Time Machine won't show old backups after reformat

Hi there -
So I have a time machine backup that I made about 1 year ago. I have let it do its thing, backing up files automatically every hour. I decided to reformat my computer to start fresh before downloading Lion, so I unhooked my external drive and went to work. The install went fine, but now my old time machine backups are gone!
For example, I will go into my Pictures folder, then enter time machine, I can only go back to July 18th, 2011. Previous to me reformatting my computer, I had no problem going as far back as I wanted. Now all of a sudden, I can't do that any more!
I have NO idea what's going on, and NO idea how to fix this. I've exhausted myself reading through the communities trying to get support, but to no avail.
Hopefully someone can help!

Many, many weeks ago there were articles (MacWorld and others) that described how to check and see if you had any PowerPC apps. It was stated that these apps would not work with Lion because Rosetta, which they require, will no longer be supported. Here is how you check. Hold down Option and click the Apple in the upper left. While holding Option click System Profiler. Under Software, click Applications and wait for the list to load. Toward the right side of the window click the column header called "Kind" to sort the column. Scroll the column to see if you have any Power PC apps. If you do, they won't work in Lion.
Regarding your Office 2004...... I do know that the new version of Office will work.
Hope this is helpful.

Similar Messages

Time Machine Won't Continue Old Backup

My computer was being repaired at Apple for a few weeks and I just got it back. No hard drive data was modified during the repair; the optical drive needed work. Anyway, I plugged in my external hard drive a few moments ago and it's backing up the whole system and won't let me return to the previous backups that I already have. I'm trying to recall a few files and Time Machine won't let me find them even though they're on the external drive. I did, however, accidentally rename the external hard drive when I was using it without Time Machine a few days ago.
Is there a way for me to continue where I left off with my old Time Machine backups? I'd hate to lose them all and I don't want to re-install the entire system from a previous one from a month or so ago; I just need to look at a few old files. Thanks for any help!
Greg

So, here's what happened.
Time Machine uses the xattr system to assign specific folders hidden attributes. Time Machine sets each folder up in its hierarchy with a xattr tag for the Ethernet MAC address of the machine it is backing up. This is all done invisibly. So, when I got a logic board, and a new MAC address, it wouldn't treat the old archive as concomitant with the new machine. So, here's how you fix this:
- remove the ACLs from the Time Machine DB
- use the xattr command at Terminal to put your new MAC address on the folder.
Full details are available here:
http://www.tombridge.com/rta/2008/01/after-the-apple.html

Had to reset TC, Time Machine won't recognize old backups

Two problems really. Firmware "update" was a disaster, forcing several resets of TC and creation, eventually, of a new name. First problem is that when I start up Time Machine, it won't recognize the backups that were already made of the drive on the TC. Second problem is that it says I only have about 1/2 of the capacity left in the TC drive. It seems that it is treating the old backup files as a large unrecognizable file that it will not delete. Optimum solution would be for TM to continue backing up my hard drive on the backups already created by TM on my newly named TC. If that can't be done, can I at least erase those old backups so that the TC has the maximum capacity to start backing up again from this point forward. Thanks for any help.

To Reformat the TC Hard Disk:
Go to Airport Utility --> Manual Setup --> Disks --> Highlight "Time Capsule Disk" on the left --> Select "Erase" on the right.

Time Machine won't do incremental backups after I restored my computer

I am using a macbook (2010 version) and operating Lion. I had a problem with my Macbook where it wouldn't log on, even in safe mode, so I restored it using Timemachine. Now that everything is back up and running well I want to keep backing up. But Time Machine now says that there is not eneough space on the backup disk as it wants to back up the whole computer alongside the exisitng back up. In short it will no longer do incremental backups on top of what has already been backed up. I don't want to wipe my backup disk for fear that something might go wrong again and I may want to go back to a version earlier than the one I restored. Is there anyway of getting round this problem? It seems like a fairly serious problem.
I would appreciate any help.

ms364 wrote:
I am using a macbook (2010 version) and operating Lion. I had a problem with my Macbook where it wouldn't log on, even in safe mode, so I restored it using Timemachine.
When you erased the disk, it got a new UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier), which is treated like a different drive, and Time Machine will back it up in it's entirety.
Did you do a full system restore, starting from the Recovery HD? If so, that should have left a "trail" so Time Machine should have automatically "associated" the restored disk with the existing backups.
If you did it "piecemeal," though, via the "Star Wars" display, it won't (that doesn't leave the trail for TM to figure out what happened).
You might be able to get it to do the association manually. See #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
But Linc is right; you apparently need a larger TM drive. See #1 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Time machine won't activate old backups

I have time machine backups for many months on two different drives. I want to restore some files from a backup of two months ago. However, when I open TM (on either drive), the backups earlier than yesterday don't activate - even though the dates and times show up in the right column.

I had a similar problem when I upgraded to 10.8. The TM searched and searchand had it brains semi-scrambled. I got tired of waiting for it to do its thing so I went to the Disk Utility and erased the TM drive. Then had it start over with a fresh backup. It has been working perfect.
It may be time to flush yours and start over.

Time Machine won't see my backup after resetting Time Capsule

i had to reset my TC because i got a new modem. once i got the network up and running again, now time machine wants to start over backing up my MBP, even though i can see the backup files on the TC....
how do i get time machine to recognize that this time machine has my backups on it already?
I had changed the name of the TC, then i changed it back. so i don't think that's the problem?
will i have to erase the time capsule and start over backing up?
thanks in advance...

TM may start a new backup sequence for any of a number of reasons. See #D3 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window.
Navigate to the first of the backup attempt that failed, copy and post the messages here. A clue should be lurking in there.
i'd like to keep those backups because there's some important stuff in there.
That's a curious comment. Have you been deleting things from your internal HD, relying on TM to keep it's copies archived?

Time Machine doesn't recognize old backup after logic board replacement

I recently had my logic board on my MacBook Pro replaced and when I tried to backup, Time Machine did not recognize the old backup on the drive and tries to create a new one. The drive is mounted fine.
Is there a way to continue using my old backup, or do I need to delete it and create a new one?

lissy-loo wrote:
Hi there I've just had this problem on my computer too but is there a possibly easier way to explain what is on this site...
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080128003716101
I read through but got lost about half way down when it says:
"The last bit of information needed is the old MAC address. Open Terminal and change directory to the root of the Time Machine backup database, then get the old MAC address:...."
I was in terminal but couldn't work it out. Is this not a good idea to stumble around in if i have no idea what I'm doing? Seems difficult but I really wanna work it out because my Time Machine hard drive is full so I can't just get to back up everything from scratch and don't wanna delete what is already on there. Any help would be much appreciated!!
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
If you're not comfortable with the procedure, I'd advise against it. Mucking about with Terminal can cause all manner of problems.
But you can find your Mac's Ethernet Address via the *System Profiler* app. Click the Apple logo in your menubar, then +About This Mac,+ then +More Info+ to start it.
Select Network in the sidebar, then Ethernet in the upper panel. Near the bottom of the lower panel, under Ethernet, you should see *Mac Address.* It's 6 hex numbers (12 characters), separated by colons. Omit the colons when you type it into Terminal.
As noted in the Troubleshooting Tip, it's easy to do this wrong, get no error message, and have it not work (been there, done that!).
If it doesn't work, your only choices are to erase the drive and start over, or get a larger one and transfer your backups to it (see item #18 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum).
How big is your TM drive, vs. how much it's backing up? TM usually needs 2-3 times the space of what it's backing-up (see item #1 of the FAQ Tip).
Are you so concerned about not losing your backups because you've been deleting things from your internal HD, relying on TM to keep it's copies? If so, post back -- that's a terrible idea.

Time Machine won't delete old backups.

I keep getting an error that the backup failed due to not having enough space yet it says in prefs that old backups will be deleted when the drive is full. Does anyone have a fix for this?

I had a similar problem when I upgraded to 10.8. The TM searched and searchand had it brains semi-scrambled. I got tired of waiting for it to do its thing so I went to the Disk Utility and erased the TM drive. Then had it start over with a fresh backup. It has been working perfect.
It may be time to flush yours and start over.

Time Machine won't recognize old backups

I have an external hard drive with about a dozen backups on it. I tried to backup today, and instead of looking at the last back up, from a few weeks ago, and updating from there, it insists on creating a new folder for my computer (My Computer 2) and doing a back-up of the entire thing.
I looked at the Troubleshooting guide, and tried a few things: turned TM off, trashed the prefs, and reselected the drive, but to no avail.
It still lists "Latest Backup -- " in the menu bar.
How can I get it to see my old backups and then backup from the last one?

hrishikesh wrote:
instead of looking at the last back up, from a few weeks ago, and updating from there, it insists on creating a new folder for my computer (My Computer 2) and doing a back-up of the entire
This is likely the cause of the problem. If you go several days (at least 10) without a backup, TM may do a new, full backup instead of an incremental one. Exactly how many days is not clear; some folks say it happened after two weeks, others say they've gone about a month without it happening. Some of us suspect it's a combination of being over about 10 days and the volume of changes, but none of us mere mortals really knows exactly.
So, once you've followed one of V.K.'s suggestions and have TM working again, try not to go so long without a backup. Not only does that mean you can lose many days of additions and changes when your internal HD dies (yes, when not if), but TM may do this again.

My Time Capsule/Time Machine has been showing Preparing Backup for past 48 hours continuously!

My Time Capsule reported Full the other day. I now have only 26.8MB of 497.96 GB available. Since then it seems to backing up continuously. The Time machine preferences window shows "Preparing Backup" andnothing else, and it has been doing so for at least past 48 hours. Any ideas as to the problem?
Stuartyboy

Yes, the problem is the drive is full.
If you have other files or TM back from other computers, TM on your computer having issues will not be able to delete enough to get sufficient space to backup.
Read how to clean up and delete parts of backups.. http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
Not a good idea though.
Solution.
1. Buy a new bigger TC.. cheaper (Than the original 500GB at least), faster and now the smallest is 2TB.
2. Plug in a USB drive.. archive the TC.. then erase it and start a fresh set of backups.. April 1st great day to do it.
3. Open up your old TC.. remove the 500GB drive and install a 2TB (if Gen1 a 3TB might even work). Google for how to do a hard disk upgrade.
Problem.. old power supply could die the day after and then the total cost would approach 1. Better to backup, wipe the 500GB and sell it on ebay and buy a new TC with 2 or even 3TB (2TB is better value IMHO).
4. Plug in a USB drive .. formatted to HFS+ and use that as the target.
Very slow. much slower than the same drive plugged into your computer.

Time Machine won't use existing backup folder

Time machine gave me the can't find back up drive error. I did what the support site says, went into the preferences, and reselected the appropriate drive, but now it won't use the existing backup folder. It keeps making a new one called 'user's MacBook Pro 2'. How do I force it to use the old folder, so that I can access my old back-ups?

gilesrulz,
First, you need to determine WHY it's not choosing to continue using the previous backups.
Has your computer changed in some way? Logic board replaced by Apple?
You reinstalled the Mac OS X system software?
*_Time Machine Always Performs a Full Backup After a Full Restore_*
Actually, this is normal. Anytime your hardware has changed, or you have reinstalled the operating system again, Time Machine will perform a new full backup. Consider the following according to the KB article below:
*Full Backup After Restore*
Bear in mind that in all cases Time Machine will perform a full backup after a full restore. This is normal. Time Machine will resume incremental backups after the full backup has completed. To view previous backups, Control-click or right-click the Time Machine icon in your Dock or Option-click the Time Machine menu extra and Choose "Browse Other Time Machine Disks," then select your previous backup volume. You will enter Time Machine and be able to browse your previous back ups and restore files. [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338]
So even on unchanged hardware, if you reinstall your system software and restore your user data, Time Machine starts anew, and you will not be able to resume backing up with the same history as the previous backups.
While there may be ways to fool/hack Time Machine into recognizing previous backups without performing another full backup, they are likely rather elaborate.
Ultimately, though, in a couple of months, all the effort to preserve old backups may seem pointless. After all, Time Machine will eventually purge away that data anyways as it replaces it with new files.
It may simply be easier to begin a fresh series of backups while saving the previous backups until your satisfied that you have enough history built up. Then delete the old backups.
Hope this clarifies some things.
Cheers!

I am trying to update my time machine backup on time capsule, but time machine keeps trying to create an entirely new backup (evidenced by the 200GB backup size). How can I get time machine to modify my old backup rather than create a new one?

I am trying to update my time machine backup on time capsule, but time machine keeps trying to create an entirely new backup (evidenced by the 200GB backup size). How can I get time machine to modify my old backup rather than create a new one?

It must have found the old backup corrupt.. so you will more than likely have little choice. You can archive off the old backup if it is still useful.
You can also verify it. See A5 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
He also has some info on this problem. eg C13.

Time machine has deleted all old backups

Hi, I'm desperate! time machine has all the old backups deleted on my time capsule, only today's early still a backup available. It was still 1TB space on the hard disk. What did I do wrong? There was no warning!

Time Machine will not delete your old backups unless it starts to run out of space on the hard drive......or.....your backups have become corrupted and Time Machine cannot repair them.
In the latter case, a message like this will appear on your screen:
Do you recall seeing this message recently?

After Migration Assistant, Time Machine refuses to use old backups

I've got to say I'm pretty disappointed with Time Machine.
I just dropped $2,000 on my second-ever Mac, a 15" MBP (Core i7 2GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB 5200rpm hard drive, the stock low-end 15" config). From what I'd heard about Migration Assistant, I believed it would easily move my stuff over to my new Mac. For the most part it did, but a few things didn't transfer. Other posts on the topic detail them accurately - Desktop icon layouts, some settings, Growl, etc.
I told Migration Assistant to use my Time Machine backups, which have been happening without incident for a long time. My oldest backup is December 2010.
Now that my new MBP is about 99% set up like my old MBP, I am having a problem with Time Machine.
I get the error "Time Machine could not complete the backup. This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 355.61 GB but only 176.44 GB are available."
Looking at the Time Machine drive in Finder, I found that Time Machine is trying to create a new folder for backups and do a full backup. Where there was once one folder, "[My Name]'s MacBook Pro," there is now an additional folder, "[My Name]'s MacBook Pro 2." Time Machine is trying to back up into that second directory.
Now, I get it that this is a different computer. But really, if I use Migration Assistant to restore my Time Machine backup, I think it would be safe for OSX to assume that I want to continue using those backups. What is especially disappointing for me is, there were things that Migration Assistant did not restore properly. I probably haven't found them all. That makes it CRUCIAL that I have my Time Machine backups, but it seems that Apple thinks it's perfectly normal for me to want to FORMAT my Time Machine drive after Migration Assistant did a half-*** job of migrating my data. I need those backups now more than ever.
I do also have an online backup, but I still don't feel very comfortable destroying six months of local backups just to make Time Machine work again. Both MBPs were running the same (latest) version of Snow Leopard, so it stands to reason all that needs to happen is a very small incremental backup.
I have been Googling for hours. All I've found is a procedure for 10.5 that doesn't work in 10.6 where I get down into the Terminal and change a MAC address in a file on the Time Machine volume. But that's it. In fact it seems like there's no answer.
Come on Apple, you do everything else better than the competition. Why do I have to nuke six months of backups or buy a new 2TB external drive to make Time Machine work again? I assure you I want to continue making incremental backups against my old Time Machine backups, and promise to hold you not responsible should I screw something up by grabbing an old system file or something from February.
Would appreciate any help anyone could offer.

Did you use Setup Assistant when your new Mac first started up, or skip that, create a user account, then use the Migration Assistant app in your Applications/Utilties folder?
If you used Setup Assistant, when you started your first backup you should have gotten the message in #B5 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting. It sounds like you didn't (or chose Start New Backup). And no, the Leopard procedure doesn't work on Snow Leopard. That's what #B5 is for.
Usually, if you use Setup Assistant, Time Machine will still say it's going to do a full backup, and make room for it, but actually do an incremental backup (very, very slowly).
Either way, it usually deletes a lot of old backups. We're hoping that will be fixed in Lion.
Once it's decide to make a new backup, there's no known way to prevent it.

Time Machine doesn't recognize old sparsebundle after new logic board

Installed new logic board in pre-Isight 20" iMac due to capacitor swelling and kernel panic. I had also erased the internal HD. I was able to restore all my files to internal HD from Time Machine backup on the 1TB Time Capsule. Now I'm trying to back up my restored iMac to Time Capsule, but there is insufficient space. Time Capsule has three sparsebundle files: one for the 20"iMac prior to new logic board, one for a Powerbook, and one for a newer 24"iMac. Time Machine wants to create a new sparsebundle for the restored iMac, but there is not enough room and I would like it use the residing sparsebundle so that I will have backups prior to the point the new logic board was installed. I tried just changing the name of the old IMac Time Capsule sparsebundle file to the new sparsebundle filename that Time Machine creates when attempting backup, but that did not work. Any suggestions?

1. I thought of just deleting the old sparsebundle in order to make room, but it was a less elegant solution because: a) I'd have to do a complete (i.e. lengthy) backup when really only a few things have changed (mostly software updates) since the restore. b)if something should go wrong with that process, then I've lost my backup file to restore the computer. True, I could archive the old sparsebundle to another drive, and then delete it from the time capsule, but somehow I think there should be a quicker, less labor intensive way that doesn't involve bringing in another hard drive.
2. I believe you can restore any Mac with any time machine backup. If you boot from the system disk, go to utilities, and select restore from time machine backup, it then allows you to pick any of the files on the disk that time machine has backed up to. After all, even though Time Machine thinks this is a new computer, the restore that I just did makes it essentially the same computer that I had before the failure of the logic board--the desktop looks exactly the same. BTW, the Apple authorized service center that did the logic board replacement had put a clean version of 10.6 on the internal hard drive, and I was unable to use that system to do the restore--it just hung up. I had to do the restore using my system disk CD (and basically downgrading to system 10.5.8)

Time Machine won't show old backups after reformat

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