Is it a normal maintenance thing for the Time Capsule to flash amber in the middle of the night?
I woke up at about 3:30am this morning and noticed my Time Capsule was flashing an amber light. I prepared myself mentally to have to do some troubleshooting in the morning. But when I woke up, it was back to a solid green light as if nothing had happened.
Thanks for any insights.
Time Capsule-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
Check the LOG.. but I suspect it is simply due to everything being shut down.. normally flashing amber that is an issue will not rectify itself so I would not get too worried about it.
Check the LOG.. but I suspect it is simply due to everything being shut down.. normally flashing amber that is an issue will not rectify itself so I would not get too worried about it.
Hi, LaPastenague ~ Thanks for replying.
First, I suppose I should clarify that things were not shut down; the computer was asleep. I don't know whether that matters.
Second, here's the log for the appropriate period. Nothing at all going on for about 12 hours! As far as I can tell, there's nothing to worry about. What do you think?
5/20/12 7:12:46 PM com.apple.backupd[6580] Backup completed successfully.
5/20/12 7:12:51 PM com.apple.backupd[6580] Ejected Time Machine disk image.
5/20/12 7:12:52 PM com.apple.backupd[6580] Ejected Time Machine network volume.
5/20/12 7:56:52 PM [0x0-0x1ab1ab].backupd-helper[6851] Not starting Time Machine backup after wake - less than 60 minutes since last backup completed.
5/21/12 8:01:38 AM com.apple.backupd[7045] Starting standard backup
5/21/12 8:01:38 AM com.apple.backupd[7045] Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Xxxxxxxx%20Xxxxxx@Xxxxxs-Time-Capsule.local/Xxxxxxxx%20Xxxxxx's%20Time%20 Caps
5/21/12 8:01:46 AM com.apple.backupd[7045] Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Xxxxxxxx%20Xxxxxx@Xxxxxs-Time-Capsule.local/Xxxxxxxx%20Xxxxxx's%20Time%20 Caps
5/21/12 8:01:50 AM com.apple.backupd[7045] QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
5/21/12 8:01:53 AM com.apple.backupd[7045] Disk image /Volumes/Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxx's Time Caps/Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxx’s MacBook_001ff3d64754.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxx’s MacBook
5/21/12 8:01:53 AM com.apple.backupd[7045] Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxx’s MacBook/Backups.backupdb
5/21/12 8:07:05 AM com.apple.backupd[7045] No pre-backup thinning needed: 6.29 GB requested (including padding), 166.86 GB available
5/21/12 8:13:54 AM com.apple.backupd[7045] Copied 24877 files (59.1 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Thanks!
No problem.. I did actually mean the log on the TC.. as the computer is sleeping.
When it sleeps just check the ethernet or wireless is still working.. if all connections are dropped the TC might feel lonely in the night.
Thanks, LaPastenague.
I guess I don't know how to check the log on the TC. I opened Console, clicked on Show Log List, and then searched for backupd. I thought that's how one finds out what's going on with the TC. Is there something else I should know?
Anyway, it's working fine now.
I hadn't realized it's important to keep a connection (ethernet or wireless) to the TC when the computer is asleep. I know I haven't always done that in the past — although, frankly, I thought the ethernet cable was plugged in overnight Sunday/Monday.
Thanks for your help!
It is not important.. it is just the TC can get lonely.. I have seen other people complain about amber flashing LED when they do not have a connection active.. and there was nothing much we could do about it. Put a piece of tape over it.. what you don't know...!!
To see the log, if you use Lion, for sure download the airport utility 5.6 although you have listed SL as OS.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
Go to advanced tab in manual setup.
Click on logging and statistics.. and down the bottom the button with almost the same name.. which is kind of dumb,
Nothing much probably shows up.. but worth a look.
Thanks so much for walking me through this, LaPastenague.
I plan to upgrade to Lion (gotta migrate to iCloud soon), but for now I'm still using Snow Leopard. Even so, your directions worked just fine. Unfortunately, the time period I wanted to look at in the log has already disappeared. Here's a sample from a couple of hours later:
May 21 05:39:05 Severity:5 AFP session from Xxxxxxx Xxxxxx@10.0.1.4 closing.
May 21 05:52:14 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 18:9e:fc:26:8d:9e
May 21 05:52:14 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.
May 21 05:53:11 Severity:5 Associated with station 18:9e:fc:26:8d:9e
May 21 05:53:11 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 18:9e:fc:26:8d:9e
May 21 06:05:24 Severity:5 Clock synchronized to network time server time.apple.com (adjusted -1 seconds).
May 21 06:45:13 Severity:5 AFP login OK from Xxxxxxx Xxxxxx@10.0.1.4.
May 21 06:52:15 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.
May 21 07:05:24 Severity:5 Clock synchronized to network time server time.apple.com (adjusted +0 seconds).
May 21 07:38:20 Severity:5 AFP session from Xxxxxxx Xxxxxx@10.0.1.4 closing.
May 21 07:46:55 Severity:5 AFP login OK from Xxxxxxx Xxxxxx@10.0.1.4.
May 21 07:52:15 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.
May 21 08:05:24 Severity:5 Clock synchronized to network time server time.apple.com (adjusted +0 seconds).
May 21 08:12:27 Severity:5 AFP session from Xxxxxxx Xxxxxx@10.0.1.4 closing.
May 21 08:21:25 Severity:5 Internet configuration leased [IPv4] -- host <66.65.7.31/255.255.252.0> gateway <66.65.4.1> dns <209.18.47.61 209.18.47.62> wins <> lease <43200> domain <nyc.rr.com>
Nothing looks alarming to me. Of course, I could be wrong about that.
Given that I'm not having any problems, I'm inclined to go with this explanation (one of nine offered in <support.apple.com/kb/TS1589> as "the most common reasons the status light might blink amber"):
Internet access may be temporarily unavailable from your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
I think I just caught my ISP being off its game in the middle of the night. I did have a look at the lights on the modem when I noticed that the light on the TC was blinking amber. They looked okay, as far as my groggy self could tell. So perhaps the network had already recovered, but the TC was still getting up to speed.
Anyway, all's well that ends well. I'd call that a wrap.
Thanks for your help. :-)
Time Capsule flashes amber in middle of the night?
