Time Machine: Cannot access old backups after migrating to a new mac

Hello,
I have bought a new Mac (With Snow Leopard installed on it). I have used it for about half an hour to have fun with it.
Then, I have decided to use Time Machine & Migration Assistant to restore all my files from my old Mac (Leopard). The restoration was successful and I was very happy to see that all my files and settings were there.
However, when I try to access my old backups (the ones I have done prior to buying the new Mac), Time Machine says I do not have the permissions to access it.
Is there an way to fix this? I would like to be able to access these old files.

I am having a similar problem and do not understand the solution. I have a new Macbook and transferred my data from my Powerbook G4. However, I cannot access anything! There is a no entry sign on the folders and if I click them I get this message: 'The folder “Pictures” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.'
Help - but please, in simple language
Thanks

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Time Machine Not Recognizing Old Backups after getting hard drive replaced

Hello! I have a 13' Black Macbook pro which had a faulty hard drive so I had it replaced. Ever since then, all my old backups in Time Machine have been grayed out. I have no idea how to fix this and have tried almost everything on the web.
The only folder that allows me to "go back in time" is my Macintosh HD folder which I know I can access everything but it's a huge nuisance to not be able to click on a folder and go back in time in the same folder.
I just want things the way they used to be! Thanks for the help!

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
The problem is, you have a different HD. Even if it has the same name and contents as the old one, it's still a different HD, and Time Machine treats it as a different one.
There's no way to fool it into thinking it's not.
Technically, it has a different UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier); that's what OSX uses to keep track of drives, not their names.
As you do new backups, you'll be able to access them just as you did with the old drive.

Time Machine deleted my old backups and crapped out midstream

I had just gotten my failing hard drive replaced, and restored from Time Machine backup. So far so good.
So a week later, I wanted to upgrade to Mountain Lion, but figured I should be responsible and run Time Machine backup again before doing the upgrade just in case something goes wrong.
The Mac has a 4TB drive, which has 2TB free. The backup drive is a 4TB external drive, which has (or had) Time Machine backups going back two years or so. It still had over a TB of space left. I clicked on Backup Now and let it run overnight. I noticed it said "Deleting old backup to make room" or something like that, which I thought was normal.
I woke up in the morning to find that Time Machine had crapped out in the middle, and said that it couldn't complete. I realized that it had deleted all my old backups. It didn't need to do that, since the only files that had changed would have been less than a GB, and it had over a TB of space to work with.
It must have thought that everything on the drive had changed since the last backup, and it wanted to backup the entire drive. As such it tried deleting all my old backups! But it failed, and stopped in the middle.
Now I have a drive that still says there is only 1.2 TB of space on the drive, but I can't see the files! Even with Tinkertool, I can't see anything beyond the one most recent backup.
Can these files be recovered? I am totally ticked that there isn't some kind of confirmation like "Are you sure you want to delete X?"
I actually need to have some of these older backups, as they include files that had been deleted before the latest backup that I may need to retrieve. Any hard drive experts out there? Any terminal commands that can make these files accessible, even if I have to retrieve them manually?

To clarify, this all happened under Snow Leopard as I had said. My profile lists Tiger, since I haven't cared to update my personal profile since using that OS, and in fact I still use Tiger among other versions. I manage a lot of users. And I never got to upgrade to Mountain Lion on this system, as explained in the post above. So I don't see the confusion.
I don't think the model of Mac makes a difference for this type of problem, but in case it does, the incident was on a 2010 Intel iMac with a 4TB hard drive and 8GB of RAM. I would have mentioned that if this was a problem with hardware specific to the model of Mac. But this is more of a universal issue.
But to stay on topic, I'm guessing my old backups are toast. But if anybody has any experience with recovering from Time Machine deleting their old backups, I would be happy to hear from them. In the meantime, I am going to try to do some old fashioned file recovery, and see what I can salvage.

HT3275 My Time Machine cannot complete a backup.

My Time Machine cannot complete a backup. The error message reads "The backup disk image "/Volumes/Brad Blocksidge's Time Caps/Macintosh.sparsebundle" is already in use. Suggestions???

Most common error reported here.. absolutely stock standard what you expect with Mountain Lion.
Restart the TC will fix 98% of them..
Pull out the power cord.. count to 10.. plug in the power cord.
Check the info here for further info.
C12
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

HT3275 Time machine cannot complete my backup

Time machine cannot complete my backup because 'an error occurred while creating the backup folder'. How do I solve this problem?

Failed again this morning. I checked my logs and one thing it showed was, "Error: (-50) Creating directory..." I saw this...
ssls6
Re: Time Machine Issue-Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder.
Jan 29, 2012 10:42 AM (in response to HMR529)
one thing you can try
Open system prefs and go to spotlight, in the privacy section add your Macintosh HD and any other drives you back up. Give it a few seconds then remove your Macintosh HD and any other drives you added. Close system preferences. Watch the spotlight symbol on the top menu bar "looks like a magnifying glass". It should have a dot in it as in is indexing all your drives again. When the indexing is over (it can take a long time of your drive is big) now try to create a new backup with time machine...."
As usual, it's gonna take a couple days to see if it works. I'll let y'all know...and y'all should try it also, and let us know.

Time Machine is Deleting Old backups

Disconnected my MacBook Pro from its hard drives for two days. Re-connected, and ran Time Machine. It backuped up as normal. I walked away, seeing "49.8GB free of 499GB" on that external hard drive. I come back and Time Machine is "Deleting Old Backups ... " - and now 135GB free, and still deleting.
I realize that TM auto-deletes ... but does this sound "normal" to start its own deletions when there was 49GB remaining on a 500GB drive?
It's still deleting ...
Clint Bradford

If I said I connnected two disks, I apologize. One 500GB external hard drive is dedicated to just being a Time Machine backup for my 17" MacBook Pro.
Not sure what has happened ... but Time Machine cleared up space, and is now performing a 110GB backup ... kinda like it doesn't know it's the same computer attached to it.
This is NOT a critical problem ... I have full backup elsewhere. Just a little weirdness today ...
Clint Bradford

Time machine: cannot access backups

Time Machine seems to backup correctly: it reports the correct time of backup and I can see the right timestamp in Finder.
However I cannot access any backup in the Star Wars interface: when I open it I see some time indications by the timeline, one second later I see the timeline without any time indications except Now and Today. Thus I cannot access my backups.
Any idea how to troubleshoot?
Thanks and regards

Please review this information.
http:/pondini.org/TM/B6.html

Time machine cant see old backups with New Macbook

Hello, I recently migrated from an iMac to a MacBookPro6. I plugged in my externals hard drive into my Macbook and was accessing old backups from my iMac without a problem. THEN I used the hard drive to backup with time machine and now I cannot access any of my iMac files. I no longer have permissions. I no longer have the iMac. Is there any way to access these old files or retrieve permissions with my new Macbook?
Thanks in advance

Thanks ClayG, thanks Rodrigo
I work at a university so will take Clay's suggestion to my IT guy (he suggested I post here). Im sure it will make more sense to him than me:)
To answer your querey, yes I can use the hard drive with my new computer, that wasnt the issue, it was only retreiving the old files.
Thanks again to both of you for taking the time
A

Time Machine cannot mount remote backup disk (ReadyNAS NV+)

Hello,
I own a ReadyNAS NV+ which I use as an external backup. It has a "Time Machine" backup daemon, so the iMac see's it over network. I used it for a couple of months without issues.
A couple of days ago I had to change the physical location of ReadyNAS. Now there are 2 switches between my iMac and the readyNAS.
Since I changed the physical position of the ReadyNAS I try to backup using time machine but it's not possible. Time machine hangs up when trying to up at "Making Backup Disk Available". Using the terminal I can clearly see that AFP has issues mounting the disk:
afp_4pcsta0oyhi62C4wJd3Bx6yh-1.2e00000b on /Volumes/ReadyNAS (afpfs, nobrowse)
angel:log root# dmesg
6a800!
jnl: disk3s2: journal_open: Error replaying the journal!
hfs: early jnl init: failed to open/create the journal (retval 0).
disk3s2: 0x5 (UNDEFINED).
0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [ErrType IO] [ErrNo 5] [IOType Read] [PBlkNum 2] [LBlkNum 2] [FSLogMsgID 1814855696] [FSLogMsgOrder First]
0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [DevNode devfs] [MountPt /dev] [Path /dev/disk3s2] [FSLogMsgID 1814855696] [FSLogMsgOrder Last]
AFP_VFS afpfs_unmount: /Volumes/ReadyNAS, flags 524288, pid 285
AFP_VFS afpfs_mount: /Volumes/ReadyNAS, pid 872
jnl: disk4s2: replay_journal: from: 8247296 to: 4564992 (joffset 0x962000)
ASP_TCP dothreadread: no reqInfo found for reqID 5
ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 0 on so 0xa258660
AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect started /Volumes/ReadyNAS prevTrigger 0 currTrigger 1
ASP_TCP CancelOneRequest: cancelling slot 22 error 89 reqID 3256 flags 0x29 afpCmd 0x3D so 0xa258660
ASP_TCP CancelOneRequest: cancelling slot 23 error 89 reqID 3257 flags 0x29 afpCmd 0x22 so 0xa258660
ASP_TCP CancelOneRequest: cancelling slot 24 error 89 reqID 3258 flags 0x29 afpCmd 0x22 so 0xa258660
ASP_TCP CancelOneRequest: cancelling slot 25 error 89 reqID 3259 flags 0x29 afpCmd 0x22 so 0xa258660
ASP_TCP CancelOneRequest: cancelling slot 26 error 89 reqID 3260 flags 0x29 afpCmd 0x22 so 0xa258660
ASP_TCP CancelOneRequest: cancelling slot 27 error 89 reqID 3261 flags 0x29 afpCmd 0xB so 0xa258660
ASP_TCP CancelOneRequest: cancelling slot 28 error 89 reqID 3262 flags 0x29 afpCmd 0x22 so 0xa258660
ASP_TCP CancelOneRequest: cancelling slot 29 error 89 reqID 3263 flags 0x29 afpCmd 0x22 so 0xa258660
0 [Level 5] [com.apple.message.domain com.apple.afpfs.reconnect] [com.apple.message.signature Reconnect failed - socket failed to start reconnect] [com.apple.message.value 1297443679] [Message afpfs_DoReconnect: socket failed to start reconnect 61 /Volumes/ReadyNAS
AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: posting to KEA to unmount /Volumes/ReadyNAS
0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [ErrType IO] [ErrNo 6] [IOType Write] [PBlkNum 8] [LBlkNum 8] [FSLogMsgID 1662666978] [FSLogMsgOrder First]
0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [DevNode afp_4pcsta0oyhi62C4wJd3Bx6yh-1.2e00000a] [MountPt /Volumes/ReadyNAS] [Path /Volumes/ReadyNAS/angel.sparsebundle/bands/0] [FSLogMsgID 1662666978] [FSLogMsgOrder Last]
disk4s2: 0x5 (UNDEFINED).
0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [ErrType IO] [ErrNo 5] [IOType Read] [PBlkNum 11744] [LBlkNum 11744] [FSLogMsgID 1726805554] [FSLogMsgOrder First]
0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [DevNode devfs] [MountPt /dev] [Path /dev/disk4s2] [FSLogMsgID 1726805554] [FSLogMsgOrder Last]
jnl: disk4s2: updatefsblock: error reading fs block # 11744! (ret 5)
disk4s2: 0x5 (UNDEFINED).
0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [ErrType IO] [ErrNo 5] [IOType Read] [PBlkNum 27379] [LBlkNum 27379] [FSLogMsgID 1933006271] [FSLogMsgOrder First]
0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [DevNode devfs] [MountPt /dev] [Path /dev/disk4s2] [FSLogMsgID 1933006271] [FSLogMsgOrder Last]
jnl: disk4s2: dojnlio: strategy err 0x5
jnl: disk4s2: replay_journal: Could not read journal entry data @ offset 0x46a800!
jnl: disk4s2: journal_open: Error replaying the journal!
hfs: early jnl init: failed to open/create the journal (retval 0).
disk4s2: 0x5 (UNDEFINED).
0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [ErrType IO] [ErrNo 5] [IOType Read] [PBlkNum 2] [LBlkNum 2] [FSLogMsgID 800265459] [FSLogMsgOrder First]
0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [DevNode devfs] [MountPt /dev] [Path /dev/disk4s2] [FSLogMsgID 800265459] [FSLogMsgOrder Last]
AFP_VFS afpfs_unmount: /Volumes/ReadyNAS, flags 524288, pid 285
AFP_VFS afpfs_mount: /Volumes/ReadyNAS, pid 933
jnl: disk5s2: replay_journal: from: 8247296 to: 4564992 (joffset 0x962000)
angel:log root#
Finally Time Machine exists with error "Backup disk cannot be accessed. error 109".
Can someone give me a hint or two on how to solve this issue?
regards

Not a NAS-specific issue. The OS is trying to read a block of the sparse disk image, and the read is failing. Basically, the sparse bundle is damaged. You'll need to rename it and then try backing up again to a clean sparse bundle.
That said, make sure you're running a version of the ReadyNAS firmware that actually supports Time Machine. There are several AFP commands that were added for Time Machine that *must* be supported for correct operation, and older AFP implementations did not implement them. The reconnect errors suggest to me that maybe the firmware you are running doesn't support the Reconnect UAM, in which case it probably also doesn't support the replay cache, etc. If that's the case, then things probably won't work correctly without a firmware update even after you fix the corrupted sparse bundle.
Edit: actually, on further searching, it might be a NAS-specific issue. Certain buggy network switches do not properly support jumbo frames in mixed networks, which can cause read errors similar to what you are seeing when working with AFP. (This might have been your post on the other board.) In the Network prefs pane, choose Ethernet, click "Advanced", click the Ethernet tab, change Configure to Manually, and set the MTU to Standard (1500).

PLEASE HELP! How do I get Time Machine to remove old backups?

It is my understanding that Time Machine will never fill up the drive it's on because it will remove old backups to make room for new ones. It's not doing that for me. The drive Time Macine is backing up to has filled up & will not allow any more to be written to it, so I can't do backups. I don't see anywhere that I can change a setting to fix this problem. It would be VERY helpful if someone would walk me though how to fix this problem. I've had to turn Time Machine off because it's locking up my system trying to write to the drive.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!!

Thank you. I've gone there & read what's at the link. I've tried going into Time Machine & for some reason I can only see backups (in Time Machine) that go back to earlier today. However, if I actually look on the disc that I'm backing up to, I see database files that go back to April of this year. I looked earlier today & I saw files that went all the way back to October of LAST year, but I just did a big installation & that must of put things over the edge.
Anyway, I'd like to say that I saw an answer to my problem at Pondini's site, but I've been there looking around since before I wrote this thread asking for help & I just don't see anything that looks like it will specifically help me on this situation.
I'm still stuck.

Time Machine cannot find internal backup disk.Lost disk image in Finder for internal backup volume. OS 10.7.3.

Lost disk image in Finder (Desktop) for backup disk on Intel Mac Pro OS 10.7.3. Time Machine cannot find the internal backup disk. The volume is grayed out in Disk Utility, though it CAN verify the volume. How do I get it back on my desktop?

First, restart the Time Capsule by disconnecting the power adapter and reconnecting it. If other devices on the network can see it, you can skip this step.
From the menu bar, select
 ▹ System Preferences ▹ Network
Click the lock icon in the lower left corner of the window and authenticate to unlock the settings, if necessary. Click the Advanced button, then select the TCP/IP tab in the sheet that drops down. Click Renew DHCP lease.
Try again to back up.

After migrating to a new mac; iphoto library cannot save

Hi,
I'm faced with the problem that since the migration to a new mac; iphoto 11 cannot save any changes to the library. I can import, I can add an album, but if I quit Iphoto and start again every change is gone.

Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords, faces and places back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
Regards
TD

Time machine dropping old backups after migrating

I recently changed from an iMac to a retina Macbook Pro. I read that I could continue my time machine after migrating my mac. My new macbook keeps trying to create a brand new backup. I enter time machine and go back to find all my old dates but it drops after a minute or so. Is my mac trying to create new backups instead of continuing? I have a second backup portable hard drive with thunderbolt. It only took an hour to do what my network storge was taking 22 hours! how can I keep my old backups without my mac trying to restart again?

For all things TM... See Pondini's excellent Information Here...
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
Perhaps this is what you are looking for...
http://pondini.org/TM/B5.html
From Section B = Troubleshooting.

Can't access old backups after reinstalling Lion and restoring with Migration Assistant

Scenario: App Store developed a random, repetitive, failure to update certain apps. After trying two different solutions which only worked for a couple of weeks (including archive uninstall) Apple Support and I decided to go the full hog and do a full Lion reinstall. Did a full final backup with TM and proceded to reinstall from the recovery partition. All went well. I gave my new account the same name as my old original one (and this might be the root of the glitch I will describe). When Lion was working again I used Migration Assistant to recover all the users, applications, and information.
As my new main account and my old one (coming from Mig Assist) had the same name, MigAssist asked if I wanted to merge them. I said "yes". All fine. Everything was apparently there.
Later that day I tried to access my bank and discovered that my 1Password db was an old version. I went to TM to retrieve the one from my pre-reinstall backup. As I had mapped my mac back to the sparsebunddle file in TC it seemed I had access to all my files going back 1.5 years. It showed my oldest backup as Sep 2010 and 700 gb used. All seemed normal.
Unfortunately, the purple bars before the moment of reinstall are all faded and I can't retrieve any information from them. Nothing before that moment is available, not from the Finder or from withing any other application.
My new merged main user appears as "carlos 1" when it should have been just "carlos".
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My TC is a 1TB 2009 one.

Carlos. wrote:
As my new main account and my old one (coming from Mig Assist) had the same name, MigAssist asked if I wanted to merge them.
No, there is no "merge" option:
You can rename or replace, not merge.
Unfortunately, the purple bars before the moment of reinstall are all faded and I can't retrieve any information from them. Nothing before that moment is available, not from the Finder or from withing any other application.
My new merged main user appears as "carlos 1" when it should have been just "carlos".
You have two separate accounts now.
See Problems after using Migration Assistant for an explanation of what's happened (the blue and pink boxes) and a possible fix in the tan box -- but that won't work if you've done any backups since using Migration Assistant.
If you have done backups, your best bet is to do a full system restore, selecting the last backup from before you did the Migration. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14.

Time machine cannot find the backup disk, need to reset but previous data cannot be accessed.

Lately, my time machine/time capsule has the problem to find the backup disk in the time capsule and cannot perform the backup. I have to reset (at the back of the unit) then the backup can start again, but I can only access the backup data since the last backup, all my previous backup data is no longer available.
Does anyone face the similar situation and how to fix it?

Hi there!
Did you try upgrading to the latest WD Firmware?
It fixes the following:
WD Universal Firmware Updater 3.1.0.10:
Fixes:
Now works with 10.7.x (Lion OS-X)
Now works with new My Book Studio (without Electronic Paper Display), new MyPassport for Mac, and new My Passport Studio model.
Made device detection more robust.
Here's the link to the firmware:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/wdsmartwareupdate/firmware.asp?id=wdfGeneric&os=ma c
Regards

Time Machine: Cannot access old backups after migrating to a new mac

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