MB Pro Won't Connect to TimeCapsule, but MB Air Will

Question

MB Pro Won't Connect to TimeCapsule, but MB Air Will

I have a Mid-2015 MacBook Pro (Sierra 10.12.6) and a mid-2011 MacBook Air (High Sierra 10.13.2), both of which have connected in the past to an AirPort TimeCapsule (7.7.9) in bridge mode. Both laptops are connected to the AirPort's wi-fi. The AirPort light is green and AirPort Utility shows no problems -- that is, the AirPort Utility on BOTH computers finds the AirPort with no problems. Also, the the Air can connect to the Time Capsule for backups and to access the drive. The Air's Finder shows the AirPort TimeCapsule as a drive under "Shared."

The Pro, on the other hand, stopped recognizing the AirPort, and AirPort/TimeCapsule no longer shows up in the Finder. It only shows up in my WiFi (it connects to the AirPort WiFi channel) and in the AirPort Utility. I can connect to the drive by Finder>Go>Connect to Server and then adding the smb://IP address of the AirPort. When I do this, Finder shows the IP address under "Shared" and I can access the files on the drive through Finder, but TimeMachine still won't recognize the drive.

I've tried connecting via ethernet cable, and nothing changes. The Pro acknowledges that it's now connected to the Internet through the AirPort's ethernet (via dongle), but refuses to recognize that the AirPort has/is a drive.

I've rebooted the MBP multiple times, as well as the Router and AirPort in sequence. Nothing changes. Any advice for how to get the Pro to recognize the AirPort as a legit drive would be much appreciated.

Posted on Feb 8, 2018 2:50 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

157,896 points

Feb 9, 2018 9:37 AM in response to Trip_in_Maine

Time Machine can only backup files to a Time Capsule (TC) using the AFP file sharing protocol. By default, a TC will have both the AFP and SMB protocols enabled when the "Enable file sharing" option is checked.

Let's start by verifying that your MBP can directly communicate with the TC by pinging it.

On the MBP, run the Terminal app, located in the /Applications/Utilities folder.
Enter: ping -c3 <the IP address of the TC><return>
A successful result will be three pings with 0.0% dropped packets.

You mentioned in your post that the TC is in bridge mode. What is the make & model of the router/modem/gateway device that it is connected directly to by Ethernet?

Reply

Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

157,896 points

Feb 28, 2018 10:30 AM in response to Trip_in_Maine

I assume that you have the TC connected directly to the Arris with Ethernet ... correct? ... and that it is getting its local IP address from the Arris as well?

Those pings came back with fairly high results. I would expect something in the order of 0.250 to 0.500 ms per ping. However, it was successful as far as each ping was received and responded to.

Try mounting your Time Capsule with: afp://<IP Address>, then run the Ping test again.

Other things to consider:

Use a base station name for your TC that is 16-alphanumeric characters or less that does not include spaces or special characters.
Use a static local IP address for the TC instead of a dynamic one.

Reply

Answer 3

Feb 27, 2018 3:06 PM in response to Tesserax

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, Tesserax.

I followed your suggestion and changed the TC base station name to one with no spaces or special characters, and the AFP mounting worked like a charm, and I was able to get Time Machine to use the renamed disk.

Thank you!!! 🙂

Reply