Will time machine work with airport extreme?

Hi all, is there a way to create a time machine back up on a USB disk that is attached to an airport extreme? I've tried it a couple of different ways and it's not seeming that it works very well. Any help would be appreciated.

I've tried several configurations all of which started with formatting the drive with a single partition Mac OS Extended (Journaled) GUID.
The first configuration was where I did a 100GB Time Machine Backup to the drive while it was connected (so I wouldn't have to deal with a slow first backup over wireless, because my MacBook Pro is of the older 802.11G wireless versus N). Then moved the drive over to my Airport Extreme, mounted the drive and started the backup. It failed with the following error message "The backup volume is not in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, which is required."
The second configuration was where, after reformatting to single partition to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) GUID, I connected the drive directly to the Airport Extreme without having done a Time Machine Backup. After mounting the drive, I started Time Machine and it began to run. I left it over nite to back-up and, while it got started, it did not make it past about 9GB after over 6 hours and it stopped.
Trying the second configuration again...and it is running but 7 hours later 25 of 101GB done.
Thanks for any insight!
Happy New Year

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Will Time Machine work with an external hard drive connected (via usb) to Airport Extreme?

Will Time Machine work with an external hard drive connected (via usb) to Airport Extreme?

Sorry, but this article is about 4 years old, and was printed based on preliminary information at the time.
The bottom line here is that Apple does not officially support Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port of the AirPort Extreme.
If it works for you, great.
You might want to review the Apple Support documents below, which are far more recent than the article you reference:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2038
It is supported.....
This is NOT correct. Please do not post false information on the forums.

Will Time Capsule conflict with Airport Extreme?

I just purchased a Time Capsule but after reading the discussion board it looks like it might conflict or override my Airport Extreme? Also, if I do connect it, will it ever erase any information on its own without me manually deleting? I think I'm experiencing buyers remorse. My main purpose is to free up space on my iMac. I could have just purchased a simple external hard drive but this seemed like a better choice at the time. Help!

My main purpose is to free up space on my iMac. I could have just purchased a simple external hard drive but this seemed like a better choice at the time. Help!
Depending on the age of the Mac a USB, Firewire or Thunderbolt drive would be a much better choice.. as an addition to the TC.. TC is still needed if you have no backup. If you store your files on the external drive think about where you want them to be backed up to.
it looks like it might conflict or override my Airport Extreme? Also, if I do connect it, will it ever erase any information on its own without me manually deleting?
No the TC and airport can live happily together.. just decide which is router and which is bridge.. as far as possible connect together with ethernet.. but you can wirelessly connect as well.
A TC is a backup device not really a NAS.. it has no means to back itself up.. but it will not erase anything without you deliberately erasing it..
Perhaps you mean the way Time Machine works.. if you erase something on the disk.. TM will eventually erase it from the backups.. this is very true.. but that is specific to TM and backups.. not to stuff you store on the TC. That is not erased unless you do it deliberately.
I think you should read over Pondini's FAQ to understand a bit more about TM and TC.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I learned a heap from them.. the home pages as well.
http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
Although TM is loaded on every Mac since Leopard.. and very convenient to use.. it isn't the only show in town.. and other utilities can do disk images and incremental backups.. without half the issues that TM does. Although more limited in restore potential as well.

How will Time Machine work with a laptop?

I have a MacBook and an external HD. I rarely plug the HD into the MacBook, except for when I need to backup. How well will Time Machine handle this setup? My hope is, as soon as the HD is plugged in, an increment backup session will start, which hopefully won't take too long. Or is there a way to still backup over wireless network like it was originally promised?

It will back up whenever you plug in the HD. The time will depend on how many changes you made from the last backup. If you do it daily, then it is not going to be an issue. TM will probably change our attitudes on how we backup a little bit.

Help: Set up Time Machine Drive with Airport Extreme

I've read a few posts on this topic, none of which addressed my specific issue, but all of which stated that this functionality is not officially supported. I really hope this is not true because I bought my Airport Extreme and Hard Drive based on numerous Apple Store clerks assuring me that this was possible. So any help would be most appreciated. Here's the details/story:
I have a 13" MBP 2.53ghz, running 10.5.8 I've been backing up to a local 1TB HDD over FW800 since July with no problems.
I bought an Airport Extreme and am trying to move the drive to the AE to back up wirelessly. Here's what's happened so far:
1. I connected the drive with USB to the AE. It mounted no problem and I could see all my backups easily, but Time Machine did not recognize it as my back up drive. When I used the "Change Drive" button in the hopes of "finding" the drive, it just tried to start a new Time Machine back up set, wirelessly. So I think the broad concept is working, it just a matter of getting TM to recognize the back up set.
2. I plugged the drive in locally with USB (rather than FW800) and did a back up, no problem. After doing this, and plugging the drive back into the AE, TM no recognizes my backup set as mine, and tries to start the next backup, but I got an error message about not being able to write to the drive.
3. I did some reading online to get some ideas, I used Disk Utility to verify and repair the drive (over USB locally) Disk utility did find some errors, but it didn't seem like anything major.
4. Now, TM really starts to get going doing a backup, but when it actually comes time to transfer/write the new data over, I get an new error, that my drive is not formatted as a Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I use disk utitilty again, which confirms that the drive IS Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and is partitioned GUID (which I read is also a requirement)
And this is where I am. Any one have any ideas?
Thanks in advance for your help.

TSomers wrote:
I'd hate to think it's just to sell their $500 2TB Timecapsule (which is more than 2x the cost of competing 2Tb drives). Maybe Apple should share their secret sauce with the other drive makers so that they all can work.
Though you seem to hate it, you have indeed hit the nail... I also had issues with USB attached drives on my AEBS (Airport Extreme Base Station). This problem occurred before Apple had the policy statement in place and they ended up exchanging my AEBS, since it was crashing the AEBS when the USB drive did not become accessible (it was a WD brand that didn't play nice with any USB connection, as it later turned out). I suspect there was nothing wrong then with my original AEBS' USB connection, but the replacement was more reliable overall however, so it proved a boon. Perhaps Apple learned something from my previous problems.
Anyway, Apple is not without its reasons for this policy. That's the long story.
Short story? Use supported configurations only if you want a reliable backup. In my case, can easily move my drive to a Mini and have it run in a supported configuration whether by sparse bundle format or otherwise.
Network connections do indeed format the way described. You can check this very thorough article...Suggest you read the unofficially sanctioned discussion list article by Pondini (kudos for your thoroughness, sir/madam!) first. Many great suggestions and nifty storage ideas to maximize your use of available media in your particular situation will come from a careful reading.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1964018

Will Time Machine work with my networked hard drive?

I asked this question this question a couple years ago https://discussions.apple.com/message/9961900#9961900 and was wondering if there was an update as to whether Time Machine will work with a networked drive?
Will it work?
Does Apple officially support this method?
I'm using Chronosync now, and it's good, but every once in a while it'll hickup.
Thanks so much

Nothing has changed, other than the fact that we are seeing a lot more posts from users having probems who have tried this unsupported method of backups.
Apple is prety clear on this in their support documentation. They say that you cannot do this.
Results vary with users who try this anyway. Some have difficulties immediately with corruption issues, others have successful backups for a few weeks to even a few months before they have difficuties. Count me as one who thought they had somehow beat the system, but after 4 weeks, things collapsed.
Forum expert Pondini has an appropriate saying about this issue, which I am sure I am not quoting exactly:
There are two types of users who attempt Time Machine backups to a drive attached to the USB port on the AirPort Extreme....those who have problems, and those who will have problems.

Time Machine Work With Airport?

I am looking to buy a MacBook Pro and so am considering getting an Airport router so that I can plug in my printers via a USB powered hub that I already have.
Is it feasible to also use USB to plug in an external hard drive and expect the MBP to recognize it for use with TimeMachine?
If I were to do the initial backup using firewire 800 and then switch to the USB for incremental backups does that work?
And by the way are Time Machine backups bootable as SuperDooper ones are?

Thank you,
I am pretty much resigned to going with Firewire 800 and plugging/unplugging the cable as necessary.
However I wonder why it is such a bad idea? If it works I would be able to do backups where ever I am working in my studio instead of the odd times I would be working at the desk where the external drive is located. It is also my experience that if you have to plug in something that is non-essential (anything other than power, mouse and keyboard) that the plug ins will be forgotten when in a hurry or distracted.
Is it the speed of the airport connection that makes it a bad idea? Or something else?
My understanding is that Apple originally intended Airport Extreme to work with Time Machine, but that they dropped support for it subsequently. If true then Apple appears to have thought it a good idea at one time.

Can two macs use same disk for Time Machine backup with Airport Extreme?

Hi
I use a Western Digital disk as a wireless Time Machine backup connected to the USB port on my Airport Extreme and it works great. My question is: can my girlfriend use that same disk for Time Machine backup from HER computer too? (I don't mind formatting the disk if needed.)
If she can't, is it then possible to connect a USB hub and have two disks hooked up to the Airport Extreme?
Thanks for helping. I am constantly in awe of all the help people like you give people like me. Thanks!!!
Jakob

I've gone through the manual setup and the assisted setup and can't seem to get my MacBook to use the Time Machine. Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated.
Well, as the Jolly Giant points out....+this type of configuration is not supported by Apple+, so it's difficult, if not impossible, to provide a fix for something that Apple says that you cannot do. Reference these Apple Support documents regarding this topic:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2038
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
Your situation is not unlike other users who try this and find that one computer may backup...(usually for a limited time before corruption issues start to creep in)...but another computer cannot backup. Count me as one of those users who thought that because things seemed to work that I had somehow "beat the system".
I started getting the corruption error messages after 4-5 weeks of successful backups, so I figured that it did not make sense to continue to try to get a second computer to backup (yes, I too could not setup a second Mac to backup).
Sorry, I could not get a second machine to backup, so can't tell you how to accomplish that goal. If you want to continue to try backing up this way, you might want to also think about a second backup strategy...just in case backups become corrupted on the WD drive.
Maybe if Apple says you cannot do this, they just may be right?
Message was edited by: Bob Timmons

HT201250 will time machine work with os 10.4

Just need to know if Time MAchine will work with OSX 10.4??
I have a client that has backup issues and I would like to use TM.
JCW

I was fairly certain that this would be the case..
Thanks for the quick reply. Now I just have to get him updated to use something newer!
JCW

Will time machine work with 2nd internal HD in macpro

all of the time machine descriptions keep mentioning using an external drive but will it work with a 2nd internal drive in my macpro? i have 4 hd's in my macpro and it would be nice to be able to use one of them for time machine.

I hope so!
I was gonna ask the same question. I have 2 nice fast SATA HD's in my old 1.6 PPC G5.
Hopefully we can get an answer here soon!
Woo Hoo! this is my first "Buy it the day it launches" so wish me luck even getting it from FedEx (which always arrives while I am at work & has to some back the next day)
Thanks,
John Boyarsky
RSMS 7th & 8th Grade Math teacher and Yearbook Guy
Fairbanks, AK

Continue Time Machine Backup with AirPort Extreme

Hi,
if've done my backup via usb, now i am owning an AirPort Extreme and would continue my backup; but Time Machine had start a new backup, how can i continue my old backup.

yes, I'm aware of such procedures but it's not worth the trouble in this case as the OP has only done one backup. also, it would require a separate hard drive to put the sparse bundle on temporarily before cloning the current backup drive to the sparse bundle. lastly, no need to rsync in this situation. you can simply erase the external drive and copy the sparse bundle by hand back to the external once the cloning is finished. but all in all entirely not worth the trouble in this case.

Will a WD hard drive work with AirPort Extreme to connect with an iPad Air

Will a WD hard drive work with Airport Extreme to connect by a iPad Air

If you already have an AE and a WD drive .. the best idea is plug it in and see on a mac in airport utility is the drive recognised.
If not you have problems.. if it is formatted correctly (Not NTFS mainly) then it can be a drive that is not compatible.
assuming it works get your ipad and pay for filebrowser or at least download a test copy and see how it goes.
Always the best way to find out.. try it.

Will a wireless printer work with airport extreme?

Will a wireless printer work with airport extreme? Such as an HP Photosmart D110.

Yes, it will as long as it is within wifi signal range of the Extreme. Of course, you'll need to go through the printer setup sequence. NOTE: The D110 is not AIRPRINT compatible, so it will not print from ios operating systems that are installed in mobile devices such as iphones, ipads, ipods. However, there are Apps that are available for non airprint printers, but their quality and effectiveness are questionable.

Do apple intend to make Timemachine work with Airport extreme

I saw a user reporting that Timemahine worked with Aiport exterme and an USD disc without any modifications ( out of the box(. Officialle Apple denys that it will work What is the reality/facts ?

It's been a well know fact that Apple dropped support for Time Machine on an Airport Extreme router when they released Leopard (10.5.0). Nothing in the 10.5.1 update changed this status.
Some people have gotten it to work, by first connecting the drive directly to a Mac and doing the initial backup, and then moving the drive to the router. Others have said this works fine for a couple of days and then fails until you restart the router.
Nobody knows exactly why Apple pulled support for this feature, or if they will eventually support it with upgrades to the OS or firmware upgrades for the router. Speculation is not allowed on this forum and if I start guessing my messages will be deleted.
There are too many variations in machines and base stations to be able to accurately predict the stability of an unsupported feature. Time Machine is designed to save your data when you have problems, but can't be trusted in the configuration you mention. There are enough TM problems in systems that are supported.
Meanwhile, are you having any problems or have you come up with any answers that deal with a supported feature of Leopard?

Used Time Machine (USB) to Airport Extreme

Hi,
Last year, I set up a 1TB external hard-drive as my Time Machine... It all worked perfectly. Currently it has over 600GB worth of stuff on it. My macbook has a hard-drive of 320gb.
I recently bought a used Airport Extreme (A1354) and want to connect my existing 'Time Machined' external hard-drive but it won't allow me to...? It is recognised- I just cant seem to back up or access files at all.
In an article I read it said that the pathway when connected directly to my macbook via USB is different to a pathway when connected via wireless connection.
So my questions are:
• Can I rename the pathway?
• Or do I need to buy a new external harddrive and start afresh?• If I do have to start a fresh, is there a way to merge my old time machine files to the new time machine files - - - so I can keep both my 'time Machines" in the one place (Instead of having one lot of time machine from August 2011 to August 2012 and another time machine from September 2012 to x date)
I can't even restore all my time machined files to my macbook- then reformat my External Hard drive, because I only have 320 GB
I hope I am making sense. I am not too high tech so . . . my apologies =)
P.S. Sorry if this has already been answered-- I have read countless articles and can't seem to find an answer.

Hi,
Yeah I got an answer to connecting my existing time machine to my airport extreme
The airport extreme will not let you connect any 'time machine' - new or existant - as it acts as a drag and drop type of saving.... so i.e. if I want to save a file - i will need to go to shared>airport extreme and then drag and drop my file there to save it- it will not do it automatically like time machine. This is so if you wanted the automatic wireless backup, you would have to go out and buy a time capsule.
hope that makes sense.

Will time machine work with airport extreme?

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