Update 9 pm ET: Our comrade David Chartier from Ars Technica points out that the 7.1.3 firmware itself may not be necessary for the new functionality to work; he says he tested a 7.1 AEBS with a machine running Time Capsule & Airport 1.0, and Time Machine was able to see the remote disk. Other readers have reminded us that the disk must be formatted as HFS+ with journaling, and you may have to mount it in the Finder before Time Machine sees it. The freeware TimeMachineScheduler is disabled by this update, comments note.Update 6:45 am Thursday: More comments point out that if you take a locally-connected Time Machine drive and attach it to an AEBS, you will be starting over with new backups (because the remote backups are stored on sparseimages, not as folders). Something to keep in mind if you already have a long backup history -- you might want to use a different drive.
Sometimes the fixes are subtle and quiet. Once TUAW reader Peder downloaded today's Airport updates and ran the utility, he noticed a new version of the Airport Extreme firmware queued up and ready (v7.3.1). When he installed and rebooted his AEBS -- which happened to have a USB hard drive hanging off of it... well, let him tell you:
If this is a reproducible result -- this means you, everyone, go ahead and start testing this firmware! -- that means that the now-you-see-it, now-you-don't Time Machine to AirDisk feature of Leopard has finally arrived. Sure, the Time Capsule is a one-piece solution and quite economical, but for all the AEBS owners out there who have been waiting patiently, this would be a very nice bit of March madness indeed. [Response to "just-a-guy" below: Remember, this is the Airport EXTREME only; the Express doesn't support AirDisk at all.]
Seeing the same results as Peder? By all means let us know. He was kind enough to send us a few screenshots, see below.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
3-19-2008 @ 6:50PM
Just_a_guy said...
does this work with the airport express?
Reply
3-19-2008 @ 7:00PM
starkruzr said...
How do I readed blog post?
3-19-2008 @ 7:02PM
Michael Rose said...
In fairness, I added the note about the Express after the comment showed up.
3-19-2008 @ 7:44PM
Cycomachead said...
but there is an update for express users too... unless the 'n' ones are shipping w/ 7.3.1 already. Don't know what the update does for the express though.
3-19-2008 @ 7:02PM
Eddie said...
Same result - backing up my iMac and MacBook (simultaneously - bad idea? probably) right now. Very happy.
Reply
3-19-2008 @ 7:04PM
Russell Stuever said...
I have indeed duplicated the results. I am also able to select the AirPort Disk within Time Machine setup.
Reply
3-19-2008 @ 7:06PM
webmacster87 said...
This is awesome and a good move for Apple. I don't think this will cut into Time Capsule sales very significantly--after all, when you consider that Time Capsule gives you an AirPort Extreme ($179 value) PLUS a 500 GB or terabyte hard drive just $120 or $220 more, that's an excellent value. However, this definitely makes life much more flexible for current AirPort Extreme/external hard drive owners. Way to go Apple (albeit somewhat belated).
Reply
3-23-2008 @ 10:41AM
Jack said...
But Time Capsule does not allow us to partition the internal HD, right?
3-19-2008 @ 7:10PM
Rae Whitlock said...
Apple finally delivered. Kudos.
Reply
3-19-2008 @ 7:11PM
Eric Lawton said...
Does anyone know if Apple plans to allow SMB connections to Time Machine?
Reply
3-19-2008 @ 7:31PM
trippy said...
The reason that the airport doesn't work with time machine is because it has an smb server. What time machine works with is an AFP server. Your can turn any machine into a time machine time capsule by sharing your drives or folders in a drive IF you are running AFP.
So no you won't see an smb time machine server. I suspect that this is due to the hard links that time machine is making along with other differences. Just a guess though. But seriously try the AFP share. You can already have a time capsule.
3-19-2008 @ 7:53PM
Jimbo said...
trippy - Tell us more about this solution.
3-19-2008 @ 9:23PM
Zack Mahdavi said...
I have been happily using Time Machine to back up to a SMB mount for several months now. You just need to get "iTimeMachine".
This setup has been working great. Backups and restores occur without a hitch.
http://lifehacker.com/341704/time-machine-over-the-network-with-itimemachine
3-19-2008 @ 7:13PM
Phil J Leitch said...
No luck here...boo hoo.
Reply
3-19-2008 @ 11:46PM
newsray said...
One point not mentioned in the article is that you have to manually mount the disk that is connected to your Airport Extreme, at least the first time.
After I did that, I was able to start using Time Machine with two different Macs that had formerly been using Time Machine only when the drive was directly connected to them.
3-20-2008 @ 12:15AM
Phil J Leitch said...
That worked. Mounting the disk and then going to Time Machine and it shows up. This is most excellent. Time to get a larger drive.
3-19-2008 @ 7:14PM
Mark said...
Also there appears to be a new feature under the Disks section of the APU.
There is an Archive button, the description says
"Select Archive to transfer the data from your Time Capsule disk to an AirPort disk connected via USB."
This potentially solves my one major gripe with TC and TM. The lack of off-site back ups.
Can I now take a TC backup (archive) and store at my brothers house?
www.metphoto.net
Reply
3-19-2008 @ 7:20PM
Dave said...
doesn't work for me. Strange.
Reply
3-19-2008 @ 7:28PM
iGO said...
Works !!....Make sure youare doing the AEBS Firmware update to 7.3.1
It shoudd show up in your software update after the other updates AND a reboot.
3-19-2008 @ 7:35PM
Blair said...
Doesn't work for me either.