Q: Server Connections Interrupted

Scott,

The popup does not occur (that I am aware of anyway, the backup runs in the middle of the night!) while copying. However, the Time Capsule is not being used as an external HD, but as a pure backup device. What I meant in my original post was that when you open a Finder window, and click on the Time Capsule in your Shared devices, the drive will mount on the Desktop, provided you have "Connected Servers" checked under "Show these items on the desktop:" in Finder Preferences. If the Drive is mounted on the Desktop, the "Server connections interrupted" error will show every 15-20 minutes. I don't know why the error shows, but I have noticed if you eject the drive the errors stop, but it can still be accessed by Time Machine or TimeMachineEditor for backups either daily, or I assume constantly, without being mounted.

As far as the sleep issue, your computer cannot backup when it is asleep. Anyone can correct me if I am wrong, but I do not think Time Machine can wake your computer to perform a backup either.

Re: Graham,

I don't think this is a viable solution if you are using a TC connected external HD for an iTunes library, as I imagine the drive would have to be mounted to be available to iTunes. I just did a quick test with a portion of my iTunes library, and once a track is selected to be played, the drive mounts, although not as an Airport drive, but as a shared server drive.

Hope that helps, if I find anything else, I will post revisions.

-Ray

I don't really see any difference in the popup behavior whether I have the drive icon mounted on the desktop or not.  It's purely whether or not there is any active mount via AFP in the finder.

Ray - You are correct about Time Machine not backing up while the Mac is sleeping (that is - Time Machine will not wake the Mac to perform a backup - but - should something else wake the Mac for network access (such as using the remote app on the iphone to control iTunes - then Time Machine will in-fact keep the Mac awake long enough to perform a backup.  At least this is what I believe I see on all of my Macs.

Just out of curiosity - I assigned a static IP address to my Time Capsule (as it has always been set up to use DHCP) - in hopes that I would see some change in behavior.  As of the last 24 hours with a static IP address - I don't see any difference at all.

I still haven't gotten back to Apple Care yet - it's on the list of things to do in the next day or so.

~Scott

Thanks for the feedback Ray. Having the iTunes library and all the iTunes media files on the external drive does work OK - as long as the external hard drive is mounted as a server share and I think we have that working OK using BonjourMounter.

Unfortunately my client has reported over the weekend that the "file serving" functionality of the TC locked up again (requiring a power reboot of the TC) so it seems that 7.6.1 didn't fix that problem as we'd hoped. He's also still frequently getting the disconnect messages that have no impact other than needing to keep clicking ignore.

So our action today will probably be to do the TC downgrade in the fervent hope we can get rid of at least one of his symptoms.

And I'll be trying to find more info about the lockup - possibly raising a case with Apple Support given that it's a new device and his Macs are also still under Apple Care.

Graham

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                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Just thought I would report - that using the go/connect to server using afp://TCname.local and afp://TCipAddress makes no difference in the disconnect message.  Well - it was worth a try.

~Scott

I am getting the same message on my brand new 4th Gen 2TB TC.  It is driving me crazy.  I have downgraded to 7.5.2 and the problem still occurs.

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

I too am experiencing this problem and have not yet found a solution but I've tried setting the Network setting to manual with no positive effect.

Let's hope this gets solved soon.

David

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