Stanford Griffith

Q: AirPort Extreme: Device not found when connected to the AirPort Extreme

So, this is an odd one: I am connected to the wireless network (and Internet) through my AirPort Extreme. When I go to the AirPort Utility, however, it shows that the AirPort Extreme is a "device not connected." But it must be; otherwise, I couldn't even send this message on my MacBook Air or watch Netflix wirelessly on my Apple TV.

 

This is unfortunately not the first time I have seen this issue with the router. In the past I have just unplugged the Extreme and plugged it back in. There should be, however, no reason to do this.

 

It's from 2010, so it's out of warranty, and Apple won't officially provide support for it. I've believed it's a lemon before though, so this doesn't shock me. It is up-to-date with firmware and such.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thank you.

Airport Extreme

Posted on Jul 8, 2012 10:45 PM

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Q: AirPort Extreme: Device not found when connected to the AirPort Extreme

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  • by Donald Marks,

    Donald Marks Donald Marks Jul 5, 2013 2:01 PM in response to Stanford Griffith
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 5, 2013 2:01 PM in response to Stanford Griffith

    Whoo Hoo! I got mine to work!

     

    I was going to reset the whole thing and start from scratch so I was following these instructions and decided to do a soft reset. I did and still could not find the time capsul when it came back.

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3728  I could not figure out where the "AirPort menu bar item" was and I realized it was in the wireless networks menu. 

     

    Anyway, I was able to get everything to work when I unplugged my ethernet cable and when strictly wireless for the entire process.


    Good luck.

  • by AJBIV,

    AJBIV AJBIV Jul 5, 2013 4:57 PM in response to Donald Marks
    Level 1 (60 points)
    Jul 5, 2013 4:57 PM in response to Donald Marks

    Ok, I tried your suggestion, and when my ethernet is unplugged and I'm going through wifi only, it recognizes my Airport Extreme.  When I plug ethernet back in, it doesn't. 

     

    So it seems to have helped, but not 100%

  • by frannbug,

    frannbug frannbug Jul 6, 2013 7:13 AM in response to Ehzun
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Apple TV
    Jul 6, 2013 7:13 AM in response to Ehzun

    Yes, I found changing 'Configure IPv6' to 'Link-Local' forced my base-station to appear on the Airport Utility list of devices. However when I clicked on 'Manual Setup' I was asked for a Base Station password which hasn't been set. I tried several different passwords I've set in the past but nothing worked. So I still can't see my Airport Disks within the application although I do find they now appear in the Finder, which is nice after so long!

     

    I'm also finding that the 5ghz network works only for a few seconds if I connect to it, so I'm forced to use the slower one all the time.

     

    Thanks for the link - it helped a lot!

  • by TexasRed1974,

    TexasRed1974 TexasRed1974 Jul 12, 2013 10:47 PM in response to Stanford Griffith
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 12, 2013 10:47 PM in response to Stanford Griffith

    I had been having this issue for a few months, and power-cycling the Airport Extreme did nothing.  However, setting the IPv6 setting to Link-Local Only (it was set to Disabled, which is weird because that's not even an option) per this KB article someone posted (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4597?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US) made the AE show in Airport Utility immediately.

     

    Thanks for the suggestion!

  • by Jackitup,

    Jackitup Jackitup Jul 13, 2013 7:01 PM in response to Bob Timmons
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 13, 2013 7:01 PM in response to Bob Timmons

    Mac Mini, late 2012, OS X 10.8.4, Airport Utility 6.3.1 (631.4).

    PowerPC G5, Dual 2 GHz,  OS X 10.5.8, Airport Utility 5.6.1 (561.3)

    AirPort Extreme 802.11n (4th Generation) base station.

     

    I am connected to my Airport Extreme and my DSL modem with Ethernet cables. I use WiFi for connecting to my iPad and iPhone only.  I have been experiencing failures for some time know. Everything seems to be working fine, then I am unable to connect to the internet from my iPad or computer. My Airport Extreme is showing a solid green light. I open my Airport Utility and see my base station but there is no internet connection. I reset my DSL modem and wait. Still no internet. So I high light my base station and select “edit”. Airport Utility is unable to locate any base station.

    Nothing I do, except unplugging my base station, corrects this problem. I believe that this all started after I purchased and created my Mac Mini, iPad, into a local network. My Airport Extreme Base station was already configured by my Power PC (no LAN) and I just logging into my Base Station from my Mini using the existing configuration and password.

    So my questions are these:

    Do I power down my PowerPC, “hard reset” my base station, use the Airport utility on my MacMini to rename and reconfigure my setting on my base station?

    Then power up my PowerPC, let the base station re-configure itself when it see’s the local network. Then save this new configuration?

    So do all computers on the local network need to be able to log into the  Apple Base Station?

    Should only the computer with the latest version of Airport Utility be allowed to access the Base Station?

    Does the Base Station get “confused” if there are more than one computers that have access (with different versions of Airport Utility) at the same time?

  • by -dSz-,

    -dSz- -dSz- Dec 4, 2013 11:23 AM in response to Stanford Griffith
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 4, 2013 11:23 AM in response to Stanford Griffith

    Hi All,

     

    I went through the same saga with my MBP and AExtreme. The first sympthom was that when I was setting up the base station using AU (v6.3.2) it went to blinking amber status and it took quite a while until it was ready for operations again. Since then in AU on the Mac I can't see the device. I can either configure from Menu (File/Configure Other) or as Paulfromhere mentioned there is an option in the upper left corner like Other WiFi devices, and I can select my AExtreme from there.

    What is also strange, that I have the iOS version on my iPhone, which clearly sees the AE... This suggests to me that this is an issue with the AU software release... Browsing through the net I couldn't see any sort of offical response from Apple on this issue. Should you hear anything let us know immediately...

    This is an issue you can live with, but considering the price of Apple products and the expected quality which is paired to the Apple brand I can hardly accept this behaviour.

     

    Szabolcs

  • by Jackitup,

    Jackitup Jackitup Dec 4, 2013 11:57 AM in response to -dSz-
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 4, 2013 11:57 AM in response to -dSz-

    I'm not sure where the problem lies. I have noticed an improvement after OS X update 10.9. I think that Apple was making so much money from iOS that they negelected the computer operating system, Mac OS X or the Airport Extreme firmware/software. All of which have now been updated. The iOS devices just took controll of the AirPort Extremem router and reconfigured it so that the AE ignored or marginalized the Mac computer or the Airport Extreme was unable to cope with the iOS systems. I am not saying that all problems have now been resolved, because I still have had to unplug my Airport Extreme  to get everything working, only once last month.

  • by Nelson Evangelista,

    Nelson Evangelista Nelson Evangelista Feb 12, 2014 9:06 PM in response to Stanford Griffith
    Level 3 (530 points)
    Feb 12, 2014 9:06 PM in response to Stanford Griffith

    This worked for me. 

     

    I switched to my guest network, then switched back to my main network. 

     

    Airport Extreme reappeared.

  • by ianram,

    ianram ianram Jul 29, 2014 7:46 AM in response to Nelson Evangelista
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 29, 2014 7:46 AM in response to Nelson Evangelista

    Ok using Virgin superb and Mac Os 10.10

    Previously i could access my extreme for media on various devices and systems iPad mac windows etc.

    Suddenly can't get on the internet with Airport extreme. Selected my router for connection and ignored my Airport and started trying all the recommended fixes with no luck.

    I could access my Tm via ethernet connection but no internet. or if ethernet unplugged i could access internet.

    Tried the iPad etc etc.

    Plugged direct to my windows pc but still no show in airport utility.

    After several refreshes on my windows PC i suddenly saw on the mac that my Time machine capsule had been found then disappeared again.

    At the same time windows popped up with the normal new set up wizard but highlighted an issue to be corrected?

    The issue windows found was that i had duplicate NAS between router and Airport windows rebooted the airport to correct it.

     

    Now all is fine and works effortlessly again.

    Not sure what has changed as all settings still appear the same?

     

    But how come windows can find an apple issue in set up but IOS can't

  • by Gman222,

    Gman222 Gman222 Oct 6, 2014 4:51 PM in response to FrankSt
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2014 4:51 PM in response to FrankSt

    Awesome FrankSt. I've never posted here but I've lurked for answers many times. Your fix likely saved me a bunch of frustration. Sure enough, my daughter's iPhone was on our guest network. Soon as I dropped it, I was able to find and connect to the Airport and my printer. Cheers.

  • by Dodastar,

    Dodastar Dodastar Dec 27, 2014 7:59 PM in response to wms44
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Dec 27, 2014 7:59 PM in response to wms44

    I found my problem to be software. If you use Intego Netbarrier, and it is on, Airport Utility will not recognize your Airport. I got out of this problem by doing a Hard Restart on the Airport, with Netbarrier turned off. Went through the process of reset, and it worked, Airport was recognized. The work around now is to turn off Netbarrier before I open Airport Utility.

  • by navneet.reddy,

    navneet.reddy navneet.reddy Apr 7, 2015 1:06 AM in response to Stanford Griffith
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 7, 2015 1:06 AM in response to Stanford Griffith

    Found the solution !!!

     

    Firstly you would need a ethernet cable. Plug one end to the airport extreme and the other to your Mac/PC. Once the IP address is self assigned, open airport utility. Now select ethernet instead of wifi from the options in front of you. Now your airport extreme is visible. Configure to "Tunnel" and under wifi "Extend a wifi network". Save these settings and update.

    Now unplug your ethernet cable and wait for the restart. After about 45 seconds you will see green lights on your devices.

     

    Cheers !!

  • by calderson,

    calderson calderson Aug 24, 2015 1:06 PM in response to Stanford Griffith
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 24, 2015 1:06 PM in response to Stanford Griffith

    Had the exact same problem. Reset my iMac and the problem went away.

  • by stevenfromgroton,

    stevenfromgroton stevenfromgroton Dec 13, 2015 7:03 PM in response to Nelson Evangelista
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 13, 2015 7:03 PM in response to Nelson Evangelista

    Had the exact same problem 2 years after Nelson posted his solution. Don't know why but it worked. Wife's MBP is now backing up again! Cycled to guest then back to primary network and it started working again. My 6S somehow shifted to my guest Network (not sure why i didn't check this) and cycled the network back to primary. Utility shows again. Now to cycle the Mac Mini and IPads!

  • by nika veronika,

    nika veronika nika veronika Jun 12, 2016 8:11 AM in response to Ehzun
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 12, 2016 8:11 AM in response to Ehzun

    Thank you, Ehzun! This link (AirPort base station not seen or "An unexpected error occurred" appears in AirPort Utility 6.3 - Apple Support) worked for me to find the base station, and AE no longer is blinking amber -- there was a firmware update, which for some reason was not detected before the OSX update.

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