Cannot see latest Time Machine backup in Recovery, Setup Assistant, Migration Assistant

I was experiencing really slow HD response, and so chose to boot into the Recovery HD and run Disk First Aid. Disk First Aid said there was an issue and recommended a I backup and reformat the drive and reinstall. So I rebooted into my main drive, made sure Time Machine had done a backup of the latest files. Then rebooted into Recovery HD. Reformated the HD in Disk First Aid. Then went to Restore from Time Machine Backup. Under that heading it would only let me restore a system from 6 months ago. I want restore the latest backup that I verified it had run. So then I decided to Reinstall the OS and hope that Setup Assistant would see the latest update. It didn't even see the drive to recover from. So I skipped it and then hoped Migration Assistant would recognize it. Migration Assistant recognized the backup drive (Time Capsule) but then wouldn't recognize the specific backup for this machine. It only saw the backup of a different computer on my network. So what's going on? Why won't my computer restore from the latest backup? Am I going to have to manually restore? Which would suck considering the number of apps I am going to have to reinstall. Any help on this issue would be much appreciated. I am running 10.8.3 on a 2009 13" MacBook Pro w/ 8 GB RAM and a 500GB HD.

Thank you for your response!
Thinking out loud:
Both external LaCie's were were subject to a veriy and repairt process with no errors were found.
They both mount on the iMac desktop with no problems.
TM bu's to the LaCie's appear to operate correctly.
I can easliy and quickely move content to and from them at will.
Evidence seems to suggest that when entering Migration Assistant(MA), the automatic process of closing all applications save MA, seems to break the iMac<> LaCie connection. Could this be a good lead?
PONDINI
"You posted that TM was set to back up only to the LaCies but the sample you posted below shows a sparsebundle on the TC. Please clarify."
LMISES
My error: That is an old MacBook TM backup(bu)
PONDINI
"What were you running before?"
LMISES
10.8.3.
PONDINI
"Are you sure? Many folks see what they think is their internal HD, but it's really their backups. What confuses them is, it shows the Computer and disk name that were backed-up, not the name of the drive the backups are on."
LMISES
Please see the screen shot below of what Migration Assistant(MA) presents:
PONDINI
"Ordinarily, it's done by excluding the System folder via TM Preferences > Options. That puts up a prompt, and if confirmed sets an indicator in the .plist that controls backups. We do have a very few reports of it getting set some other way, mostly on Mountain Lion, but have no idea how."
LMISES
Thank you. In my view this is very significant as this behavior, it now appears for me, leaves MA as the only option. Not to value MA vs Recovery objectivly, rather, there are benefits exclusive to each process. As I sit now however, MA fails to recongnise not only the TM bu's residing on both LaCie's; MA fails to recongnise the LaCie's as hardware.
PONDINI
"What's in the sparse bundle on your Time Capsule (in the "Data" folder)? Double-click the sparsebundle to mount it; then the "Time Machine Backups" disk image should appear in your Finder sidebar. Double-click that to open it. Inside it should be aBackups.backupdb folder just like the ones on your LaCie drives, with similar contents."
LMISES
The following screen shots are of the "Data" folder.

Similar Messages

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

Migration Assistant won't see my Time machine backup disk

Hi,
I've seen some other discussions but they apply to slightly different situations and turn out to be too complex for me to follow. My situation is this. My Dec 2008 Macbook running Lion just died. Not sure what the problem is but it seems to be the hardrive. It will take me a while to get it fixed and in the meantime I have a farly new mac mini running Lion.
I also have been making Time Machine backups to an external drive. I read that I could migrate content from a time machine backup and I connected the backup to my mac mini and launched Migration Assistan (MA), seleted the option to migrate from a Time Machine backup. MA is stuck trying to find my disk even though it shows up in Finder. This is the screen I'm talking about http://screencast.com/t/AC0OiVzxx
I'm hoping there is the equivalent of a little on/off switch that I'm not seeing and you can direct me too.
How can I get MA to see my Time Machine backup disk? Thanks for your help.

sorry, i don't know what else it could be then. if you have another external drive you can try doing a full system restore from the TM backups onto that drive and see if MA will recognize that drive and migrate from it. other than this there is always manual migration. slow and tedious but it can be done. see this link for help with that
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6185507

Where do I find the time of the latest Time Machine backup in OS Mavericks?

Where can I find the time of the latest Time Machine backup in OS Mavericks?

If you have the Time Machine icon in your Menu bar you can click on it to show the time of the last backup.
You can also look at the Time Machine System Preference pane.

I replaced the original hdd in my early 2008 iMac. I can't move my files that were backed up with Time Machine to my new hdd using Migration Assistant. When prompted to select the "from drive", the ext. hhd does not appears as a selection. Please help!!

I replaced the original hdd in my early 2008 iMac. I can't move my files that were backed up with Time Machine to my new hdd using Migration Assistant. When prompted to select the "from drive", the ext. hhd does not appears as a selection. Please help!!

I'd recommend staring over, Pondini has created an excellent guide on how to use Setup Assistant. I'd recommend begin reading Pondini Setup Assistant tips where he talks about "Second Chance." Assuming your Time Machine backup is sound the restore should be very smooth.
Roger

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

Migration assistant doesn't see my time machine backup

Since upgading to mavericks migration assistant no longer sees my backup on my external drive that I use for my time machine backups. The drive mounts fine and I can access my backups through my finder using "enter time machine", but I can not restore because migration assistant can't see the drive. I don't knoe if it's a time machine issue or a mighration assistant issue. I have tried on several macs and with several different hard drives but migration assistant cannot restore from my time machine backups. I suggest everyone make sure they can restore from their time machine backups because this may be a major problem and result in complete loss of data. I have found no solution yet.

Here are the articles I have on Migration Assistant. None of them had the answer to your problem (or at least I couldn't find it). Check what you did versus the recommendations in the articles is about the best I can offer.
Migration Assistant
Migration Assistant (2)
Migration Assistant – Tips and Tricks

10.5.8 mac pro cannot restore from time machine backup

Hey there,
I've had a mac volume die on me so I ordered the 10.5.8 cds from Apple. I installed the OS on a new hard drive and trying to migrate from time machine backup and the backup failed to move both my user and application settings. I've tried using the migration assistant, this also fails and doesnt show me the correct volumes in TM. Please help!

What have you done to repair and rebuild the directory of your old drives?
One word of caution is that Alsoft Disk Warrior is/was not (not sure latest version) to deal with the huge size of some TimeMachine backup volumes which as Ricks said, are complex and prone to failures.
I wanted to see how it would work to have one TM drive for dailys, another for just run once a week, and system clone before any updates. Plus a small handy emergency only boot drive volume (40GB).
So you are stuck with 10.5.8 due to cost of software applilcation upgrades? and with Lion there is no support for old PowerPC, no Rosetta to run and support those. And then ML coming soon which seems to drop support for pre-2008s.
Metadata is trash as in temp cache and in a smart backup - like CCC and such - would never be backed up or shouldn't be - they should be deleted and is one case and use for things like CCleaner to be run (until Safari and Chrome do job limited age and size of disk caches).
Caches and temp files and logs can be source of problems.
SyncServices - 10.5.x started using that and that would get messed up at least when I looked at it 10.5.2+ era.
I'd dual boot SL and 10.5.8
10.5.x came out 4.5 yrs ago. In that time I upgraded boot drive couple times, formatted/initialized when it came out and again a year later 10.5.6 and then with 10.6.0 or about once a year to clone, erase, restore.
You used your backup drive for two years.
Originally hoped that it would be easy and possible to clone TM backup drives for safety and so you coudl take a good set with a year of data on it and instead of start over, take it and make a copy for archive your files. A good file history.
There are programs that add to and help manage and allow the user to look at and choose backup sets from different points in time. I take it you can't do that.
I would invest in more backup drives, internal and external, while try to build a new solid footing and foundation - so you can install, clone, do more modifications and installs and updates, so you never have to redo.
With backup clones you would never have to worry about reinstalls or lost files. CCC will with a large enough volume also allow archive of file changes. TM is probably good - for those that didn't and dont' like to backup.
I would hope though have seen enough errors, but you are using the initial TM backup program which has had three more OS versions and 3 yrs since to improve form 10.5.8 (came out June '09).

Cannot Complete a Time Machine backup

Here's a question for all the pros. I am fairly new to macs and I have a MacBook Pro that is running on Snow Leopard. I have not been able to complete a TM since the beginning of November. It always keeps on coming up with an error message about the backup disk right when there are about 10G left in the backup. I thought it might be the disk so I went and shelled out the money for a Time Capsule but to no avail I still cannot do a TM. I am so frustrated. I have called Apple Support and spent almost a whole day with them and I still have not gotten it to work. I can always call them back but it is so time consuming. I have had problems with a couple of different applications so I wanted to do a TM so I could just erase my HD and start from scratch. Has anyone heard of this problem? Can any of you guys think of anything that might be helpful? I just wanted to check and see before I spend another whole day on the phone again. Thanks

Still did not work
I don't even see the files that I created. I named them TEST1-5 so is it the actual files that are listed below and how do I fix them?
Starting standard backup
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Angel9096@Carey's%20Time%20Capsule.afpovertcp.tcp.local/Data
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Angel9096@Carey's%20Time%20Capsule.afpovertcp.tcp.local/Data
Creating disk image /Volumes/Data-1/Carey MacBook Pro.sparsebundle
Disk image /Volumes/Data-1/Carey MacBook Pro.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
Backup content size: 88.5 GB excluded items size: 4.8 GB for volume Carey Hard Drive
No pre-backup thinning needed: 100.43 GB requested (including padding), 928.68 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Library/Documentation/Help/AppleTVHelp.help/Contents/Resources/zh_CN.lproj/App leTVHelp.html to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/Angel9096/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/11d2ad9e8a88ce6eb8e8e4c2a3fa6ffaada3015b/872e43a92443 a1b86ea417c0337995af263739d2.mddata to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/Angel9096/Library/Mail/[email protected]/INBOX.mbox/ Messages/156.emlx to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/Angel9096/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library (Damaged) to (null)
Copied 22.3 GB of 83.7 GB, 185259 of 750653 items
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/Angel9096/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Data.noindex/2009/Nov 15, 2009/IMG_1760.jpg to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/Angel9096/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Data.noindex/2009/Nov 15, 2009/IMG_1816.jpg to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/Angel9096/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Modified/2009/Dec 10, 2009/IMG_3430.jpg to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/Angel9096/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2009/Brenden's 2nd Birthday!!/IMG_3285.JPG to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/Angel9096/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2009/Brenden's 2nd Birthday!!/IMG_3288.JPG to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/Angel9096/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2009/Brenden's 2nd Birthday!!/IMG_3291.JPG to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/Angel9096/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2009/Brenden's 2nd Birthday!!/MVI_3286.AVI to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/Angel9096/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2009/Brenden's 2nd Birthday!!/MVI_3295.AVI to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/Angel9096/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2009/Dec 10, 2009/IMG_3426.JPG to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/Angel9096/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2009/

Can't restore latest Time Machine backup after drive replacement- only the very first.

My 13" Macbook Pro running 10.8.5 had a bad hard drive which had to be replaced. After the new drive was put in I tried to restore everything to the new drive with Time Machine but could only restore the first backup I ever did after getting the computer, which was over a year ago. I can drag and drop files but I would rather have all my preferences and bookmarks etc. How do I restore the latest backup which was only about a week ago? Thank you.

Not yet; I'm not sure if Migration Assistant is quite right. Since I posted the question I ran across this youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYUem-QfYBs
which suggests that I need to start up from a bootable external disc in order to restore a Time Machine backup to the same computer that the backup came from when the drive is replaced. The video actually seems to describe my issue exactly. The only confusing thing is I don't know why I would have been able to restore the very first Time Machine backup if I need to boot from an external disc. More investigation needed.

Can't restore latest time machine backup

I have just had my the hard drive in my macbook pro replaced and am trying to restore from a time machine backup. I back up regularly (about once a week) to an external hard drive, but the most recent option for backup is October... help!
I can see a backup from yesterday if I navigate the hard drive in finder, but it won't show me this option in the restore from time machine backup prompt.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
It looks like you want to have the whole backup restored. In this case, instead of using the Time Machine app and restoring files individually, you need to use Migration Assistant (in /Applications/Utilities).
If you do not have anything you need on your new MacBook Pro's hard drive, there's even a cleaner way of restoring the backup. Hold Command and R keys while your Mac is starting up to start up into OS X Recover, select the option to restore a Time Machine backup and follow its steps. The backup you select will be restored and your Mac will be the same as before replacing the hard drive

Latest Time Machine backup not Showing

Here's what I'm trying to do:
Swapping out 320 gb had on a 5,1 MacBook Pro to a 500gb hd. I DON'T have an external enclosure.
I ran another Time Machine backup last night (nov 20) before physically swapping out hard drives ( I do TM backups intermittently). My TM backups are to a FireWire attached external drive, btw, so I get the new drive in the computer, startup while holding Command-R (only works with USB connection I found out) and click on 'restore from the time machine backup'. Under Backups it shows the external drive (we'll call it 'external' )and Time Machine formatted disk image called ''Macbook Pro.tmp' on disk 'external'.
Selecting the 'MacbookPro.tmp' leads to a dialog box of "the backup cannot be opened: if this is a password-protected backup, you entered an incorrect...." in other words I go back and select the OTHER option of 'external'.
THIS gives me some time machine options but this is where my question comes in.
The only options available are from 'August 29' and 'August 23'! I JUST backed up to Time Machine on November 20! Why is the most recent backup NOT there?
If I went with the 'August 29' restore will it plug in the incremental backups I've done since then?
Please advise. I've looked on pondini.org but couldn't find an answer.

It sounds like you have two sets of backups on that drive.
Were some backups made over a network (ie, while the drive was connected to a Time Capsule, Airport Extreme, or other Mac)? That's the only way you get a disk image (unless you specifically created one).
The name "MacbookPro.tmp" sounds like the temporary name Time Machine first creates a disk image with, over a network. That would also explain why it can't be opened, as TM didn't finish creating it, but that doesn't tell us where the backup you ran on 11/20 went. Are you sure it completed normally? No error messages, etc.?
Also, did you format the new drive?

Cannot Restore from Time Machine Backup

Hi everyone,
I recently formatted my hard drive due to some issues with boot camp. I had planned on using my external hard drive that I used with Time Machine to restore all of my stuff. However I have been having some major issues restoring from my backup. I select Restore System from Backup and than my external disk with my time machine backup on it. Everything seems to be working correctly until i hit 21.5% and then the restore stops and the screen goes gray. I get a log of what went wrong and it says i hit an error when restoring four songs from my itunes library. If anyone can help me figure out what I can do to fix my problem I would be immensely grateful. Thanks

dougcleary wrote:
I get a log of what went wrong and it says i hit an error when restoring four songs from my itunes library.
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
What does the error message say? Does it name the songs (files)? If so, are they some you loaded very recently?
If so, try selecting a backup prior to when you loaded them.
If not, or you don't know, try repairing your backup disk. Instead of selecting +Restore system from backups,+ select +Disk Utility,+ then select your TM drive and do a +*Repair Disk+* (not permissions) on it. If it finds and fixes anything, you may be able to do the full restore.
If not, your best bet may be to install OSX, then when your Mac boots up, and +Setup Assistant+ asks if you want to "transfer" data from a different Mac or it's backups, do that. See #19 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Select everything except the folder your iTunes library is in (Music, unless you've moved it). That will get everything else so you can boot up and run normally.
Then use Time Machine's "Star Wars" display to restore as much of your music as you can, per #15 in the FAQ. You may have to try several times to get what you can, and avoid what you can't.

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.

HT4889 Migration assistant refuses to see my Time machine backup in mountain lion

I made a full Time machine backup on a 1 TB hard disk.
I connect this to my other mac.
I follow EXACTLY the apple support instructions TO THE LETTER.
Time machine says - "looking for other computers" - there are no other computers - only the time machine backup disk which is correctly powere and can be seen in OSX prior to loading backup assistant.
I wait
and wait
and wait
three hours later it becomes apparent this isnt working
I try again - same result
I try again with a different disk
same result
I do a new FULL time machine backup on yet annothe disk
Same result
I try with two different macs - same result
What am I doing wrong and how do I fix it?
I am following the EXACT instructions as posted on the apple website... what does it not tell you? For example does this not work if your mac is a core2-duo - or does it have to be a particulr brand of external hard disk? There must be something becuase I simply cannot get this to work AT ALL period.

This simple procedure will clear your Time Machine settings, including exclusions. The backups won't be affected. If you have a long exclusion list that can't be recreated easily, you may prefer a more complicated procedure that preserves the exclusion list. In that case, ask for instructions. Otherwise, do as follows.
Triple-click the line below on this page to select it:
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal
from the contextual menu. A Finder window should open with a file selected. Copy the file to the Desktop. Then move it (the original, not the copy) to the Trash. You'll be prompted for your administrator password. Reboot and recreate your settings in the Time Machine preference pane. It will show that you have no backups. Don't worry; that's expected. Run a backup to test. The backup may take much longer than usual. If TM now performs as expected, delete the file you copied to the Desktop.

Cannot see latest Time Machine backup in Recovery, Setup Assistant, Migration Assistant

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for