Cannot find old Time Machine backups

Recently, I had to backup my iMac from my latest Carbon Copy Cloner copy. (I have an external HD with two partitions: Time Machine and CCC, both some 750 GB; for various reasons, I choose the CCC backup.)
After that, Time Machine started to backup again. But after a while it stopped, claiming having too little space to complete: it needed 700 Gb but it found only 230 Gb.
The old TM backups had disappeared!
Yet, Disk Utility says the capacity of the TM drive is 750,82 GB, and that 232,89 GB is available.
So, the older backups must still be there… but I cannot approach them. Also, when right-clicking the TM icon in the Dock in order to find another TM disk, it does not find the original backups.
A hint, ayone?

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

Similar Messages

  • 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:
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    The time machines are correctly mounted, but I still cannot access the data from the TM interface.

  • Is there a way to get my photos off an old time machine backup from an external hard drive?

    Is there a way to get my photos off an old time machine backup from an external hard drive?

    You will have to connect the Time Machine HDD and click on the Icon.  You will see one folder called Backups.backupdb.  Click on that and you will have to continue until you find the home folder.  The iPhoto library (where the pictures are, not the application) will probably be in your pictures folder.  You will have to drag that to your desk top.  Then you will have access to individual images.
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  • Cannot migrate from time machine backup

    Yesterday my internal hard disk crashed and after repairing disk in recovery mode I could reinstall MtLion.
    Using migration assistent I wanted to recover my old accounts, but the assistant could not find my time machine backup.
    Information
    Backup-System: External USB Harddisk connected directly to iMac
    Spare-Bundle located in root folder of external hard disk
    Backup only for my account folders and some special folders but not the entire system
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    What can I do so that the assistent works again?
    KR
    Michael

    atsuem wrote:
    Using migration assistent I wanted to recover my old accounts, but the assistant could not find my time machine backup.
    Be sure you're selecting the From Another Disk option in Migration Assistant.
    The sparse bundle should appear on the Select Your System window there, but note that it will show the name of the disk and Computer name that was backed-up, not the name of the disk the backups are on.
    Or, you may first see the name of the drive the backups are on;  if you select that, after a few moments, you'll see the actual backups, with the name of the disk and Computer that were backed-up.
    If it doesn't appear, try manually mounting the sparse bundle before starting Migration Assistant.
    We have a few reports that occasionally a disk won't appear, but the Continue button will be enabled;  if so, click it - the Select items to Migrate window may appear and you can proceed.
    Backup-System: External USB Harddisk connected directly to iMac
    Spare-Bundle located in root folder of external hard disk
    That's a bit strange.  Normally, for backups made to a directly-connected HD, the Backups.backupdb folder
    is placed at the top level of the drive, not inside a sparse bundle.  A sparse bundle is used only when backups are made over a network.  It doesn't much matter now, but is there a reason that was done?
    •  Backup only for my account folders and some special folders but not the entire system
    That prevents you from doing a full system restore, which often works when Setup Assistant and Migration Assistant don't. 
    And you'll likely have trouble with any "complex" 3rd-party apps (typically the ones that come with their own installers).  They'll probably have to be reinstalled from the original discs. 
    Currently I try to repair the SpareBundle because this has been mentioned in many discussions and support pages.
    Yes, that's the place to start.  In this case, you need to repair both the disk or partition containing the sparse bundle and the sparse bundle itself (it's kind of a disk-within-a-disk).
    If you're not sure how to do that, use the procedure in #A5 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting for a USB drive connected to a Time Capsule.
    If Disk Utility can't repair it, see the pink box at the bottom of that page -- it's possible a heavy-duty, 3rd-party disk repair app can.
    I would like to use the Migration assistent because I am afraid, that my "secret"files like key-chain would not be accessible any longer in case I recover it manually.
    If you can't repair the sparse bundle, or if Migration Assistant still doesn't recognize the backups, that will be your only other option.
    Unfortunately, there do seem to be some cases where Setup Assistant and Migration Assistant on Mountain Lion don't recognize perfectly good backups.  Hopefully Apple is working on a fix, but that's not going to help now.
    As far as I understood, then I can re-use my "old" TM-Backup and connect it to Time Machine without deleting my old backup
    Maybe, but you'll need a different procedure. 
    You'll need the new account to have not only the same name, but the same UID (User ID number) as the old one.  Those are assigned automatically when you create a user account, and are mostly invisible. 
    If you never had more than one account, the one on the backups should be #501.  And the one you created after installing OSX should also have #501, so if you can get the backups to appear at all, the new user account should have access to them.   And if they have the exact same short user name (home folder name), when you do the next backup, Time Machine should recognize the home folder as the same one as on the backups, as if nothing had changed.
    We may need to explore that further once you get your system rebuilt.
    And you'll have to manually "associate" the new disk with the backups, per #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting before starting new backups.

  • Old Time Machine Backup Problems - Permissions

    Today, I figured out how to access my iPhoto Library photos from my old Time Machine backups. I was SO happy! The backups were from 2011 and earlier (hardrive crashed in May 2012). I had not done a Time Machine backup since 2011, so I decided to do a new backup today. After the backup finished, I decided to look at my old photos again (in the old backups) and when I tried to click on any of the files in the old backups, I get the message: The folder “Pictures” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.
    Of course, now I am crushed/frustrated because I do not understand why I cannot access the old backups anymore. *Note: the new backup is accessible.

    No problem.
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  • Old Time Machine Backup

    OK this is complex so hope u can bear with me...
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    OK it's actually called "inherit" it says:
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    don't back up now,     Create new backup,    Inherit backup history
    If I click inherit backup history... it will backup my new disk... and hopefully allow me to accesss the older one like i've been trying to do all along...

  • Privilege problem with old Time Machine backup

    There are all kinds of posts about privilage problems, but I can't find my answer.  I did a clean install of Snow Leopard, and now I want to only drag my iTunes library and iPad backup files from my time machine backup onto the computer.  I can access all the files on the backup drive, including MobileSync and my iTunes folder, but when I try to pull them off the drive I get the terrible message "The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access “MobileSync”."  The sharing & permissions for the folder say "read & write" for my user, and the "Locked" box isn't checked in the Get Info window.  When I click on the settings gear in the Sharing & Permissions window, the "Make me the owner" option is grayed out even after I unlock the options.  I tried resolution for issue 1 here.  And I also tried those terminal commands to no avail.  When I access Time Machine from the dock, all the backups prior to my reinstall are listed, but I can't access them.  Anyone have any other ideas?  This is extremely frustrating.  Note: I am able to copy over files from the backups created after I reinstalled Snow Leopard.
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    sudo chown 0:80 /Volumes/Volumename
    sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/Volumename
    sudo chmod -N /Volumes/Volumename

    I personally think that Time Machine is a magical process run by unicorns.
    I just moved from a MacBook Pro to a brand spanking new iMac 27". My iPad just does everything that I need a laptop to do, and an iMac is so much more powerful than a MBP.
    Anyways, I setup my new iMac with the MBP Time Machine backup, as I usually do with new Macs. As I was going to sell my MBP, I was just going to use my 3TB Time Machine drive on my new iMac, thinking that I'd lose 9 months of backups, as I usually do with a new Mac. Except, apparently with Mountain Lion, the unicorns and wizards have decided that the old Time Machine backups are now transferred to the new iMac. So, even though my iMac is only 15 days old, it shows 9 months of backups. Which was a lifesaver, because an important photo got corrupted in the restore process, and I found it in the Wayback Machine.
    Cool stuff.

  • HT201250 My MacBook Pro (using OSX 10.7.5) suddenly can't find the Time Machine backup disk, which is on the harddrive of my desktop iMac. What to do?

    My MacBook Pro (using OSX 10.7.5) suddenly can't find the Time Machine backup disk, which is on the harddrive of my desktop iMac. What to do?

    Inherit a Backup
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  • 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

  • Help. I hit 'Restore All' in an old Time Machine backup

    I fully realize I made a terrible mistake. I had an iphoto library on my imac that i haven't backed up at all. I was playing around with an old time machine backup and i pressed restore all thinking it would warn me that i was going to overwrite my existing library. well, now i have lost a years worth of photos without having backed them up. my question is, is there anyway to retrieve them? the trash holds nothing. there is no backup save my iphone. when i hook that up it only shows 2 photos. hide already imported photos is NOT checked. i imagine i can pull them off. i'm wondering if they will be the full resolution however. i would like to UNDO the restore first if there is a way. if not i guess i have to do it with the iphone which i'm not sure if it had all the photos from my previous library anyways. please advise and i will love you forever.
    mark

    Welcome to the Apple Discussions. About the only recourse is to use a file recovery application like SubrosaSoft FileSalvage. You can run it in demo mode to verify that you can recover the photos you want before you have to pay for it.
    TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
    I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
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  • Accessing Old Time Machine Backup From a New Account

    I have had problems with my old Account and decided to create a new Account. I can "see" the old Time Machine backup lists from the new Account, but can't open or restore them to the new Account. I get the message that I do not have sufficient privileges although I set the new Account up with Administrator privleges.

    You should have used Setup Assistant, not Migration Assistant, to transfer your data. I suggest you start over by booting into Recovery, erasing the startup volume, and installing OS X. When you reboot, Setup Assistant will start automatically. Follow the prompt to import data from a Time Machine snapshot. The backup history will then be inherited. The first backup will still be a full one; that can't be avoided.

  • Can't get old time machine backups to delete from the trash can

    time machine backups won't delete from my trash can

    You shouldn't be deleting old Tima Machine backups. When TM runs out of space it automatically deletes the oldest backups to make rioom for the new
    http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

  • Defrag an old Time Machine backup to save space for archiving?

    I'm aware of all the reasons not to defragment an OSX volume, as well as Time Machine volumes, but hear me out on this one...
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    I've looked over Pondini's site and it's an awesome resource. I've learned a lot from it over the years. But my specific question isn't answered there.
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  • Want to move an old time machine backup

    I'm trying to backup an old drive before it fails.
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    nowsthetime wrote:
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