Time Machine And The AirPort Extreme: What You Need To Know

This week Apple released a software update named "Time Machine and AirPort Updates v1.0", which "is recommended for all users and includes compatibility improvements for using Time Machine with Time Capsule, as well as AirPort driver fixes."

While we don't know everything that it does, one thing we do know is that it finally fixes the problem of not being able to do backups to USB drives attached to an AirPort Extreme.

So here's what you need to know, and do, to get things working.

Step 1) Update your system...

If you haven't already done so via Software Update, download and install the software update from Apple. A restart will be required, so be prepared.

Step 2) Update the AirPort...

Go to Applications > Utilities and run AirPort Utility.app.

AirPort Utility will spin its wheels for a moment, and then inform you that a new firmware version (7.3.1) is available and needs to be installed. Assuming that you want your hardware to work, I'd click "yes".

It will then download and install the firmware update, then reboot the AirBoot. Since this will disrupt the network, make sure you (or anyone else who may be affected) aren't doing anything critical at the time.

Step 3) Prep the drive...

If you haven't already done do, now would be a good to attach your USB drive to the AirPort and ensure that it's setup correctly in the AirPort administrator.

File Sharing needs to be enabled, and for security purposes I'd recommend that you use a different password for your AirDisk than your network password. Also, your drive needs to be formatted as HFS+ (journaled).

Step 4) Mount up...

With that accomplished, now go into the Finder and connect to your shared drive. If you followed my advice and gave your AirPort a different drive password, enter it now, making sure that you select the option to add your password to your keychain.

That's it. You should now be able to open Time Machine preferences and see and select your AirPort drive.

We're waiting, we're waiting...

Note that doing an initial Time Machine backup to an AirPort drive can take quite a while if we're talking about any significant amount of data. And that the initial backup should not be interrupted. Don't install any more updates, log out, restart, or turn off your machine until the backup is completed.

So if you're going to backup your 200GB MacBook Pro to an AirDisk, I'd wait until the weekend or at least until you have a day or two to spare. (Yes, it can take that long.)

Other issues...

Note that some users have reported issues with this process, but only when using the older "Fast Ethernet" version of the AirPort Extreme. No one has reported problems with the newer "Gigabit Ethernet" model. I've tested successfully against the newer version, but don't have an older model available.

As such, your mileage may vary.

Also note that this doesn't work with the AirPort Express, as it never supported the AirDisk feature, only printer sharing and music streaming.

So as always, enjoy. And be sure to let me know if you run into any further glitches or problems.

Comments

[James R. Taylor]

Great info! I'd installed the update, but hadn't run the AirPort utility and didn't know why it wasn't working. It's all cool now. THANKS!

[CreationRobot]

Updated my TimeMachine post to point to this guide. Thanks Michael.

[gerrit]

I've noticed a lot of people online complaining that Time Machine won't automount the the AirDisk on an Airport Extreme Base Station, and I think I accidentally figured out why that can happen:

When I first set things up I followed popular advice online and I hooked my MacBook Pro up to the AEBS with an ethernet cable so I had a faster connection for the initial backup. Once that was done, I went back to using my laptop wirelessly and noticed that Time Machine wouldn't automount the Air Disk for backups. (I had to manually mount the AirDisk or Time Machine wouldn't find it and do automated backups.)

I went to the Time Machine prefs and noticed that it didn't have an AirDisk icon for the backup drive (it had a generic Network Disk icon), so I thought maybe Time Machine somehow needed to know this was an AirDisk.

I removed the drive as my backup drive, mounted it as an AirDisk (it mounts as a Network Disk if you are connected via ethernet!) and then set it as my Time Machine drive. Much to my dismay Time Machine reset the backup on the disk and had to do the initial backup all over again. *However* after many many hours doing it wirelessly, Time Machine seems to now recognize it is an AirDisk and automount it whenever it's going to do a backup. Hooray!

I'm hoping someone else can confirm this, but I think the drive has to be mounted wirelessly as an AirDisk when it is initially setup for TM to recognize it as such. It'd be good to know before you do that initial backup if it has to be done wirelessly to enable AirDisk automounting.

[James H, Young]

Good write-up. I would like to add that Time Machine still backs up to sparse bundle when using Air Disks. You can speed up the initial backup by starting wireless backup, stopping, then plugging in directly via USB and backing up to the sparse bundle. This means you can backup a 100 GB dsk in a little over an hour. I really don't think Apple has fully supported Air DIsks with AEB yet - this is still a less than perfect fix.