Unable to connect to Apple Time Capsule

@support I have been struggling to connect to the path from my MacBook Pro to my music files, loaded on a 1TB portable SSD connected via USB to a Time Capsule. Prior to this, I have been connecting the portable SSD directly to my MBP, but it is often inconvenient because I am moving about the home/office all the time. So connecting the SSD to the TC seemed like a good idea.

I hope the fix is simple because I am not good with programming. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

you will need to connect as a network share IIRC… perhaps easier if your TC has a fixed IP address too.

see this for some info https://kb.roonlabs.com/FAQ:_I’m_having_trouble_setting_up_my_NAS

I can’t say I have found anyone sharing an external disk tho.

Hello @PR_Terhorst,

How are you mounting your external hard drive in Roon? As @wizardofoz mentioned, it will work best if you mount it by IP address and then reserve the IP address of the Timecapsule in your router. Can you please provide a screenshot of your Roon Settings -> Storage tab? It should look something like this:

Thanks,
Noris

Sorry for the delay, see screenshot. Couple of notes:

  1. The Music folder shown is the default location of iTunes on my MBP but there are just a handful of files there (you can also see I created another path to some DSD files). I have 600gb of songs, which is why they are stored on a portable SSD connected to my Time Capsule. iTunes finds that SSD no problem, but Roon does not.
  2. The Seagate Backup is just that; I manually copy every CD I import to that drive, so that I have duplicates in case the SSD drive fails. It is only attached when I am copying files.

So, how exactly do I “mount it by IP address and then reserve the IP address of the Timecapsule in your router.” ?? Thanks!

Hello @PR_Terhorst,

I have looked into this issue further and have found that Apple Timecapsule devices have a really poor implementation of the SMB protocol which Roon typically uses for communication. This finding along with the fact that Apple is no longer updating these devices makes it both tricky to setup and hard to troubleshoot.

We’ve had a number of users invest significant time trying to work around these limitations, and while we’re happy to help, after discussing this request with our technical team, my advice would be to get a storage device that has a modern, fully functional implementation of SMB, since Roon requires that for use of network storage or circumvent the need for SMB by connecting your external hard drive directly to your Macbook Pro.

I’m sorry I don’t have better news here but do let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,
Noris

Thanks Noris for your frankness. Here’s a variation that may ultimately solve my problem.

I just bought a Bluesound Node2 (not 2i). It will arrive in a few days. A big feature for me is that it is Roon ready (and has MQA). Anyway, my original plan was for the Node 2 to access my music files via the Time Capsule. But with this glitch, now I am thinking I should just connect my portable SSD to the USB port on the Node2. Any downsides to that plan?

Hello @PR_Terhorst,

Connecting the external hard drive directly to your Node2 will not work with Roon because Bluesound does not expose USB drives over the network as an SMB share, so you will have no way of connecting to it from the Roon App. According to BlueSound documentation, USB connected drives can only be accessed from within the BlueOS App and there are severe limitations if you go down this route.

With this in mind, I would still personally elect to have a dedicated NAS set up that has proper SMB implementation or connect the hard drive directly to the Core. Please let me know which option you decide to use and if you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

Thanks,
Noris

Thanks Noris. Under the link you sent to BlueSound, in the “Network Share” column, it reads: “Connection over 802.11n 2.4 GHz network to Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1), Mac OS X (10.5.x-10.10.x), most NAS devices including but not limited to the Bluesound Vault, NAD M50/M52, QNAP, Synology, Western Digital, D-Link, and Apple Time Capsule.”

Because Apple Time Capsule is specifically listed, I think I will try that route first. I may have to copy all the files on my portable SSD over to the TC, but I have enough space on the TC to do that. I will let you know how it works out.