Access to Time Machine disabled

I am unable to click the padlock icon on the Time Machine pane in System Preferences. All of the other options are greyed out (Choose Back up disk, Slide to power on/off). Time Machine is currently off, and I don't have it configured.
On the menu bar icon, there are three items: "Time Machine Not Configured", "Browse Other Time Machine Disks" and "Open Time Machine preferences". I do not have any existing Time machine backups for this machine.
When I plug in a clean external HDD, I get a message box asking me if I want to use it as a backup disk. I get to as far as the Time Machine preference pane again, but I am still unable to change anything because everything is greyed out.
All the other padlocks in other system preference panes are working normally. I am able to authenticate and make changes.I have tried making another admin account, and the problem is the same, so it seems to be a system-wide issue. I have done several restarts.

Maybe try repairing disk permissions first? Utilities folder/disk utility/select your hard drive and click "repair permissions". Reboot and check if things are grayed out still. Otherwise in my limited experience this sounds like user issues i.e. account with whatever privileges required to make system changes on your mac.
good luck,
—b

Similar Messages

My Final Cut Projects folder were missing some files, I went to my time machine backup to restore and it said I don't have permission to access the time machine folder "Final Cut Projects". Why?

My Final Cut Projects folder were missing some files, I went to my time machine backup to restore and it said I don't have permission to access the time machine folder "Final Cut Projects". Why?

Yes, I've done all "the ususal suspects.." repaired permissions, zapped pram, "reintroduced Time Machine to the backup drive by turning it off and on... etc

After Mountain Lion update - problems synching contacts and accessing previous Time Machine backup

I have just set up a MacBoook Pro with a new SSD drive to replace the internal hard drive. I made sure I had a current Time Machine then connected the SSD drive externally and installed Mountain Lion. I installed the SSD drive into the computer. Before restoring applications from the Time Machine backup, I enabled the root user, logged on as that and deleted all other accounts as I have previously had issues with creating a new account from a backup and making that the 'home' user.
All went well except that a few seconds after I opened Contacts they all disappeared. They were replaced with two entries - one for Apple and one with the name of the home account.
I tried to retrieve Contacts from the Time Machine backup. I could see all the past dates but they were all red and inaccessible.
I looked at Contacts in my account at iCloud.com - they were the same 2 contacts as my local machine. I went through the installation process again but made sure that there was no connection to the Internet on completion. My contacts were intact. I exported them to a file and turned on the Internet. A few seconds later, my Contacts were gone..!
I imported from the backup I had made but, after a few seconds they were replaced with the two contacts from iCloud. Nothing I tried would allow me to add the contacts and have them synch to iCloud. I finally found a workaround:
1 disconnect from the Internet
2 import Contacts from the export file
3 select all contacts (ctrl-A) and drag them to the 'on my mac' account in Contacts
4 connect the Internet and watch all the contacts disappear from the iCloud account
5 select all contacts from the 'on my mac' account adn drag them to the iCloud account.
6 watch them synch to iCloud
I still don't understand the problem - perhaps someone can enlighten me - but here's the workaround if someone is having the same problem.
And I still can't access the Time Machine backup that I used to setup the MacBook Pro. Looking at the files within the Time Machine the backup. it looks as though it is probably a permissions issue but I don't see why as the account I am using is the same name as the one used to create the backup. Any guidance would be appreciated.
Jeff

I think you went about this the wrong way. ok....
Could you please try this... (1) Open Address Book - keep it as the main window. (2) Enter Time Machine from the icon in the menu bar... do you have that icon? If not, Open System Preferences, Click Time Machine, put a check mark in Show Time Machine in Menu bar. Close System Preferences. Go back to your addressbook. Make it the primary application open. Now go to the icon in the menu bar that represents TimeMachine and click Enter Timemachine. You should see your stuff...
if you dont...
I would also try...
Open system preferenes. go to the icloud tab. sign out. then sign in.
jdxxs wrote:
I have just set up a MacBoook Pro with a new SSD drive to replace the internal hard drive. I made sure I had a current Time Machine then connected the SSD drive externally and installed Mountain Lion. I installed the SSD drive into the computer. Before restoring applications from the Time Machine backup, I enabled the root user, logged on as that and deleted all other accounts as I have previously had issues with creating a new account from a backup and making that the 'home' user.
All went well except that a few seconds after I opened Contacts they all disappeared. They were replaced with two entries - one for Apple and one with the name of the home account.
I tried to retrieve Contacts from the Time Machine backup. I could see all the past dates but they were all red and inaccessible.
I looked at Contacts in my account at iCloud.com - they were the same 2 contacts as my local machine. I went through the installation process again but made sure that there was no connection to the Internet on completion. My contacts were intact. I exported them to a file and turned on the Internet. A few seconds later, my Contacts were gone..!
I imported from the backup I had made but, after a few seconds they were replaced with the two contacts from iCloud. Nothing I tried would allow me to add the contacts and have them synch to iCloud. I finally found a workaround:
1 disconnect from the Internet
2 import Contacts from the export file
3 select all contacts (ctrl-A) and drag them to the 'on my mac' account in Contacts
4 connect the Internet and watch all the contacts disappear from the iCloud account
5 select all contacts from the 'on my mac' account adn drag them to the iCloud account.
6 watch them synch to iCloud
I still don't understand the problem - perhaps someone can enlighten me - but here's the workaround if someone is having the same problem.
And I still can't access the Time Machine backup that I used to setup the MacBook Pro. Looking at the files within the Time Machine the backup. it looks as though it is probably a permissions issue but I don't see why as the account I am using is the same name as the one used to create the backup. Any guidance would be appreciated.
Jeff

Can't get access in Time Machine to certain folders for any date earlier than current date/time.

Can't get access in Time Machine to certain folders for any date earlier than current date/time, even when entering as Admin. Why do certain folders have small red "-" badge in lower right corner of folder icon? Here's a picture of the dilemma:
I've tried monkeying with priveleges using Command I, and changing users, but to no avail. Can anyone help?

Right. Here's what the permissions look like from the Finder Command I:
I'm not sure what "Custom" means, but when I then try to change it to "Read & Write", it doesn't take.... just comes back as Custom. Interesting to note that not only am I logged into Joan's account where the data folder and file lives) to do this, but when I do it from my own account as Admin (dunc...mpster) I get the same result.

Cannot access old time machine backup

Dear Community,
as you can see in the image below, Time Machine preferences shows that my oldest backup is from August 25, 2012.
However, if I access the Time Machine, the oldes backup I can access is only 2 days old. All the remaining backups cannot be accessed from the GUI! They can be accessed if I manually mount the time machine, though.
Any idea why this is happening?
Thank you for your suggestions.

Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't know about the option+clik.
Unfortunately the option is grayed out and I cannot select it.
However, if I select "Broswe other backup disks" I am presented with a list in which all items (about 10) except the first one and the last one are like this:
i.e. the drive name is empty. The first option is the name of an old backup (not used anymore), and the last one is the name of the current backup. I tried selecting any of them but the result does not change.
The time machines are correctly mounted, but I still cannot access the data from the TM interface.

I am unable to access prior Time Machine backups.

I am unable to access prior Time Machine backups. I can see previous backups when I enter TM but they do not respond when I click on them. My TM is backing backups and at one time I was able to access them. I am logged on to my Mac Pro as the admin. I am running 10.9.5 and the TM disk is an internal 2 TB drive with 12 GB free.

The 12 GB free may be the cause.
Also see:
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Backups on the disk, but can't access via Time Machine

Time Machine runs without announcing any errors. Browsing the Time Machine drive in Finder, I can see that TM is actually making the backups. But when I enter Time Machine, I can't access any of the backups.
This began under Snow Leopard, but not immediately upon installation. The more immediate change was when I added a new drive to serve as the Time Machine drive. From looking at the disk in Finder, it looks like the backups are all there, back to the date I plugged in the new drive (Sept 7).
Can anyone tell me why this happened? I recognize I could reformat the drive and start over to see if things start working again, but is there any way to kickstart things and preserve the existing backups?

Pondini wrote:
chicagopjp wrote:
But when I enter Time Machine, I can't access any of the backups.
What, exactly, do you see? Do you see a Finder window, labelled +Today (Now)+ ? Is there a "cascade" of Finder windows behind it, but just dark shadows, and you can't click on them? Do you see the background full of stars, and are they moving?
Yes to all of the above; exactly.
There are some things that can cause problems with the "Star Wars" display itself.
One is, it doesn't have separate preferences, so it uses the Finder's instead. If you're using Pathfinder or another Finder substitute, turn the Finder back on.
I just use Finder.
If the Finder's preference file is corrupt, it can cause problems. Delete the file
*<your home folder>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Finder.plist* and try again.
Done --- no change.
Try the things in item #E4 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip.*
Done -- no change.
I do appreciate your help. Any other suggestions?

Can I access my Time Machine from another mac?

My current mac (an iBook G4, early 2005) has I think died irreparably. I'm waiting to see if it can be repaired but in the meantime I'd like to know if I can plug my Time Machine into another Mac (either a friend's or a family member's, both have 2006 MacBooks) and be able to access my stuff? I read elsewhere in the forum that this was possible if you were setting up a new mac, but I won't be able to buy a new computer for a while and need quite badly to be able to get at my documents.

yes, it's possible. plug it into the other computer. control-click on TM inthe dock and choose" browse other Time Machine disks".

How can i access the Time Machine backup on my QSAN NAS device?

Hi
I have a QSAN TS412 TurboNas. I have set it up to be used for Time Machine backup and it works fine.
I have anothe device with over a year worth of backups on it and i would like to transfer them to the QSAN device, however the TimeMachine location is not accessible in finder, only the TM app can access it.
I am not the farmiliar with MAC's but am sure there must be a way to get the files where i want them.
Any help is much appreciated.
Ben

Byocky wrote:
Hi
I have been trying to talk to QSAN, but it is very tedious. They are not the most helpful of companies.
I have 10.7.4, it is supported by QSAn, but they just say that it cannot be accessed by finder.
I though a "wiz kid" in the forum may know what to do.
Ben
Gotcha, well good luck...maybe someone has experience with them.

Can I switch external hard drives and still access old Time Machine backups?

I have a Mac Book Pro linked to 2 1TB external hard drives, one used as my Time Machine Back up, the other used as a manual ad hoc back up and to store even older files.
The TM back up drive is now full. If I just unplug it/switch it off and plug in and set up a new 2TB hard drive as my TM back up, will I still be able to access the back ups on the original TM drive if necessary, through TM?
Wil it be a start over situation with the new drive, performing a complete back up to begin with?
Or would you advise me to transfer the old back folder to the new drive, given that it will be larger?

Hi den.thed,
Thank you for this - I think the easy option by far appears to be to leave existing backups on disk 1, and plug in disk 2 and start over.

I have my MacBook 13' (2006) backed up on Time Machine. I just replaced the hard drive. How do I access the Time Machine to resotre my files, setting and programs on the new HD?

I am running Snow Leopard and have my old files isolated in a new folder on the laptop, but I want to restore the old settings, programas, etc. from the Time Machine. TM is currently backing up the new HD as if it were a new computer.

Instead of using Time Capsule or Time Machine to access the archived backup, use Migration Assistant to restore the backup from Time Capsule. Worked like a charm.

Is there anyway to access deleted Time machine backups

I have a fairly new Imac [Sep 2011] with an SSD and 1TB ,setup b apple.
Because of a simple mistake, I messed up this and in doing this I must have deleted Backup on Time Machine. Only backups I am seeing now are from my Network Macbook Pro
Is there anwa to reverse my mistake, get original configuration back and also the TM backups?

Thanks RM
I may be wrong but I understood there was a difference between deleting a backup on computer and deleting backups on TMachine.
Are not files kept on TM until its full.?
If so then somewhere on TM must be data that can be accessed?

Can I password protect access to Time Machine??

Hey guys ..
Ive just switched over from PC to mac. So far Im loving it and doubt Ill ever use a PC again.
I do have a question about Time Machine though. Is there a way to password protect access to the Time Machine interface ?
Cheers
Darren

Can't help with the TM stuff, since I don't use it, and will leave that discussion to macwiz1220; however, since you're new to Macs, once you sort out your issue, see these:
Switching from Windows to Mac OS X,
Basic Tutorials on using a Mac,
Mac 101: Mac Essentials,
Anatomy of a Mac,
MacFixIt Tutorials,
MacTips, and
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition.
Additionally, *Texas Mac Man* recommends:
Quick Assist.
Welcome to the Switch To A Mac Guides,
Take Control E-books, and
A guide for switching to a Mac.

Can not access my Time machine HD after CLEAN install Mountain Lion

Hi Everyone!
Thank you in advance for your interest and help, I really appreciate it.
I recently did a clean Install of Mountain Lion and already did all the updates that appeared. However, before doing these clean install, I did a back up with Time Machine on my external Hard drive. Now I can't access to it, doesn't even appear on my sidebar when I connect it. On the other hand it does appear as connected when I open Disk Utility, but I can not access to it. There I have all my 5 years of University works and classes, photos, and music. This Hard drive is only dedicated for my Mac Backups and nothing more.
I guess that if I install again Snow Leopard, it will work, but I have to re install everything as my Mac is a Mid or Late 2007 15-inch Macbook pro and it came with the OS before the snow leopard 10.5 or something like that.
What can I or should I do to access my Hard Drive again?
Best Regards
Edd

Hi Mende,
Sorry for my late reply but I want to thank you for your help.
I followed your instructions and now I can access the drive thank you a lot for this. However, now I don't want to restore everything from my last back-up just some files, How can I do this? Also I want to restore My iLife, but the copy I have from the CD that came with my mac doesn't allow to install it, what can I do.
Take good care, and happy holidays.
Best Regards
Edd
PD. Are you from Spain?

Cannot access old time machine backups

Hi,
I recently had some issues regarding my MacBook Pro and decided the best course of action would be to ensure it was completely backed up; reinstall OS X Yosemite and pick the old backup for useful files.
Unfortunately, when it came to resetting up Time Machine, it asked me if I wanted to use the existing backup. I imagined the safe answer would've been "Yes" and that it would've been smart enough to create a clean backup at the date of restore.
It seems that this is not the case...
Any backup, despite being listed on the Time Machine interface, prior to the date of restore was "greyed out" and could not be accessible. Unfortunately, the "Browse other Backup Disks" option didn't work (are there issues with this option for NAS backups?), and unfortunately, a repair disk doesn't seem to either.
I have only managed to get the .sparsebundle (encrypted) drive to mount once by using a repair disk; every other time I attempt to remount using repair disk, the button is greyed out. :/
The time I did get into the "Time Machine Backups" volume; only once backup was listed for ".inProgress" – a 70GB file (the sparsebundle is ~500GB+).
Any ideas on steps I can try to find these phantom files?
At present, Disk Utility doesn't have the "Repair Disk" option available and DiskWarrior 4.4 is throwing up error 2154; low memory; on a 16GB RAM rMBP.
Any help would be appreciated.
Regards,
Jamie

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

Access to Time Machine disabled

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for