Back To My Mac interfering with Time Machine

Description: People backing up their computers using Time Capsule devices may run into a problem where the "Change Disk..." option for Time Machine is nonfunctional.

Joel_H--

"(After switching TM disks) I realized there were still things on my time capsule backup that were no longer on my G-Raid2, so I switched drives in Time Machine and restored what I needed. I then tried to switch back, and the "Change Disk..." button is depressing but not responding."

People with this problem may have first tried changing their Time Machine setup for Time Capsule devices (i.e.: from Wireless to Wired connectivity), but a few people have noticed this may happen if the Time Machine backup volume has its name changed. One workaround people have tried (successfully for some, unsuccessfully for others) is deleting the Time Machine preferences and then reselecting the drive, but this seems to only be a temporary fix, and the problem returns after a period of time.

This problem appears at least somewhat related to MobileMe services, and seems specifically to be spurred when Back To My Mac is enabled. It is bizarre that these seemingly independent technologies could interfere with each other, but perhaps this has something to do with network access to the Time Capsule and the network technologies behind Back To My Mac. Console error messages for this problem indicate a potential conflict with Bonjour networking, which Back To My Mac uses. For now, the available workaround for this problem is to turn off Back To My Mac.

Workarounds:

1. Turn off Back To My Mac.

To turn off Back To My Mac, click the "stop" button in the "Back To My Mac" section of the MobileMe system preferences. This should enable the "Choose Disk" button in the Time Machine setup again.

2. Remove Back To My Mac preferences.

This problem could be from corruption in the "Back To My Mac" preference files. As such, removing the Back To My Mac preferences may also help. The preference file is called "com.apple.BackToMyMac.plist," and is located in the /Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences folder.

Additional information and discussion can be found here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1931091&start=15&tstart=60

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