Time Machine: USB vs. AirPort Extreme

[goinskiing]

Here's an interesting question that I have been scouring the interwebs looking for an answer for but have had no luck. Here's my setup.

• Macbook Pro Retina (Late 2013 15")
• 4TB External USB Drive
• Airport Extreme AC (6th Gen. Tower)

I made the initial backup via USB since it would take a while over the network (1 TB with other external drive plugged into rMBP). I then go and plug the Time Machine into the Airport Extreme's USB slot. I go to make a back and it doesn't do it incrementally, but treats it as a separate drive altogether. Has anyone dealt with this and figured out how to let Time Machine know that it's the same disk? Thanks!

 

[Altemose]

I made the initial backup via USB since it would take a while over the network (1 TB with other external drive plugged into rMBP). I then go and plug the Time Machine into the Airport Extreme's USB slot. I go to make a back and it doesn't do it incrementally, but treats it as a separate drive altogether. Has anyone dealt with this and figured out how to let Time Machine know that it's the same disk? Thanks!

Yes. You must now wipe the drive and start over. You cannot do a backup over USB then over the network. You can however do a backup over Ethernet or Wi-Fi.

 

[goinskiing]

Yes. You must now wipe the drive and start over. You cannot do a backup over USB then over the network. You can however do a backup over Ethernet or Wi-Fi.

This is what I was afraid, seems like a bit of an oversight really. I'll just start over I guess, just seems odd. Thanks for your quick reply!

 

[Altemose]

This is what I was afraid, seems like a bit of an oversight really. I'll just start over I guess, just seems odd. Thanks for your quick reply!

No problem! You can switch freely between backing up and restoring over Ethernet or Wi-Fi. You cannot use USB to backup or restore once used over the network. This is due to Time Machine using a different file type for network backups vs. locally connected drive backups.

 

[Weaselboy]

This is what I was afraid, seems like a bit of an oversight really. I'll just start over I guess, just seems odd. Thanks for your quick reply!

If you did not already erase, there is a work around for this.

The issue is when you do a local (USB) backup, the backup is inside a file called backups.backupdb. When you do a networked backup the same backups.backupdb file is created, but it is placed inside a sparse bundle file named for your machine.

You can follow the steps under section #3 here to move the local backups.backupdb inside the sparse bundle and continue using it without having to start a new backup set.

 

[Donfor39]

If you did not already erase, there is a work around for this.

The issue is when you do a local (USB) backup, the backup is inside a file called backups.backupdb. When you do a networked backup the same backups.backupdb file is created, but it is placed inside a sparse bundle file named for your machine.

You can follow the steps under section #3 here to move the local backups.backupdb inside the sparse bundle and continue using it without having to start a new backup set.

I've found a prob with aes -external hdd -time machine does not delete old backups hence I get daily failed backup error