I have a Mac Running Lion 10.7.2, And i was unable to backup using time Machine while i was connected wirelessly :(, is a hastle to go and connect a cable just to backup when you should be able to get it working wirelessly.
After some investigation and trial and error steps I Found out that in 18 steps you are able to solve this problem.
(I am sorry if this was answered in another post, but i was unable to find it).
I first tried this:
click on go
click on connect to server
on the address bar type in AFP://ipaddress
Connect as guest to the time machine share
Click on System preferences
Selected the hard drive on time machine and i was able to backup
But i did a reboot on the computer and then the drive was not recognized in time machine anymore…so More trial and error and about 20 minutes of reading, was able to work something around, and these are the 18 Steps:
click on go
click on connect to server
on the address bar type in AFP://ipaddress
Connect as guest to the time machine share
Click on System preferences
Go to Users and Groups
Select your user.
Click on login items.
Click on the + sign.
Clic in the Mybooklive that is located under share.
Click on the TimeMachine share.
Click on Add.
click on the “hide” check box.
Open time machine preferences
Select Disk
You should be able to see the time machine share with the IP address
Click on Use Backup Disk
Connect as guest
This has allowed me to reboot the comptuer several times and get it working after this
It seems unusal to me that you have to go through these steps in order to back up via Time Machine wirelessly. Â I am able to back up on 10.7.2 on iMac/MacBook Pro/MacBook Air without doing anything special. Â However I would like to point out that I see the following behavior (of which leaves me slightly concerned) when I use time machine to back up more than a small amount of data:
 Attempting to do a full time machine backup wirelessly - nearly impossible - due to the backup process stalling and coming to a crawl after 10 minutes or so into the backup.  Sometimes it will even just stop - no errors - nothing.
 Attempting to perform a full time machine backup wired - usually works and completes successfully - but takes twice as long (in my opionion) as it should (compared to backing up to the Time Capsule).
 If the Mac has been off or sleeping for several days - the Time Machine backup may choose to verify the backup prior to proceeding with the current backup.  The verification process completes successfully - however - if the current backup is backing up a large amount of data (example - it detects that >500 Mb has changed) - then the Time Machine backup will usually stall or simply die - about 10 minutes into the backup process - basically exhibiting the same stalling that happens on a full backup - whehter wired or wireless.
 In all other circumstances (exampe - backups occuring daily) - the backups complete successfully - however - it takes an unusally long time for TimeMachine to find and mount the My Book Live backup drive - and this is factoring out the time it takes for the MyBook Live to spin up from a sleeping state.
I still believe that something is not quite right with the behavior of the MyBook Live in a Mac environment. Â AFP?
Also - This behavior is not specific to Lion - as I had been backing up a friends Mac (which is still on Snow Leopard) and I see the same behavior - once the Mac has not been backed up for several days - and a verify is performed automatically by the backup.
I agree with SBeattie2. . TimeMachine is real buggy with My Book Live period. When Lion came out it it took forever to do a backup so I did the removal of old backups, after backing up to another drive, and started fresh. That backup succeeded after 14 hours. The MBL worked fine wirelessly backing up using time machine hourly for about a week and then backups took longer and longer. What were 5 minute backups were taking hours even though no major changes were made to the computer.
If you stopped the backup and rebooted it sometimes would do the backup in 5 minutes again. Now it takes forever. So I just suspeneded using time machine and periodically do backups using the ethernet cable. Of course this defeats the purpose of having the MBL.Â
Don’t know if it is a Time Machine or MBL problem but it is really frustrating.
I wanted to provide some additional info…I actually have an Apple Time Capsule as well as several MBL’s. Whether Lion or Snow Leopard - I am able to back up all 3 of my Macs (pro/air/iMac - 10.7.2) and neighbors MacBook Pro (Snow Leopard) to the Time Capsule wirelessly or wired. Whether an hourly backup or a full backup - there is no lag, stalling or any type of visible indication that backup is not going smoothly.
For wireless backups - I can use any of my three access points (802.11g, 802.11n 2.4Ghz, or the Time Capsule’s 802.11n at 5GHz) and the backups complete at a consistent pace relative to the access point speed. As an example one of my Macs has a full backup - about 55 Gig - and that backup completes (on the Time Capsule) in about 2.5 hours if connected to the Time Capsule’s 802.11n 5GHz access point. Connected wired via gigabit ethernet the - 55 Gig backup completes in less than 1.5 hours. Beyond a certain link speed - there seems to be a fixed amount of “processing” time that Time Machine must go through to complete the backup - so it may appear not to be all that much faster on a reasonably fast wired network.
I also should point out - that the stalling and or hanging of the Time Machine backup also occurs when the Mac is connected via Ethernet - it’s just that it happens much less frequently than wirelessly.
Since my previous post a week ago - the backup that I was doing via the MBL - with the neighbor’s MacBook Pro on Snow Leopard - was no longer able to get through the verifying backup step and was simplly stopping about 20% of the way through the verify phase - I basically had to abandon the backup - as it appeared that the sparse bundle on the MBL had become corrupted - I was not even able to get past the verify step using a wired connection. I ended up redoing the backup on the Time Capsule - and Time Machine picked right up where it had left off on the previous backup on the Time Capsule - before having switched over to testing the MBL.
The MBL Time Machine backups are still a little bit to unstable and inconsistent for my comfort level. I’m not sure I could trust the integrity of the backup after having witnessed the erratic and extremely slow behavior of the Time Machine backup to the MBL.
Has anyone actually tried to completely wipe and restore a Mac from a Time Machine backup on the MBL - especially after previous backups have exhibited the stalling and or crashing of the backup? I’m thinking of trying that - after I am sure that I have a full image backup created on an external drive first.
This has been incredibly time-consuming and I am about to give up on the testing until after I see something in subsequent firmware release notes that indicate that these problems have been addressed.
ffjxc wrote:
I agree with SBeattie2. . TimeMachine is real buggy with My Book Live period. When Lion came out it it took forever to do a backup so I did the removal of old backups, after backing up to another drive, and started fresh. That backup succeeded after 14 hours. The MBL worked fine wirelessly backing up using time machine hourly for about a week and then backups took longer and longer. What were 5 minute backups were taking hours even though no major changes were made to the computer.
If you stopped the backup and rebooted it sometimes would do the backup in 5 minutes again. Now it takes forever. So I just suspeneded using time machine and periodically do backups using the ethernet cable. Of course this defeats the purpose of having the MBL.
Don’t know if it is a Time Machine or MBL problem but it is really frustrating.
thanks sbeattie2. I’m running 10.7.2 and it seems to be a little bit better since wiping out my backups a few weeks ago. I get the occasional infinite backup but that seems to clear up by rebooting and trying again.
The same for me. I lost 2 backups already because of corruption. The MyBook Live doesn’t work for TimeMachine backups done wirelessly. Additionally I found out, that when connected locally and directly to the computer, the drives configuration panel is inaccessible. I think due to it being inable to access the internet like that. The drive is also never entering sleep-state if it cannot connet to the internet.
Summing it up: This drive is not working like supposed.
With the MBL connected to your network (not to the Mac’s ethernet port directly) - Open the UI at http://mybooklive.local  (assuming you have not renamed the drive to something other than mybooklive).
Go to System / Utilities and go to Shutdown / Reboot.  Select “shutdown”.  Wait for the MBL to power off (no illuminated LED on the front).  Then pull out the power cord - let the MBL sit without power for 15 minutes - to clear anything out.
Reconnect the power to the MBL and let it reboot.  After the drive is ready (Greed LED - not flashing) - Open the finder on your Mac (you should see the MBL listed under shared devices).  On the finder menu - select GO - then select Connect to Server - for the server address type in afp://mybooklive.local  - and connect as the admin user (you might also be able to connect as “guest” - but admin might be better.
During the connect to server process - you will see a list of shares on the MBL - one of these share is called TimeMachine - select that share and allow the connection process to complete.
In your finder sidebar you will now see a share mounted called MyBookLive- Â (note the - dash).
Click on this MyBookLive- share in finder and open it. Â You may have to supply a user id and password. Â If it asks for user/password - use the admin user - if you have assigned a password to admin - otherwise connect as guest.
In this share you will see the sparsebundle files from any prior backups that you have attempted.  There will be one sparse bundle matching the name of each Mac that you have backed up to the MBL.  Delete all of the backup files from this share.  Just move them to the trash.  I’m assuming these are first backup attempts and you don’t really care that you are deleting them.
Now eject the MyBookLive- share from the finder sidebar.
If possible - try to connect your Mac to your network via ethernet (not wireless for the first initial backup).
Open Time Machine preferences - and unlock the padlock at the bottom. Â Next - click on select drive - and then select the TimeMachine on MyBookLive share that should be listed.
Allow it to start the Time Machine backup - the backup should complete at a reasonable speed provided you have connected via ethernet vs wireless.  If the backup is working - you may see some slight hesitations while the backup runs - but you should not notice any “stalling” or what appears to be a lock up.  If you experience this type of behavior on a wired backup - then something is not right - and the backup you are doing may be corrupt.  It’s probably best to cancel and repeat these steps - rather than waiting for the “slow” backup to complete.
Allow it to start the Time Machine backup - the backup should complete at a reasonable speed provided you have connected via ethernet vs wireless. If the backup is working - you may see some slight hesitations while the backup runs - but you should not notice any “stalling” or what appears to be a lock up. If you experience this type of behavior on a wired backup - then something is not right - and the backup you are doing may be corrupt. It’s probably best to cancel and repeat these steps - rather than waiting for the “slow” backup to complete.
I hope this helps.
Sorry, but it doesn’t help at all. What you are describing is what I am doing every time the backups got corrupted once again. What else could I do anyway? As I cannot pull cables through the whole house and I don’t want the drive on my desk because it is far too loud, it is absolutely not working for my purposes. This drive is not usable at all for making backups via a wirless network, it seems.
Sorry to hear that my suggestion did not improve the situation. Â It seems that some people (myself included) are experiencing unstable behavior with Time Machine backups (both wired and wireless) on the MBL. Â There is a possibility that this will be resolved in the next firmware release which is hopefully coming soon.Â
Unfortunately all the tips here have not worked out for me. My other NAS (Linkstation Live) does work without a problem with TimeMachine. Therefore I assume that it has something to do with the firmware of WD.
Is there any chance of uploading an older version of the firmware because the problems started for me with the latest version?
I have experienced the problems with Time Machine since day one (which for me was version 02.02.02-020). Â Although you could go backwards on the firmware - you might be inviting more problems than you currently have - since the prior versions of the firmware had a lot of issues that have been resolved.
I am not exactly sure how to go backwards on the firmware - but you would have to obtain a prior version - and use the manual file update method for installing the older firmware.
I suggest waiting until the next version of MBL firmware to see if WD has resolved this issue - and use your other drive that is known to be working for TimeMachine backups.
Very nice to see someone from WD reading over the stuff here. So can we hope now, that the WD-staff is working on bringing actually usable TimeMachine functionality to the drive? I mean: you are selling those drives with that claim on the box. Is there really someone working on exactly that issue, or is the staff kept back from solving those problems because of the flood in Thailand?
Mine’s getting returned this weekend.  Constant problems with slow/stalled Time Machine backups; everything works for a week or so on multiple machines, then all the problems others are having here start cropping up.  Sick of dealing with it.  WD should not be advertising Time Machine compatibility as it’s clearly broken.
