"Browse other backup disks" shows strange entries

Does anybody know what the **** this means: ==>>
After deleting my TC ("zero out data") and 3-times backup the "Browse other backup disks" shows these entries. Backups on an external drive ("1TB ASJ") look OK.
Any idea what wrong here?
Airport Utility shows ==>

Yes, those appear in Mountain Lion since 10.8.2. They're "phantoms" -- leftovers from previous viewings of network backups, that didn't get cleared from the record.
They don'e really mean anything, and will go away after a Restart.
EDIT: Reported as a bug, not fixed yet. Maybe the next update . . .
Message was edited by: Pondini

Similar Messages

Why can I not browse other backups in Time Manager

Hi
I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post but I could not find a Community for Time Manager.
I'm trying to restore a file from a Time Machine backup of my Late 2008 MacBook on to a Late 2014 Mac Mini both running Yosemite. The backup I'm trying to access is on a 3Tbyte Time Capsule which is shared by both machines plus another MacBook Air.
When I go into Time Machine and select Browse Other Backups I can see the backups for all 3 machines but when I select the backup for the MacBook but all that is ever displayed in to "Star Wars" display is the current view for the Mac Mini.
Am I doing something wrong?
I would appreciate some help.
Many Thanks

Thanks again Linc
I have used Time Machine to restore files and emails previously on my MacBook from its own backups. In this case I am trying to restore a file on to a Mac Mini from the backups of the MacBook. I understood from the Pondini FAQ #17 http://pondini.org/TM/17.html that the way to do this is :- on my Mac Mini right click on the Time Manager icon in the menu bar, hold down the Alt/Option key and select "Browse Other Backup Disks...". This displays a list of backups available from which I select the MacBook's backups and then click "Use Selected Disk". This takes me into the Star Wars array. However the only data that is displayed when I do this is the current view of the files on my Mac Mini. It doesn't open the backups for the MacBook to allow me to select the required file.
I'm obviously missing something along the line and really appreciate your interest.

Time Machine--Browse Other Disks not functioning

Hi, i'm having trouble using the "browse other backup disks" function in Time Machine. I am able to see all other backup disks (there are 4 in total in my case) from my external hard drive, and i can select any of the disks, but no matter which one i select Time Machine opens and displays backups for my current computer, not the backup disk i selected. I've tried this on my MBP retina and MB Air, same problem. My external HD is WD My Passport Ultra and formatted in OS Extended (Journaled). I'd like to restore some files from my old computers to my new one. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

How do I go about accessing backups from different computers if Time Machine won't let me?
Apple would suggest that you use Migration Assistant. It's located on your Mac in Applications > Utilities > Migration Assistant
There is another way to access files from other Macs, which is probably NOT supported, so no guarantees on this procedure......which works for me....but I cannot say if it will work for you.
Connect the external drive with the backups to your Mac
Open the drive when it appears on the desktop
There is a folder named Backups.backupdb for each Mac that was backing up
Select the one that you want and open it up
Double click on the name of drive
A list of folders with backup dates will appear.....select the one that you want and open it
Open Macintosh HD
Open Users
Open the User Name folder
Select the folder that you want to open

Backup disk not available error

I had been using a Time Capsule as a backup device for years. It has worked very well. Last month, there was some work being done in my house and the contractors knocked over my cable modem and Time Capsule. They weren't damaged, but they got disconnected.
I had trouble getting everything started back up until I reset the Time Capsule to its factory settings and set up a new network, that had the same name as my old one.
The Time Capsule transmits fine, but it won't make backups.
I get a variety of error messagess:
1) Backup disk not available
2) User name or password for backup disk is not available
I know the passwords are correct. The backup disk shows up in Finder. But the Time Capsule won't start backing up.
I have tried deleting an entry from the Preferences folder for the Time Machine and reestablishing it and I get the same error.

This was finally solved by removing every possible permutation of the name of the network and TC from the Keychain and reentering all the passwords.

Time Machine backup disk - accidentally selected Do Not Use

I had an issue I was trying to correct- I selected the backup volume, to which I had previously backed up to, and choose "Do Not Use."
Now, when I choose the "browse other backups" option from the Time Machine menu, it does not show the original back up volume at all.
I deleted the Time Machine plist file - but, the volume is still not showing up. It is a TM volume - etc.
Does anyone know where that excluded volume information may be stored?

SOLVED:
I tried a number of things based on various posts. This is what worked for me:
On the iMac with the attached TM volume:
Added the Time Machine volume as a shared folder in System Preferences - Sharing
Changed permissions for Everyone to Read/Write - I think this would have worked by itself
On the Macbook Air (whose drive I back up):
Mounted the Time Machine via the Finder prior to attempting to select it (Note: I did not force mounting via “Connect to Server” - although I can)
Selected the Time Machine volume from the TM preferences pane
Backup is working very well - and very fast. What I don’t know how to determine - which protocol is being used between the Air and iMac. It may be the new SMB version - it is unusually fast.
Setup:
TM Volume is on a new iMac running Mavericks 10.9.1
On the iMac - File Sharing is turned on in System Prefs
The iMac Sharing Options only has AFP checked - SMB is not checked - however, it shows one user connected - and one is connected under AFP
The TM Volume is on on an attached Firewire Seagate 3 TB drive - connected via a Thunderbolt firewire adapter - and is daisy changed - it is the second drive - the first is a Seagate too
The iMac host is connected via Ethernet to a central router
The Mac Air is connected via Wifi to an Airport Extreme - which is connected to the central router
The Mac Air is running 10.9.1
Prior to the TM volume not showing up - this setup worked, at least once, after I updated both systems to 10.9.1
What had no impact on the solution:
Changing the iMac Computer Name to pure alphanumeric - no spaces - no special characters, etc.
Mounting the TM Volume via Connect to Server
The TM volume was already formatted per requirements - no changes made

Time Machine - Browse other Time Machine disk - not showing all files

I have an Xserve, running 10.6 server, where we keep all of our files. It backs up via Time Machine. Many users use the shared drives on the Xserve, and I encourage them to put their files there. We work in a design / production house, so many people collaborate on files. Due to the nature of the business, with frequent design changes, we need to go "back in time" and pull out previous versions of designs, etc. Usually I handle this by remotely accessing the Xserve, starting up time machine, and pulling out the old versions of files from the backups.
However, when I'm not in, I wanted to make this option available to another user, without giving her full access to the server. I discovered the "Browse Other Time Machine" option, and after making my Time Machine disk (actually a rack-mount Mercury Pro RAID array) shared, I was able to mount it on her Mac, also running 10.6. I thought this would be a nice solution.
The problem is, in some directories, when browsing from her computer, Time machine is showing no backups. It's impossible to go back more than a few snapshots with it. Meanwhile, if I do it on the server, everything is fine. So I thought perhaps it was a permissions issue, but I don't want to muck up the permissions on my time machine drive and risk losing everything. I did add her account as a user with read-only access to the time machine drive, and told it to apply to all sub folders. This didn't make any difference.
What is the issue? Is it permissions? Or is my Time Machine too large (6TB) that it can't load all the data over the network? Has anyone encountered this before? What is the best way to troubleshoot?

If you still have the old imac connect tbe two with an ethernet cable and use migration assistant. Move your data to a new Mac - Apple Support

Cannot browse other time machine backups

I cannot browse other time machine backups on my time capsule. I hold down the option key and select "browse other time machine backups in the menu bar icon and I see no backups. Then I mount the time machine backup disk and I only see the the backup for the machine that I am using to do this. However, there are backups for two machines on that disk. One is called "outis" and the other "phaedrus". On the phaedrus machine, outis is not browseable and on the outis machine, phaedrus is not visible.
I set up a test account and the test account could only browse the backup for that machine and not the other.
How can I see all of the backups?

kathigitis wrote:
Am I mistaken or should all of this not happen and be available as soon as the TM disk is mounted?
I just checked and it works the same way for me so I guess not. you need to mount the other sparse bundle first before you can browse it.
That is to say, both backups are visible.
Should I now revert to disk password in the AP utility?
you can try and see what happens. the above method should work then too.
Message was edited by: kathigitis

TC backup starts very slowly & stops..."TM cldn't complete bkup to TC. The bkup disk is not available." The TC bkup disk shows up in sys pref with plenty of avail disk space. Suggestions

TC backup starts very slowly & stops..."TM cldn't complete bkup to TC. The bkup disk is not available." The TC bkup disk shows up in sys pref with plenty of avail disk space. Suggestions?

The best place to research this would be Time Machine - Troubleshooting, an excellent support document authored by Time Machine guru Pondini.
See # C19
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Browse other time machine disks and hidden folders

I recently did a clean install of Snow Leopard, and used the "Browse other Time Machine disks" option to restore my documents from my backup. Now, however, I want to restore a folder that resides in the hidden /usr, and can't figure out how to do so. Normally, the solution would be to open a Finder window go use Go > Go to Folder and type the path to the folder, then enter Time Machine. However, when using Browse for other disks, once it enters Time Machine, it resets the Finder window to Macintosh HD. Does anybody know how to restore hidden folders from a Time Machine backup on another disk (from a different installation of Mac OS X)? Thanks

Shardsofmetal wrote:
The problem I have is navigating to the hidden folder in the Time Machine backup. It resets my Finder window when I enter Time Machine, and I can't figure out how to navigate to the hidden folder within the Time Machine interface.
it should not reset the finder window when you enter TM. open a /usr in finder. enter commandshiftg and enter /user in popup. this will open /usr in a separate window. enter TM from that window. provided you did not exclude system files from backups you'll see past backups of /usr and the view will not reset. if you did exclude system files from backups then the view will reset.

Mac OS X Boot failure... I cant Repair HDD with OS Disk,Shows Repair Failed. I cant backup my files from HDD. Backup failed. But I need my all datas from HDD. I dont want to format. Cant enter safemode also. anything else..

Mac OS X Boot failure... I cant Repair HDD with OS Disk,Shows Repair Failed. I cant backup my files from HDD. Backup failed. But I need my all datas from HDD. I dont want to format. Cant enter safemode also. anything else..
I installed XP @Bootcamp, I cant access my Mac HDD via XP..
What I do??? Please help me.. please...

You can try DiskWarrior (about $100).
If that doesn't work, and if you have no backups at all, you might need to send your hard drive to Drive Savers or a similar service. It will cost a lot of money to get the data back, I'm sorry to say.

External HD not showing on "Choose Backup Disk" window

Just installed 10.5. Hooked up IOGear Ext HD via firewire. Drive is showing on my desktop, but when I click on "Choose Backup Disk" during Time Machine setup, no drives are listed. Help please.

It's an existing drive that I had hooked up to my Dell PC. It's 320GB, so no prob with size. I'm guessing that I have to either reformat, or buy another? Thanks for intervening.

HT201250 How do you browse other time machine backups of other drives?

It seems to me that Time Machine used to display an option to "Browse other Time Machine backups."
For example, my iMac has its Time Machine external drives attached to it.
Both my iMac and my MacBook Pro back up to it, though my MacBook Pro does so wirelessly by connecting thru the iMac.
So how can I browse thru the backup of the MacBook Pro from my iMac, since the backup is actually located on the iMac's attached drive.
In Time Machine (or somewhere) it used to say "Browse other Time machine Backups."
I cannot seem to find that option any longer?

chaseholden wrote:
It seems to me that Time Machine used to display an option to "Browse other Time Machine backups."
[snip]
In Time Machine (or somewhere) it used to say "Browse other Time machine Backups."
I cannot seem to find that option any longer?
If you have TM in the menu bar or the Dock, hold down the option key as you choose the TM menu or the TM icon in the Dock.

Time Machine isn't backing up. I have a WD 1.74TB of memory. My Book hooked up to automatically back up. It stopped working in March. The backup disk doesn't initialize, it doesn't show up on my desktop. What to do?

Back up problem.
Time Machine isn't backup. I have a WD 1.74TB external backup machine. My Book (the name of the backup disk) stopped working in March and thme My Book iocon disappeared from my desk top.The backup disk won't initialize. How can I get it working again?
Actually it stopped working around the time that their were a lot of system upgrades.

Hi VincentMboyko,
Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
The troubleshooting steps in this article can help if your Time Machine isn't backing up:
Time Machine: Troubleshooting backup issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3275
All the best,
Jeremy

Attach/mount machine a's time machine backup disk from other (b) machine?

I looked around for a discussion of this, I'm sure it's here, sorry could not find.
I have two macs running time machine over the net. They create different files ("sparsebundles") on the server, and files elsewhere maybe (?). I'd like to be able to "mount" the time machine data from "oldmac" on another mac ("newmac"), to easily get old files & etc. Further, if possible, I'd like to backup newmac to the old time machine data, and only have one time series, since oldmac is going away, and newmac was just migrated from oldmac.
I tried just renaming the sparsebundle's (newmac-[ethernet addr].sparsebundle), but time machine was not fooled.
Sure, it would be hard to design a system which could mount any repository and do the right thing with respect to all the files there when backing up. Still, any ideas greately appreciated.
bill

Answering "No" to that prompt doesn't prevent you from using the drive as a backup disk; it just stops that from happening automatically. I suggest you watch a video to familiarize yourself better with Time Machine:
Mac OS X: Time Machine Basics
Any other questions you have should be answered in this support article:
Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac - Apple Support

Time Machine backup disk not found

Hello,
I have following set-up at home:
* A BELKIN router in the laundry room
     > This router is connected to the internet via my cable modem
     > This router broadcasts a wireless network, let's call it wifi A, troughout the house
     > This router is connected to 3 wired internet sockets troughout the house
     > This router is functioning perfectly
* A TIME CAPSULE in the office
     > This time capsule is connected to one of the above mentioned internet sockets
     > This time capsule is used as a hub, router mode is OFF (Bridge mode)
     > This time capsule does not broadcast a wireless network
     > This time capsule connects a printer, a NAS network disk and a Mac Book Pro (via a thunderbolt screen) to the router
* A Mac Book Pro
     > At home this MBP is always connected to the wired internet, via the tunderbolt screen and the macbook pro
     > Running mountain lion
     > Backups are done regularly via the time capsule, without problems
* A Mac Book Air (and here is where the problem starts)
     > Running Mountain Lion (although the below problem was already present with Lion also)
     > Always connected to the wifi A network
     > This Mac Book Air is also set up to back up to the time capsule, but here is the problem.
The problem is as follows: when the MBA want's to start the backup, it start's looking for the backup disk, but it can't find the disk. So it cancels the backup. It is very strange, because the Time Capsule itself can be found. If you chose "Select Disk" in the Time Machine Preferences, the time capsule shows up as an option. The time capsule also shows up in the airport utility and in the finder. In the finder, one can even browse to the previously created Sparse Disk Image of the backup on the time capsule.
If I want to make a backup, I have to do one of the following:
* Connect the MBA wired to the timecapsule via the thunderbolt screen.
* Set Up a wireless network via the timecapsule, wifi B, and connect the MBA to this network. Extending the wifi A network does not solve the problem!
Anybody has a solution for this problem?
Jan
PS Replacing my Belkin Router with the time capsule is not an option. The router is located in the laundry room (since this is where the cable connection is coming in) and I don't want to place a backup hard drive in this damp room. Also having the wifi broadcasted only by the time machine is not an option since it does not even cover half the living area.

thought I had a solution, but had misread your post... sorry

"Browse other backup disks" shows strange entries

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for