Time Capsule not recognized

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Time Capsule not recognized

Hello, Can someone please help me? I have a 2nd Gen Time Capsule that I had used previously as an external hard drive to store music. I haven't used it in a while and I want to repurpose it now as a Time Machine. The problem is that I can't get it working/recognized on my MacBook Pro (15", early 2011 model. I'm running El Capitan.

Here's what I've tried so far:

I connected an ethernet cord to my Mac and the LAN port on the Time Capsule. Result: Not recognized by Mac/Airport Utility.
I connected an ethernet cord to the Time Capsule WAN port and a LAN port on my modem (Netgear N300). Result: Not recognized by Mac/Airport Utility.

I've done both of the above multiple times. I tried a factory reset and still nothing... I'm at a loss on what to do next. Any advice??? Thank you!!

Edited:

I forgot to add that the Time Capsule is blinking amber. It was originally set up under a different wireless network/modem/router, so I need to be able to reconfigure it.

Time Capsule 802.11n (2nd Gen), OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Oct 4, 2015 8:10 PM

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Answer 1

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LaPastenague

Level 9

67,226 points

Oct 10, 2015 9:22 PM in response to chashmish

Factory reset the TC like this.

Factory reset universal

Power off the TC.. ie pull the power cord or power off at the wall.. wait 10sec.. hold in the reset button.. be gentle.. power on again still holding in reset.. and keep holding it in for another 10sec. You may need some help as it is hard to both hold in reset and apply power. It will show success by rapidly blinking the front led. Release the reset.. and wait a couple of min for the TC to reset and come back with factory settings. If the front LED doesn’t blink rapidly you missed it and simply try again. The reset is fairly fragile in these.. press it so you feel it just click and no more.. I have seen people bend the lever or even break it. I use a toothpick as tool.

N.B. None of your files on the hard disk of the TC are deleted.. this simply clears out the router settings of the TC.

Plug LAN port of the TC to LAN port of the MBP.

Open the airport utility and go to top left corner where it says, Other WiFi Devices (1) and click that and continue with the setup. Make sure wireless is on in your laptop or you must manually swap the utility to using ethernet. Apple made this much harder by refusing to have a discovery mechanism by ethernet only by wireless.

Or use an ipad or iphone.. and the iOS version of the airport utility which in our experience up to El Capitan works a lot better than the Mac version.

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