Robert York1

Q: time machine backup to a network drive

I've been backing up my MacBook Air over WiFi to a Lacie drive connected to my Mac Mini, both running 10.11.  It works only intermittently.

 

Often I get "Backup Disk Not Available" but when this happens I'm able to get to the drive from MacBook via the finder just fine.

 

Does anyone have tips for getting it to work more consistently?

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Dec 8, 2015 5:31 PM

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Q: time machine backup to a network drive

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  • by Bob Timmons,

    Bob Timmons Bob Timmons Dec 8, 2015 5:46 PM in response to Robert York1
    Level 10 (105,243 points)
    Wireless
    Dec 8, 2015 5:46 PM in response to Robert York1

    What you are trying to do is not officially supported by Apple, so there is not going to be a reliable "fix" for your issue.

     

    All that you can really try to do is mount the backup drive on your MacBook Air using the Finder when you first start up the MacBook Air. Then, open Time Machine Preferences to confirm that the application can "see" the drive as a backup target for Time Machine.

     

    You may need to restart the MacBook Air frequently, as well as the Mac Mini.

     

    Life would probably be a lot easier if you had an AirPort Extreme and then connected the drive to the USB port on the Extreme. That way, it will "show up" by default as a backup target for Time Machine.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Dec 8, 2015 5:56 PM in response to Robert York1
    Level 10 (208,000 points)
    Applications
    Dec 8, 2015 5:56 PM in response to Robert York1

    Please launch Keychain Access and inspect the item of type "Time Machine Password" corresponding to the server. The Account field must exactly match the short name of the user on the server who owns the shared folder containing the backup image. The matching is case-sensitive. Note that every user has both a long and a short name, and they are generally different. For example, the long name might be "Fubar" and the short name "fubar". Those names do not match, and only the short name is correct. Even if you can mount the share in the Finder using the long name, it will not be mounted automatically by Time Machine.

    To be safe, neither the user name nor the password should contain any non-alphanumeric characters. Use only plain letters of the alphabet and digits.

    Credit for this observation to ASC member Roger Jolly.

  • by Boyd Porter,

    Boyd Porter Boyd Porter Dec 9, 2015 6:21 AM in response to Robert York1
    Level 4 (1,017 points)
    Dec 9, 2015 6:21 AM in response to Robert York1