Yosemite - Airport Extreme problems

Question

Level 1

31 points

Yosemite - Airport Extreme problems

Hi, I have some problems with my Airport Extreme that only occur when a Yosemite device is connected to the network.

My setup is using an Express in bridge mode with wifi networking turned on, connected to my Extreme via CAT5 which is in DHCP and NAT router mode with wifi network off. Using the Express for Printer and AirPlay, and the Extreme for Time Machine and network storage, as well as ethernet connection to other network appliances (raspberry pi). I had no problems before installing Yosemite. Even Yosemite with a clean install causes the problem, however.

If I leave the Yosemite device powered off completely, and not just in sleep mode, the issue does not occur. However, if I close my MBP and leave it in sleep mode, the problem will also occur.

It seems to be random.

When the issue occurs, Airport Utility is unable to connect to the Extreme, repeatedly asking for a password. The light is green. I am unable to connect to time capsule. The raspberry pi is also unable to access the network storage. I have no problems connecting to the Express using airport utility. Only the Extreme is affected.

So far, the only thing that works to get things going again is to unplug the Extreme and plug it back in. It will work for a while, then the same issue will randomly come back again. It usually happens at least once per day, sometimes more.

After having lots of problems with Yosemite, and reverting to Mavericks, the problem disappeared. Yosemite updates had fixed most of the issues, but not this one. Most threads I've found about airport utility are in regards to not finding the Airport at all, but that's not my issue. It's found, but the configurations can't be read.

I'm sorry for this being so long. Please help!

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Mar 26, 2015 2:54 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

148,321 points

Mar 26, 2015 3:06 PM in response to jschissel

I have found a similar issue with my 802.11ac Time Capsule that had an attached USB hard drive that I dedicated for Time Machine backups. I would lose access to the TC randomly. Sometimes within 24 hrs; sometimes it would take 3-4 days. I tried numerous "solutions" and none of them worked. I only have OS X Yosemite Macs on my network.

My workaround solution was to not use this drive as configured and actually physically removed it. I happened to have a second older (4th gen "n") TC available and have set it up for my TM backups. This has been over two weeks ago and I have not had any of my base stations "disappear" since.

That leads me to believe that the potential culprit is performing TM backups to an AirPort Disk ... any USB hard drive attached to either a TC or AirPort Extreme with a Yosemite-based Mac ... and maybe the same issue you are seeing.

Reply

Answer 2

jschissel Author

Level 1

31 points

Mar 26, 2015 3:44 PM in response to Tesserax

I also have an attached USB drive. I thought it would be related to Time Machine too, but even with Time Machine disabled, it will still happen.

I wasn't sure what generation I have, but it is the 4th generation 802.11n also.

It's so disheartening. It sounds like the exact same issue you experienced.

Thanks for the quick reply!

Reply

Answer 3

Tesserax

Level 10

148,321 points

Mar 26, 2015 3:50 PM in response to jschissel

The other potential issue is performing Time Machine backups with 802.1n AirPort Extreme models (all generations). It's not supported by Apple. Your issue may be related to this fact as well. However, the symptoms are different, basically "broken" backups, not loss of access to the base station.

Reply

Answer 4

jschissel Author

Level 1

31 points

Mar 26, 2015 3:55 PM in response to Tesserax

No problem with broken backups. I didn't know it wasn't actually supported, though. Never had a problem with the setup. Even now, the only time there is a problem with backups would be when the issue as described occurs. Then it just tells me it cannot find the backup drive. And power cycling the Extreme fixes it. Until it eventually happens again.

Reply

Answer 5

revm3up

Level 1

8 points

Mar 26, 2015 7:50 PM in response to jschissel

All of the others have MUCH more experience than I, but I would be remiss if I didn't add that I was having problems setting up my wireless network because I had chosen network, base station, and passwords that went beyond upper/lower case alpha-numerics and were not short names. I was also running Yosemite. As soon as I did a factory default reset (the proper way) and chose all new short names using only alpha-numerics, I could at least see and access my equipment through airport utility. Just a thought.

Reply

Answer 6

jschissel Author

Level 1

31 points

Mar 27, 2015 10:16 AM in response to revm3up

Thanks, revm3up, any hints I can get are great. I will try it out.

Reply

Answer 7

Tesserax

Level 10

148,321 points

Mar 27, 2015 10:25 AM in response to jschissel

Apple supposedly eliminated the issue with the 802.11ac base stations but never officially announced support for the earlier models. If you want to get a better idea of what I am referring to, check out this Pondini article. Bottom line, if any of that data is critical to you, please reconsider using your base station for Time Machine backups.

... and revm3up brings up a great point about using simplified names for your network and base station names. I found, in my experience, that names using spaces or special characters tend to be problematic. However, I do not use simplified names for passwords. Just the opposite, I will use the strongest possible password allowed.

Reply

Answer 8

jschissel Author

Level 1

31 points

Mar 27, 2015 5:22 PM in response to Tesserax

THanks! I have disabled Time Machine for good measure. I will report back to let you know if the issue continues. I think I already tried this, tho.

Is there something else quirky about Yosemite that could be causing these network issues? Everything worked perfectly before my initial upgrade. I had so many problems including this, and did a clean install of 10.9, problems solved, then eventually upgraded again only to find this problem to persist. The other issues had been fixed, thankfully.

Reply

Answer 9

jschissel Author

Level 1

31 points

Mar 28, 2015 9:01 PM in response to jschissel

Well, I have Time Machine disabled. And still, I come home to find the Airport Extreme is messed up. Again, I am unable to access the contents of the drive from any networked device, and in Airport Utility, it says "Reading settings on JAEX..." with a spinning circle when I click on it. I am able to access the internet fine. The Airport Express shows up normally. Eventually, it will stop saying "Reading settings" and will ask me to enter my password, which will not work. The only way to get things going again will be for me to unplug the Extreme and plug it in again. The same thing happens when I try to use Airport Utility from my iPhone as well. Also going to File and Configure Other does not work to access the base station via IP address.

I know if I leave off my Yosemite computer, this will not happen. How is it Yosemite is capable of bringing down my network like this?

😟

Reply

Answer 10

jschissel Author

Level 1

31 points

Mar 28, 2015 9:20 PM in response to jschissel

Well, I submitted a bug report. As far as I'm concerned, Yosemite is the problem. Reverting the system to 10.9.x resolves the issue. Leaving the computer off resolves the issue. There must be something Yosemite is doing that causes the Extreme to misbehave.

What is crazy to me is that even in sleep mode, the issue happens. I didn't know wifi would be in any way active when it is asleep. What sense does that make?

Reply

Answer 11

veejl

Level 1

17 points

Dec 31, 2015 9:14 AM in response to jschissel

I don't think it's a Yosemite specific bug, since I'm experiencing the same thing on El Capitan. I believe it is an Airport Extreme firmware issue (I have the AE 6th gen).

I posted my troubleshooting in a diff thread, but feel its worthwhile to post here as well since I think its a legit issue that needs to be addressed:

Like others - Power cycle the Airport Extreme, drive comes back to life and I can run a TM backup. After 1-3 days, drive is inaccessible from MBA and iPhone, and need to powercycle Airport Extreme again.

My setup:

Airport Extreme 6th gen

USB Printer

USB HD

USB powered hub

Macbook Air mid-2013, running fully updated El Capitan

What I've tried:

- replaced the airport extreme 6th gen

- replaced usb powered hub

- replaced usb hard drive (initially had desktop powered one, then tried mobile drive with usb power, then back to desktop powered)

What I'd like to try:

- rollback firmware on the Airport Extreme 6th gen (but I have no option to rollback to any older firmwares when looking via Airport Utility on my iPhone and my MBA)

Reply

Answer 12

Dec 31, 2015 9:45 AM in response to veejl

What I'd like to try:

- rollback firmware on the Airport Extreme 6th gen

You are almost certainly at 7.7.3 on the 6th Gen AirPort. It is impossible to rollback from there, thanks to an Apple decision about security.

Reply

Answer 13

bwadma

Level 2

158 points

Apr 10, 2016 5:12 AM in response to revm3up

I have (or hopefully had) the same problem:

- iMac with 10.5.5 now updated to 10.11.4

- TimeCapsule with 2TB (AirPort Time Capsule 802.11ac) connected via Ethernet to the Mac and acting as WLAN access point

- Time Mashine backups from my iMac to the TimeCap

The TimeCap is working since years with both WLAN and Time Mashine support.

BUT:

- When I wanted to edit the settings (e.g. adding MAC-IDs to the WLAN), access to the 2TB TimeCap was not possible with AirPort Utility.

- The symptom was that AirPort Utility was asking for the TimeCap password (although it is saved to KeyChain), but even entering it did not allow access.

- My work around that I used for years: PowerCycle the TimeCap (the hard way: unplug, wait, plug in). After that, access was possible for random times between 1 and about 10 days.

- The problem exists since Yosemite (or even Mavericks, I am not sure). I hoped that a factory reset of the TimeCap that I did in parallel to updating my iMac to El Capitan would solve the problem, but it did not.

After reading the hint above (from revm3up => change to names using only alpha-numerics), I did remove one dash ( - ) from the name I assigned to the TimeCap since it was initially installed. After that, there was a change in the behavior of AirPort Utility: the amber blinking that was absent before is now shown in the AirPort Utility window, and also red error message badges pop up after restart (which disappear when the restart is completed). AirPort Utility did not display these features when the name contained the dash.

I hope that access to the TimeCap 802.11ac will now be stable ... I need to wait for at least 10 days to see.

(An older TimeCap (AirPort Time Capsule 802.11n (3rd Generation) in the same network that serves as another WLAN access point and TimeMashine backup for another Mac) did not show the access instability.)

Have others observed similar restriction to device names for newer AirPort Time Capsules?

Reply