AirPort Extreme Time Capsule will not restore to factory settings

Strangely, the third time I reset the TC, it wanted to extend the network of the Airport Expresses. Is it possible to just do that and still have it function as a TC?

Well no.. sorry.. not unless the Express is plugged by ethernet to Eeros node and setup to Extend by Wire meaning the unit is working in Bridge or more exactly AP mode.

Plus even with it wired the Express in the loop would make it SLOW.. I mean treacle running uphill in winter slow. (as opposed to Lava running downhill in Iceland which is spectacular.)

A failure to change settings is often a simple failure to read the new settings.

So try again.. This time .. power off the TC and power it on again and restart the Airport Utility.. half the time that fixes it for me.

Otherwise use the fact that you have set a static IP.

In Airport Utility top menu open Configure Other.

Type in your IP you set in previous steps to setup.

And type in your TC password. Click OK.

Lo and Behold.. the long lost Airport Appeareth!!

Any errors should be listed under status.. I have used an Express as example..

Remember the TC has to be permanently plugged by ethernet to your Eero router or closest node to the Mac. You cannot unplug it.

Fix the errors.. and then you can do other steps needed.. like turn off wifi .. might be better to leave wifi on during the first cycle of settings.. your Mac is fairly dumb when it comes to finding stuff it is not DIRECTLY linked to.

Screenshots help no end for me to find if you are doing things wrong!!

Plug ethernet from your main router of the mesh group.. or if the nodes have ethernet to the node closest to the Mac.. and proceed with "This Airport Time Capsule will create a new network" dialogue. Apple does not believe other brand routers exist. This is the walled garden remember.

Configure it however you want.. I do recommend just using very short pure alphanumeric names with no spaces. Once you are finished you can edit it..

So open the TC in airport utility once you finish it setting a new network. And yes you need to use a different wifi name to your mesh.

Step1

Click edit on the summary after you click the icon of the TC in airport utility.

There are two main changes to make.

Step2

wireless off

Network Bridge

Then two more changes.

Step3

Set IP static

You will need to just fill in the DNS.. the rest will be the same from DHCP. For DNS you can use a public like 8.8.8.8 or your main router.

And change under Internet options to IPv6 link-local only.

The TC can be located anywhere in the network but must be permanently plugged to main router or wireless mesh node.

with the TC in bridge mode, will HomeKit still work properly on the HK router?

Yes because the TC is no longer a router. It becomes a dumb client.. just like other dumb clients like your express.

Last night I installed four Expresses to use as AirPlay points for speakers.

What model Express?

How did you configure them?

Are they all set to join a wireless network?

Ethernet is far superior to using wireless... just saying.

What brand and model mesh system do you have? Can you easily find out what clients connect to which node? And what wireless band they are using?

Streaming can slow networks down depending on how you set priority.

You need to actually do some figuring out of where the delay is coming from.

I have Fiber internet which regularly produces speeds or 900mbps, so I doubt that's the problem.

But the speed of mesh nodes will be miles below the internet speed if you use wireless backhaul. In fact it is unlikely anything but a wired client could achieve speeds like 900Mbps. Mesh systems come in a variety of designs with differing backhaul capability. The best use ethernet.. second best use a high speed separate wifi channel in 5ghz dedicated to backhaul only and the cheapest ones use the same wifi for everything.

You may need to do some local lan testing to find where the bottleneck is.

First things first.. on each express give me the screenshot of its connection.

You do this by placing your mouse pointer over the word Unknown.. which will cause another popup with further info about the link.

So you can see in my case the Express is sitting very close to the wifi node.. signal at -27dBm is extremely high .. data rate is medium.. good enough for the job. At best it will be 150Mbps.

One thing I did not change that you had recommended was the ipv6 settings. The TC is plugged into the gateway Eero and ipv 6 is turned on in Eero.

Great you got it working.

We have found that using IPv6 causes the Airport to disappear from the network more often. And it makes it impossible to find the TC even using manual configure other method. It is also irrelevant. The local network can still use IPv6 without it turned on since the TC is now a dumb client not a router.

Anyway.. see how it goes.. if you find you have continuing issues with the TC disappearing turn IPv6 to link-local only.. if it makes no difference don't worry about it.. Much of the info is gained by experience over many users. It is not required in all situations.