Mac – How to use Back to My Mac (to time capsule) in a multiple Airport configuration

airportback-to-my-mactime-capsule

I have an Airport Extreme with an attached USB drive that I've been accessing via Back to My Mac using these instructions (see the section with the text, "…access files on a hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme…").

Recently I extended (over Ethernet) my Airport network using an Airport Express upstairs. i.e.

Airport Extreme with USB drive (downstairs) <--Ethernet--> Airport Express (upstairs)

I used these instructions (see the first post by Bob Timmons) to extend my network. I can tell that the network extension is over Ethernet because AirPort Utility shows both Airports connected to each other with a solid line (extension over WiFi uses a dashed line).

However, this makes my downstairs Airport Extreme disappear from Back to My Mac. Using Bonjour Browser on a remote Mac, I can see only the upstairs Airport Express:

#######.members.btmm.icloud.com - 4
  Airport Base Station (_airport._tcp.) - 1
    airport_upstairs
  Apple File Sharing (_afpovertcp.tcp.) - 2
    home_mac_1
    home_mac_2

Notice that only airport_upstairs is visible via Back to My Mac (even though airport_downstairs is the one configured for Back to My Mac). Has anyone else run into this problem–do you know how to fix it?

Best Answer

It turns out that only one Airport at a time is visible via Back to My Mac. I had Back to My Mac configured on both airport_downstairs and airport_upstairs. As soon as I disabled Back to My Mac on airport_upstairs and restarted both routers, airport_downstairs appeared in Back to My Mac.

I suspect that the last Airport to start up is the one that appears on Back to My Mac, though I haven't verified this.

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