Time Machine and AirPort update in Software update
Just showed up!
This update is recommended for all users and includes compatibility improvements for using Time Machine with Time Capsule, as well as AirPort driver fixes.
Firmware update 7.3.1. downloaded and installed and restarted.
Incremental backup just completed, only noticed a very brief preparing to backup this time whereas the previous one before the firmware update was 2 minutes.
Just got the updates and the TC one went in as soon as I started the AirPort utility. No problems. Although mine was working fine before. I sure wish Apple had included a way to set the time between backups. For my laptop and iMac once an hour is definitely overkill and a waste of time. Also wish they had added either a way to limit the length of time backups are kept. Keeping them for as long as you have disk space is not the limit I would have chosen.
I installed the update (the firmware updates also), so far, the connection is way more stable between my MacBookPro and the TC! No dropouts at all in more than one hour!
Congrats, Apple, produce/verify/Quality accept/release such a patch in a 1-2 weeks delay is awesome!
So I figured it out. After installing the update, you have to got to Airport Utility app, at that point it tells you there is a new firmware. After installing the firmware, it works like a charm. Backed up my MBP last night, and am backing up my wife's MB today.
Good news... you can modify the frequency of the updates by modifying the StartInterval property in "/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto.plist". (Line 13 for me, same for you I imagine.) The number is in seconds, though I haven't experimented with a maximum. 🙂
I don't know if anyone else is having this experience, but the only time my MBP recognizes the TC via ethernet is when you pick the third networking option (about being connected via ethernet and wireless being disabled). That seems flipping useless to me, but the Genius Bar wasn't able to do anything better for me today. We even exchanged the TC for a new one (both ran 7.3.1 firmware), and nothing. If any other option's selected, I'll get HW-growler messages that the ethernet is connected but the TC won't show up anywhere.
I've also discovered that if you use the TC to connect to another wireless network (but not as the primary), that if your wireless connection to that device drops, you TC will also drop during a backup. Particularly annoying, since I have to run my Linksys router in B/G only mode for my MBP (due to a difference in 802.11n specs between Apple and other vendors, according to other threads on here).
Lastly, those of you that have connections that keep dropping during backups, beware of the SparseDisk file size. I noticed that despite having no available backups (due to zero successes prior to figuring out the above), the image on the TC kept increasing by the amount that the backup managed to get through. Apple didn't have a response for that one either, other than wiping it and starting over.
I am going to uninstall this update until Apple figures out why the TCs are dropping their connections during Time Machine backups. It's very aggravating. Before I downloaded this update, my TC was working beautifully...
I installed the updates and my connection to the internet is definitely better. No noticeable dropouts that I can see since I installed them last week. (I also changed the channel to 9 as was suggested in another thread.) And the settings seem to hold when I put the MB to sleep. It backs up as soon as it wakes up like it is supposed to now. Though I am still having to rechoice the backup disc if I totally shut the MB down (like overnight). At this point, I can deal with that.
