Retrieving password for Time Machine

Hi all!
For some time now, when I turn my computer on I get a pop up window asking me to log onto my Time Machine so my iMac can back up to it.
The time Machine window has my name in it but every password I try does not work. I can see where you can change your password but if you dont know your existing one, you cant change it. How do I retrieve my password? At the moment the name in the window is my name - i.e. not my Apple ID - which I have tried also.
Any suggestions to show me how to retrieve my password will be appreciated.
Lorraine

How do I retrieve my password?
You cannot retrieve your password. The Mac encrypts it as it is entered, and only the encrypted version is stored. Your Mac does not even know how many characters are in your password. All it can tell is, if you enter it again and it encrypts what you enter, was that It?
You can forcibly RESET your password, but then the old password is lost. so everywhere else that requires a password will then require the new password.
OS X Mountain Lion: Reset a login password

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Password for Time machine backup

Anyone can help with security issue for time machine backup?
-I want my time machine disk to be password protected
since it is very easy for everyone accessing backup disk from time machine, it is really not secure, or any other backup application have password protection?

vernonstreet wrote:
If I have misplaced my password for the time capsule, how do I reset?
That's a different password. Do a "soft reset" per [Resetting an AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule FAQ|http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3728].

How can I reset/override a forgotten password for Time Machine back up hard drive?

I have a g-drive slim but can't remember the password because I haven't used it in a long time. Checked g-drive website and it wasn't very helpful:
http://support.g-technology.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=132146&sid=88d7393f2 f66e67581b8143e9b30f8ef
Also checked Apple Support for Time Machine and nothing on how to reset/override.

Hi Vitamin A,
I apologize, I'm a bit unclear on the exact nature of the issue you are describing. If you are talking about an issue with an encrypted backup, there may not be a way to override the password:
You need your backup password to restore files from Time Machine backups. If you forget your backup password, Time Machine can’t use the backups.
OS X Mountain Lion: About the Time Machine backup password
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11340
If you are less concerned about the backup or other information and would like to continue using the disk, you may need to delete the existing volume or partition:
Disk Utility 12.x: Erase a disk, CD, or DVD
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5849
Regards,
- Brenden

Password for time machine

Okay, I super new at all of this and I was trying to free up some hard drive space so I followed this website
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/maintscripts.html
And followed the instructions below which I thought would help clean up some unnecessary files, but now I can't type my password when I try to delete a file in time machine.... please help!
The Terminal way
Using your Admin account, you can run all three maintenance scripts at once:
1. Open Terminal, located in the Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities folder.
2. At the Terminal prompt, type the following, exactly as written:
1. sudo periodic daily weekly monthly
3. Press Return.
4. Type your Admin password when prompted, then press Return.
All three scripts will run in sequence. There is no visual feedback while the scripts execute. You will know they are completed when the Terminal prompt returns.

There's no correlation between what you did and your inability to enter a password WRT Time Machine. The maintenance scripts only remove outdated log files and not much more. Have you quit the Terminal app? Have you restarted?

Password for time machine backups

I have a 250 GB WD external hard drive that I use for my Time machine backups.
I do not want to encrypt the backups on the external HD.
I only want to create a password for the HD so that when mounted it requires a password.
Is there a way I can do this.

No.

File Vault not accepting password for Time Machine external HD

After installing OSX Lion on my wife's MB and encrypting her Time Machine backup (in the Time Machine control panel), my wife and I were both able to successfully mount our external drive using our computers (I have a MBP running Lion).
Recently my machine wouldn't load the external drive even though I had entered the correct password, but her machine would still load it fine.
Now neither of our machines will load the external drive - despite entering the correct password, File Vault doesn't accept it.
Are there any known issues with File Vault 2 encrypted external drives?
Thanks

Are you absolutely sure you're entering the right password, and the caps-lock key is not down? If you are sure, then the drive may be failing. The first thing to do is make another backup to a different drive, if you don't already have one.

What is password for time machine backup

I have bought a mountain lion compatible wd ny book live 1 tb external hard disk. While connecting through wifi, it is asking for password of system administrator. It is not taking either apple I'd or other download, application install passwords. What do I do ?

You almost certainly do not have a Time Capsule, however to look it up go to Apple's online store and search for it. Bottom line if you want TM to work properly and reliably please follow the directions of connecting the EHD directly to your computer or purchase a Time Capsule and connect using the enclosed instructions.

Trying to connect wireless printer, asking for password for time capsule?

Trying to connect new wireless printer and it's asking for my password for my time capsule. I don't remember that I had entered one initially, but maybe I did and just forgot. Any way to retrieve a password for time capsule?

Open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
Click on the Time Capsule icon, then click on Edit in the small window
Click the Base Station menu at the uppermost top of the computer screen up where the Help, File, Window, etc menus appear
Click Show Passwords

Why does my preference pane for Time Machine on my Mac unlock every time I open it?

Hi,
My MacBook Pro is a 2012 model, running on Mac OS X 10.8.3 Mountain Lion.
It is running on an OCZ Agility 4 SSD (which runs the TRIM command using the 'TRIM enabler' hack.) and has 16GB of RAM, powered by a 2.5Ghz dual core Intel Ivy Bridge Core i5.
I back up my Mac using Time Machine to a 500GB WD "My Passport" drive formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), with a GUID partition map.
Every time I lock the preference pane for Time Machine in the System Preferences, the next time I open it, it is unlocked.
Is this a bug with OS X Mountain Lion, or could it be a hardware problem?
Does this happen to anyone else?
Thanks.

From the menu bar, select
 ▹ System Preferences... ▹ Security & Privacy ▹ General
If there's a closed padlock icon in the lower left corner of the preference pane, click it and authenticate to unlock the settings. Enter your login password when prompted.
Click the Advanced button and check the box marked
Require an administrator password to access locked preferences
in the sheet that drops down. Then click OK.

Cannot retrieve files from Time Machine.

I cannot retrieve files from Time Machine. I can enter it, but the arrows don't seem to function and when I click on a date/time, nothing happens.

I don't know what you mean by "arrows". After Entering TM, put your pointer over one of the coloured (usually purple) dated bars at the right of the screen. That will bring (usually the desktop) for that date to the front. Navigate in the usual way to find the old file, select it, and press the big Restore button on the bottom left of your screen. As I remember it, a copy of that file will appear beside the current original with something like "Restored" added to is title. When you quit TM (Cancel) that restored file should appear beside its current version. (Or, if it's host folder has been deleted, smewhere else but I can't remember where - search for it.)

Can't install Lion This disk is used for Time Machine backups

The Lion installer, downloaded from the app store, won't let me select my internal hard disk, it says "This disk is used for Time Machine backups" which it isn't.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Neil

I was sure that I had trashed the Backups.backupdb folder from the top level - it did require me to enter my Admin password.
Yes I had tried several times to go back to the terms of agreement screen and click agree once again, but still had the problem.
I had external HDs connected, but disconnected them and the problem persisted.
I restarted my mac and now the message has gone away and I am having no problems installing.
Thanks everyone

Can i retrieve items from time machine into mavericks

Dear people
I am looking to install mavericks but don't want to do a clean install, ( i will if it messes my machine up though ).
If i install mavericks i take it that;
A: all the apple apps will still work.
B: if it is messed up then i wil be able to retrieve items from time machine back up.
C: is it worth doing a seperate back up to a hard drive other than by time machine.
D: i previously installed my last software via a clean install, as the upgrade to mountain lion messed up my emails
is it better to do a clean install or are the problems with email boxes etc not relevant in this up date.
Thank you

All the Apple apps will still work- that's a very positive, hopeful statement. Probably they will.
You should be able to retrieve something from your TIme Machine backup. Yes.
A duplicate backup: it depends on how criticially important your data is, and how paranoid you are. One backup is good enough for me.
I am a fan of the clean install. However, I did not do one this time with Mavericks. Lazy. But it works fine.
I would suggest that you restart in safe mode, though, before running the installer. I couldn't get the installer to work until I did.
Regarding a clean install vs. an update install, I think you are asking the wrong question. My opinion is that the vast majority of problems that people have with their Macs are due to:
crapware. I will elaborate on this if you want more. If not, stop reading now.
Crapware = unneeded "haxies", "cleaners", "optimizers", "defragmenters", antivirus software, and GUI modifiers. These are usually poorly written, typically ports from the Microsoft world. They are unnecessary and usually cause problems. They can be impossible to uninstall. They are popular with recent converts from the Microsoft world. I avoid them. My mac almost never, ever has any kind of problem, and I use it a lot, and not just for word processing and checking my email. I do audio recording and editing and some video editing too.
So I do not think the problems people report are due to the OS itself. People want to blame the OS, but I think it's unreasonable for Apple to be able to control and supervise every software developer on the planet.
I would suggest: if you have crapware on your computer, do a clean install, and then don't reinstall the crapware. Just my 2 cents.
If you don't have crapware, the Mavericks upgrade will probably work fine.
a good backup, Time Machine or otherwise, is always a good idea, especially when installing a new OS.

Switching drive's for Time Machine

I was using a FW800 disk for Time Machine but decided it wasn't being used for its potential so I've bought a larger FW400 drive that I want to use for Time Machine going forward. Now, obviously I want to copy over the files from the FW800 drive to the new FW400 drive so that I have all the backup's up until this point.
When I do this though, I first get asked fort the Admin password which is fine so I enter it, then it looks through the files and after 14 minutes it begins to copy them but then stops almost immediately after beginning the copy. Is there something special I should be doing to get TM backup's moved from one disk to another or has Apple designed TM so that you cannot move the files from one disk to another? I have temporally stopped Time Machine obviously before starting this so it won't start a backup whilst I'm copying the files but I can't think of anything else I could do right now besides just deleting all the old backup's on the FW800 drive and getting it to start fresh backups on the new drive but I'd lose all the backups for about 3 months now since Leopard came out which would be a shame. Any idea's??? I'd really appreciate it. Thanks

_open disk utility
_select drive A (with time machine)
_create DMG on MAC Hd
_plug the disk B
_click to repair (ripristina in Italian)
_select source DMG from Mac hd and destination disk B (empty with the same name in my case -time machine-).
(it ask to verify the DMG image...).
_DONE.
Open TM and re-set the disk.
All ok.
I love MAC.

External drive partitions for Time Machine

Questions:
     1. Do I need to have a two partitions on my external hard drive, one each for my iMac and another for my MBPro?
   2. Do I need to partition to use both Time Machine and SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Clone.?
   3. Which is better to use for backup if you need or want to retrieve a specific file?
Thanks for your help.
Vernon

1. No. Configure each machine's Time Machine preferences separately. Time Machine will take care of the rest.
2. Yes. You must clone to a freshly formatted drive or partition on a drive. I suggest you use two separate drives. One for Time Machine and the other for the clone. This way you have a good backup in case one fails.
3. I don't understand the question. Which "what" are you referring to? If you mean choosing between Time Machine and a clone, it's better to have one of each. The more backups the better.

The storage location for Time Machine backups can't be found

I recently purchased a Time Capsule and have successfully backed-up both a PC (via ethernet) and my MacBookPro via wireless. However, after a few hours of inactivity on my MacBook Pro, the Time Capsule icon on my desktop is gone. When I launch Time Machine, I get the following message:
"The storage location for Time Machine backups can't be found". I have browsed the forums and noticed some answers to similar queries to check the "Remember password" option when establishing the connection. I do not have this option when I reconnect. What am I missing?

Glasses,
It does work! I have successfully use DW on my TC both wirelessly and via ethernet. Ethernet is of course much quicker. And I have run into more DW errors trying wirelessly, so I avoid that method whenever possible. As for other NAS device - I wouldn't know.
Glenn
BTW RetroBot - That post was over 6 months ago!

Retrieving password for Time Machine

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