Apple today confirmed to me, that despite past indications, they will never fix Time Machine over AirPort Disk, when using an AirPort Extreme.
This is a stark contrast to Steve Jobs’ own comments when Mac OS X Leopard was unveiled. “AirPort Extreme is the perfect backup solution for Leopard.” His words. Now that Time Capsule is out, Apple appears to refuse to fix the original AirPort Extreme, which with its USB port, could backup to Time Machine. However, bugs with the setup continue, and Apple refuses to detail any technical reason why they could not be fixed.
Today, Apple closed all my bug reports on the matter with the following statement: “Please note that the current configuration is not supported. We recommend using Time Capsule.
We consider this issue closed. Thank you for taking the time to notify us of this issue.”
So, Apple, will you credit my cost of the AirPort Extreme (which Steve Jobs told us all to buy ahead of Leopard), for the cost of a Time Capsule? Didn’t think so.
I advise everyone stuck with one of these units, to buy an OSx86 PC, and backup to that. If Apple hauls me into court, I’ll counter-claim in a class action over this debacle. Also, this weekend I will have much fun in yanking my AirPort Extreme from my network. Apple has clearly dropped the ball here.
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Why wait for possibility that Apple will to take you to court? Why don’t you file a class action:
…”And thus, RadarWeb bug 5860702 was born. Basically, it says, Apple, if you’re going to leave this feature buggy… you’ve got to warn users that it’s buggy. Time Machine data shouldn’t be put at risk, ever. This is people’s backups, their lives, we’re taking about.”
In my opinion, there is a clear case based on SJ’s comments up-selling the Airport Extreme/Time Machine backup option prior to the Air Capsule release.
Remember, “if you build it, the people will come…”
As a consumer advocate, I see stuff like this every day. I can’t take people to court… because then I would be too tied up to point these things out all day long. Often times, simply pointing them out and generating publicity is sufficient enough to get corrective action. Here however, it appears Apple wants to sell Time Capsules instead.
Class action attorneys generally give the person who brings them the case, a reasonable fee for being an initial plaintiff (rather, it’s generally part of any class action settlement). If you are affected, I would suggest getting in touch with class action attorneys and pitch them the case yourself.
[...] you were all happy that the new HP MediaSmart home servers finally gave you a choice other than the anti-trust Time Capsule to do backups remotely… in the home. And, you are now ready to run out and buy one, [...]
I just spoke to an AirPort support tech and he informed me that Apple feels the connection would be too slow. Backing up wirelessly to a hard drive with a 3-Gbps connection to the router is fine, but backing up wirelessly to a hard drive with a 480-Mbps connection would drop packets, etc. (never mind the fact that 802.11n’s theoretical maximum is significantly less than that).
Having just dropped almost $100 on eBay for hard drive enclosures to match my AirPort Extreme, I must say that I am *not* a happy camper. :-/
That explanation makes zero sense. I doubt Apple would officially sign off on that being the reason that Time Machine was left in the dust.
One, it would make Steve Jobs look like an idiot. Two, there is no difference in 802.11n throughput between an 802.11n AirPort Extreme, and a Time Capsule. Nada.