Server Connections Interrupted

Just out of curiousity - are there any sparse bundle disk image file within the 25000 files you are copying? Are these files all of similar file types or are they a variety of different types of file. Did you search to see what "Error 50" means on a copy? Are you able to reproduce the error 50 while copying this data with the TimeCapsule downgraded to a prior version of the firmware - such as 7.5.2?

The largest amount of data I have copied at once has been a collection of copies of my itunes library and iphoto libraries about 70 gig. I never get an error (of any kind) during the copy - but almost always get the disconnect popup a few minutes after the copy successfully completes. I see no evidence that any of the files being copied have been corrupted in any way. On my large copies (for purposes of reproducing this issue) I always use a wired ethernet connection for speed. But I can produce the popup with smaller amounts of data over wireless - but it usually needs to be multiple gigabytes of data in a single copy - in order to produce the popup.

In various copy tests - I notice that copying a .sparsebundle disk image - there is usually a long hesitation while the copy operation appears to "reverse engineer" the .sparsebundle during the copy - rather I should say the sparse bundle doesn't appear to be copied as a single binary file - it appears as though the copy process looks inside the sparse bundle - takes it apart and reconstructs the sparsebundle at the desitnation. I believe I see this deconstruct-reconstruct behavior on both AFP and SMB shares. What I have not tried is copying a sparse bundle from or to the Time capsule to another drive via SBM on a Windows box - I'm wondering in that scenario if the sparsebundle would simply be copied over as a straight binary file - as Windows doesn't know what to do with a sparse bundle inmage - but the Mac seems to have special handling for copying a sparse bundle.

~Scott

No spare bundle, I tried smb but it si far worse, it does not go futher than seaching files to copy after one hour !

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...

I too am experiencing this very annoying issue. It's been happening regularly on my macbook pro over wifi - certainly since upgrading to Lion but maybe before as well.

I have a third Gen TC (7.6.1) which was originally a 1TB device - I have swapped in a 2TB drive which I have partitioned 50/50 with TM backups going on one partition ('backup') and the other ('data') with my iTunes media files and all of my photos etc on it.

I now have a mac mini (Lion 10.7.3) connected by ethernet which I have been setting up over the last couple of days. I've copied all of my media and photos from the TC onto the Mini (1TB, no dropouts) and now plan to use that as the master (serving an Apple TV) with the TC acting as a backup of the important files - using Carbon Copy Cloner.

(I like Time Machine but have had occasional issues with backups becoming unreadable and so I prefer to have a straight copy of files available as well). I also do an occasional backup to a USB drive that I keep off-site.

Anyway - upshot is that I have been sitting in front of the TC whilst unsuccessfully running CCC backups from the Mini to the TC. It drops out regularly with the server connection interrupted error. It has also worked OK sometimes - it doesn't appear to be long files (e.g. 4GB iso images) that are the issue. In fact it appears to drop the connection even when nothing is being copied - i.e. when CCC is comparing files.

I started breaking down the backups - only doing a major folder at a time (e.g. iTunes, Photos, Users etc). There seemed to be a specific point in a particular folder in Users where it triggered the dropout but that theory didn't hold.

What's also been interesting is that on some (but not all) of these occasions the TC seems to have done a reset - the light goes yellow and the internet connection drops. After a while the light goes green and you can browse it again. On one occasion I had to pull the power to get it to come up again. I don't think I've seen this behaviour described eleswhere.

Luis92100 - The fact that you are getting an actual error during the copy process almost sounds like either your time capsule (or its internal) drive may actually be defective - or possibly a network or cabiling issue. Others (myself included) are not reporting errors, data loss, or corruption - and the disconnect popups seem to be more of an annoyance as opposed to an actual serious error.

Can you try any of the following to see if the error -50 stops:

1) Plug your time capsule directly into the ethernet cable of your Mac (effectively taking it off your network) and repeat the copy process to see if the -50 error continues to occur. By doing this you are factoring any type of problem with your network out of the equation.

2) Completely erase (reformat) the Data volume on the Time Capsule via Airport Utility. I realize this is painful and time consuming - especially if you have a lot of data on the TC that you would need to copy to another drive before reformatting - but there is a remote possibility that your file system could be corrupted.

3) Completely reset your Time Capsule to factory defaults (with the Time Capsule on Firmware 7.6.1). You do this from Airport Utility - Preferably Airport Utility 5.6 (which has the old interface). Select your Time Capsule and then click on Base Station and select Restore Default Settings. In Airport utility 6 - click on your Time Capsule in the network diagram - select Edit from the popup - and then select Base Station in the menu bar and select Restore Default Settings. After you reset to factory defaults - you would need to setup the Time Capsule from scratch. Although you can save the Time Capsules configuration to a file and then reimport that configuration - I think is is better to set it up from scratch for the purpose of this exercise - in case something is bad in the saved configuration. Hopefully you don't have a lot of MAC addresses entered in the Access Control List or have a lot of MAC addresses in the DHCP reservation list - otherwise reentering those could be a pain.

Question: Are you using your Time Capsule in Bridge Mode or in Router Mode (just curios)? I use mine in Bridge mode - meaning that it is just another device on my network and is not providing router or DHCP functionality - and there is another router on my network. In Router mode - the Time Capsule is also your router as well as the DHCP server.

So far people aren't reporting the discconect message when the TC is mounted via SMB (unless I have missed some prior posts). The fact that you are having issues with SMB as well leads me to believe that something else is going on that is causing your error. To the best of my knowledge the disconnect popup seems to be associated only with AFP connections to the Time Capsule.

~Scott

Hi Scott,

Thank's a lot for your time spend to write me a so detailed response.

This was very helpfull and finally solved my Error -50 problem, a Very Strange One as you will see.

After having done all this, Applecare replaced my time capsule by a new one as they supected a faulty disc.

But on the new one The problem Error -50 was still there !

So it was definitly on the Lion side, or/and a problem with the source, I then tried to copy again the folder with Carbon Copy Cloner in order to try to get a better error message than with findre Copy. Carbon copy cloner detected a file that it cannot copy ! I removed this file and then The Finder Copy worked like a charm, no more Error -50 message.

Problem was in the Source, The file that cannot be copied is an alias called z/ of 1 byte in a Wine Bottled application (directory contents/Ressources/dosdevices) version 1.2.2. This file can be copied to a firewire disc bit not on time capsule.

I tried to build another .exe application with Wine Botller, same problem, so it is possible for anybody to reproduce.

By The way, The Server Connections interrupted message does still appear with the new Time Capsule...

Thank's again

Best Regards

Hello again,

After solving my problem that capsule fail to write Wine Bottle dosdevice folder that OSX can perfectly copy beetween Hard DIsks.

I tryed SMB to get read of Server Connections interrupted (not only message but effectivly disconnected ! then reconnect automaticly) but I get with my 140MBytes folder something like 11 Hours to copy instead of 2H30 with AFP, so its not really usable (How do you do a backup???) except for kids drawings one by one. (1GB ethernet, not WIFI).

Very 😟 Back to AFP

Anyone an idea ?

Regards

Scott,

I have an MBP 13" and an MBP 17" sitting on the same desk. Each is connected to an external monitor and several harddisks. Both use Time Machine to backup hourly and SuperDuper to clone the internal harddisk once a week. Both MBP's run OS X 10.6.8. I am considerng clearing some of this clutter off the desk by untethering the MBP 13" from the external monitor and the harddisks. It would no longer have a "home" anywhere in the apartment, but would be picked up wherever it happened to be when needed, used wherever it was needed, and left where it was no longer needed. To that end I am considering replacing the AEBS which extends my network (another AEBS connected to a cable modem) by a TC on which the Time Machine and clone volumes for the MBP 13" would reside, but I hesitate, given your experience.

Do I understand you correctly, that your problems seem to stem from connecting a non-TM volume to the network, either an external valume attached via USB to the TC, or a non-TM partition of the TC harddisk, but that the problem does not, or might not, occur if no external harddisks are connected to the network and the TC harddisk only consists of TM volumes?

Thanks,

Richard

Hi Luis - There are going to be peformance differences between AFP and SMB - depending on the nature of how each protocol handles different types of files and how it handles differences between the source and destination file systems. I am not a networking protocol expert - but it appears to me that SMB involves a lot of per-file verification during the copy and/or delete process and thus transferring a large number of files and or complex subdirectory structure may result in perceived poor network performance. I do question that SMB is seemingly exponentially slower than AFP. I could see it being maybe twice as slow but not 5 times as slow. It does appear that some file operations via both AFP and SMB result in unusal slowness when one does not expect the operation to be slow.

I have noticed that when copying disk images (sparse bundles, etc) - via finder on a Mac to a TC share or other network share - that the copy process (from the Mac OS X perspective) seems to be looking inside the disk images when copying them - and performing some type of processing or validation on a per-file basis within the disk image - resulting in slow performance. However, if the copy process is peformed on a PC - via a mapped network drive to the Time Capsule - the Windows side (SMB) simply treats a disk image file as raw binary data and copies it as-is from A to B - without any additional processing - and appears to be relatively quick or at least it seems to move along at the expected copy pace.

Would you happen to be able to repeat your SMB folder copy to another network share - such as a shared drive on a PC or to another NAS drive other than the Time Capsule - to determine if it still takes 11+ hours?

There are a lot of factors involved in the overall performance of copying data to a network drive - and you are bound to see differences copying files from device A vs copying to device B - even though the data is identical - how that is handled between the source and destination could vary greatly - and also can be impacted by which OS is driving and managing the copy process.

~Scott

Scott,

Thanks very much for the extensive reply. I don't wish to hijack this thread, but I tend towards using the other AEBS and the TC to extend the network wirelessly, rather than establishing a roaming topology. This avoids unsightly cables, which I am also liable to trip over. Do you have any thoughts on pros and cons of extended wireless networks over roaming networks, particularly as related to the error message problem? I am using OS X 10.6.8 and have the latest firmware installed on my AEBS's. To one of them I have connected a LaCie hard disk. I have never received the error message, but then, I don't transfer large files to it either, something that would change if I regularly cloned the MBP 13" internal hard disk to a drive connected to one of the AEBS's or the TC.

Thanks

Richard

My experience over the years with PC and MAC is that there is no way to find a good solution with good speed (for me 25-35 Megabytes/sec) to enable disc access over Wifi, it is always less that 10 Megabytes even with n networks. This is for a sort of download directory where there is a mix of small an big files. Small files are very slow, Big files like videos can be transfered up to 40 Megabytes per second with Time capsule Over a 1GBits Ethernet but not a chance with WIFI.

Electrical appliance Network adapter has alway disapointed me even thoses given for 1gigabit that never goes above 200 megabits in real situation, I you ask the manufacturer tests are done whith 2 adaptors ON THE SAME PLUG !

USB connected disks to time capsule are deadly slow for small files i.e 5 Megabytes, large files does not go above 10-15 Megabytes/second, This is due to a small power processor (same problem for ALL NAS or buy a Mac Mini to do that) and a lot of data and management packets trafic.

The only solution to get good performance is Direct External SATA Drive (NOT ON MAC, A PITY) limited only by disc performance or Firewire that can go around 40-70 Megabytes. USB 2, even directly connected cannot go above 20 megabytes, I do not know about USB 3.

As for SMB performance on Time Capsule, I am not surprised as many NAS are below 20 MegaBytes/seconds and SMB need a BIG processor with EXPENSIVE NAS with big caches (For example a MAC PRO would be superb...)

Time capsule is a very good WIFI router very compatible with iPAD/iPHONE, an Average NAS (equivalent to other NAS at the same price) largely sufficient for Time Capsule, even Over WIFI (But you need to do the initial feeding with direct Ethernet connection)

But if you want to extend you Macintosh HD capacity, use an external Firewire (NOT USB!) disk that will be 20% slower that your internal disk but perfectly usable even for Full HD video streaming, VMware Windows or other disk dependent application.

By the way here is the "Server connection interupted again", But I found a solution, Just Drag the window out of your screen, it will stay there and will not bother you again...

Best regards

Hi Richard - I wouldn't suggest creating a wifi extended network due to the poor performance that will result. I've experimented with it in my house - and what I am finding is that my relatively large house is actually too small for an extended wifi network. In an extended wifi network - you have to carefully place the access points so that the ranges of each properly overlap. What I was finding in my test scenario - was that in most circumstances - the Mac or wireless device would still connect to the non-extended wifi access point (with the weaker signal) than to the extended wifi acess point which was in much closer proximity. Somehow the wifi connection process seems to be smart enough to ignore the extended network - when the network it is extending is still accessible - even though the signal is weaker.

When it would actually connect to the extended network access point - the performance was noticeably slower - and there was often a detectable lag in response - basically you could almost tell that it was transmitting to one access point and then waiting for the the bounce back from the other. The extended wifi network is only going to benefit you if you have a dead spot at your location where the main wifi access point just isn't reaching - and you would put the extending access point somewhere close to the dead spot - but still within reach of the main access point - providing wifi access (albeit not necessarily fast) access to the problem area.

You may even find that with the roaming network - you will still end up connecting to an access point other than what you might expect. I'm using wired airport expresses to extend my 802.11g network (not my 802.11n) - mostly as an experiment - and it appears to be working. When I get another time capsule - I will use it to extend both the 802.11g and 802.11n dual band. In your case why not just use your AEBS as your router - and turn off its wifi - and locate a time capsule or your other AEBS centrally in your house (or apartment) to give you more evenly distributed wifi from a single access point? That may actually prove to be more effective in the long run.

~Scott

Okay, I have been experiencing the OP's issue for a while now—but only on one of two MacBook Pros. Both have SL 10.6.8. Both use WiFi. Both have the drive mounted in the background with no user-initiated read/write procceses (who knows what sort of indexing or other task is going on in the background). On the 2006 MBP 15", the USB drive never loses its connection. I never get the "server connection interrupted" message. On that MBP, I have an alias to the drive in the login items (under Accounts).

Dang. I accidentally posted an incomplete reply, tried editing it, and apparently took too ****** long.

Here is the complete post:

Okay, I have been experiencing the OP's issue for a while now—but only on one of two MacBook Pros. Both have SL 10.6.8. Both use WiFi. Both have the drive mounted in the background with no user-initiated read/write processes (who knows what sort of indexing or other task is going on in the background). Oh—it should be noted that this is a USB, non-TC drive, and I do not currently use Time Machine. There is no hub, etc.

On the 2006 MBP 15", the USB drive never loses its connection. I never get the "server connection interrupted" message. On that MBP, I have an alias to the drive in the login items (under Accounts). There is no problem with the AEBS shared drive when accessed from this computer.

On my MBP 17" (late 2010), I do not mount the drive at login. When I want to access the drive, I go to the sidebar, click the triangle next to "Shared," select my AEBS, and the drive shows up as a folder icon. I click once on the folder (in column view the whole time), and the drive icon shows up as mounted on my desktop. I can read/write to it without a problem (though I do so for occasional, manual backups). It is in this scenario with the MBP17 that I begin getting the continual "server connection interrupted" messages. Again, I don't use Time Machine, and this is a LaCie 1TB drive connected via the AEBS USB port. The error pops up for me when the drive is just mounted, idly in the background doing nothing.

Because it works fine on the MBP15, I can't fathom that it's a hardware issue with the drive or the AEBS. After checking Console for messages, adding it as a login item in my account on the MBP17, running software update (just Safari and iPhoto updates), and doing lots of searching, I couldn't fix it, so I quit trying. But during my investigation, I noticed that if I access the drive in a different way, it changes the icon of the drive when it is mounted on my desktop. When I access it via the sidebar, as outlined above, it has drive icon but with a WiFi symbol. When I get to it the other way, it has a drive icon with people symbol (meaning "shared," presumably).

Anyway, the AEBS drive has been mounted for 6 hours today in the background on my MBP17, and I have had zero "server connection interrupted" messages! None.

Here is how I accessed the drive. In sidebar preferences, I selected "Show MacBook Pro" (it's the top level, akin to "My Computer" on Windows). I click on MacBook Pro in the sidebar, then "Network," then AEBS, then the drive. Once the drive mounted (with the people icon), I dragged it into my login items. It works. I don't know why, and I don't know why the icons look different, because when I view the drive info, the server address is AFP—no matter how I connect to it. I also tried "Connect to Server," but that yielded the same result and the same drive icon as going through "Shared" in the sidebar.

I confess that though I'm very tech savvy, I know just enough to be dangerous when it comes to networking. I remember having to use the Chooser to get to stuff like this, so this is all quasi-mysterious to me. I mean, I know the basics, but that's about it. The only thing I thought was significant was the fact that when I accessed the drive via Sidebar>Shared>AEBS and it displayed as a folder (with the same people icon on it), when I'd would get info on that folder, it said the format was "Sharepoint." I thought Sharepoint was some Micro$oft technology? Anyway, when I get info on the drive mounted using the method that doesn't cause those messages, it says the format is AppleShare.

Weird, huh? Well, I hope it gives someone experiencing these messages some insight or clues. Oh, and I am running 10.6.8 on both Macs (we have an all-Apple household; no Windoze), and my AEBS firmware is 7.6.1.

A SOLUTION FOR "Server connections interrupted" ???????

Try:

Create an alias to any of your folder inside DATA on Time Capsule (not Data itself)

Drag this alias on your Desktop

So you have an alias on your desktop that points into Time Capsule.

See if the message comes again, for me I did not saw it anymore... yet....

Strange... coincidence.?

Regards

I would like to chip in my experiences.

I had the same problems with the Servers connection interrupted message popping up in irragular intervals, without realy losing the connection.

I have snow lepard and firmware 7.6.1 running.

I had the problem on two computers from the three.

I have two partitions on my Server.

This week I found out that when I only have one partition open on my computer I will get the Servers connection interrupted message.

The moment I open the second partition on my computer, the message disappears.

For the last week it didn't come back since I have both partitions open.

Hope this helps,

Leo