Time Capsule (APFS) on Big Sur

I have seen some reports on other Time Capsule / Time Machine support forums that indicate that.......IF.......the Time Capsule is completely erased using AirPort Utility, that Time Machine will then format the Time Capsule disk automatically in APFS before the new Time Machine backup on a Big Sur Mac will run.

I have not tried this, so there are no guarantees. Try this only if you are willing to erase the Time Capsule hard drive to see if it will work for you.

I explained the other method here.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252095046?answerId=253978990022#253978990022

It helped the person there.. give it a go..

NOTE there is a big problem with 3rd party security software like Norton or Sophos. Even some of the firewall products can give trouble.. if you have any of those loaded on the Mac remove it completely.

Sorry but beyond that I am out of touch with what Apple is doing.

Not sure what you mean by mounting TC in Finder. I can see TC in Finder, named as Data. Can see no "Disk Images" anywhere......either in Disk Utility or Finder

The fact you can actually mount the TC in Finder but Time Machine seems to have issues is confusing.

What happens if you try and force the backup to start?

My very strong recommendation is either backup to a local disk.. as that definitely works better.. or to download an alternative backup software like Carbon Copy Cloner and use that.

Thinking a bit more about this......is it worth doing a factory default reset as here...?

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201945

My TC is 802.11 ac and has 7.9.1 firmware, but is in bridge mode. I have numerous other devices attached...will I need to re-attach each of these or will connections remain?

I have a similar problem...can someone point me in the right direction please?

1. Airport utility shows my Time capsule as being available and attached to the internet
2. Time machine shows the 3TB data disk on the Time capsule as "waiting to backup"
3. Disk Utility does not show the time capsule at all.....?

How do I get it to show the Time Capsule? Problem has only arisen since upgrade to Big Sur........

Many thanks

Airport utility shows my Time capsule as being available and attached to the internet

So you just erased the TC drive from airport utility?

Time machine shows the 3TB data disk on the Time capsule as "waiting to backup"

Time machine will then be able to create a new backup to the TC disk which is formatted APFS.. NOTE.. this is an image not the underlying disk.

Disk Utility does not show the time capsule at all.....?

Correct. Disk utility can show a Time Machine disk image.. it has never been able to show the actual TC disk which is NEVER formatted APFS. It is fully owned and controlled by the TC firmware. Disk utility can work only with local disks and disk images.. Look carefully at the screenshot above.. the connection is to disk image. Not the disk.

I have highlighted the key parts. And this is only going to happen when the disk image is mounted in Finder. As it will be when Time Machine is actually backing up.

If Time Machine will not allow you to start a backup.. use add and remove disk option.. remove the current TC from Time Machine.. reboot the computer and go to Time Machine Preferences.. now add back the TC disk as target.. if that does not work first mount the TC disk in Finder .. that should enable the backup to work.. if that fails you can do it yet another way.. Just post back.

Thanks for posting back on your findings.

Looking at your screenshot, it also appears that you can now reformat the Time Capsule disk from Disk Utility and choose to reformat in APFS or APFS (Case sensitive) as well as the older Mac OS Extended (Journaled, etc).

Many thanks for your help...followed your guidance but still can't get TM to backup to TC...backup fails with "waiting to complete first backup" message.

Not sure what you mean by mounting TC in Finder. I can see TC in Finder, named as Data. Can see no "Disk Images" anywhere......either in Disk Utility or Finder

What is the other way you might like me to consider?

I again followed your guidance and also the guidance you gave to another user.....sadly TM still refuses to backup to TC.

Read yours and the other comments on this and agree it is shameful that Apple just leaves users in the lurch with regards to their now perceived obsolete hardware, even though until the Big Sur upgrade it functioned perfectly.

Again, many thanks for your help and guidance

Time Capsule is now a design for older Mac system.. based on AFP protocol. No actual firmware improvement was made in many areas of the TC from 2008 to 2018.. even if models changed the firmware was kept very consistent.

Apple has since High Sierra been moving more and more to SMB and that is too difficult to add to NetBSD as used by the TC.. because it has to be SMB3 (SMB2??) The TC only supports SMB1 which is now deprecated and a major security weakness.

I think Apple would prefer you to get rid of the old airports but never say that out loud.

Do download CCC as I mentioned before. It is totally free to test for a full month and has much better design for network backups.

is it worth doing a factory default reset

Yes, if you are having issues, or have been changing some settings on the Time Capsule. The reset gets the Time Capsule back to a fresh start, so you can set it up again from scratch.

The fact that Time Machine has not been all that reliable with backups to a Time Capsule over the last few years will not change though. So, a factory default reset might help things for a bit......or it might not.

My TC is 802.11 ac and has 7.9.1 firmware, but is in bridge mode.

In Bridge Mode, the TC can act as a wireless access point to create a wireless network, but the TC does not assign IP addresses to each of the clients on the network. It is the job of your "main" router to do this. The TC simply passes this information through from the main router to all connected network devices.

If you call Apple Support, they will tell you to set up the TC as a router.......not a bridge......so the TC will be in charge of providing IP addresses to all connected network devices.

There are both upsides and downsides to this type of setup, which might bring more discussion. There are of course no guarantees that Time Machine will work more reliably this way.

will I need to re-attach each of these or will connections remain?

If you decide to perform a factory default reset on the TC.....and......you set it up again to use the same wireless network name and password as before, then other devices should be able to connect. Conversely, if you set up the TC with a different wireless network or password, then you will have to log on with each of your other WiFi devices to select the "new" wireless network to be joined and enter the password to connect.

Edit to post above. IF.....you are running any kind of anti-virus applications on your Mac, or any other type of utility that claims to "speed up", "keep", "optimize", etc your Mac, these types of things do not get along well with Time Machine and can certainly trigger new issues with a new operating system like Big Sur.

Have successfully completed the "Factory Default Reset", re-configured to the same network and passwords as before......and TM still fails to backup to TC

Have come to the conclusion the Big Sur has other things buried deep within that are preventing this process from working.....

Let's see if Apple address this in future Big Sur upgrades.....or not. Not holding my breath, but still really unhappy that perfect hardware (TC) is rendered obsolete because of imperfect software.......

Appreciate your help!

I had the problem of the "backup disk image could not be created" after upgrading to Big Sur. I tried all the options of rebooting, reformatting the Apple Airport Drive etc to no avail. However when I disabled Sophos the backup completed successfully as before. I just need to configure Sophos correctly when it is re-enabled.