Time Machine on WiFi connected iMac cannot see Time Capsule drives

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Hey folks,

I have a situation with access to Time Capsule drives through Time Machine.

Here's the schematic of the important bits of my setup:

a.png

In short, two Time Capsules are attached with LAN (WAN port) to router. There's WiFi node hooked to router as well, and multiple mesh nodes through the house. And at the other side of the house there is iMac connected to WiFi network. Time Capsules have WiFi shut down, are bridged, have fixed IP ( 192.168.0.101 & 102), are sharing disks, have Back to Mac turned off. They are basically expensive network drives.

THINGS THAT WORK:

- iMac can mount remote drives through SMB and direct IP address
- iMac can access those drives through Finder, read & write
- Mounted drives are set to remount on reboot (Users > Log in Items > added those drives)
- On iMac I can manage Time Capsules through Airport Utility if I go File > Configure Other and give it the IP of them, but Airport Utility does not see them otherwise (it just gives me the Internet globe, that's it)


THINGS THAT DO NOT WORK:

- Airport Utility does not clearly see those Time Capsules, I have to do Configure Other
- Even when disks are clearly mounted, Time Machine software does not see those drives as available backup drives, they simply do not appear



THINGS THAT WORK #2:

- if I plug my iMac with LAN cable into the router, then everything works, Time Machine can see Time Capsules, all is fine

So, it would seem that something in the WiFi setup is blocking certain protocol, not purely data transfer. I can see those drives, and have access to them, but Time Machine it would seem is accessing those drives through different means (not just brute force file system access), and that might be blocked.

Where would I even start looking for the solution? ISP modem is not set to block any specific things, likewise Velop Mesh is not set to block anything specific.

Of course, everything is updated to the latest firmware/software.

Any ideas?
 
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Your Mac's Specs
MBP 16" 2023 (M3 Pro), iPhone 15 Pro, plus ATVs, AWatch, MacMinis (multiple)
Does the Velop have dual band (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz) networks? Are they named the same? I had some issues when I set up my WiFi hotspot with different names to know whether I was on 2.4 or 5. When I named both bands the same the problem went away.

Also, I wanted two networked drives connected much like yours to be visible on my desktop on boot. The issue was that I had to manually select them in Finder to get the connection going. What I did was to mount the drives manually, then drag the mounted drive into the list of items that start at login under my account in System Preferences/Users & Groups. Now when I log in, both drives mount automatically and appear on the desktop like I wanted. You might try that approach to get them mounted and see if TM finds them then.
 
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Does the Velop have dual band (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz) networks?

Yes, but I run computers on 5GHz. Some of my older gear (LIFX bulbs) are on 2.4GHz. But all the computers are using 5GHz. However, this should really not impact anything because (see my second point) I can access those drives through Finder.


Also, I wanted two networked drives connected much like yours to be visible on my desktop on boot.

Yeah, I did that. Check the third bullet point under my "Things that work". iMac sees the drives, they are visible in finder, and functional, and remount on reboot.

It's just that the Time Machine does not recognise them as potential backup drives, and Airport Utility does not directly see them (sees them when I go Configure Other).
 
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I figured it out.

The problem was that the Velop wireless mesh created it's own sub-net. It was on 192.168.1.X, and all of the devices connected to the WiFi were basically in their own little gang, and did not communicate with the devices in LAN, which were provided 192.168.0.X address (so 1 versus 0).

I have set WiFi mesh to be in bridge mode, that made it stop living its own life, and it joined the Zeros. Now all devices see everything.

Case closed.
 
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So it was two networks, as I suggested, just not based on frequency, but the sub-netting in Velop. Interesting. I don't have Velop, but do use an Orbi setup with a base and satellite that works similarly. Fortunately, no sub-nets here, just the one network.
 

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