Will Mojave or Catalina support an attached hard drive to apple airport extreme?

Posting again........

Try afp://10.0.1.3......instead of 10.0.1.1.

If still no luck, we need a screenshot of the basic info on the AirPort Extreme. Just open AirPort Utility and click on the AirPort Extreme. A smaller window will appear. Post back a screenshot of that smaller window. There are more things to check, and it will take some time.

Looks like the USB port on your AirPort is doing very well, power wise, so you may not need a powered hub, at least for now.

An AirPort Express will not support an attached hard drive, but an AirPort Extreme will with Mojave and Catalina if the USB port on the AirPort Extreme is putting out enough power, which is questionable.

Open AirPort Utility, click on the AirPort Extreme and then click Edit in the smaller window that appears

Click the Disks tab at the top of the next window to see if the Lacie drive appears here

If it doesn't, then it will never appear in the Finder either

The USB port on the AirPort Extreme is borderline as far as power is concerned, so if I'm using a Lacie drive at that location, I have to use a powered USB hub......even though the Lacie has an outboard power supply.

If you are already using a powered USB hub and the Lacie shows up under the Disks tab, but still does not appear in the Finder, then we'll have to check some of the IPv6 settings on your Mac and the AirPort Extreme.

Here I am assuming that you have already performed the basics like powering off the hard drive, restarting the AirPort Extreme and your Mac.

Also assume that you know that the USB port on the AirPort Extreme is old and slow USB 2.0 and the speeds are reduced to about half of normal USB 2.0 by the limited processing power in the AirPort Extreme. So, things are going to seem to be quite S--L--O--W.

1) The drive does not depend on the power from the Airport Extreme, I have the drive plugged into it's own power.

You did not understand what I said above. My Lacie hard drive has its own power supply. Yet, it will not appear in AirPort Utility if I connect it to the USB port on my AirPort Extreme........unless.......I use a powered USB hub. You may have different results depending on the drive that you are using and how old your AirPort Extreme might be.

2) After opening the AirPort Utility, and clicking Edit - I do see the drive in the Disks tab

That is encouraging.

3) Yes, I have restarted the AirPort Extreme and my Mac

Got that, thanks.

4) It is currently using an IPv4 address (screen shot attached)

Got that, but Apple uses IPv6 for some internal communications between the AirPort Extreme and your Mac, so that is an area that we will probably need to look at.......but......first I would like you to see if the drive will appear in the Finder by doing the following:

Click the smiley face Finder icon on the dock

Click the Go menu at the uppermost top of the Mac's screen

Click Connect to Server

Enter the following in the address box afp://10.0.1.1

Click Connect

You may be asked for the AirPort Extreme admin password.....unless.....you have set up a separate disk password for the drive in AirPort Utility, in which case you will have to try the disk password

If things are working, the drive icon should appear on the desktop after a few seconds and also appear under the Locations menu on the left panel of the Finder window

Post back on your results

Per chance do you have your Extreme configured downstream of another router that is actually your "main" router? From your screenshot that's what it appears like. If so, is your Extreme configured as a bridge?

Hi Tesserax.

I missed the 10.0.1.3 address and picked up the 10.0.1.1 address as the AirPort Extreme. But....that may not be correct, so we may need to get a look at the actual IP address of the AirPort Extreme in another window.

We will see.

Try afp://10.0.1.3

If still no luck, we need a screenshot of the basic info on the AirPort Extreme. Just open AirPort Utility and click on the AirPort. A smaller window will appear. Post back a screenshot of that smaller window.

Looks like the USB port on your AirPort is doing very well, power wise, so you may not need a powered hub, at least for now.

Ok, thanks for clarifying that. However, you didn't answer my question if the downstream (1st gen) Extreme is configured as a bridge. Is it? I'm assuming that the upstream (2nd gen) Extreme is performing the routing functions for your overall network ... correct? Also, now that we know a bit more about your network, are both of those Extreme base stations interconnected by Ethernet or by wireless?

So, the AirPort Extreme is now showing up in the Finder? Or, are you using the Connect to Server method that I outlined?

In either case, you would want to set up the AirPort Extreme with a Static IP address on your network so that it will always be at the same location. If you don't set up a Static IP address, the address of the AirPort Extreme will change at some point and it will no longer be visible in the Finder.....if you are using that.....or you won't be able to connect using the Connect to Server method if you are using that.

To set up a Static IP address for the AirPort Extreme......

Open AirPort Utility, click Edit, then click on the Internet tab at the top of the window

Change the setting for Connect Using = DHCP to Connect Using = Static

Make sure that the AirPort Extreme is still at 10.0.1.3

Click Update at the lower right of the window to save the settings and restart the AirPort Extreme

Mine show up in locations on Catalina on my Mac mini in the same way as it did with my old high Sierra iMac