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Airport Extreme (new model) and USB Hard Drive

Macman45

Macman45

macrumors G5
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
I'm not sure about the new model, but my older Extreme won't hack a drive larger than 32GB. I have a stick in the USB port as a dumping ground for files I need cross network access to.

It may be that the new model supports larger drives though.
 
ZeRoLiMiT

ZeRoLiMiT

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 6, 2010
845
89
Southern California
found it!

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2421?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Uses for the USB port of AirPort Time Capsule, AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express
The USB port on a AirPort Time Capsule, AirPort Extreme Base Station, or AirPort Express is only intended for the uses described here. It is not intended for use with other USB devices, such as broadband modems, speakers, or keyboards.

AirPort Time Capsule 802.11ac & AirPort Time Capsule 802.11n (1st - 4th Generation)
A self-powered USB hard drive
A USB printer
A USB hub, which may be used to connect several USB hard drives and/or printers
AirPort Extreme 802.11ac & AirPort Extreme 802.11n (1st - 5th Generation)
A self-powered USB hard drive
A USB printer
A USB hub, which may be used to connect several USB hard drives and/or printers
AirPort Express 802.11n (2nd Generation) & AirPort Express 802.11n (1st Generation)
A USB printer
Additional Information

Broadband modem note
To connect to a broadband modem, such as cable and DSL, use Ethernet. If your broadband Internet service provider uses USB modems, contact them for an alternate solution.

enjoy everyone!
 
Gav2k

Gav2k

macrumors G3
Jul 24, 2009
9,216
1,608
My drobo is plugged into mine (16tb) without an issue.

Edit.. Should say as well as my printer on a powered 5 port USB hub
 
ZeRoLiMiT

ZeRoLiMiT

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 6, 2010
845
89
Southern California
i hear ya! I've been using the Verizon FIOS router and this thing just sucks!!! I got a older router and it sucks to so I had to upgrade. iPhones, iPads, Apple Tv's, Chromecast, MacBooks and xbox one! its clogging everything up!

Hope this helps everything be normal again.
 
Macman45

Macman45

macrumors G5
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
ZeRoLiMiT said:
i hear ya! I've been using the Verizon FIOS router and this thing just sucks!!! I got a older router and it sucks to so I had to upgrade. iPhones, iPads, Apple Tv's, Chromecast, MacBooks and xbox one! its clogging everything up!

Hope this helps everything be normal again.
Click to expand...

It will....even my old one works perfectly and it's loaded:

it extends my wifi from my Time Capsule in the living room to the bedroom...2 networks, one 2.4 one 5GHZ

connected to it:

Toshiba Smart TV
LG Smart Blu-ray Unit
Roberts Internet Radio
ATV 3
Yamaha AV system with airplay.

And I still get constant speeds.

I think there is a lot of truth in the statement that a lot of Apple products just work better with Apple networking stuff.
 
C

ColdCase

macrumors 68040
Feb 10, 2008
3,360
276
NH
ZeRoLiMiT said:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/ME918LL/A/airport-extreme?fnode=4d

Ok! so i bit the bullet since I need a new router. I wanted to see if anyone has tried this. I have multiple USB Hard drives and wanted to see if I add a USB hub with multiple hard drives will the router pickup all the drives.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

I think the new generation is better, but I abandoned connecting more than one USB hard drive (2TB portable) to the previous generation APE base station because the base station couldn't reliably wake drives 2-3-4 from sleep. They would just simply disappear from the network until either I reset the base station or unplugged/plugged in the USB cable. I could certainly reliably connect one USB drive, however. And the TimeCapsule didn't seem to suffer the same issue.
 
xraydoc

xraydoc

Contributor
Oct 9, 2005
10,790
5,243
192.168.1.1
Macman45 said:
I'm not sure about the new model, but my older Extreme won't hack a drive larger than 32GB. I have a stick in the USB port as a dumping ground for files I need cross network access to.

It may be that the new model supports larger drives though.
Click to expand...

I've got a 3TB USB drive I used on my Airport Extreme gen 3, gen 4 and gen 5 (and now on my new Time Capsule). Its always worked perfectly.

I've never heard of a 32GB limit for the APE's ever.
 
kfscoll

kfscoll

macrumors 65816
Nov 3, 2009
1,147
139
ZeRoLiMiT said:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/ME918LL/A/airport-extreme?fnode=4d

Ok! so i bit the bullet since I need a new router. I wanted to see if anyone has tried this. I have multiple USB Hard drives and wanted to see if I add a USB hub with multiple hard drives will the router pickup all the drives.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
I had seven 3TB Seagate Freeagent GoFlex Desk hard drives connected to my 802.11ac AirPort Extreme via a USB router and they worked fine. Trouble is that they were slow. I've since taken the USB drives out of their enclosures and installed five of them in a Drobo 5N and it's way faster -- I'd get 100Mbps transfers over my wireless network with the USB drives whereas I consistently get 500Mbps wireless transfers with the Drobo. If I connect via Ethernet to the router, I get easily hit 800-900Mbps when reading/writing to the Drobo.
 
Gav2k

Gav2k

macrumors G3
Jul 24, 2009
9,216
1,608
ColdCase said:
I think the new generation is better, but I abandoned connecting more than one USB hard drive (2TB portable) to the previous generation APE base station because the base station couldn't reliably wake drives 2-3-4 from sleep. They would just simply disappear from the network until either I reset the base station or unplugged/plugged in the USB cable. I could certainly reliably connect one USB drive, however. And the TimeCapsule didn't seem to suffer the same issue.
Click to expand...

Hence the need for a powered USB hub ;)
 
C

ColdCase

macrumors 68040
Feb 10, 2008
3,360
276
NH
Gav2k said:
Hence the need for a powered USB hub ;)
Click to expand...

I tried several powered hubs, including a well regarded pluggable powered USB hub. The drives eventually spin down and the airport forgot about most of them... well thats my theory of why the airport lost them :)

It seemed to be a common issue discussed here. The solution seemed to be to use drives that never spun down, or probe them once in awhile to jog the airports memory :) .

Plug the same hub and drives into a TimeCapsule and it was never an issue... beside the speed as others noted.
 
Last edited:
ZeRoLiMiT

ZeRoLiMiT

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 6, 2010
845
89
Southern California
My external drives is for media streaming and backups My media is always on because of my daughter or my wife so it will never sleep haha will be getting it tomorrow i hope to have it up and running this weekend
 
E

enigma2118

macrumors regular
Jan 7, 2006
109
2
ColdCase said:
I tried several powered hubs, including a well regarded pluggable powered USB hub. The drives eventually spin down and the airport forgot about most of them... well thats my theory of why the airport lost them :)

It seemed to be a common issue discussed here. The solution seemed to be to use drives that never spun down, or probe them once in awhile to jog the airports memory :) .

Plug the same hub and drives into a TimeCapsule and it was never an issue... beside the speed as others noted.
Click to expand...

Ah, this is exactly the problem I am having. When I had one HD plugged in it worked fine. When I had one HD and a printer sharing with a powered USB hub, no problem. But once I added a 2nd HD, it is always dropping one of the HDs and not waking it back up. I don't want it to always be spinning, so...anyone ever find a fix for this? Thanks!
 
Altemose

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
enigma2118 said:
Ah, this is exactly the problem I am having. When I had one HD plugged in it worked fine. When I had one HD and a printer sharing with a powered USB hub, no problem. But once I added a 2nd HD, it is always dropping one of the HDs and not waking it back up. I don't want it to always be spinning, so...anyone ever find a fix for this? Thanks!
Click to expand...


What AirPort and firmware are you running?
 
E

enigma2118

macrumors regular
Jan 7, 2006
109
2
Altemose said:
What AirPort and firmware are you running?
Click to expand...

I am using firmware 7.6.4

And it is an Airport Extreme 2nd generation.

I noticed that rebooting Airport does not help. But restarting computer does. However I want to be able to connect with iPad or Apple TV, and rebooting those do not wake up the HDs attached to the Airport.
 
Altemose

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
enigma2118 said:
I am using firmware 7.6.4



And it is an Airport Extreme 2nd generation.



I noticed that rebooting Airport does not help. But restarting computer does. However I want to be able to connect with iPad or Apple TV, and rebooting those do not wake up the HDs attached to the Airport.
Click to expand...


Try downgrading the firmware.
 
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