Latest Airport Extreme Firmware

[david279]

What is the latest firmware for the extreme? 7.4.2 just popped up for update.

[gr8tfly]

What is the latest firmware for the extreme? 7.4.2 just popped up for update.

I was about to start a thread too - I went to check a setting in Airport Utility for my AEBS, and it showed up there just a few minutes ago.

I checked Apple, and no KB for 7.4.2

It's sorely needed to fix at least a couple of issues I've seen. I would like to see some release notes before updating, but I guess I can always roll back to 7.4.1.

[g-7]

What is the latest firmware for the extreme? 7.4.2 just popped up for update.

Firmware 7.4.2 just appeared for my AirPort Express, downloading right now.
I think it is a new one.

[david279]

I hope it helps me reach my drives attached to the extreme remotely. Hasn't worked since the last update.

[gr8tfly]

I hope it helps me reach my drives attached to the extreme remotely. Hasn't worked since the last update.

Mine would go "stupid" every so often - wireless would continue to work, but couldn't mount drives. Hopefully, this is one of the things addressed in the update.

[rgarjr]

Yeah Im upgrading the FW on all three of my airports right now.

[WilliamG]

This fixed my 30 minute connection time from my Airport Express N to my Time Capsule!

[z4n3]

MacBook Pro EFI, Bluetooth, Airport, MacBook Pro SMC, Xserve LOM, iMac EFI, Mini DisplayPort to VGA in just 2 months!!! and people still bitch :eek:

[4np]

Installed on my AE 802.11n, unfortunately the update did not allow me to use European channels on my USA bought AE... Still haven't found a sollution to that issue, I guess it's 'impossible (http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25972?viewlocale=en_US)'...

Anybody got a European AE 802.11n that would like to trade it for a USA AE 802.11n? ;)

[amac4me]

Just installed the update ... all is well and no issues to report on my 1st generation Time Capsule

[mex4eric]

Works fine on my Extreme "n". Was having problems with "time connected" view in menu bar, but that might have been local interference on the channel I was using.

Will see how fast it recovers from "Enterphone" interruptions on my DSL line, but that's probably due to telco server lockup.

[cmcconkey]

Installed on my AEBS.n Dual-Band Simultaneous. Tomorrow I will install it on a ExpressN and a AEBS.n Gigabit. Haven't had any problems with any of them, I hope that doesn't change.

[nagromme]

After a year, I wouldn't mind if my MacBook Air could reliably connect to my Time Capsule (wideband N) on wake from sleep :o

Everything else connects fine to the TC, and the Air connects to every other network just fine. It even connects to the TC just fine--unless I use 5Ghz N, and then 1/3 of the time it fails to find the network. It's always been that way. Annoying.

Nothing in the notes on this update gives me particular hope, though.

[dborja]

I had the issue of losing connectivity in an extended network with V7.4.1 so I had to roll back to the earlier version. I'll give this a try since it does identify my issue as being fixed...

[Blaine]

Software update isn't picking this up. :confused:

[psxguru]

Software update isn't picking this up. :confused:

run airport utility

[displaced]

Good timing...

My new iPhone 3GS was struggling to retrieve an IP address via DHCP with our Airport Extreme. For the time being, I'd set the IP config manually. But after this update, the 3GS now works fine with DHCP.

Excellent :)

[iPhoneNYC]

Installed via Airport Utility to my "n". Initially Safari couldn't open even though the airport was listed. So I restarted and everything is fine.

[BigTRQ]

Thanks Apple! Now I can have a closed network, and have my AE-n connect to it! Took long enough, but glad they fixed that issue.

[theBigD23]

My TC is working well right now, with TM on 2 computers. These updates sometimes screw things up, so I'm a little wary. I'm a sucker for updates though. :)

[Cuprous]

Installed the update now my two iPhones can not connect to wifi. Any tips on how to revert back to the old firmware. I already tried a restore to factory settings but this did not help

[HailToTheVictor]

Wooo!!! Connecting to external drives no longer takes forever!!!!

[shayn]

my airport express hasn't worked since 7.4.1. It's now working again with the new update. Happy days.

[jazz1]

I hope it helps me reach my drives attached to the extreme remotely. Hasn't worked since the last update.

My remote HD came up faster than ever. Hope it helps you.

[Drumjim85]

I have 2 Air Port Expresses, running airport utility 5.4.2 and I'm not seeing this update. When i try to DL it from apple.com it takes me to some support document.

[thescort]

Broke my MBP (leopard) ability to connect wirelessly. Reverted to 7.4.1.

[yaroldb]

Have a TC and an express. After the update, I can not access the TC hard drive or see the external drive I have connected. Negative...:(

[Torq]

7.4.2 completely breaks my ability to access the Time Capsule's hard drive over the network (wired or wireless).

Under 7.4.1 it was just Windows machines that would not connect to the drive automatically, though you could manually re-map the connection and that would work until you next rebooted your PC.

Now NOTHING talks to the hard-drive, it does not even spin up and the device is NOT recognized as being present on the network.

This works without issue in 7.3.x, I do no understand how it can be so badly broken AND so varied in whether it works or not at this point.

Time to axe the Time Capsule, get a different router and use separate NAS devices, as this thing is clearly NOT going to be useable properly any time soon. Especially going by the time from 7.4.1 to 7.4.2 (and that only made my issues WORSE).

And yes, I have already tried both a simple update, and and update and reset to factory settings and then reconfiguring the device from scratch.

It does not work.

[alexbates]

- Fixes an issue when the base station is configured for PPPoE

YES!!!!! No more dropped internet connection when phone rings. I am sooo happy :D

[jmb667]

KB article is here, in case anyone needs it:
http://support.apple.com/downloads/Time_Capsule_and_AirPort_Base_Station_Firmware_Update_7_4_2

[Torq]

Downgraded back to 7.3.2 ... all magically working perfectly again ... minus the new features of course.

I do not know what is different in the various revisions of the Time Capsule hardware, but one thing is for sure ... mine is not useable as anything other than a router with any firmware other than that it shipped with.

Amazing that the latest update even stopped my Macs from accessing the hard disc.

[FJR1300]

I have the xtreme-N and had a similar issue. After updating TM couldn't connect. Tried to browse the HD from finder and nothing even though the AE showed as an option. What I did to fix was re-entered the HD password in the utility and rebooted the AE and all is right with the universe!!

HTH!! :)

7.4.2 completely breaks my ability to access the Time Capsule's hard drive over the network (wired or wireless).

Under 7.4.1 it was just Windows machines that would not connect to the drive automatically, though you could manually re-map the connection and that would work until you next rebooted your PC.

Now NOTHING talks to the hard-drive, it does not even spin up and the device is NOT recognized as being present on the network.

This works without issue in 7.3.x, I do no understand how it can be so badly broken AND so varied in whether it works or not at this point.

Time to axe the Time Capsule, get a different router and use separate NAS devices, as this thing is clearly NOT going to be useable properly any time soon. Especially going by the time from 7.4.1 to 7.4.2 (and that only made my issues WORSE).

And yes, I have already tried both a simple update, and and update and reset to factory settings and then reconfiguring the device from scratch.

It does not work.

[FJR1300]

Have you tried to unplug the power from your TC?

Downgraded back to 7.3.2 ... all magically working perfectly again ... minus the new features of course.

I do not know what is different in the various revisions of the Time Capsule hardware, but one thing is for sure ... mine is not useable as anything other than a router with any firmware other than that it shipped with.

Amazing that the latest update even stopped my Macs from accessing the hard disc.

[jmb667]

Interesting...no problems here with OS X or Windows 7 on my Macbook and the 7.4.2 upgrade on a Time Capsule and AEX.

[Torq]

Have you tried to unplug the power from your TC?

I have tried unplugging it and letting it sit for a minute or two to ensure no capacitors in the PSU (switch-mode though it is) kept the memory alive.

I have reset it up from factory defaults.

I have re-entered passwords (both on the device and in the BSA).

The device is simply not visible on the network as any kind of storage from either Windows or OS X at all.

Under 7.4.1 I could connect to it manually from both, but the Base Station Agent would not talk to it and continually report errors.

Under 7.4.2 none of the dozen or so machines I have will see it, and while it works fine as a router, it is hardly cream-of-the-crop there.

There are obviously multiple revisions of the thing out there, and the new firmwares do not work correctly on them. Apple is unresponsive to concerns about it.

I have seen the same sorts of things on the iPhone ... I had no real issues with OS 3.0 during the beta period, but it has been a nightmare for some people ... always the way.

If the next update does not resolve all of these issues, I will just ditch it for separate routers and NAS devices.

[Torq]

I have the xtreme-N and had a similar issue. After updating TM couldn't connect. Tried to browse the HD from finder and nothing even though the AE showed as an option. What I did to fix was re-entered the HD password in the utility and rebooted the AE and all is right with the universe!!

HTH!! :)

Thanks for the suggestion, but the device is simply not visible under 7.4.2.

There is literally nothing there for the BSA to talk to. Even looking at the network traffic directly and interacting at a transport level I cannot find the damn thing.

Under 7.4.1 it is at least responsive, just the BSA refuses to connect, and I have to manually re-define my drive mappings every time I boot Windows (a unmangable pain in the arse across almost this many machines).

7.3.2 works perfectly, always has, excepting that it lacks some of the new features.

[WilliamG]

Thanks Apple! Now I can have a closed network, and have my AE-n connect to it! Took long enough, but glad they fixed that issue.

It always worked in 7.4.1, but it would take my Airport Express N's almost half an hour before they eventually connected! Now it's within 20 seconds, finally.

[Evangelion]

Is backing up to Time Capsule still slow as molasses?

[FJR1300]

One last thought for you.. I found on the apple forum someone having the same type of issue. Maybe try going in to your Key chain Access and deleting all TC entries. Maybe this is preventing it from showing? Here's a clip from the post..


"The Resolution:
I found that in "Keychain Access" there were multiple entries in "login" and "system" for my Time Capsule. I deleted all entries related to the Time Capsule, switched the "Connection Sharing" on the Time Capsule back to "Share a public IP address" (now its acting as a router), wired it directly back up to my modem and then saved the password into Keychain when prompted on the next connection. Now the problem is gone!"

Good Luck!!

Thanks for the suggestion, but the device is simply not visible under 7.4.2.

There is literally nothing there for the BSA to talk to. Even looking at the network traffic directly and interacting at a transport level I cannot find the damn thing.

Under 7.4.1 it is at least responsive, just the BSA refuses to connect, and I have to manually re-define my drive mappings every time I boot Windows (a unmangable pain in the arse across almost this many machines).

7.3.2 works perfectly, always has, excepting that it lacks some of the new features.

[mustang_dvs]

my airport express hasn't worked since 7.4.1. It's now working again with the new update. Happy days.

Yeah, 7.4.1 killed my Express-N, as well. I downgraded to 7.3.2 and have suffered through amber lights on it and the AXBS-n that it extends, as well as incessant requests from Airport Utility to update it.

[michael.lauden]

It always worked in 7.4.1, but it would take my Airport Express N's almost half an hour before they eventually connected! Now it's within 20 seconds, finally.

jeez that's weird. i've updated mine 3 or 4 times - and haven't had a problem EVER.

we have my iPhone, 2 blackberries, 2 PC's (one with internal, one withe external wifi card), and my Mac mini + MacBook in the house.

[dborja]

I had the issue of losing connectivity in an extended network with V7.4.1 so I had to roll back to the earlier version. I'll give this a try since it does identify my issue as being fixed...

Update: I flashed my AEBS and AExpress last night. So far so good this morning...

[MacHiavelli]

I couldn't connect to the hard drive on my Time Capsule (from OSX or XP connected machines) after the previous update (7.4.1) so I rolled back to 7.3.2.

Think I will wait to see how other people get on with 7.4.2.

Any comments on getting a first generation TC to work with 7.4.2 in a mixed Windows/OSX environment (using TC as an external drive for the machines to share files) would be very welcome.

TIA

[SkippyThorson]

Simple individual file transfers were starting to take forever, and I would sometimes see my iPhone and computers drop one WiFi bar every now and then. Hope this is all fixed. :)

[ltldrummerboy]

No problems here on my single-band Time Capsule.

[chrisandersen]

GREAT!
My dropped connections may be gone. Up for almost a hour now with no issues.

[Phil A.]

Wirelessly posted (iPod touch 32GB: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)

Well that was a waste of time! Updated my AEBS with the net result it broke time machi e on the three computers that back up to it!
Each one does exactly the same thing: time machine reports that it can't connect and to reaelect the disk. I do that and it backs up flawlessly, only for exactly the same error to pop up the next time time machine tries to back up.
The first rule of a software update should always be "first do no harm". Well, this one does harm in a big way :(

[Torq]

One last thought for you.. I found on the apple forum someone having the same type of issue. Maybe try going in to your Key chain Access and deleting all TC entries. Maybe this is preventing it from showing? Here's a clip from the post..

Once again, my sincere thanks for the suggestion and the effort :)

But no, that did not help.

There is something odd with my (and some other people's it seems) Time Capsule that renders the disk either unreachable or inconsistently accessible with the 7.4.x firmwares.

7.3.2 works fine ... be nice to have the new features, but they are not critical. I just wish the bloody thing would stop flashing a yellow light (even with "Check for Firmware Updates" disabled) after a week of use.

I will say the situation makes me uncomfortable though. A backup device with questionable accessibility is not terribly useful, so at this stage either Apple will replace it with one that does work on current firmware (so future updates are less likely to bork it), or I'll swap it for separate router/NAS devices.

[srexy]

Update: I flashed my AEBS and AExpress last night. So far so good this morning...

I updated a pre Gigabit N AEBS and my Airport Express last night as well. All seemed well and an improvement on the 7.4.1 AEBS/7.3.2 AE situation I was using but just as I was revelling in iTunes not taking 30s to queue up the next song served up on the Mini downstairs - it crapped out.

I've downgraded the AE back to 7.3.2 and the stability is back but the damn connection (which I know is down to the AE cos it's the only one that picks up the Mini) is sketchy at best.

Might go back to the 7.3.2 revision throughout because I definitely didn't have as many problems with it as either of the last 2.

Why does Apple keep foisting crap firmware fixes on us when they clearly don't work!

EDIT: just downgraded the AEBS to 7.3.2 and it's bloody brilliant again!! - No more interminable iTunes waits...

[srexy]

Is there any way to turn off the software update notifier from the Airport Utility?

[stevespa]

Wooo!!! Connecting to external drives no longer takes forever!!!!No kidding. Connecting to my Drobo is instantaneous.

Also, I can now listen to songs in iTunes while downloading podcasts, or doing any other disk traffic (my iTunes library is stored on the Drobo). Previously, I couldn't use anything on the hard disk if I was trying to stream music or video from it. Video or audio would freeze and sputter until other disk traffic stopped. I had always blamed the Drobo, but it does not appear to be the case.

Update works awesome, and fixes a lot of nagging issues for me!

[ZooCrewMan]

Is anyone else experiencing a problem updating their last generation Time Capsule? It asks me to update the firmware, I hit update, and the blue candy-cane bar just keeps spinning telling me it's "searching for latest firmware update."

[Henk Poley]

I'm back to to 7.4.1 on my 100Mbit 802.11n Airport Extreme. Time Machine couldn't find the attached disk most of the time when using 7.4.2. With the older 7.4.1 it seems to work again.

[vabaist]

I'm back on 7.4.1, too. Had the same problem as Henk Poley. Two external HDs connected to the AE via USB hub, one for Time Machine Backups, the other for media storage (movies, photos, etc.). With firmware 7.4.2 connection to the HDs is lost after 1 or 2 minutes. For me, while making a backup or watching a movie, the connection drops and finder is unable to reconnect to the external hard drives via AE again. At least, in my case, internet connection remains stable, only the drives are unmounted. This is reproducable and there is already a thread at the Apple forums: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2056371&tstart=0

At least, I'm not the only one.

[RockTheGlobe]

Count me among those who had to downgrade the firmware as well. I put 7.4.2 on my Time Capsule last night, and everything seemed to be going well until mid-afternoon today... my network name would show up in the Airport dropdown menu, but I'd have no connection to the Internet, and if I tried to turn Airport off and then on again to sign back into my network, it would constantly ask me for a password (which should've been saved in Keychain) and would tell me the connection was timing out. On the off occasion my network was back up (thanks to multiple TC and MacBook Pro reboots), it was molasses-slow and would eventually die.

The funny thing is that throughout all this drama, my fiancee's MacBook still had a solid connection to the Time Capsule and the network, despite the fact that my iPhone and TiVo couldn't connect.

Either way, just downgraded back to 7.3.2, and all is right with the world again.

[Dmac77]

This update totally screwed my AEBS up. It would drop the connection after ~45 minutes, and it would reappear 5 minutes later, but I wouldn't be able to access the internet. Then I wouldn't be able to find the AEBS in Airport Utility. It would fix itself 10 minutes later, but after another 45 minutes it would start again. I restored it about an hour ago, and I'm not having any issues now.

Don

[jecapaga]

I'm back on 7.4.1, too. Had the same problem as Henk Poley. Two external HDs connected to the AE via USB hub, one for Time Machine Backups, the other for media storage (movies, photos, etc.). With firmware 7.4.2 connection to the HDs is lost after 1 or 2 minutes. For me, while making a backup or watching a movie, the connection drops and finder is unable to reconnect to the external hard drives via AE again. At least, in my case, internet connection remains stable, only the drives are unmounted. This is reproducable and there is already a thread at the Apple forums: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2056371&tstart=0

At least, I'm not the only one.

Same here. After 7.4.2 I lost ability to connect/backup with Time Machine on external. Downgraded to 7.4.1 and I'm now backing up successfully.

[thecypher]

Last time I updated to 7.4.1 my backups via AE to an external drive consistently failed from my Macbook and from my iMac. Connections also dropped all the time literally every few minutes. It was a nightmare and the computers become completely unusable if you are on a VPN. Everytime the wifi connections drops, the VPN drops. Reverted back to 7.3.2 and all was happy again. I have always been a sucker for updates but this has taught me better. If it ain't broke don't fix it!

Not sure exactly what 7.4.2 offers me. Unless I am convinced it is not going to break things again I am sticking to 7.3.2.

[dubhe]

Hopefully this will fix my connection drop out issues. Let's see...

[DaveTheGrey]

Videoplayback via airdisk still stutters with 7.4.2 on my dualband AEBS :mad:
Is it possible to use 7.3.6 with the dualband one?
With 7.3.6 an the AEBS N (without dualband) I had never problems, unfortunately I replaced it with the Dualband AEBS....

[Mpalmieri1203]

I'm back on 7.4.1, too. Had the same problem as Henk Poley. Two external HDs connected to the AE via USB hub, one for Time Machine Backups, the other for media storage (movies, photos, etc.). With firmware 7.4.2 connection to the HDs is lost after 1 or 2 minutes. For me, while making a backup or watching a movie, the connection drops and finder is unable to reconnect to the external hard drives via AE again. At least, in my case, internet connection remains stable, only the drives are unmounted. This is reproducable and there is already a thread at the Apple forums: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2056371&tstart=0

At least, I'm not the only one.

I am having the same exact issue. How do I reverse to a previous firmware?

[dborja]

Update: I flashed my AEBS and AExpress last night. So far so good this morning...

Update: Sadly, I'm going back to 7.3.2. My AEBS-attached drives and the Internet are dropping randomly.

I don't know if this is related but my connection was super slow yesterday morning; I didn't have time to troubleshoot whether it was the AEBS and AExp, the gateway router or my ISP...

[dubhe]

Hopefully this will fix my connection drop out issues. Let's see...

Better (less drop outs) but still some. Air Tunes still jumps a lot too, especially when Time Machine doing it's thing with the Time Capsule. These things should be designed to work together...

[jicon]

Just a little more fuel to add to the fire...

I've had the 100Mb n version for a long time now, and no issue with an external drive connected via USB... until 7.4.2, and oddly, not till this weekend, where I've updated my AppleTV and Boxee -which points to the drive for files.

It means rebooting the AE, and works fine for a few hours, then suddenly, connection dropped to the AirDisk or SMB share. None of my three macs can see the drive until I reboot it.

[iriejedi]

Glad to know I'm not alone - tried lots of things still nothing - at least 7.4.1 works just fin e for me... and 7.4.2 seems to have issues... so I'm not too worried about being one update behind the Joneses....

Is anyone else experiencing a problem updating their last generation Time Capsule? It asks me to update the firmware, I hit update, and the blue candy-cane bar just keeps spinning telling me it's "searching for latest firmware update."

[dave12345]

my network drive is loosing connection randomly after this update - its super fast to get onto it now with the new firmware - will try it out for a few more days but might have to roll back to the previous version if the drop outs continue - its annoying having to restart the router to get my drive back online!

[SeaneyC]

Updates working great here, before, my extreme would drop out all the time when downloading large files, the signal was fine, but the routing would just die randomly. With the new software on my Express too extending my Extreme it seems way more reliable than before and my time machine backups onto USB discs seem unaffected! All good :D

[dborja]

Updates working great here, before, my extreme would drop out all the time when downloading large files, the signal was fine, but the routing would just die randomly. With the new software on my Express too extending my Extreme it seems way more reliable than before and my time machine backups onto USB discs seem unaffected! All good :D

Congrats! "YMMV" definitely applies to this update...

[dave12345]

rolled back to 7.4.1 - my external drive kept dropping using the latest version - i wish i could roll back my SMC firmware - my MBP is burning up! :mad:

[shaunb83]

I finally rolled back to 7.3.2 - both the latest firmware upgrades have sucked. My girlfriends macbook (mid-2007 model) continually dropped the wireless connection, and my Macbook pro (late 2007) didn't do much better. Downgraded to 7.3.2 and have had no problems. Curious thing is that on all three systems, my iphone (2g running 3.0) has had absolutely no problems on any of the three firmware (7.3.2, 7.4.1, 7.4.2).

I have to say it is pretty frustrating....I guess the message here if it ain't broke, don't bother upgrading it!!

[dwdenbo]

Upgraded my Airport Extreme Firmware to 7.4.2 and it kept dropping the disk. Time Machine would fail and the shared disk I used was only available immediately after restarting the router.

Couldn't find anyway to report this to Apple from there website. Apparently, they don't want feedback about system failures.

[Henk Poley]

@dwdenbo, first.. what worked for me is after installing 7.4.2 you export the settings and then reimport them. After that the airdisk worked again without disconnects.

Second, you can report bugs to Apple at https://bugreport.apple.com/ for which you need a developer account (free registration, like Apple ID). Or you could give 'feedback' at http://www.apple.com/feedback/

[gr8tfly]

@dwdenbo, first.. what worked for me is after installing 7.4.2 you export the settings and then reimport them. After that the airdisk worked again without disconnects....

Didn't work for me. Total hang when two machine are trying to access AirDisks. Oh well - back to 7.4.1. My main reason for using 7.4.2, right now, is Wake On Demand. Thanks for the tip, anyway.

[bibi94]

After upgrading to firmware 7.4.2 from 7.3.2 my Airport Express went bad.

I believed there was something wrong with my Apple softwares, so I uninstalled all airport express, itunes, ... from the PC and reinstall all.

Now I am sure it is because of the firmware, but when I try to upload older firmware, there are no more on my PC and I deeply checked on the Net but find nowhere where I can find a 7.3.2 firmware file.

If someone has it on his PC, please send it to me (can be done through MP or email to mymail94@gmail.com)

Thank you in advance.
Bernard