Time Machine problem with Qnap NAS

That seems to be a common problem with the QNAP NAS and Mountain Lion.

Log into the NAS backup drive from the finder using the user name and password for Time Machine backups so that the drive mounts on the desktop. If you can't access the drive using its network name, use the QNAP's network address.

Next open Time Machine preferences and select the QNAP TM drive that is mounted on the desktop. It should start working normally from then on.

I had a similar problem. Found this on the Qnap forum http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=61182&start=15 which solved the problem for me. Open a terminal window and from the command prompt enter;

sudo tmutil setdestination aftp://<your Qnap time machine user>:<your Qnap time machine password>@<your Qnap ip address>/TMBackup

e.g.

sudo tmutil setdestination afp://TimeMachine:password@192.168.0.254/TMBackup

Cheers

Greg

Here's what worked for me:

1. Set up Time Machine according to the QNAP instructions
2. In Finder menu: Go > Connect To Server (or Command-K)
3. Type in your NAS's IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.xxx)
4. At the logon prompt, use "TimeMachine" and the password you set up in Step 1
5. Continue per the QNAP instructions to set up the backup in TimeMachine's preferences

Steps 2, 3, and 4 are not in the QNAP instructions but this is the only way I was able to get rid of "The backup volume is not available" error. Try it out and let us know if it works for you!

This resolved my problem http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=75195

1. Disable Time Machine backup from the NAS admin page
2. Access the NAS via SSH in Terminal i.e. ssh admin@your_NAS_IP
3. Delete the Time Machine files with the command: rm -r /share/HDA_DATA/.timemachine
4. Enable Time Machine backup again
5. Run a Time Machine backup from your Mac

Just changed MD0 to HDA_DATA on my TS 119PII

Hopes it helps!

Thank you very much!

That solved my problem.

I have seen a lot of posts with the MD0_DATA folder, and I had no such folder.

As my QNAP is 4 disk NAS, I tried your command "rm -r /share/HDA_DATA/.timemachine" in the four first folders in the /share folder: HDA_DATA, HDB_DATA, HDC_DATA and HDD_DATA.

In the third one, it was OK.

And after that, Time Machine could mount again the TMBacup volume and acces it.

Now I'm doing again the Backup!!

Basic question here: I have a number of client machines who will use this QNAP TS-809Pro box as a Time Machine destination. How does it handle authentication - how does it know whose backup belongs to whom? And, the setup GUI on the QNAP box says Username is "TimeMachine" - do all users use this single account and its password when backing up to this networked Time machine??

Michael,

In my experience (2 laptops backup up over the WiFi network to the same Time Machine volume on a QNAP TS-669L), all clients use the same ID ("TimeMachine") and PW to access the Time Machine volume. Each computer's TM backup is stored in its own sparse bundle that their instance of Time Machine creates on the volume, so everyone's backups are separated.

I think it's possible that users could access each other's sparse bundle... so if you have any privacy issues with the info being backed up, you may want to enable encryption on your TM backups (in the Time Machine Preferences on each Mac). Not sure what, if any, effect this will have on the effectiveness of the backups to the QNAP, but it SHOULD work (in theory). LOL!

Best of luck!

Michael,

As far as I know, it's fixed. I'm using firmware v 4.1.0 (which I think is a Beta), and I haven't had any troubles with corrupt files, etc. But maybe someone else has some input on that specific topic.

I just bought a TS470PRO and can not backup with TM. In fact I activated TM on the NAS but I don't see any TM folder when I try to connect (cmd-K) to the NAS. I see all the other folders (like home, Download, Public, Qsync, Recordings, Signage station USB, Web) but nothing about TM.

But when I enter in the TM settings on the mac and I try to add a disk for TM, the mac see on the TS470PRO a TimeMachine folder located on TMBackup. When I try to add this disk a window open "connection to NAS470PRO(TimeMachine) ..." but no connection happen.

I tried the Greg-R solution without success :-(

And I can not use the Flixflix solution as the mac doesn't see any TM folder and/or sharing @ this step.

Does the 4.1.0 beta could fix this issue ?

How can I get this version ?

Tx anyway for your kind help.

Thanks it worked for me. The key was to use "Time Machine" at the login prompt. One little detail hat no one else explained.

Flixflix solution worked fine for me.

Also it will help to restart the NAS. For certain reason, after that everything worked fine.

Thx flixflix !

Cool, thanks. Do we know if the AFP bug is fixed yet? There was some sort of problem with AFP (which I guess affects TM?) that corrupted a small number of files in a large copy operation.

Thanks a lot! Like magic the backup drive appeared! 🙂

This worked for me.

But in my qnap the path was /share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/.timemachine

Thanks.