Server Connections Interrupted

Graham - have you had your client try mounting the shares via Samba to see if this makes any difference - (smb://TCName) using go/connect to server. Note: If you specifically omit the .local designation when mounting via smb - the share will mount quickly. (so use smb://TCName and not sbm://TCName.local).

I have not heard of the time capsule locking up and requiring a reboot. I'm very curious to know whether your firmware downgrade to 7.5.2 makes any difference on either problem.

~Scott

Have done the downgrade - will see how we go!

I haven't explored mounting the "media" share via SMB. iTunes is the primary reason he has the share mounted so I'm concerned whether an SMB mount would cause any issues with iTunes? ie. is iTunes on a Mac AFP dependent?

No - iTunes will work fine with an smb share. I used to have my iTunes library on my DLink DNS323 NAS - which only supports Samba - and there were no issues.

As for the popup - now I am testing whether the disconnect happens if use go/connect to server - and then mount the share as afp://TCname.local. I realize this seems like a pointless test (but I am wondering if there might be some difference when mounting via the go command vs opening the share in the finder.

If the problem is going to happen - it will usually surface within 12 hours.

~Scott

Graham - How exactly is your client "sharing" the iTunes library? Is he just using the remote library on the TC external drive for space reasons and sharing the network iTunes library from the iMac via home sharing - or are all of his Macs individually pointing to the TC library? If the latter is the case (one networked iTunes library directly shared by all) - then it is important to access that library either with all Macs - or all PC's - because the iTunes on a Mac and iTunes on a PC use a slightly different format for the library. If you open iTunes on a Mac and then open the same library with iTunes on a PC - the PC will spend 10 minutes or so reformatting the library - and vice-versa - each time the library is opened from a Mac or PC. This type of mixed Mac/PC setup could also cause corruption or strange behavior. Also if multiple Macs are updating the shared iTunes library - this could cause unstable behavior.

The best way to share the iTunes library is via Home Sharing - with the library stored in one central location - whether that location be on a large internal drive on a Mac or externally on a USB/Firewire or Network drive - and if on an external drive - that drive should be either be mirrored (RAID 1) for extra protection - or backed up somehow on a regular basis.

If you have other software (such as SONOS) that is touching the iTunes library in any way - that could very well interfere with the library if the 3rd party software is not being kept up to date with the latest changes to iTunes.

Does your TC lockup problem stop if you disable SONOS? Also - Was your client successfully using their current iTunes setup with the external USB drive attached to the TC - prior to the version 7.6 and 7.6.1 firmware updates - or is this entire setup "new" and recently deployed simultaneously coinciding with the 7.6.x firware updates? Just curious. I think you have two separate issues going on.

Also - your client shouldn't have to leave the iTunes PC "on" all the time - as long as iTunes is always open - and the wake for network access option is enabled in system settings - the Mac should wake up automatically whenever another Mac or PC is trying to share the iTunes library - although in my testing - the wake for network access can be questionable.

~Scott

You need to select the Time Machine Backup "drive" that appears on the desktop, and eject it. The Time Capsule is still available for backups, but the message will stop appearing once the drive is no longer a mounted server share.

Also, re: Kiwi / SBeattie2, you may run into problems with using SMB with Lion, as Lion does not support SMB. If it is working fine, and you have Lion, congratulations. You beat the system. I just know that at work where each workgroup has server space to share between Windows and Mac machines, our Lion machines can no longer access the servers.

-Ray

Since the last post, I have updated th Airport Utility to the 6.0, and all the network connected TCs and the AEB are running firmware 7.6.1.

The "Server Interrupted" popups continue to appear, sometimes the popup reports disconnected severs that are being accessed, and for no apparent reason, without taking any action or attempting to "connect" to the TC that is being reported disconnected, the popup disappears.

I have added a Wi-Fi diagnostic tool and have not noticed an wireless networking problems, there doesn’t seem to be any interference.

I have also started seeing this, a drive that has no name as being interrupted. All my TCs are named, and they are the only servers attached.

This is "exactly" what happens to me. It seems to have nothing to do with WiFi - as I have the same behavior in a wired ethernet situation.

One additional behavior that I have noticed since doing all of this troubleshooting has been a frequent partial spin up of the TC hard drive. Seems to alway happen at xx:45 (45 minutes past the hour) and sometimes in between. The TC hard drive will start to spin up - and after about 10 seconds it will spin down. It's almost as if it doesn't reach full spin up speed before shutting down. This partial spin up does not seem to impact anything - and it does not result in a server disconnected popup message. I'm not sure if this has been happening all along - and I am only noticing it recently - now that I pay much closer attention to the state of the Time Capsule.

I believe this is strictly an AFP issue. I don't think it is entirely specific to the 7.6 or 7.6.1 firmware - as I see this behavior (without any change) even after reverting back to 7.5.1.

I have not yet had a chance to report my findings back to AppleCare - my case is still open.

However - I would suggest that anybody who is following this thread and experiencing the problem - should open a case with AppleCare (if they have an active AppleCare agreement) so that Apple might pay closer attention to the issue.

~Scott

Having the same problem with Ethernet and/or Wifi and a brand new 2TB Timecapule w/ Firmware 7.6.1. Seems like those messages appear when the harddrive falls asleep. Short before the message comes, the drive spins up, the message pop's up and the drive spins down again immediately.

It's really annoying! Apple, please get this fixed!

At first I was thinking that the popup was tied to the TC drive spindown - however - this behvior changed after a while and disproved my theory. It seems that sometimes the popup is tied to the drive going to sleep - and other times it is not. Good observation though.

I have sent a email detailing all of my findings - earlier this week - to AppleCare with respect to my open AppleCare case. I have not heard back from the support person yet. I will call on Friday (tomorrow).

~Scott

Update: Yesterday I heard back from AppleCare regarding this issue. They are taking a closer look at the troubleshooting details that I provided in my previous email and will get back to me in about a week. It looks like the problem is now getting some attention. I'm hoping they will be able to come up with a resolution - but I suspect it may take some time - especially if the root cause of the issue is something obscure.

~Scott

Sorry for my delayed response - lots of other "life events" happening!

I downgraded my client's TC firmware to 7.5.2 a couple of weeks ago and it has significantly improved his experience. No more of the pop-ups and, so far, no lock ups. The network share of the hard drive attached to the TC does however seem to dismount from his iMac occasionally and BonjourMounter isn't remounting it (I haven't investigated why). But the client knows how to remount it with just a couple of clicks so he's a lot happier than he was. But it does indicate that there is still an underlying instability in the mount point that is being presented by the TC.

Glad to hear that the downgrade to 7.5.2 is making an improvement for your client. I don't see much of an improvement when I downgrade to either 7.5.2 or 7.5.1 - where I see only a slight change in how the problem manifests itself - basically - I see the popup less frequently and I have to work harder to produce it - but it still happens. I have never encountered a lockup - with any version of the firmware. When I get some free time I will try some more troubleshooting - just can't seem to let this go.

~Scott

I was getting the same error messages using ethernet to a NAS mount. Protocol was AFP and when I changed to SMB, the error messages stopped. Must be NAS related because when I use AFP to Ubuntu server running Netatalk 2.2, no issues whatsoever.

I actually got the error from my Western Digital MyBook Live - when I had left a share mounted via AFP. Typically the WD MyBook Live does not get the disconnect error on it's own - unless there is also an AFP share mounted to the Time Capsule from the same Mac. This is a "first" - however - it is possible that I had previously had a share mounted to the Time Capsule and disconnected it and forgotten about it - thus the error occurred on the MyBook Live. The MyBook Live has "other" AFP issues - but not the disconnect issue. I talked to AppleCare earlier this week - and they have still not received any feedback from the engineers that are supposedly looking into this issue. I think it will be quite a while before we see a resolution.

~Scott

I CAN REPRODUCE the problem, I am trying to copy a big folder (143GBytes 25000 files) from Macintosh HD to Capsule Folder, Everytime I copy it, it CRASHES with Error -50 after a while and the message appears.

Apple, it is not acceptable to have a crash when copying files !!!! If it was only the message OK, but it crashes the copying of larges folders...

regards