This isn't a time capsule! It's just a bunch of paper!

July 15, 2010 9:24 AM

YANMAG (You are not my Apple Genius): I have a shiny new 1TB Time Capsule, but I can't get the damn thing to work. When I try to configure it and it restarts, my Mac seems to lose its ability to detect it.

Specs over here:

27" iMac (bought in December of last year)
Snow Leopard
1TB Time Capsule (bought in June of this year)

I've tried both wireless and ethernet connections, but after the reset my iMac completely ceases to recognize the damn thing, and the FAQs on the Apple site are no help. Hope me Metafilter! Is this thing busted or am I just an idiot?

posted by Schlimmbesserung to technology (13 answers total)

Take it back to Apple.
posted by tommasz at 9:27 AM on July 15, 2010

It took me a couple of resets to get mine to play nicely together too (and it is soo great once you get it to work!). Are you also restarting the iMac after the reset?
posted by cestmoi15 at 9:31 AM on July 15, 2010

I saw that too, but mine is two years newer than the defective lot.
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 9:32 AM on July 15, 2010

You don't give any indication how you configred it, but maybe you misconfigured it in some way (or missed some crucial configuration step). Reset it and try again.
posted by caek at 9:33 AM on July 15, 2010

Oops, preview fail. Yes I have been restarting the iMac too.
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 9:33 AM on July 15, 2010

Well then! As it is brand new, it will still be under warranty. Call Apple.
posted by cestmoi15 at 9:35 AM on July 15, 2010

Yeah, these things are supposed to work right out of the box. Sounds like you got a lemon.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 9:44 AM on July 15, 2010

It took me awhile to get mine to play nice with my network and it all came down to WEP vs WPA2. My wireless network was still set to WEP. I changed it to WPA2 and was rolling within minutes (called AT&T for the walkthrough but was an amazingly simply task to make the change)!
posted by doorsfan at 10:39 AM on July 15, 2010

Mine did not work right off the bat either and the solution in my case was to give it a shorter name. Yes, that sounds silly. But I came across it on a message board somewhere and once I switched to a very short name, everything fell into place.

At any rate, it certainly can't hurt.
posted by veggieboy at 10:48 AM on July 15, 2010

You have a free call to tech support with the new time capsule; sounds like you should use it. I have only called them a couple of times ever (since 1984) and they have always been very helpful.

As others have said, mine worked pretty much right out of the box.
posted by TedW at 10:51 AM on July 15, 2010

I got a bad iphone, and had tried to troubleshoot things a bit (according to the advice I received at the Genius Bar). When I finally gave up and returned it, the sales guy said that when you have a new Apple product that doesn't work, just return it immediately. Troubleshooting may solve some initial problems, but you could be hurting yourself in the end if it ends up failing later.
posted by thegreatfleecircus at 10:57 AM on July 15, 2010

Geez.

doorsfan wins this one. WPA2 did the magic.
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 11:50 AM on July 15, 2010

I might look at other backup solutions then the time capsule. We've been through 2 of them and they are buggy as shit.

FWIW...
posted by razzamatazm at 8:16 PM on July 15, 2010