Time Machine can't back up to Time Capsule because disk is not found

Hello all. I have been using TC as my router for a few years and backing up to it. I got a new router through my IP which I think might be faster so just want to use TC as backup. However, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I connected the TC to the new router via Ethernet cable but the message says TM can't find it. I guess I don't understand the logic of what is happening with TC and router. Is there something special I should be doing. I have always had the TC configured as I was using it both ways. Should I be changing the configuration?
Macbook Pro. Running Mavericks. Thanks

You must reset the TC to factory regardless.. in any new situation it will be lost.. it need to full factory reset and start over.
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 .
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.
Not all of that is necessary.. but at least the factory reset and new naming.. then reset the TM again and select the TC as the location for the backup.
It will say it is going to start a new backup but it should discover the existing one and after a bit of verification continue from where it left off.

Similar Messages

"Time Machine can't back up - sparsebundle error 1" question

Hi,
I'm getting the "Time Machine can't back up - sparsebundle error #1" message, and am trying to see if the fix posted below is the answer:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2048
So, when I installed Time Capsule, I gave it a password ("network password").
Fairly recently, I renamed the Airport. Now the Airport disk password and Airport base station password are the same as the network password, and the Airport network password is different.
Is this what the Apple support message I referenced is getting at? Are these passwords supposed to be the same... ???
Thanks for any help,
reluctantuser

I'm not sure what you mean by "We also used the Time capsule as a hard drive for backing up." after you've already mentioned that you use Time Machine to back up three Macs to the Time Capsule.
Check this Web page for advice on the space issue.

Time machine has stopped backing up to time capsule. message is that sparse bundle is in use

Time machine suddenly stopped backing up to time capsule returning this message:
The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data-1/xxnymacbooknamexx MacBook.sparsebundle” is already in use.

Complex procedure that will almost always solve this bug:
Pull the power cord from the back of the Time Capsule
Count to ten
Plug the power cord back into the back of the Time Capsule
Wait a few minutes, then try a backup again.

Time Capsule and Time Machine can't back up

Time Machine can't backup my Mac Book Pro with Time Capsule and show me a window with this error: "Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk image "/Volumes/German-Time Capsule/German's MacBookPro_001f5be7ffd1.sparsebundle" could not be accessed (error-1)"
I can't back up and I can't access to my old backups via Time Machine.
What can I do to solve this problem. Here in Argentina, nobody at Apple knows what to do with this problem.

The best guide to Time Machine and the Time Capsule on the internet is linked at the Time Capsule main forum page.
You can also click here to locate Pondini's Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule.

Time Machine isn't backing up to Time Capsule

My Time Machine isn't backing up to my Time capsule.
I am using OS X 10.8.2 which I believe is the latest version.
The problem I have is the following error message pops up on my Macbook pro screen :
Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Alec McDermott's Time Capsule".
The backup disk image "/Volumes/Alec McDermott's
Time Capsu/Alec McDermott's MacBook
Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use.
Any assistance anyone can offer would be very much apprecated.
Alec

See here...
The Backup disk image ... sparsebundle ... is already in use.
From Pondini’s excellent Information Here...
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.htm

Time Machine won't back up onto Time Capsule

I upgraded to Mountain Lion last week, and Time Machine won't back up to my Time Capsule. When it fails, I get the message:
Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Tom's Time Capsule".
The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/TomsMac.sparsebundle" could not be created (error 60)
I sometimes get the same message, but with "error 17"
I also get the following error message popup (even though the disk is the one in my Time Capsule):
The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.
The popup offers three choices: Initialize, Ignore, Eject.
My local Apple Store Genius concluded that the problem must be with the Time Capsule, so I bought a new one. That didn't fix the problem.
Time Machine Buddy messages:
Starting manual backup
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://Tom%[email protected]/Data
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Data using URL: afp://Tom%[email protected]/Data
Creating disk image /Volumes/Data/TomsMac.sparsebundle
Error 60 creating backup disk image
Failed to create disk image /Volumes/Data/TomsMac.sparsebundle, status: 60
Backup failed with error: 20
Failed to eject volume /Volumes/Data (FSVolumeRefNum: -108; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
I did Repair Disk Permissions and Verify Disk and everything's OK.
I erased the Time Capsule using AirPort Utility and did a hard reset on the Time Capsule.
I did a re-install of Mountain Lion and that didn't fix anything.
My MacBook Pro is accessing the Time Capsule wirelessly, as it always has.
Help!

Just to be sure, we're talking about a Time Capsule -- not an AirPort Extreme connected to an external hard drive. Right?
If so, proceed as follows.
Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode* and log in to the account with the problem. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
*Note: If FileVault is enabled under OS X 10.7 or later, or if a firmware password is set, you can’t boot in safe mode.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem(s)?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

Time Machine can't back-up because MBP overheats and shuts down

I LOVE my 2006 MBP! However, almost since the first time I tried making movies on it, it has crashed. Just suddenly went black. Thankfully, I've always (knock on wood!) been able to re-start when this happens. This would also occur when I set it up to do a Time Machine back-up.
It was only in the last couple years that I realized that the computer was truly overheating, and after doing some research, installed SMC fan control. With SMC, I learned that my fans were barely moving at all. Now, when I know I'm doing something that requires a lot of energy, I boost the fans to their max 6000rpm. And when I see that the temp has climbed over 200°F I quit whatever program I'm in and wait for it to cool down. LOVE that SMC!!!
BUT, that means I've never been able to do a complete back-up, which is really starting to make me nervous. This baby is no spring chicken! I bought a new Seagate external drive, maxed out the fans and started my TM backup. Within a few minutes, the temp was over 200 and I'd backed up maybe 8GB out of the 256GB. I started several more backups but was forced to stop them because of the temps. (I've seen them over 230 before the computer goes black.) At this rate, it will take months of my babysitting it while TM runs and I monitor the temp.
I should say that I always use the MBP on a well ventilated wire stand. I don't play games or watch movies. Photo editing and digital scrapbooking can ramp up the heat, but I try hard to keep an eye on the temp and stop what I'm doing if it gets over 200.
So what can I do to get a complete backup of this machine? What's the coolest (literally!) way to back up a hard drive? I'd rather not invest in iCloud and I realize it is not infallible, so should still have another method of retrieving my data, but maybe it's the least heat generating? I have quite a few photos in online storage, but not all and my iTunes library is HUGE and unbacked up.
I don't consider myself a techie (though I adore those of you who are!) in any sense of the word and get REALLY nervous if someone would tell me to go into the "guts" of my computer, so any suggestions should take that into account.
All that said, what would you suggest I do to make a complete backup? I would REALLY appreciate some assistance! Thanks in advance!
D

The best guide to Time Machine and the Time Capsule on the internet is linked at the Time Capsule main forum page.
You can also click here to locate Pondini's Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule.

Time Machine can't back up new MacBookPro

I've used a Time Capsule for network and Time Machine backups for a long time with my iMac, but have just added a MacBook pro, and it connects to the network fine, but I can't get it to work with the Time machine for backups. Keep getting an error " Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/My MacBookPro.sparsebundle" could not be accessed (error-1).
The old iMac that used to back up fine also gets an error.
Thanks for any help.

That is fun Lion bug.. maybe linked to issue with latest firmware in TC as well.
Solution is easy... but annoying.. you need to reboot the TC..
The more sophisticated but in the end just as annoying way is login via airport utility.. use v5 if you still have SL running on the imac.. or download 5.6 if you have only lion now.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
The required setting is missing from v6 utility.
Go to manual setup, disk page, disconnect all users.
It will then work.. what seems to be happening is that after a backup one of the computers is holding the TC disk open and not allowing further backups.
See also pondini as there are some other rather unusual causes.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Look at C17.. I refer you to his FAQ and troubleshooting as a whole, as worthwhile skim read and resource.

Time machine can't back up

Hi,
We have three laptops backing u to the tthe time capsule. The time machine sends the message that it can't back up because there isn't enough space left. We also used the Time capsule as a hard drive for backing up. I am wondering what would be a smart solution now. buying a new time capsule? havin a hard drive conected to the Time Capsule , or should each user have it's own back up harddrive for the time machine?
Thanks for any suggestions

I'm not sure what you mean by "We also used the Time capsule as a hard drive for backing up." after you've already mentioned that you use Time Machine to back up three Macs to the Time Capsule.
Check this Web page for advice on the space issue.

HT1338 MacBook Pro OSX I keep getting a message, "The back disk image, "/Volumes/Data/Don's MacBook Pro. sparse baundle is already in use so, apparently my Time Machine can't back up my compute for about 2-3 weeks now. What do I do?

Time Machine cannot backup my MacBook Pro because: THe back disk image "/volumes/data/don'sMaBook oro.sparsebundle is aready in use/
What do I do to fix this?

Please look over to the right of this page and locate the heading of More Like This.
There are multiple answers and solutions there.

Time Machine Can't Back Up to Samba NAS

Hi,
I have a Samba NAS on my local network which I can mount manually, copy files to/from etc. quite OK. However, I can't get TM to use it! Here's the log:
06/01/2009 12:09:32 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[687] Starting standard backup
06/01/2009 12:09:36 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[687] Mounted network destination using URL: smb://[email protected]/admin
06/01/2009 12:09:36 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[687] Backup destination mounted at path: /Volumes/admin-1
06/01/2009 12:09:36 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[687] Creating disk image /Volumes/admin-1/Oberon_002241326ac3.sparsebundle
06/01/2009 12:10:26 kernel hfs: Initializing the journal (joffset 0xe51000 sz 0x2800000)...
06/01/2009 12:11:04 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[687] Error 45 creating backup disk image
06/01/2009 12:11:04 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[687] Failed to create disk image
06/01/2009 12:11:09 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[687] Backup failed with error: 20
NB - because I need to access another Samba server for work via VPN, I do have a file called nsmb containing:
[default]
minauth=none
Thoughts anyone...?

Thanks - that worked - although the solution requires a little updating which was mentioned further down that post. In summary it is now this:
1. Create a sparsebundle image manually on your local system. Open a terminal window and enter:
hdiutil create -size $SIZESPEC -fs HFS+J -type SPARSEBUNDLE -volname "Backup of $MACHINENAME" $MACHINENAME_$MACADDRESS.sparsebundle
Where $SIZESPEC is the size of the backup volume (followed by the lowercase letter g if Gigabytes, e.g. 100g), and $MACHINENAME_$MAC_ADRESS is your Mac's name followed by an underscore and then your Mac's MAC Address (otherwise known as its Ethernet ID; visible in the Network System Preferences panel), but without the colons. So if your Mac is named MyMac, and the Network System Preferences panel lists your Ethernet ID as 00:18:b3:11:84:dd, then you would use MyMac_0018b31184dd for the name of the sparsebundle.
The -size parameter can probably be as large as you want, now that Apple has evidently fixed the sparsebundle issues that were causing all but the most recent backup to be dumped. However, you can also specify a smaller size if you (like me) want to create a hard limit for the amount of space your Time Machine backups will take on your network drive. hdiutil does have a -resize option if you need to utilize that later.
2. Create and set permissions on your network share. Just make sure you have read/write permissions set on whichever SMB/AFP share you're going to dump this to.
3. Copy the sparsebundle to the network share root. Easy enough. Mount your network share and copy it over. I used this Terminal command after the MyBackup share was mounted: cp -r mymachine_0017f2c8426b.sparsebundle /Volumes/MyBackup/. Or just use the regular UI to copy and paste (it worked for me).

Time Machine Won't Back Up to Time Capsule

I have an iMac 11.2 which was working really well with Time Machine and a 500GB Time Capsule when I was using Moutain Lion. I then Update my machine to Mavericks (10.9.1) and my problems started. It wiped everything in my backup and tried to start a new one. So far it has stalled either in the prep phase or has managed start but is extremely slow - it took over a week to back up 300GB, but could not complete the last 50GB because it kept getting a sparsefile error. I have tried the following in isolation or in combination :-
1/ Deleting the plist file
2/ Running disk utility on the sparse file - no issues found
3/ Backing up in safe mode
4/ Deleting the hard drive content and starting again
5/ Backing up through my LAN rather than WAN - can't even find the drive.
I have thought about buying a new Time Capsule, but I cannot be sure the problem lies with my current one. If anybody has any ideas they would be gratefully received. If not then I can only hope Apple read this and they do something to restore my faith in their operating system.
Many thanks

Before you do anything else, if you now have no current backup, back up all data to a USB hard drive.
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
View ▹ Show Log List
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 that corresponds to an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. 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 to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
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 Machine "backup failed" Backing up to Time Capsule (first backup)

I just received my iMac (24", 3.04 ghz, 4 gig ram) a few days ago...my firs Mac, after over 20 years with pc's. All working fairly well, as I try to learn the new format. Attempted my first backup last night using Time Machine, backing to Time Capsule. As I went to bed, it stated it was "preparing". This morning it stated "backup failed". "Time Capsule error". The networking aspects of Time Capsule are working without a problem. Unfortunately, the error message is vague and I'm definitely illiterate when it comes to much of the properties of a Mac. Any suggestions as to how I should proceed in investigating the problem? Thanks!!

Well, I greatly appreciate the earlier advice. I have learned much in my reading. Of course, now with my "tinkering", I determined that the Time Capsule was not formatted to OS extended (journaled) as was my Macintosh harddrive. (Don't really understand why it would not come that way). I attempted to format using disk utility, now it doesn't show up in that application and under FINDER (shared devices), it is detailed as "sharepoint". I read elsewhere that it was recommended to use airport utility to reformat to OS Extended (journaled). Anyway, of course, now I've gone full circle and am comfused as to the proper way to have it formatted properly and recognized by disk utility. As such, currently I cannot use it for backup.
Frequently, I'm my worsed enemy! Thanks again for the advice.

Time Machine reports issue backing up to Time Capsule

Ever since I have upgraded to 10.6.4, I have been unable to complete a Time Machine backup. My backup volume is contained on a 2TB Time Capsule. Paraphrasing the error message, "Time Machine reports that it is unable to backup due to a problem with the disk, this problem may be temporary, try again later."
Has anyone seen this? Any suggestions?

The exact error message reported:
The Backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk.
The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use Disk Utility to repair your backup disk.
I used Disk Utility on the external disk, and also ended up just erasing the volume on this disk, and attempting a fresh backup. Still no go.
The Time Capsule is connected directly to the iMac via Ethernet.

HT201250 my time machine has stopped backing up on time capsule. It is plugged into my network

My time machine is set to back up my mac using time capsule.. It has stopped backing up. When I check the icon, says "skip this back up". Before that it said it could not back up. Not sure what changed.
Said it has not backed up in a month. I cannot access anything to tell me what is going on. Please advise.

says last back up was Dec 5. Ugh.

Time Machine can't back up to Time Capsule because disk is not found

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