MacOS Time Machine not working on RT-AX88U

[Istvanwagon]

Hello,

I am running MacOS Catalina with an RT-AX88U connected by Ethernet and then have a Seagate 5 TB hard drive connected via USB 3.0 to the RT-AX88U. The drive is recognized by the home screen login on router. The drive has been used before with this computer without the router as a Time Machine drive.

When I go to backup, Time Machine tries and then ultimately says to reconnect when the device is available. Any thoughts on what could be the issue?

Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Butterfly Bones]

Hello,

I am running MacOS Catalina with an RT-AX88U connected by Ethernet and then have a Seagate 5 TB hard drive connected via USB 3.0 to the RT-AX88U. The drive is recognized by the home screen login on router. The drive has been used before with this computer without the router as a Time Machine drive.

When I go to backup, Time Machine tries and then ultimately says to reconnect when the device is available. Any thoughts on what could be the issue?

Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What is the file format of Seagate drive? I had trouble with all Apple formats. I switched to EXT4 and it works just fine for over six months.

Mar 22 08:10:21 RT-AC86U-4608 afpd[21375]: AFP3.3 Login by xxx_xxxx
Mar 22 08:10:23 RT-AC86U-4608 cnid_dbd[21389]: Couldn't open extension maping file /usr/etc/extmap.conf
Mar 22 08:10:23 RT-AC86U-4608 cnid_dbd[21389]: Couldn't load extension -> type/creator mappings file "/usr/etc/extmap.conf"

(snip)

Mar 22 08:14:24 RT-AC86U-4608 afpd[21375]: AFP logout by xxx_xxxx
Mar 22 08:14:24 RT-AC86U-4608 afpd[21375]: AFP statistics: 432947.42 KB read, 161917.56 KB written
Mar 22 08:14:24 RT-AC86U-4608 afpd[21375]: done

You will see many lines like this, ignore them, they are from the Asus router keeping track of what is plugged into the USB port, and Apple TimeMachine does not like them.

Mar 22 08:10:25 RT-AC86U-4608 afpd[21375]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/WD1tb/.___var.txt"): not an adouble:osx file
Mar 22 08:10:25 RT-AC86U-4608 afpd[21375]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/WD1tb/.__folder_list.txt"): not an adouble:osx file

 

[Istvanwagon]

Hello,

Sorry for the slow response time, but thanks for the ideas. The Seagate drive is MacOS extended (journaled) format. I don't see an EXT4 option available in Apple Disk Utility: only APFS, MS-DOS, or ExFAT -- all with options of case-sensitive, journaled, or encrypted.

Here is part of the syslog from when drive to initiate the Time Machine backup:

Apr 17 21:56:00 cnid_dbd[22324]: Couldn't open extension maping file /usr/etc/extmap.conf
Apr 17 21:56:00 cnid_dbd[22324]: Couldn't load extension -> type/creator mappings file "/usr/etc/extmap.conf"
Apr 17 21:56:01 afpd[22313]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.___var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:01 afpd[22313]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__badax_var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:01 afpd[22313]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__folder_list.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:01 afpd[22313]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__myname_var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:02 afpd[22313]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.___var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:02 afpd[22313]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__myrouter_var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:02 afpd[22313]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__folder_list.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:02 afpd[22313]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__myname_var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:02 afpd[22313]: AFP logout by badax
Apr 17 21:56:02 afpd[22313]: AFP statistics: 2.86 KB read, 11.82 KB written
Apr 17 21:56:02 afpd[22313]: done
Apr 17 21:56:15 afpd[22352]: AFP3.3 Login by myrouter
Apr 17 21:56:15 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.___var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:15 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__myrouter_var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:15 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__folder_list.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:15 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__myname_var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:38 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.___var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:38 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__myrouter_var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:38 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__folder_list.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:38 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__myname_var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 kernel: thfsplus: walked past end of dir
Apr 17 21:56:38 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.___var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:38 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__myrouter_var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:38 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__folder_list.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:38 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__myname_var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:44 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.___var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:44 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__myrouter_var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:44 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__folder_list.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:44 afpd[22352]: ad_valid_header_osx("/tmp/mnt/sda2/.__myname_var.txt"): not an adoublesx file
Apr 17 21:56:44 afpd[22352]: AFP logout by myrouter
Apr 17 21:56:44 afpd[22352]: AFP statistics: 4.13 KB read, 9.03 KB written
Apr 17 21:56:44 afpd[22352]: done
Apr 17 21:57:02 WLCEVENTD: Deauth_ind 40:B0:76:A5:EC:E8
Apr 17 21:57:02 WLCEVENTD: Auth 40:B0:76:A5:EC:E8

Thanks...

 

[Butterfly Bones]

The Seagate drive is MacOS extended (journaled) format. I don't see an EXT4 option available in Apple Disk Utility: only APFS, MS-DOS, or ExFAT -- all with options of case-sensitive, journaled, or encrypted.

Place it in the router and use amtm to format it EXT4. None of the Apple formats worked for me.

 

[vdemarco]

Place it in the router and use amtm to format it EXT4. None of the Apple formats worked for me.

just to add, me too i did the same as butterfly bones

works for me

 

[Istvanwagon]

Thanks. It took a minute, but I figured out how to get to AMTM and found the format drive function. However, I see that only up to 2 TB is supported. It looks like I need to use the process linked below to format up to a 4 TB drive; I got as far as installing gdisk. But my drive is 5 TB, which seems too large (not sure why Asus limits to 4TB). Is this just not supported or will actually not work? (I have data on the drive I want to back up immediately if I have to nuke it, so I want to make sure it works). It does not seem I can even partition with both partitions < 4TB! Any thoughts other than buying a smaller drive?
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/how-to-partition-bigger-than-2tb-disk-with-gpt-and-ext4.55025/

 

[toaruScar]

Place it in the router and use amtm to format it EXT4. None of the Apple formats worked for me.

After you formatted your external disk EXT4, is the Health Scanner still able to check the the integrity of the filesystem? In my case, everytime I run Health Scanner on the attached EXT4 partition, it finishes way too quick without printing out any log. I doubt if a integrity check is performed at all.

Also in the log:

May 21 05:05:15 rc_service: httpds 1360:notify_rc start_diskscan
May 21 05:05:15 disk_monitor: Scan manually...
May 21 05:05:15 disk monitor: start...
May 21 05:05:15 disk monitor: done

 

[vdemarco]

After you formatted your external disk EXT4, is the Health Scanner still able to check the the integrity of the filesystem? In my case, everytime I run Health Scanner on the attached EXT4 partition, it finishes way too quick without printing out any log. I doubt if a integrity check is performed at all.

Also in the log:

May 21 05:05:15 rc_service: httpds 1360:notify_rc start_diskscan
May 21 05:05:15 disk_monitor: Scan manually...
May 21 05:05:15 disk monitor: start...
May 21 05:05:15 disk monitor: done

Mine does the same.
Also EX4 is a journaled File System, so the integrity checks should be super fast anyhow.
I think its all working fine.