Cannot access prior time capsule backup

Hi,
About 2 weeks ago I ran into a problem with my iPhoto library. I was trying to import photos from a camera and it took forever. After watching iPhoto being non-responsive for several hours I decided to force it to quit via the Activity Monitor. After I re-launched iPhoto, I noticed that there were many photos missing (shown as grey boxes) in my iPhoto library, but I can still locate the original photos through the finder. I did a rebuild in iPhoto but that did not fix the problem. In the meantime, my Time Capsule was running and did several backups. After tinkering with the iPhoto problem for another day without much success, I decided to restore from Time Capsule the version of the iPhoto library before I ran into the import problem.
The first time I tried to restore from Time Machine, it failed because I didn't have enough disk space left on my MBP. My old iPhoto library was 150 GB but I only had 10 GB of free space left on my MBP. So I decided to erase the rebuilt iPhoto library (around 120 GB) and other large files on my MBP to free up some space. When I tried to empty the trach can, it took hours and eventually became stuck with little activity going on. After waiting patiently for a few more hours, I decided to re-launch the Finder but could not and had to force it to quit. Then I rebooted. Afterwards, I took everything out of the trach can and placed files into the trash can one at a time and emptying it with only one item in the trash can. I was able to delete and empty the trash can this way, but a new problem appeared. In both the Activity Monitor and Finder's Get Info, the space free number stopped changing regardless of how many files I deleted and emptied on my MBP. By my own estimate I should have at least 180 GB of free space but the system seemed to think that there was only 140 GB of free space and I still could not restore the original iPhoto library.
I thought perhaps by forcing the Finder to quit while it was trying to empty the trash can had somehow corrupted the file system. So I re-installed Lion from the recovery disk assistant. When Lion was installed and going through its initial set-up procedures, I made the mistake of not choosing "restore from time machine backup" because I was afraid doing so would also restore the corrupted file system. I also made the mistake of accepting the default name for my MBP instead of using the name I had before. Fortunately re-installing Lion did resolve the free disk space issue. Next I rebooted with Lion's recovery disk assistant and chose "restore from time machine backup". The restore took a long time and did work, but it restored to the snapshot of my system without the iPhoto library. Because the restore took a long time, I wasn't sitting at my desk the entire time. After the restore was completed, Time Machine did a backup under the name machine name. Now I cannot find my old Time Machine backup from which to restore my original iPhoto library.
I have tried holding down the control key while clicking on the Time Machine icon to invoke the "Browse Other Time Machine Disks" option, but it found nothing. From a Finder window, I can connect to my Time Capsule. It shows that there is a disk called Data-1. When I open Data-1, there is a MBP13.sparsebundle, which is not the original sparsebundle. Is there a way to re-access my old Time Machine backup?
From the Time Machine panel in systems preferences, it shows that there is only 20 GB of space left in Time Capsule (out of 500 GB). I think my old backup is still there. I've read Pondini's Time Machine Troubleshooting but still cannot resolve this problem. What am I missing? Any insight is greatly appreciated!

enterprise_in_ca wrote:
I had to have my Time Capsule repaired a few years ago.
By Apple? I've never heard of them repairing one; they just replace them. Any idea what they did?
Since then, the backup disk was always labeled Data-1. I have restarted my Time Capsule a few times and the result is the same each time.
What do you see via the Finder? In Column View, it should be something like this:
I also tried to use TechTool Pro to check the Time Capsule but couldn't do so because connecting my MBP to the Time Capsule's USB port does not seem to give it access. (Is there a way?)
No, the USB port is for connecting a disk or printer only, not a Mac. Disk Utility or similar 3rd-party apps can't see the TC's disk; they can see, and may be able to repair, a sparse bundle if you can mount it via the Finder. See #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
I suspect that my old backups are still in the Time Capsule but because my computer name has changed it is not allowing me access to the old backup.
Changing the computer name won't cause that. Replacing the logic board in your Mac will, or sometimes if the sparse bundle is damaged, Time Machine will create a new one.

Similar Messages

OS 10.10.1 cannot access old time capsule backups

After upgrading to the first version of Yosemite, I was able to still access my old time capsule files which was great since I had to wipe my hard drive and do a clean install due to problems. But since I started backing up the newly formatted hard drive, all of my files originally on Time Capsule are inaccessible. I believe the data is still on the Time Capsule: When you look at the amount of space taken up on the Time Capsule it seems to add up to the old hard drive backup plus the newly formatted hard drive backup. But I can't see the files anywhere. And I need access to these files. Any suggestions?

Inherit a Backup
Inherit a Backup (2)

I am unable to access prior Time Machine backups.

I am unable to access prior Time Machine backups. I can see previous backups when I enter TM but they do not respond when I click on them. My TM is backing backups and at one time I was able to access them. I am logged on to my Mac Pro as the admin. I am running 10.9.5 and the TM disk is an internal 2 TB drive with 12 GB free.

The 12 GB free may be the cause.
Also see:
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Cannot restore from Time Capsule backup wirelessly to Mountain Lion Retina

I just bought a new 15" MacBook Pro Retina Display and a Time Capsule router. The Time Capsule has supposedly backed up my macbook for a few days but when I try a complete restore from the Time Capsule backup wirelessly, it fails. New to Apple but do remember"can't access time capsule" even though network works fine.
Any help appreciated !!!

See p.4 here - http://www.pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html - and see if the Great Pondoni can help.
He's sure helped others in the past...
Clinton

Cannot access old time machine backups

Hi,
I recently had some issues regarding my MacBook Pro and decided the best course of action would be to ensure it was completely backed up; reinstall OS X Yosemite and pick the old backup for useful files.
Unfortunately, when it came to resetting up Time Machine, it asked me if I wanted to use the existing backup. I imagined the safe answer would've been "Yes" and that it would've been smart enough to create a clean backup at the date of restore.
It seems that this is not the case...
Any backup, despite being listed on the Time Machine interface, prior to the date of restore was "greyed out" and could not be accessible. Unfortunately, the "Browse other Backup Disks" option didn't work (are there issues with this option for NAS backups?), and unfortunately, a repair disk doesn't seem to either.
I have only managed to get the .sparsebundle (encrypted) drive to mount once by using a repair disk; every other time I attempt to remount using repair disk, the button is greyed out. :/
The time I did get into the "Time Machine Backups" volume; only once backup was listed for ".inProgress" – a 70GB file (the sparsebundle is ~500GB+).
Any ideas on steps I can try to find these phantom files?
At present, Disk Utility doesn't have the "Repair Disk" option available and DiskWarrior 4.4 is throwing up error 2154; low memory; on a 16GB RAM rMBP.
Any help would be appreciated.
Regards,
Jamie

I am having a similar problem and do not understand the solution. I have a new Macbook and transferred my data from my Powerbook G4. However, I cannot access anything! There is a no entry sign on the folders and if I click them I get this message: 'The folder “Pictures” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.'
Help - but please, in simple language
Thanks

Cannot access old time machine backup

Dear Community,
as you can see in the image below, Time Machine preferences shows that my oldest backup is from August 25, 2012.
However, if I access the Time Machine, the oldes backup I can access is only 2 days old. All the remaining backups cannot be accessed from the GUI! They can be accessed if I manually mount the time machine, though.
Any idea why this is happening?
Thank you for your suggestions.

Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't know about the option+clik.
Unfortunately the option is grayed out and I cannot select it.
However, if I select "Broswe other backup disks" I am presented with a list in which all items (about 10) except the first one and the last one are like this:
i.e. the drive name is empty. The first option is the name of an old backup (not used anymore), and the last one is the name of the current backup. I tried selecting any of them but the result does not change.
The time machines are correctly mounted, but I still cannot access the data from the TM interface.

Cannot access older time machine backups

I recently installed a new SSD in my MacBook and after reinstalling OSX Mountain Lion I chose to restore from a time machine backup. Everything went smoothly and all my files were restored. However, I tried to access a backup from before my restore but it's not showing it as being available even though the Time Machine preferences confirm that my oldest backup is from June 2011 and I can still access the folders that far back via finder. But I've never had this happen. Why it because its a new hard drive? Was it because of the recent 10.8.3 software update? Was it because of the "restore from time machine backup"? Every time I had done a clean install I just copied over the critical folders such as documents and itunes from my drive, never used the restore feature. My files clearly aren't gone, but I'm curious as to why this happened. Please help. Thanks in advance.

Have you done a new backup yet? If not, yes, Time Machine is looking for the backups on a different disk. As mende1 says, the procedure in #E3 should let you see them.
Once you start a new backup, Time Machine should automatically "associate" the new drive with the old backups, only do an "incremental" backup of the changes, and treat the old backups as if they'd been made from the new drive.
If not (ie, if it starts doing a full backup), you may be able to cancel the backup and do the "associatedisk" yourself, per #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting, especially the pink box there.

Cannot Access Earlier Time Machine Backups After Upgrade To Mountain lion

I went into Time Machine to recover some past emails. It shows that it had backed up my emails for the last year, however it will not let me recover anything before my upgrade to mountain lion. Does anyone know of a workaround for this problem. Thank you.

Christopher Sant wrote:
Once it does finally recognize (after a good while) it simply says "Error, time machine could not complete the backup"
There should be more to that message. See #C2 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it. If that doesn't help, post back with details, including all the messages, your setup, what you've done, and the results.

Can't Connect to My Time Capsule Backups, Please Help!!!

I have been using Time Machine/Time Capsule to back my data up for over a year. I bought a new MacBook Pro this morning. I did not want to use Migration Assistant to transfer everything over because there were many bugs and corruptions on my old disk and was scared that would all be transferred to my new machine. It was time for a fresh start.
I set up my new computer and transferred most of the files I needed via a flash drive. I am now trying to set up my MacBook Pro to connect to my Time Capsule backup disk via Time Machine, but once I enter Time Machine it does not allow me to go "back in time" to see all of my previous backups and restore points. There are some really important files I am trying to get to, but this computer isnt connecting to the Time Capsule backups. The old computer has already been completely reformatted, but it is still able to access the Time Capsule backups.
I have done some internet research and learned that Time Machine uses a computer's ethernet MAC address to allow access. There are some codes posted on various websites that allow to alter what Time Machine thinks you MAC address is so that you can access your backups with a new computer/different logic board. None of these Terminal workarounds worked for me. The Genius Bar and Apple Care couldn't help either.
I am hoping somebody can help me out. I understand I can use my old computer to get into Time Machine and retrieve what I need then transfer those to the new machine. But there must be a way to allow a new computer to fully access Time Capsule backups, but curiously, I can't find it. I rather have my new computer have full access because I am selling the old laptop and so I wont be able to use it to access my backups any longer.
Sorry for the long explanation, but I hope that gives someone all the facts required to both understand what I am saying and help me fix the problem.
-Amir

Right now it is just empty because I have unmounted and disconnected my Time Capsule. I'm trying a low-tech work around to see if this works, but much rather do it the "right way."
What I am doing is this:
(1) Use Migration Assistant to copy everything from the Time Capsule to the new machine (this is exactly what I was trying to avoid initially). Migration Assistant has been copying files for about 5 hours now (still not sure what is going to happen).
(2) Create a full backup on Time Capsule with my MacBook Pro now that it has everything from the Time Capsule on it.
(3) Do a fresh install of Snow Leopard.
(4) Hopefully, have the fresh start on my machine I wanted, but still have access to at least one archived copy of my old computer and files/folders.
Does this make sense? Basically, the new machine does not allow me to access the old backups. So I am handicapping the machine now by reverting to my old settings via Migration Assistant, will back that up, then start all over from scratch again but hopefully have the peace of mind that my files are not gone because I will at least have that one copy of all my old copies in a Time Capsule backup that the new machine can access.

My time capsule backups are not visible

From the Time Machine system preferences window, when I click "Select Disk" the Data partition of the Time Capsule is visible and I'm able to select it and enter my password. The countdown to the Next Backup begins. When it gets to zero, it spins out with "Looking for backup disk," and displays the attached message. Yikes! Am I doomed, or can I some how get to my backups?

Paul Kirtley wrote:
I might mention, this all occurred after I ran a "Repair Disk Permissions" of my Macintosh HD. The process encountered no errors, but repaired a slew of Disk Permissions in the process. When Done, I was no longer able to access my Time Capsule backups.
That's interesting -- something had clearly gone wrong on your internal HD to mess up a lot of permissions.
(You might want to also reset the permissions on your home folder (Disk Utility only fixes permissions on system files and files installed by the OSX installer), per Resetting Password and/or User Permissions).
On the next backup, every file that had it's permissions repaired was treated as changed, and had to be backed-up again (Time Machine backs up the metadata, including permissions, as well as the data files). What then went wrong is anybody's guess, but something dire happened, or you wouldn't have gotten that message.
Does this shed any new light on my case, or am I faced with only one option...erase the backup disk?
Most likely, you've had a network or power problem, per the link Bob supplied.
There is one other option -- "archive" the damaged sparse bundle to a USB drive connected to the TC, per the green box in #Q6 of Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule. You can probably view and restore from them, via the Browse... option, per Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #17, but remember, they're damaged, so if you happen to hit a corrupted spot, anything may happen.
Then erase the TC's disk via Airport Utility, per the green box in #Q5 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule, (but in this case, you might want to select the Zero-Out Data option. That will take longer than a quick erase, but if it fails, you'll know there's a problem with the TC's disk. If it succeeds, the disk may be ok.

HT1178 I have set up Time Capsule to use with Time Machine. When I open Time Machine it 'cannot find' the Time Capsule and I have the Select the Disk each time. In the Next Backup tab it always says "When disk is connected" even though the disk is alrea

I have set up Time Capsule to use with Time Machine but when I open Time Machine it 'cannot find' the Time Capsule and I have to 'Select the Disk' each time. In the Next Backup tab it always says "When disk is connected" even though the disk is already connected.

Your pro doesn't matter.. I presume it is happily working.
Your imac setup has got messed up because you changed from a local (my book being USB type I presume) to network drive. Did you do a clean install of Lion?
Did you use the backup from the Pro on the imac? Otherwise I don't see how the Pro shows up in use previous disk. Where is Pondini when you need him??
You cannot download Time Machine as an App and replace the current version. It is built into the OS.. the only way to do it is a clean install. Unfortunately that might be the only way around the issue.
There is a number of issues that Pondini has covered in the setup issues of troubleshooting.
This is the most relevant I think. http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html
But look at the whole section B setup problems.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
If it was me, I would store all the info you need.. not using TM but using a straight copy of files.
Then clean install Lion. I doubt any of these issues would exist if you had not installed Lion over existing setup or used a different backup.
See if you can get Pondini to respond.. !!

Cannot find time capsule backup to restore

Hello - I have a MacMini (Intel Core 2 duo) runing OS 10.6.7. I used Time Machine to backup my data daily to a remote Time Capsule on my local network; I should also say at this point that I use Time Capsule to backup 4 machines in total. The hard drive crashed, and needed to be replaced. Now I am trying to restore my data to my computer. However, neither migration assistant nor time capsule can find the correct image (sparsebundle) to be mounted - for example, when I "Choose Time Machine Disk to Browse" no disks show up. Migration Assistant behaved a little differently, showing me 2 (out of 4) Time Capsule backups, but not the one relevant for this particular computer.
I know that backups have been performed, and I can manualy mount the specific Time Machine Backup through the finder - at which point I can "see" folders named "yyyy-mm-dd-xxxxxx," just as interesting is a file "yyyy-mm-dd-xxxxxxx.inProgress" - and which appears to be the latest date at which the folder was accessed. I have attached a screen shot of the contents of the folder.
Any thoughts? I really just need to restore the most recent backup, the rest are not necessary past this point.
Thanks!

Hi,
I just ran into the same problem, neither the Migration Assistant nor "Restore from Backup" from the 10.5 Install DVD would find a valid backup on my Time Capsule (which kinda renders it useless).
After some googling and trial and error I found a workaround using Terminal. I don't know why mounting the sparebundle image with Disk Utility wouldn't work, but it isn't available when your computer crashed anyway... So here is my method:
-Boot from the System DVD, choose the language
(-Goto Utilities and start the Disk Utility and reformat your drive, if on Intel check that you partition it with GUID, NOT Apple Partition Scheme NOR MBR, restart from DVD) only if something went wrong with your disk like in my case
-Goto Utilities and start Terminal
-In Terminal first make a directory for the mount, type: mkdir /Volumes/MyBackup
-Then mount the Time Capsule and link it to the folder you created, type: mount -t afp afp://myuser:mypassword@IPAdressOfMyTimecapsule/VolumeWhereMyBackupIs /Volume/MyBackup
-The AFP-Volume is now mounted, but you can't see anywhere.
-Quit Terminal, this will bring you back to the 10.5 Installer.
-Goto Utilities and choose "Restore System From Backup"
-The Dialog will ask you for a Backup Source. You should now see your Time Capsule and an already mounted Time Machine Volume at the location you specified in Terminal.
-Select the Time Machine Volume and press Continue, it'll take a while you show you all the backups, choose the one you want, choose a destination, drink tea.

Macbook air restored from time capsule backup cannot find ms office product key

Had a moisture problem on my Macbook Air. Had to replace with newer pc as could not wait a week for repair. Had been using Time Machine and a Time Capsule hard drive to back up and the final backup was about 5 minutes before the spill.
So, I was able to fully restore the new laptop from Time capsule. Only problem is that I had purchased MS Office and while the programs are restored, when I launch MS Word, it wants the product code. I cannot find my cd and packaging with the product code from my original purchase. Any way to get the code off the Time capsule backup? It must be stored there somewhere but I wonder if it was encrypted and somehow linked to a physical something on the damaged MBAir.
I'm hoping to not have to buy MS Office again.
Thanks for any advice.
JC

Here you go:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2279109

Win 7 PC cannot connect to Time Capsule - despite flawless I'net connection

Hi, strange thing and I'd appreciate if someone knew a trick to solve it:
Although my Windows notebook can connect to the internet via our Time Capsule (WPA2 key, AES encryption) without any problems for a long time now, I cannot connect to it via AirPort even with the correct WPA key.
When running the AirPort utility I can see our TC with its name and IP address (10.0.1.1 as usual, I think) in the main view. After clicking "Manual Setup" or "Continue" in the main view, AirPort asks for the password.
After entering the password (same as the one that is in my settings for the WLAN connection via TC, of course), *TC REFUSES TO CONNECT* and the *"Enter password" window will appear over and over again*. No specific error message given.
The WLAN connection has been set up using the MacBook (I once read this could be a problem). Working proberly
all the time, though.
Tried deactivating both firewall and virus protection of my Norton security package on my Lenovo - no effect.
Background:
We intend to use an external USB hard drive which is connected to our Time Capsule. After TC has moaned that the drive had to be "repaired", we created partitions for Mac (OS X) and Windows (FAT) partition from the MacBook.
The MacBook can access the drive and partitions. Fine.
The Windows 7 notebook won't show the hard drive nor the Time Capsule. Thus, I have installed AirPort utility (V 5.5.1) to get access to the USB hard drive. And there I am - kinda stuck halfway...
Hardware setup:
Lenovo ThinkPad X61, Windows 7 Pro
MacBook, OS X 10.5.8
Time Capsule
1.0TB Buffalo Drive Station USB 3.0 plugged into Time Capsule
Help would be very much appreciated!
Thanks a lot,
Mark

I found something that worked for me. I got Error Number 53 when trying to connect to my time capsule using Airport Base Station Agent with windows vista. I think the issue is allowing your time capsule to be accessed over Bonjour; I think this feature is disabled by default. Well, here is what I did (also, this may answer the question for those of you who are confused to why it asks for a username/password when you attempted to map the time capsule's hdd) -
In Airport Utility: Airport >> Time Capsule
- Click "Edit..." and check the "Use dynamic global hostname" box.
- Enter in the info (for hostname, I used the same name as the local Hostname (at the top of that window, for user/password -- The info you enter here is the same info you must enter when you are prompted to, that is if you try to map the time capsule's hdd)
- Click "OK"
In Airport Utility: Disks >> Files Sharing
- Make sure "Share disks over WAN" is checked AND make sure "Share disks over the Internet using Bonjour" is checked as well.
- Click OK.
In Airport Utility: Click "Update", let it reset, and try accessing the Time Capsule via Airport Base Station Agent as you usually would/or mapping the harddrive"
In summary, since vista uses Bonjour, you must make sure your time capsule is 'Bonjour-accessible'
I Hope this solution alleviates a lot of people's problems!!!
Oh yea, this solution worked with firmware 7.4.1
AND...prior to trying this method, I did enable NETBIOS. It was enabled while I did this solution (and still is). I haven't tried it with it disabled (well maybe not disabled - it's on automatic by default).

I can access my time capsule from my mac mini at work but my macbook can only access it from my home network. how do i fix this?

I have a Mac Mini and a MacBook, both were configured at home to access the time capsule. I have since moved the mini to work to use there and it has no issues looking up files on the time capsule which remains at home. The macbook whoever can only access the time capsule from within the home network. I can't seem to find what I may have done differently. Can anybody help?
Not sure if your allowed to post two questions, but it's may be related. I find that accessing the files on the time capsule from the mac mini or the macbook is very slow. Accessing the same files from an older HP laptop is as fast as accessing its own hard drive. How can I speed up the accessing of these files from my apple products. One would think they would work fast and the 'windows' computers would take minutes to map the drive each time...
Thanks for any help.

I have since moved the mini to work to use there and it has no issues looking up files on the time capsule which remains at home.
This cannot happen by magic though.. you must have configured the mini to access the TC remotely.. which method are you using, BTMM and iCloud??
The macbook whoever can only access the time capsule from within the home network. I can't seem to find what I may have done differently. Can anybody help?
How is the Macbook configured to access the TC remotely?? If you are trying to use BTMM and iCloud, then it might be a case that with the mini running the connection cannot be done by more than one computer at a time.. this is generally the case although I do not know if that is specifically true of BTMM method. Try turning off the mini and leave it off.. (off not standby)... then reboot the TC when you are at home.. and then try and connect the laptop to the TC the next morning from work. See if it is then able to capture the connection.. if so start up the mini and I suspect it now will not be able to connect.. that will prove that the TC cannot cope with two remote connections.
There also could be another factor in here. If you are accessing the laptop via the same router as the mini is on.. then actually you cannot have two users mount the same files on a TC.. from the same IP address.. as far as the TC is concerned both devices have identical IP, that is the public IP of the work location router.
If you happen to not be using BTMM then the situation is even easier.. you cannot make two different devices connect to the same network resource using the same port. That is the failing of the NAT system.. one device uses the port then it cannot be used by a second device. You will need to do some fancy footwork and use a different port.
Anyhow tell us exactly how you are doing remote access.. otherwise I am just guessing.
Not sure if your allowed to post two questions, but it's may be related. I find that accessing the files on the time capsule from the mac mini or the macbook is very slow.
Are you talking about files you are hosting on the TC?? Not Time Machine backups??
Can you tell me exactly how you are accessing the TC.. please do a test..
Copy a file to the TC and from the TC using the Laptop.. Use a single very large file, eg 1GB movie file.
Give me a read and write speed.. you can use activity monitor to give me an aprox average speed as well as peak.
Do the same test from the same computer with wireless turned off running ethernet.
Then do the tests from the mini.. same ones.. copy large file to and from the TC by ethernet and by wireless.. when using ethernet make sure wireless is off.
I strongly recommend you set IPv6 to link local only for your wireless and ethernet setup in the Mac.
eg
Now do the test from the HP laptop and give me the results from that.
Is the issue wireless only.. ??
Then you might need to spend a bit of time fixing the wireless in the Macs.. you can run wireless diagnostics in Mavericks.
About Wireless Diagnostics

Cannot access prior time capsule backup

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for