Changing account name affects Time Machine?

Hi,
I would like to change the account name of the main user (it currently has the generic name "admin") according to Apple's instructions.
I was wondering though if and how this will affect Time Machine. The full name (editable via the user & login system prefs) will remain the same, as well as the computer name in the Sharing prefs.
Will TM create a new backup folder instead of continuing the existing backup?
Thanks

If you change the short user name (home folder name), Time Machine will back it up in full, and prior backups of it won't appear as they used to. But you can still see them, per the pink box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #15A.

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Will changing Network name affect Time-capsule back up function

I finally managed to set up my time capsule with Mac support help. I didn't realize until this morning that I didn't want my network name to be my full name. I think I can change the network name easily enough through the airport function. But will this screw up my Time Capsule's attempts to update my files? Do I need to go into Time Capsule and change the network somewhere, or is the program intuative and will do it automatically?

Welcome to the discussions!
Changing the network name will not affect your backups.
You might want to reconfirm the setup for your backups as follows:
Open System Preferences (gear icon on the dock)
Open Time Machine
Click Select Disk
Click your Time Capsule disk to highlight it
Click Use for Backups

Changing the name of time machine

Okay this is a preemptive, I have an external with three partitions, 1 is for bulk files that won't fit on my Laptop, 1 is for a backup of my PS3, 1 is for my Time Machine. I was wondering if I could change the name of my Time Machine drive as the one I have is not clear and I don't want my girlfriend to mess things up. I suspect that just changing it will mess the whole Time Machine process up so is there either a work around to confuse it that the old saves were indeed on the drive with the new name? I know the sparsebundle file is finicky, of course cause its a backup.
I wanted to ask before I did anything.
I have read this but not sure if I need to go down a similar route http://www.hardmac.com/blog/2008/05/29/how-i-saved-my-corrupted-time-machine-spa rsebundle-image
Thanks in advance

Mad-elph wrote:
Okay this is a preemptive, I have an external with three partitions, 1 is for bulk files that won't fit on my Laptop, 1 is for a backup of my PS3, 1 is for my Time Machine. I was wondering if I could change the name of my Time Machine drive as the one I have is not clear and I don't want my girlfriend to mess things up. I suspect that just changing it will mess the whole Time Machine process up so is there either a work around to confuse it that the old saves were indeed on the drive with the new name? I know the sparsebundle file is finicky, of course cause its a backup.
If you're backing-up to a directly-attached, partitioned HD, all you have to do is change the name of the TM partition (not the drive itself).
Open a Finder window. If the partition doesn't show in it's sidebar, click Finder > Preferences > Sidebar in the menubar, then check the box to make external drives appear.
Back to the Finder window, control-click (right-click) the partition name and select the Rename option. This is one of the very few things you can rename that will not confuse TM. The new name will appear automatically in TM Preferences, for example, and backups will continue in the normal fashion.

Change which old backups Time Machine keeps

Any body know how to change what older backups Time Machine keeps? I know how to change how frequently Time Machine backs up (sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int XXXX),
but what I want is for it to not save so many recent backups and keep more of the old ones. Right now it saves hourly backups for the last 24 hours, daily for the last month, and weekly for each month until you run out of space. I don't need all the daily stuff, and would really like to keep more of the monthly. The older the info, the harder it is to recover by other means. What I'd like to do is keep older backups and lose more of the intermediate ones.
Any ideas?

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
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 icon grid.
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.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Post the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear.
Post the log text, please, not a screenshot. If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into a message.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — edit that out, too, but don’t remove the context.

How do I change backup frequency on time machine?

How do I change backup frequency for time machine?

You have met the infamous User Account Number issue, which causes denied access to previous user accounts.
A simple install creates a user account with a number, usually 501. If you use Setup Assistant at this point, to bring across your data from the previous OS, it will have the same number and access between the two is ok. If you wait and use Migration Assistant later, it creates a new user account, say with number 502. Now this account can't access the original data.
You can see this number in System Preferences>Users & Groups. Right click on your account name and go into Advanced Options. DON"T CHANGE ANYTHING.
Look at Pondini's guide for a second chance to use setup assistant...
http://pondini.org/OSX/Setup.html

AEBS, device name, and Time Machine backups, question

Will changing the device name of my AEBS (what shows up, for example, in a Finder window sidebar, affect time machine backups that live on a an AirDisk? I just want to make sure, before I make any changes, that my computers won't 'lose' the existing backups if I do change the device name.

I'm afraid to try it, but that is what I am not clear about. The Drive name isn't changing, just the AEBS device name. The big question is does TM just care about the drive name, or does it also care about the AEBS device name. If you are right, than I am out of luck. But would love someone to definitely confirm.

Any idea how i restore my office email account, looks like i have moved all items to trash and now have no email account ! no time machine either

any idea how i restore my office email account, looks like i have moved all items to trash and now have no email account ! no time machine either

let's go back to your original post: what do you mean "it looks like you moved all items to trash"??
You DID move them to trash? (we can discuss WHY once we cure you)...
Can you open a window in finder and get to applications and then to utilities? Is MAIL in there?
And your "office email account"-- do you mean physical office, like place of work and you want that account in your mac mail on your computer? ~OR~ do you mean, microsoft office,mail account?
The difference is necessary to know...

I changed user account and now Time Machine won't back up.

A few months ago I had a problem with my user account. I can't remember the details but i think it would no longer accept my password. After doing some hunting around for answers i made a new user account with administrative priviledges and transferred all the files over to that account. I also changed the permissions on those files to allow me to access them as a new user identity. For the most part that seems to have worked for me, although possibly i have not done the right thing.
Anyway, i have just realised recently that although the little circular arrow that indicated that Time machine is backing up my files, it hasn't actually made a backup since the end of august, which was possibly when i did this funny thing with my user account.
I am assuming that Time Machine has just got very confused about the disappearance of my files from the previous user account and change of permissions etc.
What can i do? I read on 'pondini.org' that i could reset my time machine by deleting the preferences file from my system library and then rehooking up my external hard drive as the desired backup volume. It would then, i assume make a full backup to begin with?
Any advice gratefully received. I am a graphic designer and i do need to have my files backed up!
thanks
Lesley
ps i had some extra RAM installed a little while before the user account problem and only mentioning it here in case that is an issue with Time Machine as well.

Hi Lesely, sadly the great pondini has passed away.
Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Can't imagine something not being covered there.

Lost User profile, permission changes and screwed up Time Machine.

Hello.
I have had a pretty nasty 24 hours as my 6 week old MacBook Pro went down yesterday and I nearly lost everything.
My mac had gone to sleep while I was eating my christmas dinner and for some reason I had to hard restart a couple of hours later as it wouldn't respond. When it came to the log-in screen, my admin user account had disappeared so I logged in to my wife's admin profile and could see my user profile was still there under 'users' with the rest of the accounts. All permissions had been changed and I was locked out of everything.
I then proceeded to repair permissions and then boot from the Leopard DVD disc and nothing was happening to bring my user back. I couldn't add another admin user as it was reporting my hard drive as 0k available and not enough space to proceed.
I then found out that my Time Machine backups were screwed as well but I could still see the data (thank god) and have just re-installed Leopard, hesitantly, and manually transferred data (photos, work, etc) from the Time Machine external hd.
Has anyone experienced any of this behaviour with their machines? Should I be concerned because I have no faith in 10.5 at the moment after this.
The last thing I installed was the security update released mid-December.
Can anyone shine any light on what might have gone wrong?
Kind regards.
Damian.

Left for a year and it went unanswered.
I've moved on in my life since.

Time Capsule shows with wrong name on Time Machine

I changed the name of my Time Capsule using airport. However, Time Machine still shows the old Time Capsule name, with the new name underneath. When I try to back up using this disk, it shows the following error message:
"Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk image "/Volumes/Old Time Capsule name/My laptop name.sparsebundle" could not be accessed (error -1)."
I don't know how to fix this. I have looked everywhere. I deleted the NetworkInterfaces.plist file in Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration, and even made sure to do a secure empty trash. I even did a soft reset of the Time Capsule to the factory configuration, and renamed the Time Capsule all over again. I restarted the computer several times during this process, and yet no luck, it still shows the old Time Capsule name.
Does anybody know how to fix this? Thank you!

Ok, the MacBook is backing up now. Here is what I did:
After manually changing the name of the Time Capsule Disk as above, Time Machine was still not able to back up. I kept getting the error message
"Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk image "/Volumes/Old Time Capsule name/My laptop name.sparsebundle" could not be accessed (error -1)."
The problem is that "My laptop name" Time Machine was using is wrong. I had changed the laptop name in Network Perferences>Sharing before, but it still kept looking for the wrong .sparsebundle file in the Time Capsule. I don't know why, and I even deleted the NetworkInterfaces.plist file again with no success.
I entered the Time Capsule from the Finder menu, found the .sparsebundle file with the wrong name, and manually deleted it. Finally the MacBook was able to backup. However, although the MacBook name is the same as it used to be before, and even though there was already an old .sparsebundle file with the correct name, Time Machine created a new .sparesebundle with the same name, and began an entirely new backup. I am just letting it do this backup, and then I will manually delete the old backup, so it doesn't take space on the Time Capsule. I don't need the past backups (and hope I won't swallow my words), and I am tired of dealing with this, so this will be it.

Changed account name and old music files no longer can play

I changed my account name to an e-mail address that I currently use. since I moved the old one I could no longer access any longer. Well they have a feature to do that so I took it so it would be easier to remember the account and password. thing is since I changed none of the songs that I purchased with the old account name can be played any longer. they need to be Reauthorized.
No biggie right just type in the old account name and password and I'll be on my way. Wrong :P
According to the music store the old account does not exist. Well of course not that is because I changed it. I check to see my account history under the NEW account and it has all the files I ever downloaded since I first installed iTunes! If this is the case why on earth can I not play the files purchased under my old account under the new accounts name! did I make a mistake by not deauthroizing my computer before changing account? because it is not mentioned in the instructions to do so! Grrr... normally I'd just say oh well but it's most of my iTunes library!
Pleas help!

Problem Resolved!
I was sent back an e-mail stating that I did not make a second account but changed my account name from (accounts will be withheld for security) one to the other. Problem?
Files downloaded from the other account name would not work with the one that I was currently using.
Issues further complicating the matter. My computer recently was having Power supply issues and I reformated my computer several times. Not realizing that this left iTunes Music store saying that I had 5 computers authorized on my account because I had not deauthorized any of the computers each time. Couldn't really, windows crashed out and I couldn't get to it. So when I got everything ironed out on my computer. I couldn't play any of my songs becaus I had reached maximum authorizations! even Deauthorizing and reauthorizing didn't work.
Solution:: Login to your (working) account and go to your account summary. Click on the button that says "Deauthorize ALL computers" This will wipe all computers that you had associated with your account to play your songs. Not that big of deal because all you have to do is log back in. (BIG deal to ppl that don't know your password, which they shouldn't be playing yoru songs anyway!)
Once I resetted my authorization on all computers and logged back in everything was fine.
Now I think the tech that sent me the e-mail did do one thing for me. He must have enabled my old account I used to have and linked it to my current one. Because instead of my old account saying it does not exist it says it works now! yet I still login to and access my account with my new e-mail account!
So even though I would like to say everything was within my power to do myself the whole time. That is not the case. The tech did help me associate the two accounts from withing iTunes. So I can now listen to my songs at anytime I want and not be told I have 5+ computers when I only own 2 LOL

Want to change account name for App Store

I have changed the iTune store account name and want to update for App Store, so that I can updates applications. How to change the account name on the App Store? I changed in the Setting but it doesn't affect in the App Store. Thanks for your help.

I think you need to login to a different iTunes account from within iTunes, then sync your iPhone/iPod Touch. It should then have your other store account as the default.

Change background colors of time machine

The new color scheme in time machine is absolutely horrible. I can no longer see the list on the right, with a purple on purple background.
I called support and got some idiot that just popped off, can't be done, good bye.
There has to be a way to change that, can someone help me out here, I can't read the list at all any more

This is an unsupported and untested hack. I don't know whether it still works. Although I don't generally advise hacking on this site, it seems justified in your case.
Back up all data.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowBackgroundAnimation -bool FALSE
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal 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 Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
Relaunch the Finder.
To undo, repeat the above steps with this command:
defaults delete com.apple.finder _FXShowBackgroundAnimation

Finder crash upon login with one account, better to copy files to new account or use Time Machine backup?

The finder crashes when I login to my old account. Briefly my problems started with iPhoto crashes and eventually to finder crashes. The finder would crash when I would try to transfer picture files from one directory to another. I'd deleted com.apple.iPhoto.plist as well as com.apple.finder.plist but these did not help. The crash is characterized by there being no menu items on the top left, but with dock icons which cannot however be clicked, and I can only resort to a hard reset to get back to the login window. I created a new admin account -- this one works -- but cannot decide whether I should just transfer files from the old account to the new account (as described somewhere in the archived support) or whether I should "go back" in time to when the system was working well (about December 2012 was the last "good" Time Machine backup -- I did a backup in February, but that was when I was already having problems). I am afraid that if I transfer certain files (especially the picture files and iphoto files) to the new account, I might cause the same problem on the new account. Any suggestion as to how to resolve this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Transfer files off the machine to a external storage drive and disconnect, that way you can do anything you like.
TimeMachine may fail to restore if your drive is corrupted and can't be easily verified if your data is truly on it or will restore.
Most commonly used backup methods
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6
For Snow Leopard Speed Freaks
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

Can I back up two computers with the same name to Time Machine?

I recently bought a new MacBook Pro to replace my old one. Both have the same Computer Name (as shown in the Sharing tab of System Preferences). The older one backed up to my Time Capsule as Stuart Field's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle.What will happen if I turn on Time Machine for the new computer? Will it just append to the old sparsebundle? Or will it create a new one with a different name? I would prefer to have the new machine have the same name as the old one.

It will create a new one, unless you get the "Would you like to reuse the backups" prompt and select the "Reuse" option. See #B5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for details.
The 2 sparse bundles will have the same name, but internally each carries the hardware address of the associated Mac, so Time Machine will always know which one is which. If you ever have to do anything directly with the sparse bundles, however, you may have some trouble figuring that out. Thus I'd strongly suggest using names that are at least slightly different.

Changing account name affects Time Machine?

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