I have recently bought a reconditioned (from Apple) Airport Extreme, and MacBook Pro (OS X 10.10).
I have an external hard drive plugged in to the drive. My iOS and OS X devices are losing connection to the Airport. I fixed it once, but am looking for a more permanent solution please.
AirPort Extreme 802.11n (5th Gen)
I have an external hard drive plugged in to the drive
I will guess that you meant to say that you have an external hard drive plugged into the USB port of the AirPort Extreme.....or....a network hard drive plugged into one of the Ethernet ports? Could you clarify on that please?
My iOS and OS X devices are losing connection to the Airport
The iOS and OS X devices are losing connection to the AirPort? Or, to the hard drive that told us about?
iOS devices connect using wireless, but OS X devices might be connecting using wireless or Ethernet. A bit more clarification would help.
I fixed it once
Not sure what you mean by "it" here. You fixed the AirPort Extreme....or....you fixed the hard drive? Could you provide a few more details on how you fixed whichever device that you fixed?
Hi, yes you are correct. Hard Drive is plugged in to Extreme via USB.
All devices connect through wireless. Devices can connect to the network (broadband) ok, but airport utility can't connect to Airport Extreme.
The problem happened before and I was able to re-connect (after resetting the Airport Extreme).
Many thanks,
but airport utility can't connect to Airport Extreme.
The most common cause of this is incorrect IPv6 settings on your Mac and/or the AirPort Extreme.
Yosemite....if that is what you are using....has a number of network bugs, so one single solution will not solve all problems. But, the iPv6 correction should help keep the AirPort from disappearing in AirPort Utility.
On each Mac......
Open System Preferences (gear icon on the dock)
Open Network
Click on WiFi on the left panel to highlight it
Click Advanced at the lower right of the window
Click the TCP/IP tab
Make sure that the setting for Configure IPv6 is set to Link Local Only
Click OK
Click Apply
With the network window still open
Click on Ethernet on the left panel to highlight it
Click Advanced
Click the TCP/IP tab
Make sure that the settting for Configure IPv6 is set to Link Local Only
Click OK
Click Apply
Close the windows and restart the Mac
Then, repeat the same thing on each Mac that might be running Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks or Yosemite
Post back when that task is done, and we will check the IPv6 settings on the AirPort Extreme.
Thanks, that's both of laptops checked.
Now Airport?
Laptops checked? Or do you mean that you changed the IPv6 settings?
Open up AirPort Utility
Click on the AirPort Extreme icon
Click Edit in the smaller window
Click the Internet tab at the top of the window
Click the Internet Options button near the bottom
Make sure that the setting for Configure IPv6 is set to Link Local Only
Click Save
Click Update at the lower right and give the AirPort a minute to restart
Yes IPv6 settings updated.
I don't have an edit option in the small window of of Airport Utility, I assume because it can't find it on the network. The only option I have is "forget".
Power off the Mac and the AirPort Extreme and power them back up. Keep trying.
Once you can get into AirPort Utility, there are other settings to check and probably adjust as well.
Thank you that seems to be it now.
@Bob, you were wright, it's still dropping off when I power it up, what other settings should I look at please?
Keep the name of the AirPort Extreme very short and simple.....something like Extreme, for example
Avoid anything with blank spaces, and special characters like an apostrophe for example, something like
Aproven's Red Apple AirPort Extreme
would be a very poor choice.
Same thing for the name of the wireless network. Needs to be short and simple, no blank spaces, no special characters
aprovenwireless
Would be a good example for the name of the wireless network
Otherwise, we have to wait for more bug fixes from Apple.
OK, seems to connect and stay connected now, however Finder doesn't show the Hard Drive being shared?
How is the hard drive formatted?
I don't know sorry. Do I need to plug it in through USB to check?
Did the hard drive work before and now does not appear.....or....are you trying to get the drive to work with the AirPort Extreme for the first time?
Temporarily, connect the drive directly to your Mac and wait for a minute for the drive icon to mount on the desktop.
Right-Click on the drive icon
Click Get Info
Look at the window that will appear, probably on the left side of the desktop
Look for the General heading, then look for Format about 4 items down
What is the format?
Yes it worked fine before (wired, and wireless through airport prior to Yosemite upgrade).
Format showing as:
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
I don't know why (it's never happened before) but now when I click on the Hard Drive in finder it says: "The folder “Time Machine Backups” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents."
unable to connect to airport extreme
