Can people see my Time Machine back ups?

If people are connected to my wireless network, are they able to access the contents of what is in my Time Machine drive? I know there is no way to actually encrypt or password protect it, so I am worried about people being able to see my personal information. Thanks!

Can people see my Time Machine backups?
No, not unless they are logged on as you from your Mac.....or they go through a really convoluted process that would still require that they know the main admin password of your Mac.

Similar Messages

  • Can't restore from Time Machine back ups

    I began having problems with my 2 year old iMac which was not corrected with a re-install of Snow Leopard from the Installer disk.
    I decided to restore my startup drive from a Time Machine backup. I followed the procedures. I selected the particular back up to restore from. Restore began and indicated that it would take about 2 hours and 40 minutes. When I came back to check 4 hours later, the progress bar was completely filled in but the text below it says:
    "Restoring files (104.4%)
    Time remaining: 1690214873 hours and 30 mins"
    No progress seems to be going on. But if I just click the mouse I can hear my disks go into action and the numbers start changing on the time remaining for a few seconds and then everything stops.
    I have repeated this experience twice now, each time using a different Time Machine backup.
    Any ideas?
    Thanks.
    John

    try repairing the TM drive with disk utility on the install DVD, any errors? also, reformat the internal drive using the partition tab in disk utility on the install DVD (don't use the erase tab). then try restoring again. if nothing helps then you'll have to erase the drive again and reinstall SL from scratch. then migrate from the TM backup manually. this is quite tedious but there is nothing else to do if the restore utility is not working.
    see this link on what to restore in your home directory.
    http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6185507
    one correction to this link.
    ical data is stored in ~/library/calendars.

  • How can I remove old Time Machine back-ups for a Mac I no longer have??

    So, i am trying to back-up a brand new MBPro to my Time Machine but it says there's not enough room. Only 13.5 GB avail and need 284 GB. Is there a way to go into Time Machine and delete all the old back-ups from my former MBPro? (I've already migrated all the files and data to the new MBP from my iMac, also on the same Time Machine.) If I could wipe out the old MBP back-ups that should create enough room.

    Delete the backups.
    Q12 here. http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

  • Can't access previous Time Machine back ups to restore my personal data

    I restored my very slow iMac using original discs and then rolled forward to get the software up to the lastest version of OS.  I restored some personal files from Time Machine and then did a back up.  Since doing the back up I can no longer access my old files.  Any solution?  Oh, and the performance is OK now!

    Assuming by "old files" you mean TM backups made before you "rolled forward," you need to use the 'browse other disks' option described in the green box here to access them.
    BTW, it isn't clear what version of OS X you are running on your iMac. It can't be any version of iOS like is shown in your product data -- that is just for 'i devices' like iPhones or iPads. If you "restored" from original disks you must have started with some version of Snow Leopard (OS X 10.8.x) & if you had previously upgraded to 10.7 or 10.8, you would have had to erase the HD to reinstall the older OS (which is probably why TM thinks the older backups are from another Mac).

  • RE: Time Machine -  I have just replaced a drive on my drobo (to increase capacity). Time machine is backing up OK but I can no longer access Time machine back ups made before the date when I replaced the drive. Why?

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.
    Thanks
    leo.

    Hold down the option key and select
    Browse Other Backup Disks...
    from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. The menu icon looks like a clock running backwards. If you don't have that menu, open the Time Machine preference pane and check the box marked
    Show Time Machine in menu bar

  • Set up and migration assistant can't see time machine back ups

    Hi. Trying to cut this short.
    I Tried installing osx 10.8. Halfway through the installation it told me I didn't have enough free space. Helpful.
    i tried to restore from time machine, the back ups were viewable, but it said i couldn't as the disk was in use or couldn't be un mounted.
    Ive now deleted the hard drive and reinstalled 10.7.5.
    Set up couldn't restore from time machine back ups as it couldn't find them.
    Ive started osx and tried to use migration assistant. It can't see the time machine back ups.
    However, if I open the time machine app it can see the back ups.
    I've rebooted in recovery and

    Seems my text has vanished. This site is terrible on my iphone. Would expect better.
    I've rebooted in recovery and tried to restore from time machine but again it won't find the back ups.

  • Can I use my time capsule for time machine back ups and as an external storage device?

    I have a time capsule and have set it up so that my time machine back ups are saved on it, but I would also like to use it as an external hard drive. Is this possible?
    I know nothing about computers so please tell me in very basic terms. thankyou!

    By external hard disk we usually mean one plugged into the computer by USB or Firewire or Thunderbolt.
    None of those works on the TC.. it is plugged in by ethernet or use wireless connection.. that means it is a network drive.. not an external drive. The difference might not mean much to you.. but it is totally different to the computer. In the former case the computer has full control of the disk. In the case of the network drive, the disk is controlled by the TC firmware and the files are stored and accessed by network. This has large implications.
    So here is my standard response.
    Store files on the TC.
    This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
    The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
    Major issues.
    1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
    2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
    3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no control. In fact the TC is so lacking in controls for even the router side.. that you cannot do more than the most basic of setups.
    The following are controls on the hard disk side.
    Reformat it. You can name the share. You can do a full archive of the whole disk. This will go at a speed of aprox. 30-50GB/Hr so calculate how long an archive of a full 2TB will take.
    4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!
              Even apple btw say don’t do it.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168 Although mostly about FAT32           it adds network drives.
    5. iTunes can constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
    6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
    7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
    Read pondini for some work arounds.
    Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html

  • Can I make one iphoto library from two time machine back-ups?

    Hi
    I have recently purchased a new Mac Book. I previously had two MacBooks, which I backed up with time machine onto two separate external hard drives.
    I did a straight transfer of all data from one of these time time machine back-ups to my new laptop. I'd like to migrate select data from the second time machine back-up to my new Mac Book, and I'd like to start by transferring photos.
    My laptop has an iphoto library, so I would like to know if I can import select photos from this second time machine back-up, and how do I do that?
    many thanks
    Linda 

    First you need to restore the second Library from the back up. You need to restore the whole library, you can't just gather bits of it, I'm afraid.
    Once that's done you have two Libraries. The easiest way to do what you want is to merge the Libraries with the paid version ($20) of  iPhoto Library Manager This can be set to avoid duplicates. See the Help on it for more.
    This is the only way that will get all the versions and all the metadata.
    Other than that you'll need to export from one Library and import to the other.
    Regards
    TD

  • I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and i can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help

    I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and I can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help? I can find the mail folder in my libraries, but the Restore Button is grayed out

    OSX treats the reformatted drive as a different one; it's the same as replacing it, and the old one is no longer connected.
    See #E3 in  Time Machine - Troubleshooting to see and restore from the "old" drive.
    And, you may not want to restore via the Finder; see the blue box in #15 of  Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

  • Snow Leopard OS will not "see" older Leopard Time Machine back-ups

    I upgraded to OSX Snow Leopard from Leopard using a new hard drive (I wanted a bigger drive so it was actually a fresh install rather than an upgrade). OSX SL could see Time Machine back-ups from the Leopard system initially (before performing an OSX SL back-up). Now that the OSX TL back-up is completed, the previous Leopard back-ups cannot be seen by Time Machine. Any ideas on how/if I can get it to see them (as I could before I did a full back-up)?
    I can see them on the drive, but just can't get to them via Time Machine.
    Thanks!

    Hi, and welcome to the forums.
    Yes, Time Machine normally only shows you the backups for the Mac you're on.
    You need the +*Browse . . .+* option. See #17 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

  • Will existing Time Machine back ups build after 1 account migration

    I have one i-Mac happily backing up with Time Machine to an external hard drive.
    I have just bought a second i-mac (the old one's filling up) and propose to use migration assistant to move an admin account from the old to the new i-mac leaving two other accounts (and their files etc) on the old one. I see from some posts that it seems as if Time Machine will start a new back up series for the new i-mac's back ups (cos its a new MAC address). But what about the old i-mac? Will that continue to extend the existing (old) Time Machine back up files, albeit without my transferred account and its files? I'd like to end up with the old i-mac continuing to work with and build its Time Machine back ups (less my account and its new files) and have a new back up series from the new i-mac building to a separate partition on the external drive.
    Second minor point: I have read that putting a partition on the external drive is the best way forward as it will stop competition for space and allow changes in one set up in future to have no impact on the other. Is this the best way forward?
    Does this all make sense?
    Sorry but I can't see an answer in the forum to what must be a reasonably common issue in this expanding mac world.

    I then tried to move it (TM back up files) off with Restore, whilst preserving the TM back ups but I couldn't seem to do it to the i-Macs hard drive nor to partition that to allow this to happen (assuming the lack of a discrete partition was the problem).
    That's likely correct. This only works if you restore one entire partition to another, and check the +Erase destination+ box.
    The problem was that I could not (maybe for the same contiguous reasons) create a new partition on the old i-Mac just to temporarily move the TM back up to. Without it I could not 'empty' the WDC firewire drive and partition it prior to returning the TM back ups to it albeit contiguously in a dedicated partition.
    Unfortunately for me to retain the TM back ups for the account I moved to the new i-Mac, I will have to leave that account on the old i-Mac as well. I can't see a way around that? If I delete the account on it then surely I will lose the ability to Log onto it and then to click TM and see back in time on that account?
    If I understand you correctly, that will be true eventually, but not immediately, as TM will, eventually, delete it's copies of anything that's no longer on your internal HD. That will depend, of course, on how long TM can keep it's backups. But while they're still there, if you log on with Admin privileges, you should be able to view the old backups.
    Not sure I explained myself clearly. Sorry. Having understood from your earlier help that 'migrate' actually means 'make a copy in another place', I have the migrated account in two places: one now dormant, on the old i-Mac and two, where it is migrated to (the new i-Mac). But TM continues to back up all accounts, indeed everything, on the old i-Mac by dint of its MAC address. So to see the migrated account's past history I assume I have to access the version on the old i-Mac. To put it another way, when logged into one account on the old i-Mac I believe it is not possible to see the TM history and files of another account on that i-Mac despite TM backing the entire HD. You have to be logged in to that account to see it. On the new i-Mac, with its different MAC address, TM is busy creating the first TM back up and I assumed that in the migrate it did not bring TM history as I had read that it is MAC address specific.
    The only issue (apart from having this account's history spread over two machines (pre-today on the old i-Mac's TM and today onwards on the new i-Mac) is that I have all the files on both machines. I am not worried about security only unnecessary usage of disk space. It isn't critical, there's lots of it, but it just seems wasteful and untidy. Unless you guys know otherwise?
    If I understand what you've done, you do have duplicates of the current contents, but only one copy of the old backups (on the old F/W drive).
    On the old i-Mac I have the two accounts I wanted to stay there plus the now dormant account I migrated. TM continues to work away at memorising ALL these although there will be no further changes to the dormant migrated account as I will not be running it on the old i-Mac. On the new i-Mac I have the migrated account of which TM is now creating its first (huge) back up but starting today. There is no history here. So I have copies of everything; its just that the old history of the migrated account remains on the old i-Mac and a new history (does that make sense?) is building from the new one. My point was that if I were to delete the dormant account from the old i-Mac, then I could not access it to use TM with it. I believe TM only shows the history of the account and screen you're in at the time?
    There is an option in TM that will allow you to selectively +Delete all backups of+ selected items. +Enter Time Machine,+ locate and select the item(s), click the "gear" icon in the Finder window's toolbar, and select the +Delete all backups of ..+ option.
    What you can't do is, keep the backups of only previous versions of things that were changed or deleted. It's all or nothing.
    Not sure I understand this. What would have been nice but I do not think is possible is to have moved the account to the new i-Mac together with the TM's back ups of that account and continue to build it up (whilst having access to its history) on the new i-Mac. If that were (is?) possible I could have totally deleted the old account and with it its files from the old i-Mac, freed up some HD space and had a full AND growing TM history all on the new i-Mac.
    Many thanks for staying the course and for your continuing help.

  • Setting Up a New Mac From Two Different Time Machine Back-ups?

    Greetings Apple People,
    I am planning on getting a new iMac. Right now my wife I are still using our separate MacBooks from college. Both of them have Time Machine back-ups. We would like to setup our new iMac to have two different users. Is it possible to setup each of the users on the new iMac from our respective Time Machine back-ups?
    I know you can do this seamlessly with one Time Machine back-up, but can you do it from two different back-ups, essentially merging the two, while keeping the separate user profiles?
    Thanks!

    Follow the steps in Pondini's Setup New Mac guide using one computer as the source on first boot. Then, hook up the second computer and use the Migration Assistant to transfer the second user account and nothing else. Don't use the TM backup because it's much slower doing it that way than directly from each machine.
    27" i7 iMac (Mid 2011) refurb, OS X Yo (10.10), Mavs, ML & SL, G4 450 MP w/10.5 & 9.2.2

  • How do I prevent my hard drive being used for time machine back ups?

    I want to install Snow Leopard but it tells me that the OS cannot be installed because the disk is being used for Time Machine back ups. I don't recall setting up my hard drive to be used this way (why would I?!) but now I can't seem to

    Did you have TM turned on at any time? If so, and if you had no external hard drive attached, could it be that it created its own backup on a portion of your hard drive? I don't use TM, but I believe I read that this may be possible. Take a look at Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities) and report what you see on the left - under the top heading, is there more than one partition showing, such as here:
    (I have two partitions: one for Snow Leopard, the other for Lion) - what does yours show?

  • Can't get to Time capsule back-ups -- Connection Failed and "Connect As" does nothing

    I had to replace my hard drive.  I am trying to access the Time Machine back-ups.  I can see the back-up volume in the Finder under the "Shared" category, but when I try to connect to the back-up volume, I immediately get "Connection Failed" and the "connect as" button does nothing when I click on it. 
    Do I have to re-start backups before I can get into the old back-ups??  Any advice on how to get "Connect As" to let me connect? 
    Thank you.

    EXACTLY the same problem..
    10.5.6 iMac

  • HT3728 Time Machine back ups stopped because Time Machine is already in use

    Suddenly my Time Machine back-ups stopped. A pop up states that the Time Machine can't back up because it is already in use. Any ideas? Should I reset the Time Machine?
    Detlef

    This is just standard Lion and Mountain Lion.
    Unplug the TC power cord.. count to 10.. plug it back in.
    If you have issues still. Power off and on again the computer.
    See C12. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

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