Back Up Disappears from Time Machine

Last night, I noticed that the hourly back up to Time Machine was taking unusually long. When I pulled up Time Machine, all but the last few backups were no longer listed. When I checked the auxiliary drive, the same few backups were displayed...but the drive showed all but 5.17 GBs out of a possible 160 GBs were being "used". Has the history actually been erased or is it still being stored in the auxiliary drive but for some reason, not displayed? Where do I go from here?

It sounds like Time Machine did a full backup, or at least a very large one. That would also explain why, as William says, it seems to have deleted a lot of old backups.
It's also possible that it started a new "sequence" of backups. Try the procedure in #E3 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). See if that shows some older backups.
Also see #A1 there, for a handy widget that will display the log messages from recent backups. The size of each one will be documented there, along with other things. If one is quite large, that may explain what happened, if not why. If it was a full backup, see #D3 in Troubleshooting for some possible causes; if not, see #D4.
If in doubt, post back with the messages from the large backup, and full particulars, including how much data is on your system.

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Need help backing up 3G from Time machine

I am looking for an important text that I erased. So, I am attemptingto backup from time machine since the itunes backup is dated last November.
I do not have a clue how to do this. After I back it up, I will want to erase it and re-back it up to yesterdays date. I looked in the HD/library/appsupport/ for a file called "mobilesync/backup" and do not have one. So, does that mean my phone is not backed up via time machine?
I am running 10.6.7. Thankd in advance for your advice.

Also, can you tell me why in the itunes window "set up your phone" there are 2 choices to restore: one reads "iphone" on is dated Nov of 2010? Where is the sync that I did before I restored to factory settings (erased)?

Retrieve backed up emails from Time machine in snow leopard after downgrading from Lion?

I installed Lion, but after putting up with it for the last month with problems like: computer crashes, slowing my computer to an unbelievably dismal speed and computer freezes at least once a day, I have now reformatted my hard drive. I have reinstalled Snow Leopard and restored all my settings, folders and applications from a time machine backup.
However, I am now back in my desktop (that's another story as all of a sudden it asked me for a password, even though I've never created one to log in) and on snow leopard- BUT I have no address book contacts and as for my email- well my email accounts appear in mail, but all my emails are lost (sent, received, inbox.... nothing there).
I desperately need those emails back as I run my own business and this has just been a nightmare. I thought that after reformatting and then restoring from a time machine back up life would go back to normal but obviously not.
Can anyone please shed some light on where I would find the folder in my time machine back up to cut and paste back over for snow leopard to show my emails again?
Thanks in advance.
Andrew

I'm on Lion but iPhoto 09 so it might have changed in iPhoto 11
But this is what I see
If yours is different try looking in the iPhoto Help pages for restoring from Time Machine

Removing a backed-up drive from Time Machine

One of my external drives was starting to act up, so I chose to upgrade it and move all my files to the new drive. I didn't think to use Time Machine to do this, just old habits of manually copying files from one drive to another, then formatting the old drive.
The original drive, Data, was backed up via Time Machine along with my Mac's internal drive. The new drive, Data 2 has replaced Data, but not in the Time Machine backups. I can tell TM to start backing up Data 2 but the backups for Data are still on my TM drive, and I can't find a way to tell it to replace the Data backups with the new Data 2.
Is there a way to remove a drive that has been backed up in the past? If I can just delete the backups from Data, then I can run a new, full backup on Data 2 and start from there. As it stands now, I just have a bunch of wasted space on the TM drive since it associates all the Data backups with a drive that no longer exists.
Any suggestions?

See http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html and http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
They contain answers to all your questions. If you have a specific question after that, please let me know.
Hope that helps.

Backed up data from Time Machine

Hi,
I just installed Leopard on my iBook G4 and for Time Machine I used my 250 GB external HD from iomega, which is very good. I always thought that at the beginning Time Machine copies everything on the external HD, and then every hour it just checks what has been changed and copies only the changed files over. I just browsed through my external HD and saw that, as a matter of fact, Time Machine backs up every file every hour. I noticed this because in the "Backup" folder (on the ext. HD) there were many other folders with time and date. You could see that for every hour Time Machine made a folder, with all my documents inside. Is this right? Does Time Machine really back up the whole computer every hour? Or did I just see something wrong? Because if Time Machine really backs up 30 GB of data every hour, I have a slight problem with a 250 GB external HD.
Thanks!

Open up System Preferences / Time Machine.
Now right-click (or CTRL-click) on the Time Machine icon in the Dock and select Back Up Now from the menu that pops up. Watch what happens in the Time Machine preferences pane. That will show you how much is being transferred. You can also watch when the time for the next hourly backup approaches.
You can also see this info after the fact by going to Applications / Utilities / Console (select "All Messages" in the column on the left) and looking for the information messages put out by the "backupd" process that is actually doing the work.
What you'll find is that far less than the whole system gets transferred. However, despite that, each Time Machine snapshot in time includes the COMPLETE file system? How does it do it? By including "hard links" -- a special form of file pointer or alias -- for each file or folder that was actually transferred in an earlier incremental or initial backup. When Time Machine discards old backups (to winnow hourly backups down to one backup per day, and eventually one backup per week), the file system doesn't actually delete a file on the Time Machine disk unless all the hard links to it are also gone. So if a file was transferred in a given incremental backup, it will STAY on the Time Machine drive until all subsequent "hard link" references to it are deleted -- even though the backup during which it was originally transferred has long since been deleted itself.
So if you delete the real file on your computer, no new hard links get created as part of each subsequent Time Machine backup, and eventually (as the disk gets full and old backups are discarded) the last reference to that file will be discarded and the file itself will also actually be deleted from the Time Machine drive. And if you change a file, the new version gets transferred, but the old version remains on the Time Machine drive so long as there are still hard link references to it which have not yet been discarded.
From a user point of view, you don't have to know what got transferred during a given incremental backup, because each and every time window into your Time Machine always shows you the COMPLETE file system as of that point in time (minus anything you have put into the Do Not Back Up list).
--Bob

Safari fails to open after recent hard drive replacement and data transfer from time machine

The hard drive was replaced by apple under replacement scheme due to seagate failures. It was reloaded with latest ios, but safari would not open, reported failure.
I had re -installed my backed up info from time machine. i did go into back ups and copied previous safari app, and dropped it on my desk top. It opened ok. Is there an easy way to get this app onto the system and delete the faulty safari file.
Hope this makes sense.

guess what, all fixed, the safari app installed by apple on new hard drive was 5 something, but 6.02 was needed, i installed 6.02 but it told me i needed OSX10.8.2 which cost me £13.99 but it now works.
happy days

Reformatting and installing data from Time Machine?

Hi guys,
I am new to this forum. I do not know if anyone of you have done this but I would like to know regarding reformatting a macbook and then using the data that has been backed-up by Time Machine to install back to the macbook.
I know the instructions on how to reformat the mac, but I would like to know is it possible to install back the data from Time Machine to the macbook. Do the application, photos, songs etc from previous macbook (before reformat) appear in the new reformatted macbook by using Time Machine.
Thanks

I have done this before and I have felt the pain. It is possible to restore from a back up. Just boot up from the Mac OS X install disk and then plug in your external HD. After that, you go to Utilities--> Restore from Time Machine Back up. After that, it will lead you to a page showing you all the full backups that you have done in the past. After that, it will be easy for you to restore everything. I wouldn't recommend that you use Time Machine in the future. Unless you have been consistently backing up your HD, the software inside might be corrupted. I recommend using something like CCCloner as it makes a bootable clone of your HD, which TM doesn't offer.

After a full restore from Time Machine, I get "error code -6584" when trying to go into TM.

I took our iMac in, at the direction of Apple, to have the hard drive replaced. When we got it back, I restored from Time Machine (on Time Capsule). One file on the desktop, a spreadsheet file, has reverted to a version five months old, with the loss of considerable data, so I don't know which files I can now trust. Also, when I try to go into Time Machine, I get "error code -6584" and am unable to access my backups
This is potentially very very bad. What can I do?

Solved:
sudo chflags 0 /Volumes/"FCP Time Machine BU"
sudo chown 0:80 /Volumes/"FCP Time Machine BU"
sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/"FCP Time Machine BU"
sudo chmod -N /Volumes/"FCP Time Machine BU"

Blurb Book in Lightroom 5 on my Mac disappeared after 3 days of work. Where can I find a backed up copy via Time Machine or anywhere else?

Blurb Book in Lightroom 5 on my Mac disappeared after 3 days of work. Where can I find a backed up copy via Time Machine or anywhere else?

Welcome to the WD Community.
1) I assume I can just hook the unit up via USB to my Mac and use iPartiion to reformat the drives, assuming each of the 4T drives will be seen by iPartition as a separate drive. That much seems straighforward.
Yes, and in case you ipartition dont see the unit properly, you can use the disk utilities on your Mac and you will be able to reformat the unit to make it compatible with your system.
2) Is my next step to reinstall the WD software and how do I do that? I've downloaded the Drive Utilities and Securities install apps - I assume I just run these with the drive still connected and that's all I need to do?
Yes, just run the applications.
3) What about the firmware update for Mac - when should I run that??
Normally, firmware updates are released to fix any issues that you might encounter on the drive. the latest one was released on 9/24/2014 and it fixed an issue with the drive dropping off of the list after system wakes up from standby mode.
5) And what about the "My Book Live Duo Setup" app for Mac - is that for a completely different model? What's the difference between "My Book Live Duo" and "My Book Duo"? It's these little things that I find so confusing.
Those are different units. The MBL Duo is a NAS (Network attached system) and the My Book Duo is a DAS (Direct attached system)
6) Lastly, when I have all the software installed, is that when I follow the procedure described in the Knowledge Base article ID 5724, "How to install a My Book Live or My Book Live Duo on Windows (8, 7, Vista, or XP) or Mac OSX for the first time"? Or is that procedure only for "My Book Live Duo" but not for "My Book Duo"??
That procedure is for the network units, not for your drive.

How do you delete file from time machine back up?

How do you delete file from time machine back up?

This from Apple KB Article If Time Machine is not in your Dock, you can enter Time Machine from the Menu Bar or System Preferences.
Deleting data from a Time Machine backup
To delete all backups of one or more items from a Time Machine backup, follow these steps:
Click the Time Machine icon on your Dock to enter the Time Machine restore interface.
Click on the item you would like to delete. Command-click to select multiple items.
Control-click (or right click) the highlighted item(s) and select "Delete All Backups of..." from the contextual menu, or select "Delete all backups of..." from the Action Item menu.
Authenticate with an administrator password when prompted.

Can someone please help me re-install my Creative Design 5.5 on my Mac? My MacBook Pro recently crashed and had to have the hard drive replaced. The back up from Time Machine is not reinstalling the program. Since I have the download paid, and codes, I

Can someone please help me re-install my Creative Design 5.5 on my Mac? My MacBook Pro recently crashed and had to have the hard drive replaced. The back up from Time Machine is not reinstalling the program. Since I have the download paid, and codes, I need direction on how to reinstall -- HELP?

Hi bodegakc,
If you have the serial number then please use the below mentioned link to download the product you are looking for .
CS5.5
Also before installing Please go to Applications-->Utilities--> Adobe installers and if there is any uninstaller for CS5.5 , you can remove it and do a fresh install.
You can also use creative cloud cleaner tool before installing.
Use the CC Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems | CC, CS3-CS6
Thanks
Nikhil Gupta

How to bring my files back from time machine

I just got a new hard drive as the old one broke down .. I installed the snow leopard and then the Lion as i was running before ....
How can i restore the computer from time machine back ups ? i have lots of data in time machine that needs to came back !

To be clear, the Time Machine drive has all your up-to-date data and has OS X Lion on it? Your iMac currently has a new drive with Snow Leopard on it? If so, yes Lion and all your data will end up back on the iMac.
The best instructions, with images to guide you, are Pondini's from point
b) To use an install disk in this link: http://pondini.org/TM/14.html

I recently did a full reinstall from my time machine and now my MacBook pro won't back up to the time machine. It starts a full backup ignoring the original back up, can anyone help?

I recently did a full reinstall from my time machine and now my MacBook pro won't back up to the time machine. It starts a full backup ignoring the original back up, can anyone help?

Did you follow the instructions on the page linked below?
OS X Yosemite: Recover your entire system

System Restore from Time Machine Back up and Mail

Hi
I have around 16,000 Messages in my Mail 3.2 Inbox. I use Gmail IMAP service. One thing I like about Mail is that next to all my messages there are these arrows that indicate whether I have replied to or forwarded a particular message and clicking on them takes me to my response to a particular email.
I need to reformat my MBP HD and want to do a system restore through Time Machine.
My question is, will Mail return to my current state (with all the arrows and tags) after I do the complete restore from Time Machine.
Any help on this is highly appreciated.
Cheers!

Mheck21 wrote:
I replaced the internal because I need more space, I'm not an expert, but I've done it before. I wasn't having trouble I was just running out of room and decided to upgrade?
Ah, ok, that rules that out.
I think it wasn't backing up because it was showing I had files on the external but I couldn't locate them. It's my understanding that the external must be blank to back your computer up with time machine.
No, it doesn't have to be empty (although Time Machine works best if it has its own, exclusive space). Without the error message(s), we don't know what is/was wrong.
I have run the Verify Disk on the internal and it says its all good.
Ah, good. That means you don't have directory problems.
I have not run a Repair Disk Permissions. I am not sure how to do that? Is that also located in the Disk Utility.
Yup, same window, different button.
I tried to just run the update from the update software option in the apple on the top left. I also then ran the combo that I downloaded from the apple site.
With what results? Did they compete? If not, what message did you get?

Installed new SSD. How do I get my files back from Time Machine?

Hi all, if you take the time to read my issue, thanks a lot. I appreciate any help you can offer, and sorry if anything is unclear...
The 1tb drive eventually failed on my 2009 27", quad core i7 imac. I had USB backup using time machine to an external 2 tb disk.
Repair guy took my mac to his shop, and installed a new samsung 1tb SSD.
He had trouble reinstalling from my time machine backup - so he's just installing Yosemite (I was using 10.8.x?) and giving it back to me with a fresh install of Yosemite.
When he tried to use time machine to restore my system to how it was, he started the process, and it said that it would take 13 hours, so he left it overnight.
When he returned, he found a white screen with a frozen mouse pointer. He did a hard reboot, and then could not access the drive at all - the system would not allow him to read the drive and he had to take the drive out, reformat from another mac, and then install Yosemite again.
Now he has suggested that I simply drag and drop all my folders from the USB time machine backup into my computer, and seems to think this will get things back to how they were. I'm not sure that it works like that though...I'd expect certain applications need to be installed, settings changed, permissions granted, passwords entered...that kind of thing.
Now I have a choice - whether to
A) reinstall my applications one at a time, and then copy the data from my backup drive.
B) manually drag and drop all the files from the most recent backup folder into the "computer" folder. (This was his suggestion)
C) attempt some kind of migration using the Migration assistant. (I believe this is what the guy tried- he started it off, it said "13 hours remaining) he left it running overnight, and came back to a static white screen with frozen mouse, he powered down, then when he switched it back on, the screen did not load any OS (not sure whether it had booted into some kind of BIOS, but he said it was so unresponsive that he had to remove the drive and reformat it from another computer).
D) Try some other application for intelligently restoring my apps and data from the Time Machine backup.
To be honest, my main concern is screwing things up badly! I'm veering towards reinstalling my apps, even if it means fixing up preference settings and typing in codes etc... I would rather take a slow and steady approach rather than a "risk having to take it back to the shop/take it apart" approach.
Also, is migration different from restoring from time-machine?
Perhaps you could advise me? Many thanks

Restart the computer and hold the Command & R keys.
Thanks - I didn't know how to do that!
I did that, and it went through the steps for restoring from the time machine backup. I didn't click on "restore" just yet... My concern is that when the guy in the shop tried that, it resulted in the serious failure that required the drive to be removed and formatted from another computer.
I'm wondering what might have caused that - is it possible that the external drive had a failure, or (more likely) that the drive caddy it sits in briefly lost power or something?
Also, can you tell me if simply drag-dropping the files from the time-machine backup would result in everything returning to its initial state? Or is that (as I suspect) a bad idea?
Right now I have a fresh Yosemite install which works. I'd rather have that, and slowly restore my files and apps manually than risk getting the same result as the guy in the shop. Do you think that restoring from the restore partition is worth trying again?

Back Up Disappears from Time Machine

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