Archer C4000, Time Machine, USB 3 disk: router constantly rebooting
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I have a C4000 that is about 8 months old. A few weeks ago, I plugged a USB 3 drive into the USB 3 port and set it up as a Time Machine backup destination. That has worked well. Until today. Today, whenever my mac initiates a backup, the router reboots. I can reproduce this every time. I've tried two different hard drive enclosures and different cables with the same result.
I believe the router is probably defective, but am wondering if I'm missing something. The fact that it worked for weeks and then stopped is curious.
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Hi everyone, just wanted to say that my issue appeared resolved after they sent me an older firmware AND disabled mediasharing, but toward the end of November the USB drive stopped being recognized by the router as though it went into power save mode, so I updated the firmware thinking perhaps it'd help, but that didn't help anything, and I can't locate the email with the older firmware. I really wish ALL versions of the firmware were available on the site, at least then I could grab it myself instead of bugging the team. Additionally, I wish this router worked as-promised right out of the box and I'd saved myself a few hundred bucks by sticking to my old router :(
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Do you mean you cannot make it work properly again even by disabling media sharing and printer? Which firmware are you trying to downgrade to?
BTW, there are two different versions on the official website, were you unable to downgrade to the Archer C4000(US)_V2_180322?
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@Kevin_Z I went through a BUNCH of troubleshooting with them, and even swapped out my A20 for another one through TP-Link, and still having the same issue. I do also think it's a later OS issue. We have two macbooks and our much older one running an older Mac OS 10 version backs up fine every time to it. My newer one that's running Big Sur begins backing up to it, and then the router reboots and corrupts the directory of the time machine drive. I have to use Disk Warrior every time to rebuild the directory on it and try it again.
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Thanks for reporting this issue again. Have you tried to disable the media sharing and printer on the A20? Which firmware are you on now with the A20?
Can we have the detailed Big Sur version?
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UPDATE: there is no change for my issue.
The router continues to not perform TimeMachine backups. I'm just plugging the WD Elements directly into my Mac Mini running Mojave 10.14.6 to do TimeMachine backups, but that doesn't back up the other two systems in my home.
At this time, attempting to run a TimeMachine backup from the WD Elements 10T drive results in "Please try again when the drive is available" even though it's formatted correctly, plugged into the USB3.0 port, and powered on and spun up.
Prior firmware versions available on this site and linked on Page 1 of this thread are not the firmware which was initially provided by tech support email, and as such have no impact on the issue. Even the firmware version that "worked" seemed only half-functional, as the drive stopped powering on when attached to the router after around 3 months.
As it stands right now, this router does not perform the only function I needed it to perform differently from my prior router, and as such was a poor investment of money, and increasingly a poor investment of my time.
Again, please: firmware update this model for full functionality as promised.
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We will ask the engineers to help you analyze this further, they probably contact them with email.
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Not sure if the same issue. It does not seem to reboot for me (i think) it starts to backup couple of GB and after that i can an Input/Output error, the drive gets some corrupted files and i cannot unmount it anymore.
There is no issue with the external drive, because if i use it directly connected to the mac using USB it works just fine.
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Hello, is the model number of the TP-Link router Archer C4000 or A20? Ensure it is running the latest firmware.
You can also try to disable the media sharing and printer on it, then confirm. What is the brand and model of the drive? How about its format and capacity?
BTW, what is the detailed macOS version? If possible, test this with another system.
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