Accessing Time Machine backups previous to doing erase and install

I'm trying to access a file (iMovie) in my Time Machine but all the dates previous to me doing "Erase and Install" on my computer are grayed out and I can not access them. How can I make them (the dates previous to my Erase and Install) available to me?

Erasing a disk gives it a new "UUID" (Universally Unique IDentifier). That means that OSX (and Time Machine) treat it as if it were a different disk (that's no longer available).
Use the procedure in #E3 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

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Access Time Machine Backup from a different computer

Hi everyone,
I have recently had to put my Macbook in for repair and have been told it will be about a month before I get it back. My wife has a Macbook of her own, so I using that for the time being to continue working on my MA essays due in the next two weeks. My problem is that I dutifully did a complete backup of my files through Time Machine before sending my own Macbook away, only to find I cannot access the files on my wife's computer!
I realise this is completely my fault, but the files in the Time Machine backup represent months of work and I desperately need access to them! I have tried accessing the backups via Time Machine, and when this failed I went through Finder to the Backup folder on my external hard drive, only to find a little no entry sign next to the relevant folders. When I try to open them I get told I 'do not have sufficient access privileges'. Is there ANY way around this? I am desperate!

The Northern Contingent wrote:
Hi everyone,
I realise this is completely my fault, but the files in the Time Machine backup represent months of work and I desperately need access to them! I have tried accessing the backups via Time Machine, and when this failed I went through Finder to the Backup folder on my external hard drive, only to find a little no entry sign next to the relevant folders. When I try to open them I get told I 'do not have sufficient access privileges'. Is there ANY way around this? I am desperate!
You should post this with something to do with "Access privileges" in the title so the right people read it - those who don't use Time Machine probably won't bother with this thread. You were right to try a direct-access route through the Finder, because you can drag Time Machine files directly when you need to. I don't know enough about permissions to help you with the permission thing; it might be as simple as setting up an account on your wife's machine that has the same username and password as your own machine.
But note (in regard to the Jeremy's post) that if you do get a new logic board - yes, he's right, you'll have a different MAC address, which means you can't continue on with your TM backups. But you can't change the MAC address on the logic board; instead, there's a nice, geeky way to change the Time Machine backups record of what MAC address they were married to. You'll find the info here:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080128003716101

Unable to access time machine backup. The folder "Documents" can't be opened because you don't have permission to see its contents.

My MacBook Pro with 750GB storage refuses to startup due to a problem with logic board (unfortunately I'm in Singapore and there is no Apple store here and zero customer support). I'm trying to access some of the files from the time machine back-up using my MacBook Air with 120GB storage, but I'm unable to open the backup. I receive an error message "you don't have permission to see its contents". Unable to access time machine backup. The folder “Documents” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.
I don't really want to migrate the data from the time machine to the MacBook Air as I simply don't have sufficient storage space on the MacBook Air. The iPhoto library which I'm trying to access is 200GB, which is more than the size of the MacBookAir.
Is there any way I can view the photos and documents stored on the time machine backup.
Thank you very much.

When you setup the Mac, you created a Admin user account with say name X
You ran Migration Assistant and it migrated user Y from the Windows machine.
User Y has different permissions than User X.
User X can't normally access User Y's account.
So what you do is log out of User X via the Apple menu and into User Y, this way you have permission to access the files.
If you want to transfer files from User Y to User X account
Transfer files between user accounts on the same machine instructions
Finder > Go menu > Computer
A window appears with your boot drive, double click on it to open
Inside is Users folder, double click to open it
Inside is your User accounts, double click on the one you want to send files too
Double click on the Public folder drop the files into the DropBox folder,
The permissions will change and can be used in the other user account when you log into it and moved to the appropriate folders.
Applications are typically installed and kept in the Applications folder which is a global access folder all users can access to run them from, but not all users can modify unless they are a Admin user.
Windows programs won't run on a Mac, but they can be instaled into a virtual machine program that is running Windows.
Windows in BootCamp or Virtual Machine?

Can't access Time Machine backups through GUI

Here's what happens when I tried to access Time Machine backups. This description is when I try to "browse" backups from within iPhoto. I believe that a similar thing happened when trying to look directly after opening the Time Machine from within the Dock:
The window goes to the center of the screen (smaller than normal) and the top menu bar disappears (you can see the desktop through the empty translucent bar). Nothing else happens. You can't apply expose hot corners or activate the dock.
It looks like maybe the Time Machine layout is TRYING to activate (as in the original demos), but doesn't complete. There is no timeline of windows or the sidebar timeline.
Any ideas what I need to do to fix this? Once it happens, the only way that I can back out (since the Dock is inaccessible) is the hit the escape key a couple of times.

When I do it from within iPhoto, I'm not getting the multiple panes or the forward backward arrows. All I get is the first/current frame in the centered pane.
Here is a screenshot of iPhoto before I select "browse backups":
[IMG]http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m29/teacher24_70/MiscScreenShots/iPhoto-1.jpg[/IMG]
Here is a screenshot after I select "browse backups":
[IMG]http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m29/teacher24_70/MiscScreenShots/iPhoto-Brows eBackups.jpg[/IMG]
By the way, I don't use Mail.app, so I can't really test it through there. Is there another Apple app that has this functionality built in?
-(.)^(.)- wrote:
Hmmm... not exactly sure what you are trying to do with Time Machine. If you are in iPhoto, you will see the folder you are viewing. For example, I can view my Last Import folder for Aug. 20. Now I can clip on the pane behind it and go back in Time to what my Last Import Folder on, say, Aug. 13, one week ago. Obviously, I will be viewing photos I Last Imported as of Aug. 13. I can also click on the forward and back arrows on the right side to view on a different date. Sorry, not that comfortable posting personal pics to show you what it should look like, but I hope this description helps.
Using Mail as an example is much simpler as the Inbox will change on a daily (even hourly) basis. In the case of Mail, if you start deleting mail on Aug. 20 from the Inbox and suddenly realize you deleted something you didn't want to, simply click the TM icon and you will be in a TM interface. Go back to the dated backup BEFORE you deleted that email and RESTORE it. It will restore it into a NEW TM folder to indicate this is a restored mail. Use the gear icon on the top when using Finder to restore files.
Good luck!
Message was edited by: teacher24_70

Ow can I use my time capsule as a time machine backup without using it wirelessly and not as a wireless router?

How can I use my time capsule as a time machine backup without using it wirelessly and not as a wireless router?

bzb888 wrote:
I have a wireless transmitter already, would like to use the capsule just as a back up drive, I tried hooking up from the ethernet port on the imac to the one of the ports on the capsule but then my Wifi would not work. do I hook the cable to the port with the circle or the arrows?
It is better to have the TC as part of the main network in bridge. You do not need to run wireless.
If you want to use the TC plugged in by ethernet and still use wireless for internet, that is possible but the setup is rather more complicated.. the computer must not get confused about which device to use as a gateway or dns server.
See info in this thread on setting this up.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4817218?tstart=30
I need to add.. a USB drive would be cheaper, faster and more reliable. It is really poor use of a TC.

HT5096 Transferred from time machine backup to a new computer and screen went white. What did I do?

Transferred from time machine backup to new Mac desktop and screen went white on me. Did I do something wrong.???

How did you transfer the data?

Can't access Time Machine backups after erase and install

Had iMac checked by Apple Authorized Service Provider after experiencing multiple problems I couldn't fix. No hardware problem. He did an erase and install of 10.5.8. The machine accesses my Time Machine backup, but in Time Machine/ iMacHome/ Sharing & Permissions says, "You can only read." If I access a folder in Home, like Desktop or Documents, it says,"You have no access." Permissions are locked and grayed out.
I spent over two hours on the phone with tech support last evening, and he finally said he'd have to turn it over to Apple engineers, which would take a few days.
Migration assistant only allows "all or nothing" migration, and I need to select just certain folders; I do not want to restore anything that might be corrupted.
Is it possible I could have an undetected hardware problem? Has anyone else done an erase and install and been able to use Time Machine backups to pick and choose what they wanted to restore?

Thank you for your reply. The apple support tech should have known this, but he didn't. However, in the course of our two hour discussion he said "Maybe it's because the computer name is different." I hadn't reached the new-set-up stage where I had changed the name of the computer from Apple's default, so I did that. My short name home folder I had already named the same as before, iMacHome.
But changing the computer name didn't help. After reading your reply, I unlocked the preferences (which were locked and grayed out in TM) to my home folder in the finder and assigned read and write to all folders within for everyone. Back in TM, preferences were no longer grayed out, but changing privileges was. I added iMacHome to the names in addition to staff read & write and everyone read and write. But ImacHome(Me) allows read only, options gray, and even though everyone is read and write, it says "You can only read" and I still cannot access Desktop, Documents, etc...
Fortunately I have a SuperDuper user file backup that I am restoring from, so all is not lost. But it seems to me TM backups should be readily available, and I want to solve this problem. I may still want to go back to a previous month to recover something. But mostly I'd just like to know that TM is a functional backup. It certainly isn't in my case right now.
Don't want to migrate the entire home folder. Too risky. Risky enough to bring over Mail and selected Application Support folders and keychains.
Thanks again. I think your answer is right on, but there must still be something else. I know I have those names correct because I see the old computer name on the sparse bundle, and the old home name in the TM backups. (Haven't read the tips yet. Will do so.)

Cannot access Time Machine backups on new MacBook Pro

Hey, I'm new to the forums, just wanting to throw it out there.
But to the point- Yesterday, I purchased a new MacBook Pro. I upgraded from a regular MacBook. I want to keep my Music, Pictures, and other Documents, so I used Time Machine to make an image of the old machine. I want to copy those specific folders over individually, so I didn't use the option to restore from the Time Machine backup. When I copied my Music folder into the location I wanted it, I tried to open the folder, and received an error message saying:
"The folder "Music" could not be opened because you do not have sufficient access privileges."
I went through Get Info and changed Permissions to Read and Write for Everyone. I don't really know what to do from here... It also does this when I try to access the backups on my external hard drive. Please help me!

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
You need to Restore the files from the backups, not copy them via the Finder. Time Machine, as you now know, uses special "deny everybody everything" permissions on it's backups to keep us mere mortals from moving, changing, or deleting them, which can hopelessly corrupt them. Restoring one Mac's backups to another one takes a few extra steps.
TM keeps the backups for each Mac separate, and normally only shows the ones for the Mac it's running on, even if there are other Macs' backups on the same disk/partition.
Since you're on a different Mac, you need the (badly named) +Browse Other Time Machine Disks+ option to see the old backups. Start with a normal Finder window, then hold down the Option key while selecting the TM icon in your Menubar, or by control-clicking (right-clicking) the TM icon in your Dock.
You'll see a selection screen showing all the disks/partitions that have TM backups on them. Select the one you want, and you'll be taken to the normal TM "Star Wars" interface, where you should see all the backups on that disk/partition.
You can then navigate to a backup (presumably the most recent one), in the "cascade" in the center of the display (the first, lowest one, represents "now"). Navigate to the folder you want to restore, select it, click the "gear" icon in the Finder window's toolbar and select the +Restore to ...+ option. Then you'll get a prompt for the destination.

Can't access time machine backups before yesterday

Yesterday, I reformatted my HD and did a clean install of Mavericks. For the last 2 months, I've been doing daily Time Machine backups via my Airport Time Capsule.
Even though I am not doing a full restore, I would like to restore specific files and this is where I'm having my problems. When I enter Time Machine, I can see all of the backups since doing my fresh install; however anything older than yesterday is "non-selectable" and appears blacked out.
How am I able to access my older backups?

While in Time Machine, press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible. Select the one you want and navigate to the files you want to restore.

Still cannot access time machine backups after Yosemite install

Can anyone tell me what to do to be able to access my time machine backups. When I enter time machine nothing except apps and desktop are accessable. Thus I cannot restore anything that was "backed up" even this morning, much less any other day this year. Yosemite was installed on Oct. 19, took 2 days to download to an 2013 iMac. The first time machine backup took over 24 hours. I have made 1 backup per day since, only problem is that I cannot access any of this data. Please help me.

A bit more information would help figure out the problem. Maybe a screen shot of what you're seeing or not seeing (use Command+shift+4 to save an area of the screen or a window -type space first to capture an entire window- to a file and then attach that file to your posting reply). You might look at the Console app to get more information about what actually happened during your backups - suggest putting "backupd" (without the quotes) in the search field at the top right of window in Console - with the "All Messages" query selected on the left part of the window). Console is located in the /Applications/Utilities folder. After you enter the backupd in the search field only those messages that contain that string will appear which helps a lot since so many messages are normally shown without any search field string.
Depending on how long ago the backups happened, you might need to select previous versions of the system log files - they get archived and compressed to files like system.log.0.bz2 or system.log.1.bz2 (these are in the /var/log query choice if you don't see them in the existing query choices - just click on the triangle to the left of the "/Var/log" entry if needed). Console knows how to show the messages that are in these compressed files, so you don't need to do anything other than click on the query name.
Also if you look in TimeMachine in System Preferences are there any exclusions (click on the Options button in TM System Preferences to show what the existing exclusions are)? A screen shot of those would be helpful also.
Is there only one drive with the single Mac OS partition on it?
Hope this helps a bit...

HT4848 Is it possible to partition an external hard drive that is already being used for Time Machine backups without it being erased?

I'm want to use my current external hard drive, which I use for Time Machine Backup, as a recovery disk for Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2. From what I have read, the recovery disk assistant will erase all data on the external drive unless it is partitioned. Can I partition my current backup drive without erasing it, even though it is already being used for Time Machine?

It's very simple to test. Turn off your computer. Have your time machine backup plugged in. Hold option and turn it on, keeping option held. Do you see your time machine drive? If so, select it and press enter. You'll end up in recovery. If it works, there you go. Then just click the apple and restart to get back to your regular desktop. Then you'll know for when you're ready to do the deed.
Edit...
I'm not sure if time machine will think it's an entirely different computer, though, when a hard drive changed, making an actual restore not doable. Either way, you could still reinstall mt lion fresh and then just migrate after, skipping the need for SL.

Can not access time machine backups. after transfer to new macbook pro

Irecently up graded to a new MacBook Pro. I baked up all my files on an external drive using time machine. Now when I try to retrive my files from the backups.backupdb folder I can not access may of my files. Message: "The folder “Music” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents."
I'm fairly certain I have a diffrent user name on my new machine but dont know what my old user name and password were (never really used them).
How can I access 3 years worth of work in this time machine backup?

Irecently up graded to a new MacBook Pro. I baked up all my files on an external drive using time machine. Now when I try to retrive my files from the backups.backupdb folder I can not access may of my files. Message: "The folder “Music” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents."
I'm fairly certain I have a diffrent user name on my new machine but dont know what my old user name and password were (never really used them).
How can I access 3 years worth of work in this time machine backup?

Unable to access time machine backups after creating new user profile

Hi,
I had visited the Genius Bar with some problems with iTunes not opening. The Genius had indicated that I likely had some corrupt files and that the easiest fix would be to create a new user profile... So we did...
After transferring all my data over to the new profile and setting everything back up as I like I deleted the old (presumably corrupt) user profile. To my dismay I no longer have access to any of my time machine backups that were created prior to setting up my new user profile... They appear to still all be there. However, I am unable to select any of the dates prior to the new user profile's creation and the deletion of the old profile...
Please help...
Thank in advance,
Des

desbiss wrote:
After transferring all my data over to the new profile and setting everything back up as I like I deleted the old (presumably corrupt) user profile. To my dismay I no longer have access to any of my time machine backups that were created prior to setting up my new user profile... They appear to still all be there. However, I am unable to select any of the dates prior to the new user profile's creation and the deletion of the old profile...
That's correct. What you see in Time Machine's "Star Wars" display depends on what you have the Finder window set to. While looking at the new profile, you can't see any backups that were done before it existed.
You're right, they're still there, for now, but are grayed-out in the timeline at the right, because what's in the Finder window wasn't backed-up then.
If you select your internal HD or Computer Name in the sidebar, you'll be able to see those backups.
But since they're for a different user, you won't be able to view inside that home folder or restore from it -- one user, even an Admin user, doesn't normally have access to a different user's data.
It's doubtful, but you might be able to create a new user with exactly the same name as the one you deleted, log on to it, and see if the old backups appear.

Can't access Time Machine backups on Yosemite

Hi guys
I'm having some trouble with TIme machine. I did a clean install on my mac. Upgraded it to Yosemite. I could then access my backed up files (although Apple hides most of it for any reason). As soon as I chose the same external hard drive to again be my Time Machine backup drive, all the older backups got unaccessible. When I open Time Machine I can see my older backups but they won't show any files. If I manually look for them in Finder I am locked out.
Is there any way to tell OS X to please let me have my files back?

While in Time Machine, press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible. Select the one you want and navigate to the files you want to restore.
If you need to restore from a backup of the hidden user Library folder, first select a snapshot, then press shift-command-G. A Go to Folder dialog will open. In it, you'll enter the path to the folder. The dialog will help you by automatically completing the parts of the path when you start to type them.
The path begins with slash character ("/"). Enter that. The rest of the parts will be separated by slashes.
The next part is the date and time of the current snapshot. Enter a "2", and the rest of the date should be filled in automatically. Press the right-arrow key to jump to the end of the path. Enter a slash to start the next part.
Next is the name of the volume (usually "Macintosh HD" unless you gave it a different name.) Start to type that, then jump to the end and enter a slash.
The next part is "Users", followed by a slash.
Next is your (short) user name, which is also the name of your home folder.
Finally, enter "Library", then press return. You should now be in the Library folder. From there you can get around as in the Finder.

Cannot access Time Machine Backups

I used to have a MyBook plugged into my AirPort Extreme and was using it for Time Machine backups wirelessly. Because the needs of my network changed, I had to move some components around and now the MyBook is plugged directly into the iMac. I know that Time Machine stores the backups differently depending on how it's being run (wirelessly vs direct plugged). The problem I'm having is that somehow the drive is now "read only" and cannot be saved to forcing Time Machine to be completely useless. When I open Time Machine, it shows no backups because of the different way it saves them. When I open the drive in the Finder, I can see all the backups there, but I can't move them or copy them because I don't have access and access can only be set by the system.
Is it possible to copy the older backups and move them to the new structure so that they are usable? Or can I somehow copy them to the iMac, reformat the drive, and then put them back on there so again they are usable? It's over a year's worth of backups and it would really suck to lose them all. Thanks!

The drive itself works fine. I can write to and read from it without issue. It's the specific sparsbundle related tied to Time Machine that is read only and cannot be accessed. I can fix the issue by deleting the sparsbundle and starting over, but I'd loose all of my historical backups... which is obviously not ideal. I'm curious if there is a way to change the permissions on the sparsubndle and then copy the backups out and then put them back in the new one. Or should I just give up and start over from today?

Accessing Time Machine backups previous to doing erase and install

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