Numerous users confirmed today that a pair of updates issued Wednesday by Apple Inc. now allow them to use Time Machine to back up data to external drives attached to AirPort Extreme routers -- finally making good on a promise CEO Steve Jobs gave nearly a year ago.
According to messages posted on Apple's support forums and to several Apple-specific blogs and Web sites, yesterday's firmware update for Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme and a software update to Leopard combined to fix a long-standing disconnect between the router and Time Machine, Leopard's backup application.
"I have indeed duplicated the results," reported a reader identified as Russell Stuever on The Unofficial Apple Weblog site last night. "I am also able to select the AirPort Disk within the Time Machine setup."
"Same result -- backing up my iMac and MacBook. Very happy," added Eddie, another commenter on tuaw.com.
"It now seems that Apple has added this functionality with AirPort Extreme Firmware 7.3.1, which can be applied via AirPort Utility after Time Machine and AirPort Updates 1.0 is applied," said another Apple enthusiast site, MacFixIt.
Some Apple customers had been irate for months over the inability of their $179 AirPort Extreme Base Station routers to work with Leopard's backup software. The complaints stemmed from comments by Jobs last summer, when he said that the then-still-in-development Leopard operating system would let users back up using Time Machine to drives connected to AirPort Extreme devices. However, Apple pulled the functionality from Leopard at the last minute. Some users who had bought AirPort Extreme counting on the now-missing feature felt ripped off.
The clamor got even louder after Jobs introduced Time Capsule, Apple's first wireless storage appliance, in January. The angry customers said that Time Capsule was what their AirPort Extreme should be, and they wasted little time lighting up support forums.
"I was one of the suckers to buy an [AirPort Extreme] and 500GB hard drive when Apple posted that Leopard would be the answer to the backup problem," said a user identified as John Wolcott back in January. "All you needed was [AirPort Extreme] and a USB drive, and Time Machine would do the rest. I believed them, and look where that got me."
Not everyone was happy with yesterday's router firmware update, however. Some reported that they were still unable to get Time Machine to recognize external USB drives connected to an AirPort Extreme. "Even with the new 7.3.1 firmware my [AirPort Extreme Base Station] does not allow me to see my USB disk," said a user with the alias senseiwa. "Can anyone help me?"
Others claimed that the firmware update "bricked" their AirPort Extreme or killed its connection to the Internet. "I just updated by AirPort to 7.3.1, along with the AirPort utility to the newest," said "djsbos" in a different thread. "Now my Mac (and a PC) cannot see the AirPort at all, even in the settings! I tried resetting in all ways possible and still no luck, yet it turns on and seems OK. Help!"
Although most users were saying that they were able to access AirPort Disks from Time Machine, as of 3 p.m. Thursday, Apple had not posted anything official, such as a revised support document. Nor did the company immediately reply to a request for confirmation.















