Think twice before buying an Apple Time Capsule

Tech, TV, Mobile, Internet and Geek Corner
1
More like Apple Time Bomb.

I have a 1st gen 1TB Time Capsule that is about 18 months old. This morning it died, no splutter, no cough no 'hold me, it's so cold', nothing, nada. Dead. Cold. Ground.

After doing a little research I discovered that this is actually very common and no 2008 Time Capsules are not expected to see it through 2010.

It was expensive too, over $600.

Read about it here and here

Shocking, disappointing.

2
Hi,

so you did not know about this site http://timecapsuledead.org/ ?

I think the comment spread your risk but relying upon one vendor comes to mind.

Good luck with getting a replacement and retrieving any lost data.

Martin

3
I would never advise anybody to buy a timecapsule at all. It's just such a wrong product IMO (and I'm normally an apple fan).

For backups keep a USB or FireWire disk for each machine, and then use any old wireless router for those machines where it isn't practical to have a cabled network.

Apple haven't officially recognised the problem with the first generation timecapsule yet, despite the overwhelming evidence, and another problem is that these units are "officially" unserviceable - the whole timecapsule has to be replaced. Unofficially they can be serviced, but other than harddisks the parts aren't available.

It really is a sh!t product.

Apologies to the OP as this isn't helping, but simply allowing me to vent.

4
Actually, the Time Capsule can be used with any computer--not just an Apple. And the fact he bought a second apple product has no bearing on increasing his risk that the Time Capsule died. You could turn it around if had bought a Belkin back up and THAT died that he increased his risks by not buying from the same manufacturer. Same vendor, different vendor--irrelevant in my mind. Common sense might suggest the same vendor would make a more compatible external harddrive (which is what a Time Capsule is) than a 3rd party company would...

No sense placing blame as it doesn't help the poster now.

Sorry about the time capsule. But, the data inside the time capsule should be retrievable, I hope?

5
I did not know about that, thanks for the link.

I called Apple today and I have Apple Care on a Monitor and an MBP, iPhone and MacPro.

They need the serial number. Apparently some people have received replacements on a the first set of TCs manufactured.

I hope they don't stitch me up. Dodgy device!

6
I can get the data out by opening the Time Capsule and plugging the drive into my MacPro.

The apparent cause of the failure is that the capacitors can't handle the heat generated by the device.

When it worked it did work seamlessly and I have 2 other external RAID systems, I think I'll just back up to those in future. I'm not happy, especially that Apple do not recognise fault when it's theirs.

7
Sorry to hear the news

I know the horse already bolted, but next time you might want to consider

something along the lines of a "proper" NAS such as a QNAP TS209

Cost including a terrabyte of mirrored storage is around 500chf.

,

8
This does 'suck' to hear, as I bought one a few months ago when I switched over to Mac. Maybe the 2009 version runs better...

My AppleTV, also bought a few months ago, runs so hot that you could fry an egg on it. It does crash occasionally, and I am sure it is from the heat. Very strange product design, as there is no On/Off switch. So I just unplug it at night, as it does not really cool down when you don't use it. Must use a LOT of power. I imagine it will fail, too, after a few months.

Is Apple really slipping these days in quality control? For the price premium they demand, we should at least get a good guarantee. Then it is Apple's responsibility to build good products. Guess I will be purchasing AppleCare on eBay.

fduvall

9
Good luck. Normally if you push the point with apple they'll give in, especially as you've got AppleCare on a number of products (AppleCare is, in my experience, the only extended warranty service that's actually worth it)

10
The later Time Capsules have a different HDD in them, a Green one that supposedly runs cooler. The design remains the same though, no vent or airflow. I guess you'll know in a few months.

Although they have a cool product range, I guess some of them have to fall short. I think Time Capsule is one of them.

Don't forget that there is no AppleCare directly on your Time Capsule and that the 1Year Guarantee on other products counts as AppleCare. I have AppleCare on several products, plus they have my purchase history which is in the thousands. Hopefully this will all stack up in my favour.

11
We've had ours turned on for 2 years. No problems yet but yes, it is hot. It is annoying that you can't turn the damn thing off without pulling the plug.

12
Come on guys, Its just like pantyhose - in the beginning (war time) they were built to last, never got runs, you could pass them down the generations. Now, you cannot wear them more than once - the manufacturer stays in business. Computers, cars, (what the * is a time capsule?! Something like what Walt Disney is lying in?!?) all the same. We're in a "throw-away" society.

Is that 2 cents worth?

(Have now "Yahoo-ed" (similar to googling).. Funny how the advertising says "you no longer need to worry about lost data..")

13
I'm not on commission from QNAP, but one (two) of the nice things it does is

turn the fan on/off as required, and will also spin the disks down after the idle

period you specify.

Oh, and it has an on/off switch, a shared iTunes server, printer spooler,

and the disks are hot-swap in the event of a failure,

and a firewire connection to back it up to external storage.

and...

and...

and...

14
Looks like a great product line and will keep my eye on it.

One of the reasons I moved to Mac for my small business was the hope that I would not have to spend time evaluating products and could just buy their recommended solutions...but it seems that is not the case anymore.

fduvall

15
Update:

The good people at Apple are swapping out my cold dead Time Capsule, no questions asked.

Thanks Apple for doing the right thing.

16
And now go ahead and sell the replacement and get something that won't overheat again in 2 months :-/

17
At the risk of derailing this thread, can someone tell me if QNAP solutions sit silently when they're inactive?

18
do you get to keep the old carcass?

19
Will they rescue your data too?

I ask as I use my Time Capsule for file storage as well as backup.

FWIW, I think the TC problems are over-hyped. What's the total number of machines sold compared to the problems reported? Even if a large number of people are reporting problems, it doesn't say anything about the typical risk.

20
They explicitly told me that my generation of TC was defective. Those were their words. They now recognise that and so swap them out. The later TCs have a different greener HDD.

As for data retrieval... this can be done. What actually goes in the TCs are the capacitors. The HDD is still fine.

1) I could smash it open and plug the drive into my MacPro and retrieve the data. If I do this though, I can't get a replacement TC.

2) Apple can retrieve the data, but this is an extra service, which you pay for.

I opted to lose the backups as I actually store stuff all over the place. My chaotic manner results in massive redundancy :-)

I can actually lose the snapshots on the TC as I have all my data.