Apple Beta Seed OS X Program Time Machine?

I was wondering... If I participate in the new beta seed program and decide to revert back to the current public version can I just use Time Machine to revert? Apple seems to make more complicated than it is. Any thoughts?

Network 23 wrote:
… rolling back to a date before you installed the beta …
… and then, maybe, Migration Assistant to selectively transfer information from the most recent Time Machine backup that was performed whilst beta testing. A selection within the assistant will probably include the seed tester's home directory, and must exclude applications. Excluding applications because some may be not release quality, and so on.
If that approach to data transfer is possible, it should be treated as introducing some bleeding edge to use of the released version of the operating system. Just some – not as edgey as using a pre-release build of the OS.
For example, a person might aim to transfer home directory data:
from a backup of a pre-release build of OS X 10.9.3
to the current release, OS X 10.9.2.
Looking ahead
When pre-release builds of OS X 10.10 become available, I should not expect the ability to migrate home directory data from any build of 10.10 to any build of 10.9.x. (If any person discovers a method to do so, a method not documented by Apple, I should strongly discourage its use.)

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Com.apple.parentalcontrols.keychain error setting up Time Machine

When setting up Time Machine I encountered an unexpected error:
"writeconfig wants to use the "com.apple.parentalcontrols.keychain.5nqyke" keychain. Please enter the keychain password."
This was reported back in 2010 in this post:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2554426?threadID=2554426
If you have encountered this same frustrating error, I can provide a fix, read on.
It was determined that this is an issue with code leftover from a Norton Antivirus software that had been uninstalled but left this problem, which is that this keychain password was created by Norton in the background, and you the user never saw it or even knew it existed, and therefore cannot enter it. For some reason Time Machine finds this insurmountable. It is not possible to use Time Machine until this hurdle is overcome.
At that time users tried various fixes to get rid of this code and only one drastic one was noted to be effective. I tried several relatively easy suggested but unproven fixes which did NOT work, including:
Run the Norton Uninstall program that came with the software
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Install Clean My Mac and run it
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Boot the iMac from the Mac OS X install DVD
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Restart the iMac and go through the software updates (in my case, back to 10.6.8 Snow Leopard)
Open Time Machine preferences, select the desired target disk, and you will get past this barrier and can use Time Machine easily.
This worked for me, so I'm all set. I post this in the hopes that:
- users who encounter this same issue will find this fix helpful
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Hey there,
See if this older thread can help you out.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1831693&tstart=0
B-rock

How to backup programs - Time Machine?

I would like to back up my programs such that if my hard drive crashes, I don't have to reinstall them.
I've got Time Machine running & have made disk images through Disk Utility.
Will either of these allow me to restore programs without having to get the install disks & serial #s again? Or any other method?
Thx -

okcokc wrote:
OK - will check them out as well. As long as Time Machine & Disk Image work, I think I'm good for now.
TimeMachine drive is not "hold the option key bootable" so if your hard drive crashes mechanically, your stuck until your internal boot drive is replaced and restored from TimeMachine.
A clone is "hold option key bootable" and lets you get right back to using the machine or recovering essential files off a problemlatic drive. You can even reverse clone back and replace a hosed OS X.
Carbon Copy Cloner and Superduper are free to use cloning tools for drive to drive cloning, but Superduper charges for more features like auto-scheduling etc. which CCC doesn't.
Some folks recommend having both a TimeMachine drive AND a clone or two for the best of both sorts of protection.
See Pondini's excellent balanced "pro/con's" of both solutions here
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Clones.html
Perhaps one day TimeMachine will be bootable from the computer that made the TimeMachine drive and solve everyone's problem, but until then one needs both solutions as hard drives fail just as often as the software fails.
Also in this list is a free TimeMachine Editor so you can control when TM makes it's backups and other really cool freeware that nearly most all Mac users will have a need for someday.
VLC (plays anything)
Perian (installs additionalQuicktimecodecs)
FlipForMac (Windows media in Quicktime)
TheUnarchiver(unpacks just about everything)
Carbon Copy Cloner (clonesbootdrive to another HFS+j drive, hold option bootable)
2 free 3D games - NexiuZClassic and Cube 2 Sauerbraten
LibreOffice (freeofficesuit, reads/writes Office files
Gimp (free image editor)
OnyX (free maintainenceandcleaning)
Pacifist (opens DMG filesforextraction)
Mactracker (inforonApple products)
NTFS Mounter (for WindowsNTFSdrives)
EasyFind(deep search)
TimeMachineEditor
TinkerTool
ClamXav (free anti-virus)
Caffine (keeps yourMacawake)
Browswerplug-in check (especially for Flash!)

Apple Modem will not answer after Time Machine Restore

After restoring from a Time Machine backup the Apple External Modem no longer answers incoming [fax] calls. I verified all modem/fax settings - they are good and the same as before the restore. The Modem Status in the Menu Bar doesn't indicate "ringing..." when the line is ringing and the Fax no longer answers.
Opening the Console I see these errors repeating endlessly-
9/15/08 10:09:10 AM com.apple.service_helper[1271] com.apple.efax: Already loaded
9/15/08 10:09:10 AM [0x0-0x15015].com.apple.systempreferences[155] No matching processes were found
9/15/08 10:09:27 AM com.apple.efax[1274] /usr/bin/fax: line 537: cd: /var/spool/fax: No such file or directory
I believe the fax app is supposed to create this dir, but I created the dir in /var/log/ as follows:
drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 68 Sep 15 10:33 fax
Makes no difference, rebooted, still makes no difference, ran disk utility to see if it would change permissions, no it didn't - still getting the errors, so there's something else that's also missing after a restore, or the error message is erroneous since the dir now exists.
It appears a Time Machine Restore - doesn't restore all that's needed for the fax subsystem to work. I thought the restore was supposed to completely restore the volume to previous operating state?
Any help on this would be great, I now have no incoming FAX - one of the main jobs of this Mini - thx - KR

By the way, it's running OS X 10.5.4

Time Machine backup disappears when iMac sleeps

Tried finding this topic but could not find the specifics. I have an Intel iMac running 10.6.7 and I use a Mercury enclosure with a Seagate Barracuda 2TB SATA for Time Machine backup, connected with FireWire. Every time my Mac goes to sleep overnight, the next morning, the Time Machine icon disappears from the desktop. It's been disconnected, because when I run Check Time Machine, the log reads thusly:
<<Thu Apr 21 10:29:30 com.apple.backupd-auto Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup - time machine destination not resolvable.
Thu Apr 21 12:30:05 [0x0-0x2d22d2].backupd-helper Not starting Time Machine backup after wake - failed to resolve alias to backup volume
>>
Occasionally I'll get the error message on the Mac that a device has been "improperly disconnected" but most of the time when it sleeps the TM drive icon just goes away (even tho the backup drive is still on).
Any ideas? Can I fix this or have to live with it? Are there alternatives to TM that may work better?
Thanks for any help/suggestions.
Best,
Mike

I had the same problem as Bru-Hed, but with a Samsung G3 Station 1 TB with USB-connection. After waking up the MAC the message "improperly disconnected" appeared. Was happy with the solution you gave and changed the power save settings accordingly, the drive holds its power, but....... things did not change. Switching off the MAC and restarting gives no problems with the back-up drive, but after waking up I have to reinstall the back-up drive every time by disconnecting and connecting the USB-connector. After choosing the drive again in Time Machine, everything works properly until the next time the MAC goes asleep......
Any other solution to this problem ?

Question on Time Machine error log

I have a program (Time Machine Error Log) that keeps track of the message log entries that occurr after you do a Time Machine backup.
I am getting two messages each time Time Machine completes a backup.
Here are the two message from the last log:
Jan 13 17:39:29 xxxxxx-iMac.local com.apple.backupd[36854]: Error: Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-36 "The operation couldn‚Äôt be completed. (OSStatus error -36.)" (ioErr: I/O error (bummers)) deleting backup: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Back
Last Successful Backup Message:
Jan 13 17:39:37 xxxxxx-iMac.local com.apple.backupd[36854]: Backup completed successfully.
How can there be an error reported stating "deleting backup", then a message stating "Backup completed successfully"?
If I didn't check the log, I wouldn't know that there was a problem, because the Time Machine preferences pane tells me the last backup time, and the next backup time, indicating all went well.
I just need some verification that my backups are completing successfully.
Thank
Len

There is a lot of rubbish messages that TM produces.. if the final message is that all is good, then I would say all is good.. it is pretty quick to decide when something isn't good.
But I would say.. there is only one way to know a backup is good. Restore it.
You don't need to test restore over current drive.. plug in an external drive and restore.
You can do a verify.. hold the option key whilst clicking the TM icon in the top menu area.. and the option verify will appear.. click that. It really doesn't test more than files are readable though, AFAIK.
Do a disk image occasionally.. Disk Utility can create an image.. but superduper even free download version can do a full disk image. Makes me feel safer knowing that I have a backup TM doesn't actually have anything to do with.

Time Machine Utterly Failed?

I have been regularly backing up my MBP since I bought it and lately I've been having major troubles with it. I wanted to restore to a few weeks ago but when I got to that spot in Time Machine all I see are the files that were on my desktop. I can't select any files to restore because the "Restore" button stays shaded grey.
Is it possible that Time Machine has only been ever backing up whatever was on my desktop and not my applications, documents and files?
Why is this happening to me? My laptop is completely breaking down. The Apple Store did nothing to help, in fact only made things worse, I DJ with this computer once a week and I use it for design. I rely on this machine and every step I take to make it better just makes it worse!!
All I want to do is restore my whole system back to January 17th, my last backup. Please help me, I am in dire straits and I am nowhere near an Apple store.

You might want to post this question on the Time Machine forum--that would be a better place to find a Time Machine expert:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1227
Good luck!

Time Machine utterly failed me?

I have been regularly backing up my MBP since I bought it and lately I've been having major troubles with it. I wanted to restore to a few weeks ago but when I got to that spot in Time Machine all I see are the files that were on my desktop. I can't select any files to restore because the "Restore" button stays shaded grey.
Is it possible that Time Machine has only been ever backing up whatever was on my desktop and not my applications, documents and files?
Why is this happening to me? My laptop is completely breaking down. The Apple Store did nothing to help, in fact only made things worse, I DJ with this computer once a week and I use it for design. I rely on this machine and every step I take to make it better just makes it worse!!
All I want to do is restore my whole system back to January 17th, my last backup. Please help me, I am in dire straits and I am nowhere near an Apple store.

You might want to post this question on the Time Machine forum--that would be a better place to find a Time Machine expert:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1227
Good luck!

Network time machine backup not showing on Yosemite

Hi,
One of the people within the office is having a problem with their Time machine backups. The password had been changed on the computer where the hard drive is shared but they where not concerned with their backups as they are using a Macbook so they back up at home and we also use a time capsule as a backup backup drive incase the main drive has stopped for some reason.
Now they are wanting to use the main drive to back up to and I can not seem to find the drive in time machine but when I connect to the computer where the drive is attached to I can gain access to the drive but Time machine can not find it.
The host computer is running Mavericks and the computer that is having problems is using Yosemite Beta could this be why time machine is having trouble trying to find it?
The drive in question is a SmartStor DS4600 6TB no one else is having problems backing up to it, they are using Mavericks.
Thanks,
Bruce

Hi philravens24!
I have an article here for you that can help you troubleshoot this issue:
Time Machine: Troubleshooting backup issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3275
Further articles addressing Time Machine issues can be found here:
OS X Mountain Lion: Time Machine problems
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11194
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities!
Cheers,
Braden

How much room does Time Machine take

I have a Macbook Pro with 120GB HD. I wanted to know how big of an external HD I need for Time Machine. I also want to know if I can use it as a HD for large files (imovies) and have that separate from the Time Machine application.

You can put files on the TM drive, but sooner or later you wont be able to. Time Machine will use up as much space as you give it, so regardless of the size of the drive you connect, sooner or later Time Machine will fill it up with backup information. The time it takes to do this will depend on the size of the files you use and how often you edit them. Basically, the larger the drive the better, but it all depends on the two factors: file size and frequency of editing. When Time Machine fills up the drive, it will delete the oldest backups and replace them with new ones dynamically, keeping the drive full but updated with the most recent content. Unfortunately this will mean you wont have any space to put other files on the drive. If you have files on the drive, time machine will fill up the drive around those files and when you delete them, time machine will use up that new space. Basically this means the free space on the Time Machine drive is a temporary thing that will only get smaller and smaller until it will be nonexistant. The best solution for this is to partition the drive into two volumes, and use one for TM and the other for regular disk space (the problem with this is knowing how much to designate to each volume).
I think Apple should put in limits for Time Machins so it only uses a given number of MB/GB on a given drive, and also make it so the Time Machine backups can be dynamically reduced in size by deleting the oldest backups until the database size is reduced to the desired number of GB. I've given feedback to apple about this, and I suggest others do the same. As it currently is, your Time Machine partition is reserved by the system for one purpose only, and other uses for that partition are temporary and limited.

Time Machine Backs Up, But Can't Do Anything Within Interface

I'm on a newish Macbook Pro, OS 10.6.3, and Time Machine backs up to a OWC Mercury Elite AL Pro drive via Firewire 800.
Time Machine backs up correctly, but I can only access the backed up files via Finder. "Enter Time Machine" shows me the proper interface, but absolutely nothing therein is clickable.
There is no "sparsebundle" file on the drive.
Option clicking to "browse other time machine disks" shows me no options.
Help...?

james a Leff wrote:
Thanks (though I've found that genius bar guys, if you hit the right one, are better than applecare guys; the latter follow scripts and flowcharts, but the former are freer to think on their feet, not assume you're a newbie, etc etc).
In most cases, that may be true. But the folks at the Apple Stores rarely know much about Time Machine, since they don't actually use it. It's worth a try (and cheaper if you don't have AppleCare), but we get many reports here of wrong advice from the Genius Bar about Time Machine.
I guess one option is to wipe the disk, wipe my time machine and finder plists, and start again.
I'd lose all previous backups, but I'm pretty sure (knock formica) I haven't suffered any data loss recently.
That's always an option. Do you have another drive? I always recommend secondary backups, on separate hardware, anyway, but especially if you're thinking of doing that. Once you hit Erase, you have no backups.
Just to be sure we're on the same plane......I'm talking about going to the TM icon in menu bar with option held down, and choosing "browse other time machine disks". I get no choices. But with the wording of "other", should I see my main TM disk there?
Yes. It should list all TM backups that OSX can find, for any Mac, including yours. The only exception is, if they've been marked as corrupted. See #E2 in Troubleshooting.

Use time machine to save both the iMac hard drive data & an external one

Can i program time machine to save both the iMac hard drive data & an external one

Yes, but it's not advised because it's placing too many backups into one hardware basket, also it will greatly shorted your TimeMachine states where you can go back in time to undelete a file.
It's better to have two backups, each on seperate hardware of each drive.
So if you have a boot drive and a external drive, you should have a clone drive and TimeMachine drive of the boot drive, and a backup drive of the external drive. (or two depending how valuable the data is)
If you drop a drive, or knock it over while it's running, all the data could be lost.
With only TimeMachine as your backup, if you drop or lose it, or if it gets stolen, it takes two backups with it.
A clone and a backp of the external drive stored safely off site is ideal, update it once a week or bi weekly as needed.
A clone is bootable, and is exactly like your boot drive, up in seconds.
A TimeMachine can only boot to restore to a new drive if your boot drive dies for some reason.
read more here
Most commonly used backup methods

Time Machine doesn't backup iPhone syncing files. Can it be instructed to?

After a lengthy discussion with specialists in the IPhone tech department at Apple, it appears that Time Machine does NOT back up the encrypted files that hold much of the syncing information from your iPhone or iPod. These are the files that appear in your iTunes preferences file under the Syncing tab, which are labeled as backups. For some reason, Apple has chosen NOT to let Time Machine back them up, which has resulted in my losing all of the information stored in my iPhone "Notes" folder.
The file in question is called "MobileSync" and can be found in your hard drive under Users/your computer's name/Library/Application Support/MobileSync.
If you check your computer's current status, the MobileSync file exists and its subfolder is called "Backup." The subfolder of Backup contains the ID's of your iPhone or iPod. If you open Time Machine and go directly to the MobileSync file, it exists on today's date ONLY. The entire folder called MobileSync is missing/nonexistent in all of Time Machine's backups.
So, does anyone know how to force Time Machine to backup a file that it isn't currently backing up? Also, does anyone know if my computer has a snapshot of my lost MobileSync Backup file SOMEWHERE in its vast memory? I am desperate to recover the information from my iPhone Notes file.
Thanks,
Rob
Message was edited by: Rob McElroy

As a result of my inquiry, Apple has now fixed this problem in its new OS X 10.5.5 upgrade. Time Machine will now back up the iPhone's Mobilsync file which contains your iPhone's backup files. You will now be able to look back in Time Machine and see previous versions of these backup files, starting with the first day you installed the 10.5.5 upgrade. MobilSync files prior to the day you upgrade, are not available.
I have yet to be able to find my old MobilSync files so that I can locate and decode my previous IPhone Notes, SMS text messages, Bookmarks, Settings, etc. that were lost when I removed and re-installed ITunes during the much anticipated iPhone's 2.0 software release.
There is a free third-party program from MIT that may help, but I can't seem to get it to run. If anyone knows how to use Terminal to run a Python script, please instruct me. The MIT scripting program will decode the data in your encrypted Mobilsync backup files so that you can read the actual data that is stored there. Whether my "old" (now unused) backup files are in there, I don't know, but I want to check for myself. The iPhone's backup folder is actually huge, with thousands of subfolders.
Here is the web address for the program, called, IPhone Backup Decoder. It contains a link to download the script:
http://code.google.com/p/iphone-backup-decoder/
Can someone please post specific detailed instructions on how to get it to run. It requires some UNIX commands in Terminal.
Thanks,
Rob McElroy

Time Machine Backs Up but doesn't retrieve

I use to have Time Machine back up to an external disk that was connected to a shared computer on my network. It worked great. It kept a disk image on the external disk which it mounted each time Time Machine would back up or when I entered Time Machine. Recently I have connected that external disk directly to my computer by USB. Time Machine is still backing up to this drive, it still knows that my oldest back up is from November 2007 and keeps track of it's latest backups. BUT, when I open Time Machine it no longer mounts that disk image and there is no backup history.
What have I done wrong? Do I need to delete my disk image and start over?

james a Leff wrote:
Thanks (though I've found that genius bar guys, if you hit the right one, are better than applecare guys; the latter follow scripts and flowcharts, but the former are freer to think on their feet, not assume you're a newbie, etc etc).
In most cases, that may be true. But the folks at the Apple Stores rarely know much about Time Machine, since they don't actually use it. It's worth a try (and cheaper if you don't have AppleCare), but we get many reports here of wrong advice from the Genius Bar about Time Machine.
I guess one option is to wipe the disk, wipe my time machine and finder plists, and start again.
I'd lose all previous backups, but I'm pretty sure (knock formica) I haven't suffered any data loss recently.
That's always an option. Do you have another drive? I always recommend secondary backups, on separate hardware, anyway, but especially if you're thinking of doing that. Once you hit Erase, you have no backups.
Just to be sure we're on the same plane......I'm talking about going to the TM icon in menu bar with option held down, and choosing "browse other time machine disks". I get no choices. But with the wording of "other", should I see my main TM disk there?
Yes. It should list all TM backups that OSX can find, for any Mac, including yours. The only exception is, if they've been marked as corrupted. See #E2 in Troubleshooting.

Apple Beta Seed OS X Program Time Machine?

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