Tag: airport

If your Time Capsule shows a backup error

> I just got an error from my Time Capsule: “Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability Time Machine must create a new backup for you.” I went ahead and started a new backup, but how can I know that my backups are reliable?

 

“Time Machine completed a verification of your backups…”

I just got an error from my Time Capsule: “Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability Time Machine must create a new backup for you.” I went ahead and started a new backup, but how can I know that my backups are reliable?

Absolutely hitting Start New Backup was the right move!

All we need to do is make sure your Time Capsule has enough room to accommodate the additional information. If it doesn’t, we can archive the existing data to a separate drive.

So here’s what happened: Time Machine [italics mine] is the software that runs on your Mac, and backs up to an external drive or to a network device like a Time Capsule.

The wireless convenience of the Time Capsule comes with a tradeoff: It stores your backups in an encapsulated file called a disk image. It’s like a pretend disk, and like any disk, the file system inside it can corrupt. File systems are weak that way, which is just one of the reasons we keep a backup.

It may help to remember that a backup is just a copy of your files. You need to keep 3 copies of any file — a file doesn’t exist unless it exists in three places — and any of those copies is vulnerable.

Finally, I would recommend running Disk Utility on your Mac, just to make sure your main data drive has not itself become corrupt. Here are easy instructions!

Configure one Airport Base Station to extend another

Airport Utility

Apple has really made setting up a wifi network easy. Airport Utility now requires only a few clicks, and correctly guesses what you want to do with each device.

When they start adding devices, or reconfiguring existing ones, many people are reluctant to wipe the routers and start from scratch, but that’s totally the thing to do. It saves a ton of time and guesswork.

Here’s how you do:

  1. Reset both devices to defaults
    • holding the reset button with a pen til light blinks faster
  2. Unplug your internet modem from power, count to 5, and plug back in.
  3. Set up the Airport A connected to the internet.
    • Use the same settings, including wifi network name.
  4. Make sure you can now surf the web.
  5. Plug in Airport B, in the same room as the first one.
  6. Configure B, letting Airport Utility guess correctly that you want the B to extend A.
  7. Once both are green, unplug B, and plug it in where you need it.
  8. Make sure it goes green, and you can surf in the G’s office.

Airport Express not connecting consistently

We have been having trouble with our Airport Express. It is working very slow (takes about 1 min. or longer to load a page). The internet works fine when we plug it directly into the computer. It was working fine a month ago but now it won’t. I have tried resetting it and unplugging everything. We have had problems with this Express before (we had to unplug it fairly often just to get our computers to connect to it).

Unfortunately, I find Airport devices to be the most finicky of Apple products, often requiring more resets than a simple device like this should. That said, I also have never had an Airport unit actually be a lemon, except one that was really old.

So, I would absolutely recommend resetting the Airport Express back to factory defaults (pressing the reset button for about 15 seconds until the light blinks 4 times), and reconfiguring it with Airport Setup Assistant. If you have already done that, you might try switching cables out.

If THAT doesn’t work, and if it’s under warranty, please call Apple to get a new one. If it’s out of warranty, might as well buy a brand new, freaky-fast Airport Extreme!