Time Capsule Troubleshooting. Help!

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Time Capsule Troubleshooting. Help!

I'm going insane with this Time Capsule nonsense!!! I've had Time Capsule since i've had my iMac, so approximately 4 or 5 years now. It is the 500 GB one... Considering my iMac holds 1 TB and currently only has 355.19 GB left, it wasn't the smartest decision to get the 500 GB. Anyway, my Time Capsule used to work perfectly fine and backup consistenty. However, I stopped using it once it got full and unplugged it and left it sitting on the top of my shelf for about a year. Yesterday, I decided to bring the Time Capsule back and try to back up all of my pertinent information (such as digitial photos, movies and iTunes) before I make the big switch from Leopard (which I'm currently running -Version 10.5.8) to Snow Leopard and then from there to Mountain Lion.

So last night I deleted everything from my Time Capsule to make room for my pertinent stuff I needed backed up. Then I tried syncing the Time Capsule to do a new backup and it said "connection failed. The server may not exist or it is not operational at this time. Check the server name or IP address and your network connection and try again. Ok? So I rebooted the Time Capsule at least 3 times, reset everything, etc. And I'm still getting this? When I click on set up Time Capsule from the same menu, I'm brought to the AirPort Utility. Everything seems fine there, but it fluctuates saying that the Time Capsule is there and then saying that it can't find anything... The Time Capsule is right next to my computer, so I don't know if something is wrong with the Time Capsule or what but i'm sick of dealing with this. I have to toggle the on-off switch on the network settings just to view the Time Capsule again. The Time Capsule is just sitting there with a green light. It's connected to the internet and everything so I don't really know what's going on. Now it's saying that there is no Time Capsule... Can someone please help me? (I blurred out the IP Address, Network Name and Serial Number).

Please help me. I've already rebooted the Time Capsule multiple times. It looks like there is a networking problem between the iMac and Time Capsule, even though they're literally less than 2 and 1/2 inches away from one another. At this point, I don't know what to do. Someone please help me solve this!

Time Capsule-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Aug 9, 2012 3:59 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

LaPastenague

Level 9

67,226 points

Aug 9, 2012 5:05 PM in response to wtayloranthony

You are using join a wireless network.. That turns off the ethernet and makes the TC highly variable as it has to link to the main router and then back to the mac..

Reset the TC ie hold in the reset button for 10sec.. until the fron LED flashes rapidly.. and plug it into the Mac with ethernet to a LAN port. Do not use wireless.

You should be able to use it without too much hassle now. But if the internet is not working.. shuffle airport to the top of the list in the network list or set a static IP on the ethernet of say 10.0.1.10 with 255.255.255.0 subnet.. no gateway (router) no dns.

If the main router is an apple with the same IP address you will have to change the IP of the TC to say 192.168.1.1 just to prevent the clash.

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Answer 2

Aug 9, 2012 8:15 PM in response to LaPastenague

I reset the Time Capsule to no avail.

I prefer not to use an Ethernet cord, as that was sort of the purpose of the "Time Capsule" functionality -- to have all wireless accesss/storage. So I set it up as you told me and i'm still getting problems. The TC is connected to my iMac but it displayed this message via the AirPort Utility:

Now what?

Do you have any resources to solve this problem even if I join a wireless network?

Please let me know.

Thanks.

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Answer 3

Aug 9, 2012 8:29 PM in response to LaPastenague

You are a lifesaver! Wow! It really worked! Ok, I did everything that you said for me to do however, now I have another problem. Do you know how I could omit other information? I tried doing this too last night and it wouldn't let me. I would like just my pictures in iPhoto and iMovies to be updated as well as my Microsoft Word documents. Can you please help me solve this?

Thank you soo much!

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Answer 4

Aug 9, 2012 8:45 PM in response to wtayloranthony

You must have a lot more on the Mac than you thought. TM also needs about 20% more space than what it is going to backup.. so it is going to cause issues with the 500GB TC.. you are not just under.. you are a lot under.

I am not 100% what this means.

I would like just my pictures in iPhoto and iMovies to be updated as well as my Microsoft Word documents.

Why are you updating them? Aren't you backing them up?

In the options you can deselect parts of the disk you do not want backed up.. but it sounds like you already have attempted that.

My inclination would be to save the folders as a straight copy and paste to the TC. So you have everything you want.. be very careful with itunes or iphoto libraries as they are not easy to copy or recover.

I would also spend the money and buy a 1TB or 2TB USB external drive and use that for TM so you can do a proper full backup.

You can also use another backup utility like superduper and do a disk image to the USB drive. That can be very useful as it tends to be easier to restore a whole image than using TM.

I would clean install your new OS.. not upgrade.. a lot of issues people post here have to do with issues created by update installs .. since you are doing multiple updates.. imho just do a clean install of the new OS. It is painful to do but the result is often hugely better.

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Answer 5

Aug 9, 2012 9:07 PM in response to LaPastenague

Thank you! So I told Time Machine not to back up additional information coming to 543 GB not being backed up.

And yes, I meant I just wanted those backed up.

I'm updating my Mac OS X to Snow Leopard either tomorrow or on Monday, and from there i'm going into the Mac App Store to download Mountain Lion which I believe is ONLY available on the Mac App Store so i'm not sure what you mean as a "clean installation"?

Also, I took your advice to do the "drag and drop" method of backing things up and its worked phenomally! So much more time is saved than going into the Time Machine's preferences and clicking what you want to NOT backup... Thank you for that!

Do you know how I could speed things up with this by the way?

and what do you suggest backing up, as in things you would need (pertinent information) ? I put all the pictures, movies and documents in there and I was going to do iTunes but realistically everything is backed up on the iTunes store so it'd just be a waste of space. Please let me know your opion.

Thanks Again!

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Answer 6

Aug 9, 2012 9:36 PM in response to wtayloranthony

Clean install is possible by loading the dmg file to a usb stick and booting from it.. there are instructions all over the place how to do a clean install from the downloaded file..

http://eggfreckles.net/notes/installing-mountain-lion-clean/

I just love doing google searches for people.. !! This was near the top of the list.. please try your very own google search.. use clean install lion or mountain lion.

Now for your backup speed.. hmm it is a bit slow.. sometimes the estimate is way out.. how fast is it actually going.. open the activity monitor and check.. a Gen 1 TC with ethernet should peak at around 28-30MB/s .. if it is going much slower than that turn off wireless.. ensure the one and only connection to the TC is ethernet.

I am rather a new comer to Macs actually so what is going to be necessary and do you save some of the libraries or do you need to, I am not sure.. but Apple don't seem to have saved things as neatly as Windows did finally manage to do.. ie everything should be in a users profile.. no user files should be anywhere else. That is why a full system backup if you get caught out is important.

A 1TB USB disk is less than $100 and you can probably get a 2TB for that price or close to. Don't cry if you lose stuff, when you don't spend the money and backup. That is my opinion.. Never start upgrades or new installs until you have a full backup stored somewhere. and somewhere else.. plus the particular files as direct copies. Slightly paranoid.. yeah maybe.. wipe a computer and discover the backup is corrupt.. then you also will join counseling classes and therapy sessions.

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