Apple issued a minor firmware update today to address issues specifically related to customers using USB hard drives with their routers, and fixes for intermittent loss in WAN connectivity as well as issues that may cause a network loop. You can view the full release notes below:
- Addresses an issue that prevents a USB hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme from appearing as an available disk in Time Machine
- Resolves an issue that may intermittently cause a loss in WAN connectivity
- Resolves an issue that may result in a network loop
If you own an AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule, you can view more information about grabbing new firmware updates here.
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Still no support for Radio Mode on the 802.11ac Airport Extreme..
No idea what that supposed to mean.
I thought Apple didn’t support using a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme for Time machine backups.
Officially they don’t. It works fine though. Been doing it for three years :)
Got it, yeah I was backing up to a USB for almost the last year, and ran into the intermittent issues with the drive not showing in Time Machine. That drive died, so now I just backup to a local USB.
Officially it IS supported on the 802.11ac models introduced in June 2013. It was never supported prior to this, and is in fact very unreliable on any previously generation AEBS.
@PMZanetti, can you please show me where this is documented? I’m trying to confirm before buying one. See here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2038. Let me know what you think.
Could have sworn they’ve always supported this. Always. Since the first 802.11n model.
Incorrect. It has never worked reliably, and was never officially supported. It is NOW officially supported on the latest models, and does work without issue…er, at least after this firmware update.
I started having Issues with disconnection since the upgrade, is this an upgrade problem. I have had about 3 or 4 instances where all of the sudden the network disappears. Everything looks like it is working fine but no internet. A restart of the airport fixes this. Anything else I need to do?