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Time Machine loses connection with the backup hard drive after a few minutes during the backup process. This occurs with the backup hard drive connected to the USB on an Airport extreme firmware 7.6.9. MacBook Pro 2015 runningOS X High Sierra 10.13.2
The connection is also lost in the finder.
iPhone 5, iOS 8.0.2, Macbook Pro IOS 10.10
An AirPort Extreme that is running 7.6.9 (or 7.6.8, 7.6.7. 7.6.4, etc) is not officially supported with Time Machine by Apple, so that might be a large part of the problem. In effect, you are asking us how to fix something that Apple says you cannot do. Please take a look at this Apple Support document to confirm:
AirPort base stations: About USB disks - Apple Support
Time Machine support for USB disks
OS X Time Machine supports compatible unencrypted USB disks connected to AirPort Time Capsule (802.11n and 802.11ac), and AirPort Extreme (802.11ac).
Notice that only the current 802.11ac version of the AirPort Extreme is supported with Time Machine, although some users were sometimes able to make this work for a time with older versions of the AirPort Extreme. I never could make this work when I tried in the past.
In addition, the extra security that Apple has added in High Sierra (10.12.x) is causing a number of problems with Time Machine backups, even if the set up is supported. The bottom line.....Time Machine just does not work very well with network drives when the Mac is running High Sierra.
Backups would run a lot faster and a lot more reliably if you simply connect the USB drive directly to your Mac and back up that way.
So, not sure where to start with this one. Hopefully, you are not trying to back up over wireless to the AirPort Extreme / USB drive. Can you clarify on that?
If you are saying that backups were running OK before you updated to 7.6.9, then you might try rolling back the firmware to 7.6.8 to see if that helps, since 7.6.9 does add even more security than before.
An AirPort Extreme that is running 7.6.9 (or 7.6.8, 7.6.7. 7.6.4, etc) is not officially supported with Time Machine by Apple, so that might be a large part of the problem. In effect, you are asking us how to fix something that Apple says you cannot do. Please take a look at this Apple Support document to confirm:
AirPort base stations: About USB disks - Apple Support
Time Machine support for USB disks
OS X Time Machine supports compatible unencrypted USB disks connected to AirPort Time Capsule (802.11n and 802.11ac), and AirPort Extreme (802.11ac).
Notice that only the current 802.11ac version of the AirPort Extreme is supported with Time Machine, although some users were sometimes able to make this work for a time with older versions of the AirPort Extreme. I never could make this work when I tried in the past.
In addition, the extra security that Apple has added in High Sierra (10.12.x) is causing a number of problems with Time Machine backups, even if the set up is supported. The bottom line.....Time Machine just does not work very well with network drives when the Mac is running High Sierra.
Backups would run a lot faster and a lot more reliably if you simply connect the USB drive directly to your Mac and back up that way.
So, not sure where to start with this one. Hopefully, you are not trying to back up over wireless to the AirPort Extreme / USB drive. Can you clarify on that?
If you are saying that backups were running OK before you updated to 7.6.9, then you might try rolling back the firmware to 7.6.8 to see if that helps, since 7.6.9 does add even more security than before.
In addition to Bob's comments, is the USB drive you are using for the backups, a bus-powered drive, like the WD My Passport devices? If so, the reason you lose the drive in Finder is that it may be trying to draw too much power from the Extreme's USB port ... unless you first use a powered USB hub between the port and the drive. Regardless, as Bob has mentioned, using a drive for Time Machine is not supported and prone to backup corruption.
Thank you for the responses.
I WAS trying to back up wirelessly using Time Machine to a Porsche Design 3TB hard drive (externally powered) plugged into the Airport USB port. Based on the comments here and elsewhere, I'm abandoning this approach for backups.
Good decision.
Even if you could get this to work reasonably reliably, you might not be aware that the USB port on the AirPort Extreme is old and slow USB 2.0....and....the signal processor inside the AirPort Extreme further limits speeds to about half of normal USB 2.0 on a computer. So, things will be very very S--L--O--W.
Time Machine loses connection during backup
