for years I have been backing up 3 macbook pros over wifi to a time machine drive connected via USB to a Mac mini. the mini is connected to the router via ethernet. Router is a fios gateway router.
the external drive has always immediately appeared in the time machine prefs on the MBPs for selection.
About a week ago backups stopped. the drive no longer shows in the TM prefs. It still shows in finder and can be mounted remotely with no problems.
The only thing i did around that time that i can think of is trying to set up a VPN server on the mini with macos server and playing around with port forwarding on the router. I gave up on that after a few days.
Now, macos server app is not running. I have reset the router to defaults settings. I have reformatted the TM drive. I have reinstalled macOS on the mini. none of it helps.
I have also connected the TM drive to one of the MBPs, shared it, and as before it can be seen and mounted in the other macs, but wont appear in TM prefs. I can successfully backup to the disk from any of the macs if i directly connect it to them.
So, I am at a complete loss. This system has worked for years. The problem doesn't seem to be the router, as it is back to default settings. It doesn't seem to be the mini, as the problem persists even when i connect and share the drive from a MBP (if it had worked from the MBP, i would have done a clean install of macOS on the mini). and it doesn't seem to be the drive as the problem persists after reformatting it.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I hope i am missing something obvious here.
_____
the external drive has always immediately appeared in the time machine prefs on the MBPs for selection.
About a week ago backups stopped. the drive no longer shows in the TM prefs. It still shows in finder and can be mounted remotely with no problems.
The only thing i did around that time that i can think of is trying to set up a VPN server on the mini with macos server and playing around with port forwarding on the router. I gave up on that after a few days.
Now, macos server app is not running. I have reset the router to defaults settings. I have reformatted the TM drive. I have reinstalled macOS on the mini. none of it helps.
I have also connected the TM drive to one of the MBPs, shared it, and as before it can be seen and mounted in the other macs, but wont appear in TM prefs. I can successfully backup to the disk from any of the macs if i directly connect it to them.
So, I am at a complete loss. This system has worked for years. The problem doesn't seem to be the router, as it is back to default settings. It doesn't seem to be the mini, as the problem persists even when i connect and share the drive from a MBP (if it had worked from the MBP, i would have done a clean install of macOS on the mini). and it doesn't seem to be the drive as the problem persists after reformatting it.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I hope i am missing something obvious here.
_____