Time Machine/Time Capsule crashes my computer

My MacBook Pro started crashing, the dark curtain descending over my screen, on Saturday. I have finally determined that the automatic backup in Time Machine is causing the crashes. I turned off the automatic backup. When I initialize a backup my computer crashes. I am using a Time Capsule as my backup disk. Any suggestions?

Well, it's at least some comfort to know that we're not alone. :-\
In our Apple Certified Consulting Business, we're having the same problem. I've done just about everything in book and discussed it with other colleagues in the biz. As far as any of us can tell, the sparse disk images are becoming corrupt and the Kernel Panics and screen freezes are a direct result of the failed backup process. Sometimes this will take the form of a backup that only seems to move at 1k per 2-3 minutes, and other times it will be "preparing" or "finishing" a backup for (literally) hours. Although I cannot confirm this, one of the theories has to do with tiny (or otherwise) network interruptions that cause the corruption of the sparse disk image.
Either way, I hope Apple IS monitoring these boards and I encourage everyone to always send in the crash report to Apple EVERY time it happens. I'm guessing this is why the regular Airport Base Stations have not yet been fully sanctioned with Air Disks for Time Machine backups either. I know that Apple wanted to get this software out there ASAP, but there is still a ways to go before it's truly ready for primetime.
If anyone learns anything else about this or has a link to another thread, I'd be grateful if they'd post here and I'll subscribe to this thread. With that initial backup taking 12 hours over Cat5e, continually deleting and remaking sparse disk images is not a solution.
Time Machine and Time Capsule are very much needed, brilliant ideas for consumer backups. Please Apple. Pay some serious overtime for the team and give them whatever they need to make this as solid as Apple products can be.
Mick

Similar Messages

Time Capsule crashes my computer!

Hey, well, I've had a time capsule for a while now, and for the first couple of months it was working just fine... then one day my dad asks me if I could put the windows XP SP2 on the TC, and it stopped in the middle of the transferring process, and ever since then, every time I try to access it it completely crashes the computer.
Luckily, the most important files are also present on our computers.
Is there any way to reset the time capsule so that I can start from a clean disk again?

My time capsule has not worked since the May 1st update. A grey curtain comes down on the screen and a warning in several languages shows up and I have turn off my MBP. I am very frustrated with this problem and I can see I am not the only one:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6995068&#6995068

Time Capsule crashes when Time Machine starts a backup

I've not searched through the postings here to see if other people have seen a similar problem. I've not attempted to repeat the problem I've seen here so I'm not very clear about the cause.
I'm using a MacBook Pro with OS 10.5.4 connected via a network cabled directly to a Time Capsule which is connected to a DSL/Cable modem. The Time Capsule is updated with v 7.3.2 of the firmware. I've got Time Machine enabled but I'm also using the Time Capsule disk (1TB) to store photos that I've previously archived to CD. I'm in the process of copying all the data from CD to the Time Capsule.
Having copied some photo data to the Time Capsule I was trying out some photo cataloguing SW to see if it was any good (iPhoto is no good to me as I don't want to store photos on the local drive of my machine) - Kodak EasyShare v6.1. Having loaded some images into EasyShare I tried to use finder to search for the file names of some of the images to check that EasyShare was not copying images to my local drive. While I was doing this I think Time Machine tried to kick in and start doing a backup. I believe that Time Capsule crashed at this point. Finder froze and after I restarted it (via Force Quit not a re-boot) I discovered that I had no network connection and Mac OS couldn't see the Time Capsule under FInder or via AirPort Utility (the Time Machine backup also timed out and failed). Time Capsule just sat there with the disk spinning and a green light on the front as if all was OK. Actually - the disk just kept spinning (Time Capsule normally shuts down the drive after it is idle for a while). Because of this I'm pretty sure that Time Capsule had crashed.
I experimented with re-booting my Mac but still no network etc so I tried power cycling the Time Capsule and everything came back to life.
I'm guessing that my doing a search (or some other drive activity on Time Capsule) at the same time as Time Machine kicking in with a backup caused Time Capsule to crash.
Perhaps this is not a very interesting point if this problem is not repeatable but - well, I'd be interested to know if others have seen similar behavior...

I'm having a very similar problem and it is detrimental.
Here is the scenario: I have a 1TB Time Capsule as my primary router. I am able to perform backups on all but one of my machines. My iMac backs up via 1GB ethernet to the TC, my MacBookAir (60GB,SS) backs up via wireless N (270mb) and my other MacBookAir (80GB,IDE) also backs up via wireless N without any problems.
I used to use a 500mb external drive to backup my iMac but outgrew it, so I started backing up to the TC instead. No problems at all.
I also used to back up my Intel MacMini running Mac OS X Server 10.5.5 to a similar external hard-drive but haven't in a while.
I decided it finally made sense to backup ALL my Mac's to the same 1TB TimeCapsule but it's just not working out!
On the MacMini; I turn on TimeMachine, the TimeCapsule has been chosen as a backup location, it prepares backup for a moment, mounts the backup drive and then appears to begin backup up... No...! First I get a message the the TimeCapsule closed the connection, next I lose Internet connection across my entire network both wired and wireless and then the TimeCapsule light turns amber, flashes and essentially does a completel crash / reset and then comes back to life a few moments later. I can backup any other computer except the MacMini to the TimeCapsule without "crashing" it and it makes no sense! Every computer is completely up to date with all the latest patches and the TimeCapsule is running 7.3.2
I sure hope this gets resolved, seems like other people are pretty disgusted with the performance of the TimeCapsule with problems that have no resolution.

Severe Time Capsule crash + Mac OS X bug (repeatable)

Greetings to all.
I seem to have stumbled on a bit of an obscure bug with a Time Capsule, and a computer running Mac OS X 10.6.4 (32-bit kernel). The TC is the latest shipping version, 1TB- all Airport software is up to date.
Simply attempting to unzip any file over ~100MB (possibly smaller, I haven't tried) and then cancelling the operation in Archive Utility will cause the Time Capsule LED to go amber and totally lock up. Internet access is blocked, the WLAN network disappears, and the AFP file share becomes unresponsive.
Furthermore, the computer that was previously connected to the TC (the one that cancelled the unzipping operation) goes a bit wonkey- Archive Utility will perma-hang, and you can't force quit it. Attempting to relaunch the Finder causes the finder to terminate- but not relaunch (the Dock never comes back, nor does the top taskbar).
The system can still be rebooted, but the reboot process takes about 2-3 minutes longer then usual- I'm presuming something is going on in the background here that has to timeout before the system goes down and resets.
The Time Capsule will NOT come back up until the effected OS X system has rebooted. Once this happens, the TC will eventually reboot and the LED will go green again. Operation resumes as normal after that.
Again, I can repeat this indefinitely. I have tested this on multiple systems all running 10.6.4 (on the same Time Capsule). I've even reset and formatted the TC itself. The moment I attempt to unzip a file on a Time Capsule AFP share, the unzip operation will take forever to complete- and cancelling it will cause the TC to "crash" and totally bug out the host OS X system.
What should I do to notify Apple of this?
And/or does anyone else dare to confirm this bug? All you need to do is upload a sufficiently large ZIP file to any Time Capsule AFP share, double-click on it while it's on the share, then click the Cancel button in Archive Manager. AM will immediately hang and the TC LED will go amber in a few seconds.
It doesn't seem to cause any data loss (as far as I can tell), but it's bloody annoying and I'm not to thrilled with the way it glitches out Mac OS X when it does happen. Navigating Time Capsule shares with user data on them is basically a minefield- one wrong double-click on a ZIP archive, and you'll take down the whole TC.
-KT

Keven Tipping wrote:
What should I do to notify Apple of this?
See [Reporting a Problem to Apple|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/BugReport.html].

Time capsule crash when copying files from it

Hi, I'm trying to copy files from a time capsule to a windows 7 pc. When I do that the time capsule crashes. I can copy files from the windows 7 pc to the time capsule without problems. Has anybody got a clue? I just bought the time capsule, so it has the latest versions.

What do you see that you interpret as a Time Capsule crash? You can use AirPort Utility to look at the log file of the Time Capsule. Go into "Manual Setup", then invoke Base Station > Logs and Statistics. There might be a message in the log that helps explain the problem.

I used an ethernet cable between my iMac and Time Capsule for the initial backup. Now that initial backup is concluded, can I simply unplug the Time Capsule from my computer?

I used an ethernet cable between my iMac and Time Capsule for the initial backup. Now that initial backup is concluded, can I assume I can simply unplug the Time Capsule from my computer without any glitches and Time Capsule will then run wirelessly. Is this assumption correct?

can I assume I can simply unplug the Time Capsule from my computer without any glitches and Time Capsule will then run wirelessly. Is this assumption correct?
Yes, if the computer will be able to receive a strong wireless signal from the Time Capsule.
I did not disable wireless. So I assume the backups are occurring both with the ethernet and wirelessly.
It is inot possible to have both an "active" Ethernet and "active" wireless signal simultaneously. If an Ethernet connection is established, your computer will default to the Ethernet connection. If the Ethernet cable is unplugged, the computer will revert to the wireless connection.
I also show 2 wireless networks available through Airport. Shouldn't there only be one now?
You have a simultaneous dual band Time Capsule. That means that it will always be providing both a 2.4 GHz and a 5 GHz network.
I named my new network the same name as the old network. This enabled all of our devices to continue with their connection without entering the new network and/or passwords; however, I am afraid this may pose problems in the future somehow. Any input on this issue as well?
Things should be fine. Devices will connect to the best signal.....either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz....based on their capabilties and location in relation to the Time Capsule.

I just had Uverse installed. The iMac which was my base station is now connected via my household electric ground connection. Another computer is now the base station. I have connected my Time Capsule to my computer by USB cable, but can't set it up

I just had Uverse installed. My iMac desktop has been the base station for my wi fi, but we had to connect it via ground wire of my electrical system and use another desktop as the base station [with windows op system]. We have connected my Time Capsule to the computer via USB cable. I believe that will require setting up the Capsule to use Ethernet, but the instructiions on the install disc only talk about using Airport. How can I find instructions for setting up using USB cable and Ethernet?
Thanks!
Charles Leach

All the manuals are listed at the head of the thread.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/wireless/time_capsule?view=overview
The TC cannot connect to the computer by USB.. it is network device.. it only connects by ethernet or wireless.. usb is for external drive or printer.

Time Machine/Time Capsule with Old Computer

I have migrated all of the contents of my old, slow MacBookPro to my new MacBook Pro. My time capsule keeps giving me messages that I have exhausted available space and must delete old backups. I would like to delete the thirty backups for my old computer but cannot figure out how to do so.
If I open up Time Machine on my old computer, I see a folder entitled BACKUP OF MY HARDDRIVE. If I open this folder up, I see a subfolder with the title BACKUPS.BACKUPDB. This subfolder contains about thirty backups dating back to 2009. Can I simply delete all of these backup folders and subfolders without hurting the Time Capsule OR the Time Machine settings for my new computer?

Delete old backups.
http://pondini.org/TM/12.html
If you no longer want any of the old backups which is actually fine.. as long as you have migrated all your personal info, just erase the TC drive.
Open the airport utility .. go to the disk page, select erase and use quick erase. Do not use any other erase .. they will take from hours to a month.
Then you can start over with TM..
Erase will delete only files from the hard disk.. not settings on the TC and certainly impossible for it to delete TM settings which are in your computer.
I think you are confusing Time Machine.. software.. and Time Capsule.. hardware. They are actually totally unrelated.. TM uses TC as a backup target.. but it could be any external or suitable network drive.

Time Capsule crashing; not appearing in AirPort Utility

Hi all
My Time Capsule keeps on crashing, and is currently not appearing in the AirPort Utility window. I restarting it by unplugging it and plugging it back in again, but it will randomly crash again, or the sessions will be interrupted on the TC drive and the additional HDD that's plugged into it. I'm not really sure what's going on here. It's not like I'm sitting too far away from the Time Capsule (less than 3m, in fact).
The only thing that's going on that could be causing this, as far as I can see, is my attempting to migrate my files and folders from my old PowerBook to my new MacBook Pro (a procedure that is not, in all honestly, going all that well).
Thanks in advance

Rob,
If you don't mind a few more suggestions...
*_Time Capsule Weak Signal Strength / Dropped Connections_*
Forgive the size of the post, but the suggestions below have helped others with similar issues. Try each topic individually and see if things improve, If not move on to the next one.
*Keep the Time Capsule Cool*
Some posters have observed that when they positioned the Time Capsule for better ventilation and cooling, their network connectivity issues resolved themselves. Also avoid locating the devise within poorly ventilated cabinets or piling items around or on top of it.
*Time Capsule Orientation*
While the location you chose to setup your Time Capsule may be acceptable, but the direction it is oriented can have an effect on signal strength. It appears that the signal of the Time Capsule does not radiate equally from all sides of the devise.
The antennas within the devise are positioned along the 3 smooth sides. That is, there is no antenna on the side bearing the ports and cables. As a result, position the devise with the ports and cables AWAY from the direction of most of the clients that will be connecting to it.
*Cordless Phones*
Some users have discovered that the cordless phones they have in the home occupy or are near the same bandwidth as their wireless network (2.4Ghz or 5Ghz). Try temporarily disabling the handsets and their bases and see if network connectivity improves. If so you may need to change the channel that the phone uses or purchase phones that occupy a different bandwidth.
*Proximity To Other Devices*
One poster observed: “Finally have full access, full speed, and full functionality. Initially I installed the Time Capsule at the location of my cable, cable modem... which of course was next to my HDTV, DVD, Apple TV, Amplifier, etc. Get the picture? After about 4 weeks of starts and stops, resets and repeated initial backups, I moved the unit to another location, closer to my Mac, and in an area where there are no other electronics. Now, it runs perfect.” [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1734818&tstart=0]
*Change Firewall Settings* #
Go to System Preferences --> Security.
Click the Firewall tab.
Change setting to “Set access for specific services and applications”.
The System will now ask you when each process wants to penetrate the firewall. Once you click “Allow” each time you are asked, it will be saved in the pane at the bottom of this window and it should never ask you again.
One poster observed, “Since I made this change, my wireless has been strong and Time Machine works like a champ and the impact on my network performance is minimal. I speculate that the change in performance is due to security protocols or services that run in the 'allow all incoming connections' and 'allow only essential services' modes. Whatever the reason this fix has worked for me for over 2 months without resetting my airport connection or time capsule.” [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8348496#8348496]
*Change Time Capsules’ Channel*
Launch Airport Utility.
Select the device on the left.
Click "Manual Setup."
Select “Airport” in the toolbar.
Click the "Wireless" tab.
If “Channel” is set to “Automatic” try changing to a different one. Holding the Option key down and clicking the drop-down menu should provide more channels to choose from. If you have another wireless router operating, ensure that each devices’ channels are as far apart as possible.
Click “Update”.
Close Airport Utility.
*Preferred Networks & Airport Services*
You may be experiencing interference from other networks in your neighborhood. When you click the Airport menu are there other networks listed other than your own?
If so, is your network at the top of the list? It should be.
Go to System Preferences --> Network --> Select Airport on the left.
Click "Advanced". In the “Airport” tab note the various local wireless networks that Airport detects. Is the network you prefer to connect to at the top of the list? If not drag it to the top. Are there other networks you never intend to connect to (an old work network, or a neighbors network)? Then highlight them and click the "-" button.
Make sure “Remember any network this computer has joined” is checked.
Click "OK".
For "Network Name" be sure your network is selected and then click "Apply".
Is Airport (wireless) your primary means of connecting to your network? If so, is Airport at the top of the list of services on the left? It should be.
Click the small “Gear” button at the bottom of the window and select “Set Service Order”.
Now drag Airport to the top of the list.
Click “OK”. Click “Apply”.
Now see if network connectivity has improved.
*Transmit Power & Wide Channels*
If you are using the 802.11n only (5GHz) radio mode, you can also select to use wide channels, which provide higher data throughput in your network.
Launch Airport Utility
Select your Time Capsule on the left.
Click “Manual Setup”.
Select “Airport” in the toolbar.
Click the “Wireless” tab.
Click “Wireless Options...” at the bottom of the window.
Adjust the “Transmit Power” to 100%.
Put a check mark in the box labeled “Use Wide Channels”. (If you are using a 802.11a/b/g (2.4GHz) radio mode then select “Interference Robustness”)
Click “Done”.
Click “Update” in the lower right hand corner.
Wait for the Time Capsule to restart and then see if your network speeds improve.
*Faulty Airport Card*
One poster reported: “I reckoned the fault must be with the Macbook’s hardware so took the plunge and got a new airport card fitted to my Macbook and now everything is working fine. At last I have a working Macbook!” [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1719326&tstart=0]
If you think this might be the case, follow the steps outlined in this KB article to determine if your Airport card is still being detected by your system:
[http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2601]
Let us know if any of the above helped improve your situation.
Cheers!

How do I set up my time capsule to multiple computer?

There are two macs in my household and one time capsule which is right now set up only to my computer. How can I set it up for the other computer keeping the privacy for both? Thanks

Do you mean you want to back up two Macs to the TC via Time Machine? If so, Time Machine makes a separate sparse bundle disk image for each Mac's backups on the TC, so they're kept entirely separate.
Normally, when you Enter Time Machine, you see only the backups for the Mac you're on.

How to 'find' Time Capsule on my computer

I used my Time Capsule to store movies. And put it into storage. Now I want to use it for Time Machine. I cannot find it on my computer. All plugged in and green light on. Airport is turned off on the TC. I cannot use TC's Airport feature for reasons irrelevant to this question. It appeared once in setting up Time Machine, but then I lost it when I unplugged the ethernet cable to rearrange cables. How do I locate TC on my computer so that I can change its configurations and use it for Time Machine?

O.K. I got it. Plugged into LAN in TC>USB converter>USB port on the Air. Restarted TC. It appeared in a Finder Window>starshipmindmachine (my Air's name) along with the other hard disks attached. Opening System Preferences>Time Machine>Choose disk, it appeared there also. Airport Utilities showed it there also, including all the preferences such as manual setup and Airport>off. It didn't do this before, but apparently the correct linking and using the paperclip to restart TC worked. Thanks for the help. Time Machine software must be one of the more schizoid creations of Silly Gulch.

Time Capsule crashes my MacBook Pro

Hi,
I have just got back from a shopping trip with my shiny new Time Capsule. I have it set up as my wireless base station and am connected to the net. Problem I am having is that when Time Machine starts preparing to back up my MacBook Pro crashes and will not relaunch finder so I have to hold the power button down to turn off.
Why is it doing this??? Has anyone else had this problem??? How can I get my new shiny toy to work???
Any info greatly received!

My time capsule worked great up until the May 1st update Time Capsule Update. A grey curtain comes down on the screen and a warning in several languages shows up and I have turn off my MBP. I am very frustrated with this problem and I can see I am not the only one:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6995068&#6995068

Time Capsule Crashing When Trying to Access External HDD

Hi, I have a MBP and an iMac backing up successfully to a 1TB Time Capsule. I recently bought a 1 TB WD My Book external HDD which I attached to the USB port of the Time Capsule to archive all my digital media so that the TC could be used exclusively for backups.
The external HDD showed up under Airport Utility as well as as a partition under Time Capsule in the finder. The problem is whenever I tried to access the HDD it would freeze and crash the Time capsule which needed to be rebooted and restarted to work again. The funny thing is that on occasion I actually got the disk to work and I copied a few files across but within like a couple of minutes the Time Capsule hung and I got messaged that the file server in the Time Capsule and the External HDD was disconnected. Reconnection was only possible by powering off and restarting.
Any suggestions? Much appreciated.

I have the same problem.
My Setup:
Time Capsule 500 GB
15" MBP 1.83 GHz
WD 250 GB USB Drive (Powered)
I run Time Machine backups to TC. This works without any problems and very quick I might add.
My problem is when I try to copy files to and from the External USB Drive to my MBP. The files will start to copy, then I lose the connection to the USB drive and the TC (no Internet connection as well).
To get the TC to work again, I need to power it down and power it back up.
Any help would be appreciated.

Time Capsule crash

So, I haven't been thrilled with Time Capsule. Had some odd glitches here and there and (Windows) computers that were able to connect to our previous Linksys are unable to even see the Time Capsule. But, the worst part is the ability to crash the TC at will. I took an external USB drive that I had been using as a random collection plus Time Machine backup before. After I had it hooked up, I mounted it and was trying to clean up the old cruft. As soon as I start accessing (but especially deleting) any part of the previous Time Machine backup, it would start acting odd and then I'd get reports from the Finder that the TC had unexpectedly gone away. At that point, both wired and wireless connections are dead. I can't do anything except unplug the darn thing. Super ... super ... super frustrating.
I don't know if it provides any further info, but doing a Get Info on the Backup.db folder would report totally erroneous info. Wrong number of files, wrong size. Also, right before the TC would disconnect unexpectedly, I would always get a random (different every single time) report that some file or folder was either in use or unavailable.
I hope that someone can shed some light on this. So far, I am pretty unhappy. I thought this device was going to make my life a tiny bit simpler, but it has only added stress -- time consuming stress.
Oh, and just to let anyone know that was wondering, hooking the external drive back up to any of my computers worked just fine ... so it's not some error happening on the drive ... and even if it were, there's no way it should crash the whole base station!!!

More and more issues. Now I am getting messages about the built-in drive having errors and only mounting read only. At that point, the Time Machine backup failed and now I can't get it to remount.
I have a feeling this product was moved out way ahead of schedule. This is just ridiculous.
Oh, also, besides my wife's Windows machine not being able to even see the base station, an older iBook G3 was unable to connect. It saw it just fine and recognized it needed a WPA Personal password, but just times out eventually.
This has been hugely disappointing so far. One of the worst Apple products I have ever owned ... and I've been buying their products since 1985.

HT1178 Can you use Time Capsule when your computer is partitioned with bootcamp?

I know that if you attach a hard drive to "Airport Extreme" that you can not use the hard drive to back up a partitioned computer. Can you using "Time Capsule" ?

Time Machine will back up the Mac OS X partition to the Time Capsule, but cannot back up the Windows one. This is the same with a regular external drive.
(77240)

Time Machine/Time Capsule crashes my computer

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