Cannot locate lost work or install time machine

Is the only way to retrieve "lost" information via time machine? If not, please let me know how, and if so I cannot install time machine on my computer as it keeps coming up saying "Airport Utility cannot find a wireless device installed"-do I need another device to keep this information and cannot just keep it on the hard drive?

toothmom wrote:
Is the only way to retrieve "lost" information via time machine? If not, please let me know how, and if so I cannot install time machine on my computer as it keeps coming up saying "Airport Utility cannot find a wireless device installed"-do I need another device to keep this information and cannot just keep it on the hard drive?
Welcome to Apple Discussions:
If by "lost" you mean deleted, there is no way to recover the data, especially if other files have been created since the original was deleted. The area on the HD has been overwritten.
TM does not backup to a wireless device unless that wireless device is TimeCapsule
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=735
You need an external HardDrive that is 3 to 4 times as large as your internal drive connected directly to your computer.

Similar Messages

When I try to install Time Machine update I get this message: You cannot install Time Machine and AirPort Updates on this volume. This update requires Mac OS X 10.5.2 or newer. I have OS X 10.5.8.

When I try to install Time Machine update I get this message: “You cannot install Time Machine and AirPort Updates on this volume. This update requires Mac OS X 10.5.2 or newer.” I have OS X 10.5.8.

It's bundled with 10.5.3 and newer and can't be installed separately on those OSes.
(59310)

I cannot access old e-mails via Time machine since installing Mountain Lion at the beginning of August.

I cannot access old e-mails via Time machine since installing Mountain Lion at the beginning of August. I can access those received and sent since the benning of August. I can access other documents prior to August.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Try the action that you're having trouble with again. Post any messages that appear in the Console window – the text, please, not a screenshot.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Edit it out by search-and-replace in a text editor before posting.

I'm trying to install Time Machine and Airport Update V 1.0 but installer

keeps returning error message: You cannot install Time Machine and AirPort Updates on this volume. This update requires Mac OS X 10.5.2 or newer.
I am in fact running 10.5.6. Would the fact that this update was dated in March of 2008 have anything to do with it? I think it's the latest update for TM and Airport.
Any suggestions?

Kappy, how'd you get so smart. On further investigation I discovered that I had already downloaded and installed that update. I will follow your advice in the future, not risking showing off as a fool.

Had to reinstall os ,and cannot access itunes although backed on time machine help

had to reinstall OS last july after exel update installed virus and cannot access itunes although backed on time machine help

You should still be able to recover your media through iTune's "open" feature:
Connect your time machine drive and navigate to it in Finder.
Open the backup.backupd (or similar) folder.
Pick a recent date (folder)
Pick through to your home folder
drag the music folder onto itunes in the dock
Hope this helps, It might not be very clear.

HT1338 lost word document. time machine no help. suggestions?

lost word document. time machine no help. suggestions?

Need more info. How do you think you lost a Word Document?
Try Easy Find, Search program, and search for *.doc*. That will turn up all Word Docs with both the .DOC and .DOCX extension on your complete hard drive.
If it is truly lost, Deleted, then you are basically SOL. Unless you do have a recent TM backup that has that file included.
As for recovering it from TM do a search for Pondini TM FAQs.

I installed time machine but I can't find it in system preferences?

I installed time machine but I can't find it in system preferences? How do I access it? Light is green but is it backing up?

???
You installed Time Machine or Time Capsule? Time Machine is part of Leopard (OS X 10.5.x). If you are referring to Time Capsule, you set it up via AirPort Utility. You should have the install disk. If you are talking about Time Machine, can you confirm you have OS X 10.5.x? Your signature indicates you only have Tiger (OS X 10.4.11). If that is correct, you need to upgrade to Leopard.
Welcome to Apple Discussions!

HT3275 I backed up by computer to an external HD and lost all my data from TC. I backed it back up FROM the external HD, but I lost the dateline on Time Machine. Can I restore the dates and timess of my backups?

I backed up by computer to an external HD and lost all my data from TC. I backed it back up FROM the external HD, but I lost the dateline on Time Machine. Can I restore the dates and timess of my backups?

Another one that Apple doesn't make obvious.
See #E3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

HT1338 cannot access old back ups on time machine

I cannot access my old backups on time machine, using Gdrive as a back up

Hi.
Are you using the time Machine app to attempt this... or are you simply opening the backup drive in the Finder? This you cannot do.
To access the data that is backed up to your external drive via Time Machine, do this...
• First, navigate in the Finder to the folder that should contain the data you wish to retrieve.
• Now, starting in the Menu bar at the top of the screen... click the Time Machine icon > Enter Time Machine.
The Time Machine will appear, with its display of copies of your Finder window leading back into the distant past.
• Using the timeline along the right edge of the screen, select a date or point in time as far back as you need to go until Time Machine dislplays the file version that you wish to retrieve. At the bottom of the screen, TM will show the backup date of the current window contents.
• Select your file in the display window and click Restore in the bottom right corner.
Time Machine will now move a copy of the backed up file back into place in your Finder window as it closes the Time Machine app.
See more here... Mac 101: Time Machine
I hope this is helpful.

IPhoto 09 - some recent events lost after restoring from Time Machine

recently my early-2009 iMac hanged during boot up on the white screen. so i a restore from Time Machine and it works. this freezing occurred twice of the last one week, which i did 2 restore to last backup. then i notice there's an issue with iPhoto 09. i notice some latest events which supposedly been backup during the restore point, appears 'blank'. when i enter Time Machine, i see all previous events but the recent day or two, it just turn out to be black squares, and when i enter the events there weren't any photos but just files with names.
i tested again but loading in a couple of new photos into iPhoto yesterday night, back it up and double check in Time Machine, it is (the new photos) there. about 6-hours later i make a check again (on Time Machine), the photos event became the black square again. this is really a pain for me as i have lost enough photos
i desperately need help on this. anyone?
here a couple of the screenshot from my Time Machine:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t272/mujiland/Screenshot2010-05-29at104554PM. png
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t272/mujiland/Screenshot2010-05-29at104602PM. png

Hello mook,
So if I understand:
1.) The goal is to restore the iPhoto Library from a point before the issues started happening
2.) When you try to go backwards in Time Machine while inside the iPhoto window you get a blank Library when you get to the date range you want.
What to do:
- As you cannot seem to access the iPhoto contents using the iPhoto window I would suggest the following:
1.) Navigate using the Finder to ~/Pictures (or whatever folder you are currently housing your iPhoto Library in)
2.) Rename the current iPhoto Library to something else (Like iPhoto Library Old etc)
3.) While looking at this Pictures window, activate Time Machine and go back in time to a date when YOU ARE SURE iPhoto was working fine and had the images you want
4.) Click on the iPhoto Library in the Time Machine window and click on Restore
-- This will restore the Library from the date in question
-- You will have 2 libraries once the restore is complete. The freshly restored library and the old library. Keep the old library just for safe keeping until such time as you determine you have all the pictures you want. Then you can do whatever you want with it (trash it, etc)
Hope that helps.

IWeb on macbook pro with mavericks cannot import old iWeb files from time machine back up

Hi! The apple store completely wiped my macbook and installed mavericks. I made a time machine back up before bringing it in to be completely wiped. Computer had bad software so they recommended me to handpick items and bring them over to new operating system without completly putting the entire time machine back up on it.
So I did but my only concern is Iweb. Now I got Iweb back installed in mavericks I cannot seem to import any files from my back up to my application in my renewed computer with mavericks. I searched for .domains, sites and sites2 but I cannot extract anything and I still have some old websites stored with Iweb and use the application quite a bit...
Can anyone help?
Thanks a million....

Not sure what you mean by extract but this might help;
If you're running Lion or later the Home/Library folder is invisible and that's where the domian files are located. That folder will be invisible in the TM backups also. Therefore you can extract Domain files one at a time out of the TM backups for import into iPhoto. You would do it as follows:
1 - download and run Find Any File to search for a file named ".site".
FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.
2 - the search can take a while due to the structure of the TM backups.
3 - select the backup from which you want to recover the Domain file.
4 - drag the file from the search results window to the Desktop.
If you recover more than one Domain file be sure to rename them after dragging to the Desktop so that you don't overwrite one with the next.
5 - you can put the Domain file(s) in your Home/LIbrary/Application Support/iWeb folder but will have to make the library visible as follows:
NOTE: In Lion and Mountain Lion the Home/Library folder is now invisible. To make it permanently visible in Lion or Mt. Lion enter the following in the Terminal application window: chflags nohidden ~/Library and press the Return key - 10.7: Un-hide the User Library folder.
For Mavericks, 10.9, go to your Home folder and use the View ➙ Show View Optionsmenu to bring the this window:
To open your domain file in Lion or Mountain Lion or to switch between multiple domain files Cyclosaurus has provided us with the following script that you can make into an Applescript application with Script Editor. Open Script Editor, copy and paste the script below into Script Editor's window and save as an application.
do shell script "/usr/bin/defaults write com.apple.iWeb iWebDefaultsDocumentPath -boolean no"delay 1
tell application "iWeb" to activate
You can download an already compiled version with this link: iWeb Switch Domain.
Just launch the application, find and select the domain file in your Home/Library/Application Support/iWeb folder that you want to open and it will open with iWeb. It modifies the iWeb preference file each time it's launched so one can switch between domain files.
WARNING: iWeb Switch Domain will overwrite an existing Domain.sites2 file if you select to create a new domain in the same folder. So rename your domain files once they've been created to something other than the default name.
OT

HT201250 Lost important files on Time machine it is decrypting now.

I recently had to install OSX lion I screwed up something with bootcamp, I deleted the partition and then lost a hundred gigs of space on my harddrive that I really needed. Before I did a clean install, I backed up three times with in an hour with time machine. I checked to make sure everything was there which it was.
After the clean install I plugged in timemachine it asked me for a password I typed it in, it asked me to set up a new timemachine and I did with out encryption it also kepted my old backups so i restored all the folders I needed and left it to run over night, when I woke up my timemachine disk was decrypting and I thought nothing of it.
When i got to work I noticed that a bunch of files from the last two weeks were missing and half my music collection and a bunch of other files that I didn't need as much as the work files.
I noticed that I only had stuff from two weeks prior.
My downloads folder was up to day from what I had on tuesday and except my documents folder and my music folder.
When I got home checked my timemachine ever all those files are missing, I nearly passed out in fear knowing that I need this work files due by friday and I don't have time to recreate EVERYTHING.
I backed up on the 14th of January, and for some weird reason the files from that day that should be on my computer are not there either. Files I knew I had. Files that i could update intime for friday if they so happen to of been there.
It's almost like timemachine erased all those files I NEEDED just to **** me off.
Time machine is currently Decrypting the backup disk and it's at 35% which means it's going to take about 48 hours to get to finished based on the time it has taken to get this far.
I guess what I am freaking out about is not knowing if those files will be recovered once the timemachine has finished decrypting.
What's really strange is disk utiliy on the mac states the drive is open and not encrypted.
On the recovery HD it won't even let me look at the drive because it is locked.
diskutil cs list in terminal with lion shows this
Name:         T***************
    Sequence:     1
    Free Space:   0 B (0 B)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 6**********************************************
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk1s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     2000054960128 B (2.0 TB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family 0**********************************************
        Sequence:               19
        Encryption Status:      Unlocked
        Encryption Type:        None
        Encryption Context:     Present
        Conversion Status:      Converting
        Has Encrypted Extents: Yes
        Conversion Direction:   backward
        |
        +-> Logical Volume F**********************************************
            Disk:               disk2
            Status:             Online
            Sequence:           4
            Size (Total):       1999736188928 B (2.0 TB)
            Size (Converted):   692009828352 B (692.0 GB)
            Revertible:         Yes (unlock and decryption required)
            LV Name:            Time Machine
            Volume Name:        Time Machine
This does not update or change as the decryption process gets farther along.
Does anyone know if once the decryption process completes my files will magically appear?
What's weird is if I go into the time machine on the Tuesday jan 17th to look at the backuplog file. It says it's locked and I can't even copy it to my desktop and open it with out saying it's locked.
What is also weird the farther along the decryption process goes, it's elimination my three backups of Jan 17th I am only down to one now...
Really FREAKING OUT....

Factory reset the TC and redo the setup.. any time you change network the TC needs to be redone.

Following installation of OSX 10.8, the program cannot recognize the disk containing my Time Machine back-up

I made a Time Machine backup of my hard disk. before erasing the latter and installing Mac OS X 10.8. But now, the program is unable to recognize the disk containing my backup, and therefore I cannot use the Migration Assistant to recover my data. Is there a solution to this problem?
However, Migration Assistant was able to recognize my backup disk, before it was unlocked, but not after...
Thanks

nothing here helped me. there is obviously a bug in 10.8.2. Due to other issues, I wanted to install a clean copy (not upgraded) of 10.8.2.
On a MBP running 10.8.2, I made a full Time Machine backup.
I erased the internal HD on the laptop.
I installed 10.8.2 from the App Store installer
When the installer rebooted, the install process continues, BUT
During installation, when asked to select a disc for restore, the installer spins but never sees the time machine backup.
I can see this disc and drag files from it when plugged into another computer (or when booting the MBP from an external HD) but the OS X installer process never recognizes my Time Machine hard drive and never progresses past the select disk for restore process (the disk NEVER appears).
The disc (FW) works fine plugged into other computers and worked fine before reinstalling 10.8.2. on a fully formatted hard drive.
Time Machine is WORTHLESS.
This advice from Apple is useless: "Open Time Machine preferences and reselect your backup disk. If you erased your backup disk and began having trouble, reselecting it may fix the problem." - how do you do this when you're restoring data to an erased HD?!?!?!

I cannot restore my iphoto library from Time Machine

I have lost my iphoto library. I am trying to restore it from a backup and it was located in the My Pictures folder. When I try and restore it, there is a big red circle with a dash in it saying I don't have permission to open the folder it is in. These have all of my prescious photos and I am devistated that they may be lost! Why can't I access this folder and get my photos back - what do I need to do?

Hello kristine515
It all depends on how you are restoring your data. If you are using the Enter Time Machine it should not give you the permissions issue.
Mac Basics: Time Machine
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Regards,
-Norm G.

I purchased Apple TV. I had to upgrade my OS to Lion which I did. I cannot get Lion to open because time machine is backing up to two hard drives, my external hard drive and my internal hard drive. How do I just get the backups going to the external? thx

I have a desktop Mac. I bought Apple tv and wanted to connect my photos to the tv. I learned that I had to upgrade my OS as I didn't have icloud capability. I purchased and downloaded Lion. I cannot open it however, because when I go to select the hard drive to install Lion onto, the dialogue box says that I cannot open it in either my external hard drive or the internal hard drive because of the backups to time machine. I have tried the 'fix' of moving the backup folder to the trash and then putting it on the desktop, but I still can't access either one of the drives to install Lion. Any suggestions? Thanks.

The current OS is Mountain Lion 10.8.3, so I if the purchase was recent, that is what you should have.
It should be possible to see what disk space is being used by opening the Disk Utlity in the Applications>Utilities folder. It looks like both disks are set as TM disks:
If you have Time Machine backup of both the internal and external disks and want to rationalise the system to only backup one, then set the TM preferences>options to exclude volumes as required:
When you download the installer from the Apple Store (MAS) it will come up with a dialogue to run it. It will then ask which disk you wish to install the system on. Is this where you have got to, before it says they are both unavailable?

Cannot locate lost work or install time machine

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for