. Please give actual command you used.. and the name..
It is most important that you translate the name from Apple name to actual network name. That is why I constantly hammer on about using network names.. short, no spaces and pure alphanumeric.
So Fred Blog's Airport Time Capsule  apart from being hopelessly wrong.
Is translated by Apple to the Network name.. Fred-Blogs-Airport-Time-Capsule (note.. no spaces and no special characters.. the apostrophe is deleted).
It can be much easier to just use IP address.. if the TC is the main router.. then it will hold a constant IP.. by default 10.0.1.1
So mount the TC as AFP://10.0.1.1
3. That is standard.. it is a network device and will not show info. Same on any computer in your network.. same on any OS.
4. Yes, that is standard.. the location of the hard disk is lost.. but the internet is still working.. This is the bug that has been around since Lion and is still growing worse with each revision.
5. Again standard. the issue is on the computer or the interaction of the two.. computer and TC.. yet other computers are unaffected.
6. Reset of the TC is fine.. no reset, soft hard or factory will ever delete the hard disk files.
But if you change the name of the TC, you will need to go around to all the computers and setup TM again to point to the right target.. none of the backups are lost.. you just need to tell TM where they got to.
Manual setup of the lost TC.
In Airport utility go to the top menu, open configure other.. and type in the IP address of the TC that got lost.
no password needed unless you set something .. if it doesn't work the default is public