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I am unable to set my WD mybook world edition (white light) for time machine.

I have new iMac running OS X Mavricks 10.9 and a WD mybook world edition (white light) connected via eithernet to router.


I am unable to set up time machine using this drive.


I can see the MyBookWorld drive in Finder and read and write files with no problems. I can also see the MyBookWorld_Backup drive but I am unable to connect.


Time machine can see the drive but when I select, use drive, it trys to connect and gives me an error message: There was a problem connecting to the server "MyBookWorld-Backup"


I have already updated the hardrive firmware.


Any ideas?

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 4, 2013 3:02 AM

Reply
28 replies

Jan 28, 2017 12:06 PM in response to cwn1978

This would happen to me every 6 months or so. It would be working fine. Then one day it would say it couldn't back up via time machine because "The was a problem connecting the the server MyBookWorld.local The server may not exist of it is unavailable a this time. Check the server name or IP address, check your network connection, and then try again"

After much looking around I came across this:

1) Use the "go" function at the top of your desk top menu

2) Use "connect to server"

3) type "afp://XXX.XXX.X.XX" where the x's are your ip address of the mybookworld timemachine

4) connect as "registered user" where your login name is "WD_Backup" and your password is whatever you set in the webportal (which you get to from your browser by typing in your same IP address. Check under the "user" tab to see what your WD_Backup password is)

5) This will open you in a folder on your mybookworld and for whatever reason it will enable your time machine app on your mac to see your mybookworld as an IP address instead of as a name. Try connecting to this for your time "select disk" and all should work

Nov 4, 2013 5:25 AM in response to cwn1978

WD and their lack of support for Mavericks:


A recent email from WD reads:


Dear WD Registered Customer,


UPDATE: November 1st, 2013


As a valued WD customer we want to make you aware of new reports of Western Digital and other external HDD products experiencing data loss when updating to Apple's OS X Mavericks (10.9). WD is urgently investigating these reports and the possible connection to the WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and WD SmartWare software applications. Until the issue is understood and the cause identified, WD strongly urges our customers to uninstall these software applications before updating to OS X Mavericks (10.9), or delay upgrading. If you have already upgraded to Mavericks, WD recommends that you remove these applications and restart your computer. If you have already upgraded to Mavericks and are experiencing difficulty in accessing your external hard drive, please do not save anything to the drive, disconnect the drive from your computer, and contact Western Digital Customer Service at http://support.wd.com/country/ for further assistance.


The WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager, and WD SmartWare software applications are not new and have been available from WD for many years. However, solely as a precaution WD has removed these applications from our website as we investigate this issue.


Sincerely,

Western Digital


Which is basically Western Digital informing you that their out-of-date utilities don’t support Mavericks.


In any case those utilities are not the most effective. The moral of the story is: the first thing you should do after buying a WD drive is to format it as HFS Extended (Journaled) and not install ANY of their utilities but instead use reliable applications like CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper - or Time Machine.

Nov 28, 2013 8:08 AM in response to Frank Miller2

Hi all!

This worked for me:

- Log into MyBookWorld-Backup in Fnder side bar as WD_Backup with p/w backup (that is the default pw)

- wait..;)

- open the appearing Folder

- THEN choose MyBookWorld as backup drive in time machine

- the Login screen should appear. type in WD_Backup and backup as p/w

- have fun

Hope this works for you, for me it did:)

If you can't connect like in the first step, consider this:

http://cammodude.blogspot.de/2013/10/os-x-109-mavericks-workaround-for-smb.html

For me it wasn't neccesary.

Good luck!

Dec 1, 2013 5:45 PM in response to cwn1978

I am having the same exact problem. I have a 2TB MyBookWorld Edition 2 white lights running time machine. I have never had a problem in the past. I upgraded to Mavericks and I can see the back-up drive in my finder but I cannot connect to it or connect to Time Machine. I can connect to the public folders on the NAS, but not to the backup or time machine. Any suggestions???

Dec 5, 2013 5:31 PM in response to cwn1978

Hmm. I have had the same problem with a MyBook World Edition as well but appear to have a work around. I might not get the data from prior backups but at least my current set up will be saved (similar to what I saw with the upgrade from Lion to Mountain Lion).


The steps I used were...

  1. Used the web interface on the My Book World Edition to confirm I knew the username & passwords.
  2. Disconnected the "MyBookWorld" volume using the finder.
  3. Reconnect "MyBookWorld" with the finder using the WD_Backup user & password
  4. Then go into Time Machine Preferences and select MyBookWorld-Backup
  5. At this point, preferences prompted for the username / password - login again with the WD_Backup user & password.

Time Machine is now "on". The machine then went into a 2 minute count down for the backup and is now "Preparing backup..." (and has been doing so for several minutes now). Since I have about 300G to back up - it will take a day or two to get everything saved (again). Will try to let you know if this works.

Dec 5, 2013 6:07 PM in response to MarkTheManiac

A quick status update after waiting a half an hour or so:

  • The icon in the menu bar shows a simple double arrow (not the cycling progress from Mountain Lion). This is really subtle - I would probably miss it if I was not looking carefully.
  • Click on that icon brings up "Backing up 3.58 GB of 38.82 GB" (and growing) - it is NOT doing a whole drive backup.
  • Selecting "Enter Time Machine" - brings up all my old backups (plus today's)

At this point, it looks like everything is back to normal!

Dec 6, 2013 2:18 PM in response to Steve Graff

Hello evbody


You had nice ideas there.

But it would not work for me.


I can kind'a connect to the folders on the nas.

Kind of because it does not always work.

I made a new user - that one seems to work.


But:

I can NOT connect to the WD-Backup account.

When I hit "connect as..." in the Finder window, the button just wont do anything.

No reaction - so to say.


Time Machine sees (or remembers) the Volume, but can't connect either.


Which means...

...waiting for a word from Western Digital.


mika

Dec 6, 2013 2:39 PM in response to mikariel

But:

I can NOT connect to the WD-Backup account.

When I hit "connect as..." in the Finder window, the button just wont do anything.

No reaction - so to say.

What you describe is the same symptom I saw yesterday. The "connect as..." (to MyBookWorld-Backup) did not work for me as well. It does not work even after I did the fix described above. As far as I can tell, that is not necessary to make Time Machine work.


I could not set the preferences for Time Machine until I did the steps (especially #2 and #3) I described above. Each time I tried, I would get a pop up indicating it was attempting to connect and it would fail (without any opportunity to set the name and password). If that is what you are seeing, try my fix again to see if it works for you.

Dec 9, 2013 6:10 AM in response to cwn1978

It works flawlessly for me now on wifi link. First, erase old iMovie events and projects after upgrading to iMovie 10.0.1. Their seize doesńt sum up with new iMovie Library folder but Time Machine take them as and backup size can exceed the one of your backup disk. Use Go / connect to server, choose My Book World then not guest but user id : WD_Backup , PW : backup. Then open Time Machine and choose your disk. TM will connect and then begin to backup...

Jan 12, 2014 10:51 AM in response to cwn1978

Just wanted to comment for others that might have been interpreting @MarkTheManiac's comments the way I did.


I tried over and over to connect to the NAS using either the "Go -> Connect to Server" menu and the "Connect As" menu in the Finder with no luck. Each time though, I was attempting to connect to the MyBookWorld-Backup share using the default wd_backup/backup credentials. Once I finally tried connecting to the main MyBookWorld volume instead using those credentials, I was able to get Time Machine to properly recognize it and then prompt me again for the same credentials.


As part of this process, I did add the .conf file referenced in @sleen's post (workaround #2). Not sure if that had part in my success or not.

I am unable to set my WD mybook world edition (white light) for time machine.

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