Can't access Time Machine

I just changed Macbooks. Went from an MBP 15 to an MBP 15 Retina. Old Macbook was backed up via a Time Capsule. Using Airport Utility, I can see the TC on my wireless network (lit up in green). From the finder, I can see the Time Capsule server as well. However, when I drill down ot the TC in the finder, the end destination is a file represented by a standard Apple hard disk image and the file is referred to as a "Sparse Disk Image Bundle", which I cannot do anything with. It shows a size of 596GB (out of 1TB)
When I click Time Machine from the top menu and select "Enter Time Machine", Time Machine launches briefly with the animated screen conversion, but then immediately after closes and shows the dialog that reads "Cannot connect to a current Time Machine backup disk". And that's that.
I've seen posts on this topic from others and have tried a variety of the recommendations. Nothing has worked so far. I think I've been pretty careful about following the recs in previous posts. Any assistance here would be great.

Hello rsmco,
Congratulations on your new MacBook Pro! It sounds like you would like to transfer your information from your Time Capsule to your new computer. I recommend using Migration Assistant for this:
Migrating a Time Machine backup to a new Mac
When you get a new Mac, you can transfer all of your applications, files, settings, and other information from a Time Machine backup you've already made. When you start up your new Mac for the first time, the Setup Assistant asks you if you would like to restore from backup. If you've already set up your new Mac, you can use the Migration Assistant (located in Applications/Utilities) to do the same thing.
After Migration Assistant completes the transfer and you select your existing Time Machine backup drive, you will be prompted with "Inherit Backup History". Once selected you will be able to continue to use your existing Time Machine backup on your new Mac.
Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
Use the steps in the section titled "Time Machine or other disk migration" in the following article for the issue you described:
OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mavericks
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5872
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

Similar Messages

I had to change my Hard Drive, now I want to work on files in iWeb, but can't access Time Machine before yesterday. The dates are there on the right hand side but are greyed out before yesterday when I changed my HD. How do I access anything from before.

I had to change my Hard Drive, now I want to work on files in iWeb, but can't access Time Machine before yesterday. The dates are there on the right hand side but are greyed out before yesterday when I changed my HD. How do I access anything from before?

Start with B5/6 in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

Can't access Time Machine settings when AirPort (WiFi) is on.

Problem:
My iMac (2.66 MHz Inter Core Duo) with 10.5.8 needs an upgrade to Maverick...it is connected to my home network with AirPort
I have a NAS on my home network (Verbatim MediaShare 2TB) wired connected, which I have had working as a drive for TM-backups. It stopped working with TM about 1,5 year ago, did never figure out why, backups just failed.
Now I want to get it going again for a fresh backup prior to the OS upgrade.
The issue I am facing now is that I cant access the settings for the backup drive in TM settings as the AirPort is on.
I need AirPort on to be able to mount the drive of the NAS, but then I cant access TM-settings. If I switch of AirPort temporarly to access TM-settings the drive which I need to select is dismounted.
I am kind of stuck. Why is this happening?
BRG
/Johan

BDAqua wrote:
Got me really confused, sorry...
Can't access Time Machine settings when AirPort (WiFi) is on.
the NAS Volume for backup "COMPUTERSBACKUP$" can be mounetd as it should when AirPort is on.
Hi, label explains the problem pretty much...
That is: The dialog in TM where the disk for TM to put backuped data is not accessable when the iMac has connection to my home network. The button is there, but when i press it notheing happends. If i deactivate the network interface, the dialog opens.
I hope this claryfy my problem.
BRG
/Johan

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

How can I access Time Machine backups after doing an erase/reinstall of Mavericks?

I recently did a complete erase of my hard drive and re-installed Mavericks. I chose to start clean rather than use any Time Machine back-ups. I used the same external hard drive for my new Time Machine back-ups. Now I cannot open any back-ups/items prior to the re-install via Time Machine. They are listed along the right hand sidebar in Time Machine (star wars view) but will not open when clicked on.
Some files I can access if I go to the actual backup folder - ex a Pages doc BUT ff I try to open the iPhoto library from the back-up folders stored on the external drive, I get the following error message -
I cannot open the iPhoto "package" to access individual photos from these back-ups.
So - how can I get Time Machine to allow access to the pre-install back-ups??
thnx
Message was edited by: Rant&Raver
corrected some spelling errors!

To restore the library from your TM backup follow the instructions in this screenshot.
If you want to restore all of your Home folder documents you can use Migration Assistant.

Can't access Time Machine files since upgrading to Mavericks

I have searched the community and found that people have experienced issues backing up to Time Machine since upgrading to Mavericks, but my problem appears slightly different from the ones I've found. I can see that my Time Machine is actually backing up since the upgrade as it was before the upgrade. The issue I'm having is that I can't access the backed-up files in any way.
When I try to open time machine it launches the "space view" with all of the historical tabs lined up for me to scroll through, but imediately closes that window and gives the error message: "Can't connect to a current Time Machine backup disc". It's so weird, because it says that there have been backups completed since the upgrade (most recently this morning). If it wasn't writing to the disc, it would have showed me an error of some sort.
What I am, specifically, trying to accomplish is that I need to restore some iTunes playlists that I somehow managed to delete this past weekend. I figured that I would easily be able to access the library file that contains the playlists from Saturday morning, when I KNOW that playlist was still there, and just restore it. Now that I am seeing that I can't access any of my time machine files, I'm realizing that I have an even bigger problem, and that all of my files are, essentially, going without backup at this time (assuming I can't access the files that have already been backing up).
If anyone has some insight as to how I can fix this problem, I would greatly appreciate it.

Hi John, (The above was for your attention) I'm 72 and must've hit the wrong button!!!
I followed your instructions to the letter, but sadly, no success...all my backups are showing on the TM external HD, but I cannot access them after instsalling 'Mavericks'
I spent the entire day on and off the phone with Applecare (they are very nice, and I'm sure they know most of the stuff needed; but not this problem. They are phoning back tomorrow as the senior chap was not available.
I love my apple products, and like you, have been using their gear for well over 25 years...not studying the things, but using them all the way through.
My present Mac, a 24" iMac is nearly 7 years old, bought on December 11th 2007, and this is the first time I have had a significant problem, and never a virus..got bless em!. I bet there are not many Windows users around who can say the same!
However, if I cannot access my backups, I'm a bit lost, as all my accumulated stuff is there!
I guess the worst case scenario is that I revert to OS X 10.7.5, and wait 'til the bugs are ironed out in Mavericks....Ho Hum
Message was edited by: briinoz

Replaced hard drive, but can't access Time Machine backups of old drive

My internal hard drive was failing so I replaced it. I told the people that replaced it that I could install the System myself and that I had backups of my data.
So, I got the machine home, booted up from the Snow Leopard Install DVD and selected Restore from Time Machine. I chose the last backup which was Mountain Lion 10.8.2. It crashed after several minutes.
So, I restarted. But I had my finger on the Control key rather than the Option key, so it booted to on-line recovery mode. When it asked me if I wanted to restore Lion I decided, "Sure. Why not? Since the restore from Time Machine doesn't work." That took about six hours.
Then I went to the App store and downloaded Mountain Lion. Another six hours and that is done.
Now I can't access the backups on Time Machine. They appear to be there. It shows backups to Feb 2011, which is when I installed Time Machine on an external drive. But I can only access databacked up from my new drive and Admin account.
Last night Browse Other Drives for Time Machine at least showed the old backups. After shutting down overnight only the new backups show.
I've run verify and repair on the external and it's okay.
Please tell me I can get that data back. There's over a decade of stuff there going back two other Macs. Photos, important documents, all my writing are there. I really need it back and I can't understand why I can't get back.
Thanks in advance.

Hi all... I had a very similar issue. I had a hard drive replaced by Apple on my iMac due to a total hard drive failure. I attempted to restore my last time machine back up through my time capsule but I get some type of sparse bundle package error. It appears that something is coming back from the back up as I only have about 180GB remaining space out of 1TB. Any advice? It appears that Apple had re-installed the latest version of Lion back to my hard drive. I'm completely distraught here as like Romantic Heretic, I have over a decade of information currently lost.
Any help with step by step directions would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks

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?

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.

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.)

Since replacement of logic board I can not access Time Machine backups.

I had my logic board replaced and I can not access my Time Machine Backups. Time Machine app says that b/u's were created on another computer. Also I can not sync my iPhone with iTunes. It says that it has never been sync'd. Local Genius bar suggested that I restore my User profile from earlier back up. I tried to explain that I can not access them. Any ideas?
Thanks,
stanfromreno

I had my logic board replaced
have a look @ this user tip.
also, have you seen this discussion ?

Can't access time machine backup

I've made a backup of my Macbook pro before formating it in order to reinstall OS X snow leopard (the original Os X that comes with the notebook). The back was over 450 Go in size, and I checked in time machine to see if it was saved proprely, and it was. I could access everything that was on my computer in the backup.
I reinstalled snow leopard, and ever since, I can't go back to the first time machine backup i made (the 450Go one). When I look at the HD content, I can see it's still there, but I can't access it from time machine.
Any suggestions ? I don't want to lose everything I had before formating...

help

Can't Access Time Machine Files

Ok so last night I did a complete backup with Time Machine on an external HD...I made sure one the backup was done that it had in fact did a complete back up. I was able to scroll through the previous backups of everything...Mail, iPhoto etc. It was all there.
The reason I did the backup was I wanted to reinstall Snow Leopard. So once I got the OS reinstalled I went to access my Mail, iPhoto on the Time Machine backup so that I could have my pictures, emails back but it won't let me restore them. I can see the different backups and the time stamps etc. but it won't let me click and restore.
Am I missing something here? Did I do something wrong?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

cplume wrote:
Ok so last night I did a complete backup with Time Machine on an external HD...I made sure one the backup was done that it had in fact did a complete back up. I was able to scroll through the previous backups of everything...Mail, iPhoto etc. It was all there.
The reason I did the backup was I wanted to reinstall Snow Leopard. So once I got the OS reinstalled I went to access my Mail, iPhoto on the Time Machine backup so that I could have my pictures, emails back but it won't let me restore them. I can see the different backups and the time stamps etc. but it won't let me click and restore.
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Most likely, when your Mac started up again after erasing and installing OSX, you set up a user, rather than letting +Setup Assistant+ transfer everything from your backups. So now you have a user that isn't the same as the one that "owns" the data in your backups.
Your best bet is probably to start over: erase the internal HD again, install OSX again, and when your Mac starts up again, transfer everything from your backups. See #19 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum) for details.
Why did you want to do this? If all you want is a fresh copy of OSX, you can just install it, without touching anything else.

How can I access Time Machine files?

I installed an external 500 gigger external drive and dedicated it to Time Machine in June 2011. In October 2012 I upgraded to Snow Leopard and checked Time Machine only to find that all dates prior to that date were grayed out. I thus lost access to some important files since the automatic back-up began anew in November 2012.
The Finder indicates that the external drive contains over 100 GB of saved files which must be the ones under the grayed-out dates. There are no photos or movies on the Time Machine drive as I am using another external for those. I have used every trick and tried every advice given in this forum including a Utilities-Repair of that drive - to no avail.
How can I regain access to the contents hidden under the dates which do NOT light up when I pass the mouse over them?

I suggest you read Pondini's Time Machine articles; http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html

Can't Access Time Machine Backup Files After Reinstall

I just completed a clean reinstall of Mountain Lion. Obviously I've missed some important step(s). When I enter Time Machine, I can see that there are older back ups by the dates on the right hand side of the screen, but they are greyed out. I'm confident the files are there, the issue is being able to access the files.
I've seen some notes about "reassociating Time Machine" with my "new" computer with some terminal commands, but I get lost with the instructions I've read and it sounds like if I do it wrong there is a pretty good chance I could really cause some damage. For the time being, I've turned off TM, but the dirve is still mounted and available.
For some reason, I was able to access and resotre my Documents folder - I just can't get into all the folders/files. Prior to the reinstall, I did visually confirm that I could see and access all my backup files.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.

Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems
Time Machine FAQ

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.

Can't access Time Machine

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