airport stopped backing up

Airport Utility shows that the TC is connected (internet & TC both green).

First base.. check.

2/ In Finder try and mount the TC.. you simply click on the icon and it should mount.. make sure you set preferences in Finder to show network shares.

Did you try this before attempting the connect to server.. sorry I was unclear.. we need to know if you can see TC in Finder without needing any further work on making it appear.

Here is screenshot from my Finder. Note it shows under locations, external drive partitions, hgst1 & 2, my NAS, J1900NAS, and the Time Capsule tc5e which is not mounted.

You may need to change Finder Preferences to show all items under locations in sidebar. Apple do not turn them on by default.

I click it to mount.

I clicked "Connect to Server" & typed in my IP address & clicked "connect", but the next box you showed me (for registered user) never came up.

Second base.. fail.

Your computer is not even attempting to connect to the TC hence the fail. Hence you cannot backup.

Since you didn't post screenshots.. I cannot help beyond this point.

What I would do at this point is press the reset button on the TC with a suitable pin.. for 10sec so it resets. Then do the setup of the TC again in Airport Utility from the Mac. Use all short names, no spaces and pure alphanumerics. NOT APPLE RECOMMENDED NAMES. This is most important. Passwords same rules but longer.

No backups will be lost. This will simply fix network issues. However you will need to add disk in Time Machine to enable Time Machine to continue backing up.

Should I say "Add backup disk & try creating another one?" (I'm assuming if it doesn't work it will have written over all my current backups??)

Just to alleviate any fears.. no.. Time Machine will never write over its own backups.. it will delete them due to corruption on a regular basis.. or totally destroy them with upgraded OS.. but never just delete them.. and usually with some warning and permission from you.

As the simplest solution to your problem.. let me strongly recommend you simply buy a USB drive (with the USB type that matches your Mac) and start doing direct backups.. forget using Time Capsule. This is what I suggested at the end of the last post if the fix didn't work. It hasn't.. so make the change.

Use Cloud for backing up your user files.. iCloud being the Apple path of least resistance.

Apple has effectively given up support for personal network backups which is why you find it so difficult.

It was easy when it was supported. Since Airport routers went out of production in 2018, this day has been coming for a while.

I don't have a computer that able to handle Monterey yet..

But these tests are simple and will help discover the problem.

1/ Open the airport utility on the MacBook Pro. It must show the airport (time capsule is available)

Please post your screenshot.. use Command + Shift + 4 keys.. and select the correct part of the screen.

This helps loads. I had to cover the serial number as Apple occasionally deletes pictures with personal info.. How serial number would be useful to man or beast I have no idea.

What is important here is also the LAN address of the TC and how it is configured which I can see.

2/ In Finder try and mount the TC.. you simply click on the icon and it should mount.. make sure you set preferences in Finder to show network shares.

Or use top menu in Finder.. and Go, Connect to Server.

You will get a box like thus.. Type in the address as shown below.. but using your IP address you got from the Airport Utility.. you can also try AFP://IP address if the SMB does not work.

Assuming it works you will get another box.. like this.

Type in your TC name.. just admin is fine usually and the TC password for accessing the drive.. usually the same now as your wifi password.. if you don't know it just say and I can show you how to find the password.

Check the box to remember it in your keychain.. so you don't need to do this repeatedly.

Click connect box at the bottom.

If that all worked.. your TC should now be mounted and you can see details of the files stored on it in Finder.

Now go to Time Machine.. if you managed to mount the TC disk it should attempt the backup.. no luck try selecting the disk via its IP address.

You should see the mounted TC using its old or new name.. ie IP address in the list of disk. Select

No luck tell me where you got up to..

If it is too hard. and it is too hard because Apple really no longer support network backups.

The easiest solution is to get a suitably size USB drive.. plug it into your Mac and use that as the backup target.

Sorry but Apple decided it really does not support network backups any more.

Excellent.. try copying a file.. anything.. just a document you recently created.. in Finder copy and paste it directly to Data on TC and see if that works.. if so.. try again with Time Machine..

Tell us what happens.

NOTE.. Time Machine will not backup if you have sparse bundle mounted in Finder.. so unmount the sparsebundle.

Also note the dates.. according to actual files the last backup happened on 26th October 2021 .. long before your 1st Jan 2022 failure. You may need to ERASE the TC disk to get things working again. If you want to keep all your backups then Archive first to a Mac OS formatted (HFS+) USB disk of equal size to the TC disk.. either 2TB or 3TB depending on the model.. or larger.

Archive and erase are under disk tab in Airport Utility.

Click the Airport icon in Utility.. click on edit in summary.. as per my first screenshot in first post.

Archive disk will take several hours so run it overnight. That will load all the existing backups onto the USB drive.. then click erase and you can do a quick erase .. only takes a minute or so.. then start new backup from your main computer.. once it is finished do your other computers..

It is more than likely a network fault.. very common since Apple moved to SMB3 protocol in about High Sierra but is hitting people extra hard if they recently moved to Big Sur or later.

First thing to try.. reboot the Time Capsule (TC).

If that does not work reboot the main modem/router and TC.

Or do the whole network including all the clients.. computers and any other equipment.

Still no luck you need to give us network info..

What model is your main router?

How is the TC connected to the network?

what OS is your computer running?

Can you mount the TC in Finder?

Can you find the TC in Airport Utility on the Mac?

Let's see if I can assist LaPastenague with this as I do run macOS Monterey on a couple of my Macs. However, I stopped using Time Machine (TM) backups to a Time Capsule (TC) a few years back when Apple dropped out of the networking hardware business. Instead, I still use TM, but my Macs do backups to both a locally attached drive and to a Network Attached Storage (NAS). (The former being a bit less convenient for a notebook.)

Regardless, let me start with a few screenshots so we can be on the "same playing field."

This first one is from System Preferences > Time Machine. As you can see, I have both backup destinations listed. In this case SG2 is the locally attached WD My Pro, and "Data" is the NAS.

The next image is from the Finder app, where you can see my Time Capsule (TC) listed under the "Locations" category. This is where it would appear if the Mac "sees" the TC over the network. If it doesn't appear here, then there is something amiss with the communications between these two devices ... as LaPastenague is eluding to.

Finally, if I select the TC, I would see another its contents in the right-side Finder window. If I was still running TM backups to the TC, it would appear as <computername>.sparsebundle, in the "Data" folder, like in the following image:

For TM to back up to a TC, the connection between the devices must be using the AFP protocol, not SMB. Although the TC accepts SMB connections, it does not for TM. This is normally done in the background when TM runs a backup, in that, it first verifies that the TC exists, then establishes a secure connected to it BEFORE it attempts to copy anything to it. From what you provided, so far, the very first step is not working properly.

I need to drop off now, but as soon as I get a chance, I will try to work up some step-by-step troubleshooting steps for you.

Alternatively, this may be a good time to consider finding a replacement for using your TC for TM. You certainly do not want to be dependent on only one backup method, especially if your data is critical to you.

Fiona61 wrote:

My TC does appear to be "mounted" (I wasn't sure what that meant) 🤨

"Mounting" a drive, and not unique to macOS, and is when the operating system both recognizes a drive and makes it available for access to various apps that need that access ... like Time Machine. For a drive, located on the network (like the TC), it would first try to see if it can find it at the location it was told it existed at. Once successful, it will perform a digital "handshake" to attempt to open a communications channel to it. If all that is successful, and in this case, it would then establish the communication "rules" both devices will follow until the connection is either terminated or broken. These rules include things like the file sharing protocol to be used. (For Macs, that would be either AFS or SMB.) Again, the proper one for TM would be AFS.

The image you have provided shows that your TC has been located (or, at least, previously located), and its contents are three TM backup sets (sparsebundles), including the one for your notebook (which is highlighted. If you double-click on that sparsebundle, it would open another Finder window with its contents. Is this not the case? If it is not, then somehow, even though it appears in the Finder window, they is something wrong with either the communication between the devices or the TC itself.

Also, the image shows that last successful backup of your notebook was in October of last year.