Clarification on Time Machine migration

I am about to upgrade my trusty PowerBook G4 to a shiny new MacBook Pro and would just like some clarification on accessing my Time Machine files from my new computer. After reading some similar posts it sounds like some users have been able to access their files from their old system on new computers while others have had issues. If I transfer all of the contents of my old system to the new one via Migration Assistant, will Time Machine recognize the new computer as the old one? Should I do the transfer via Time Machine instead? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Before you start migrating, be sure to deactivate/deauthorize the software on your PowerBook. If you'll have both computers in place, it is faster I think to put the PowerBook into firewire target disk mode then to use TimeMachine. Further, regardless of which method you use, because this is a PPC to Intel upgrade, I'd recommend that you only transfer the contents of your personal drive space and reinstall your software.
There are two reasons I recommend reinstalling software: First, buying a new computer is about the only time I get rid of the cruft and junk that I accumulate and almost never use afterwards. I figure if it is a good idea for me, it is a good idea for others . Second, having done dozens of upgrades, I have a decent idea of what can be safely transferred and what can't but long ago I figured it took almost as long to pick and choose what to transfer as it did to just reinstall everything.

Similar Messages

Error "The Connection Failed" in Time Machine, Migration Assistant and Restore From DVD

I am receiving this error when trying to connect to my Time Machine Backup in my Time capsule. I input the proper password to access my Time Capsule and It returns me to the screen with the caption "The connection failed" under the Time Capsule name in the "Select your Disk" screen. What would cause this error. I am connecting via WIFI (AirPort) and have full signal. I am using Mac OSX 10.6.8
I recently had my 1TB hard drive replaced and I am attempting to restore using Time Machine, migration assistant or from the startup dvd (tried multiple ways, no success). The initial setup of mac OSX 10.6 would not let me connect or other attempts after erasing hard drive and reinstalling OSX from disk.
Worked on it all weekend and don't have enough beer to drown the frustration, any help is appreciated.

You are correct TM is not at all easy to do a full restore.
To answer your question: Yes TM disk does show up in finder.
After my initial startup setup I was able to start TM and access all my previous backups. I migrated some files and was able grab the data from finder. Not satisfied with that I tried to do a restore to that previous date, to no success. I then erased the HD and reinstalled OSx and tried again from the setup screen. That didn't work, sulked over some beers. I then tired with Migration assistant...same result (more beer).
In starting TM after trying MA, only one backup was showing in the Star screen (today). None of my previous backups were showing. Since exiting TM it has been "Making Backup Disk Available" ( xGB of 6.29GB). Considering the size, I can only assume that these are my previous backups.
I have reviewed Pondini's posts, FAQs, and tutorials. I am a little scared to try and locate the drives through Terminal as in Pondini's TS #6 guide. If I can get my previous backups to show up, I will be happy with dragging files from Finder to restore my data and slowly work at restoring my settings/applications.

Mac air with external hard drive - not being found on Finder, Time Machine, Migration Assistant

I have been using an external drive (Imation Apollo) to access only, old files from previous computer (PC) on a new Mac Air. I had not transferred them across to new computer (didn't want to do that) just accessing them from the HD. It had been working fine until recently. Each time the external drive had been connected Time Machine would come up and ask if i wanted to use this drive for back ups, and I always chose 'Decide later'. So, as yetI hadn't as yet configured Time Machine to do back ups.
Recently I noticed that the extrnal HD was no longer showing up on Finder. Slight panic as i have 5 or 6 yrs of work saved on that HD
Further investigations - it's also not showing up either on on Disk Utility, or on Migration Assistant.
I've done the following:
Tried HD in each of different USB ports - made no difference, HD still not showing up
Tested different Hubs in each port with HD attached - no difference HD not showing up
Tried USB flash drives in the USB ports - These are working fine and show up on finder
Tried the HD on other comptuters (a PC though, don't have access to another mac to do this test)- working fine, the HD is showing up and is accessable
Interrogated the Console logs to try to see if the act of attaching the HD creates a log entry - couldn't find anything
Rebooted computer via shut down, power disconnect - no difference
Reset PRAM - no difference still not showing up
Reset SMC - no differnce still not showing up
So I think I have established that all the USB ports are functioning correctly and able to access other external drive devices, using hubs with external powersource is not the issue, identified that the external hard drive is working OK, and it appears that the Mac itself is functioning normally.
What would be the reason the Mac now does not allow this specific external HD to be identified and accessed. The only possible things I can think of are
if I had in fact pressed 'Do not use' when Time Machine asked 'do you want to use this drive for back ups'. Would that mean that the Mac now totally rejects this HD from being a source of accessible files - I hope not!
I also think that my husband may have disconnected the hard drive from my computer to access some stuff and he just yanked it out rather than use the safe eject method. Could this create an issue? The Hard drive works fine on his PC.
Why is my Mac Air now rejecting this HD and what can I do to access my historical files now.
Any assistance anyone can provide would be very greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Anna

I can't answer why it isn't accessing it, but I have a slightly related issue w my back up drive starting to get noisy.
Realizing that redundancy is safety for critical data. I talked to my brother about my situation the other day & he said he has 3 small Western Digital portable HDs that he rotates for backup. He even keeps 1 in the safe deposit box.
I have read for some time that we should have multiple back ups & also have our critical stuff backed up off site. Amazon HD reviews had a woman telling about how she was very backed up on multiple computers & hard drives, but they were robbed or burgeled & all of them were stolen including her thesis that was on the computers.
Hard drives aren't that expensive. I just bought a new Western Digital 1 TB drive for $89.99. I plan to use it to back up the Seagate that is getting noisy & then maybe alternate them.
Also, when I came back to Mac, I moved practially all of my documents to Mac. I think I just dragged & dropped or something. Photos, Office, & pdfs do fine that way. & then you could back them up to a couple of different external drives & remove from your MacBookAir.
Unfortunately I think most of us do not back up until crisis & then it may be too late.
Also use Time Machine. For the 1st time in my computer life, my computer is well backed up--although now realizing the need for redundancy so will start backing up to at least 2 different HDs alternatly.
So, not sure why it isn't working & hopefully you have come up w a solution by now.
I think what I would do in a situation like this, since you can access it on the Windows machine would be to transfer the data to the Windows machine & then transfer it back to a different back up.
I'm looking into backing up what I still have in Windows using a thumb flash drive. I think it should all fit ok now that they have the larger drives & I don't have very much left in Windows format.

ITunes 12.0.1 on Yosemite cannot locate my music after Time Machine migration

Hi hi
On my old 2008 iMac, my iTunes consists of music media on the internal iMac hdd and on an external HDD.
The option "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" was left unchecked on my iTunes.
My 2008 iMac froze and stopped working thereafter a few days ago and I bought a new iMac.
After updating my new iMac to Yosemite, I transferred my old iMac settings and data from the most recent Time Machine backup via Migration Assistant.
Loaded iTunes on my new iMac and noticed that certain playlist are not working, i.e. cannot locate the media file.
I narrowed those unplayable playlists to the music located on my external HDD.
For those that were working, when I get info on the music files, they were located in my new iMac's internal HDD that were transferred over from my Time Machine backup, i.e. ~/Downloads/MP3s/etc.
Those that were unplayable and located in my external HDD points to ' ~/user/xxx/Music/iTunes/iTunes media', roughly along this line despite my old external HDD being plugged into my new iMac.
May get some help as to how to get the unplayable media on my external HDD working on my new iMac?
Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

actually i have same problem with yours. Finally i get iTunes update from apple website, not thru app store.
but so far i still have no idea to make those iTunes update(8 times) disappear.
it's really ugly in that page.
maybe some one have idea to solve it , please advise it. it will be appreciated much ~

Uninstall problem in cc applications after time machine migration to new mac

Newbie to cc. Having problems with cc programs that were migrated across to new iMac via Time Machine back up when setting up new mac.
Attempting to open PS cc results in error message 86. I have now uninstalled Creative Cloud program and a PS cc program in Utilities via Adobe Installer in Ulilities however, (other copies?) of the programs PS cc and Bridge cc, the only 2 cc programs I have so far, are listed in my Applications folder.
I think I need to remove them both from the Applications folder but am unsure how to do this safely. There is no Abobe Uninstaller now in Utilities as it was empty after uninstall removal of duplicate? programs noted earlier so I deleted that too.
Should I send them to trash? And then perhaps I can start afresh with new installs of Creative Cloud and required cc programs.
Any advice gratefully received.
Thank, Barry

Hi Jakekira14,
We never suggest our customer's to move Adobe softwares using Timemachine because it causes launch/Licensing issues. I would request you to kindly delete all the Adobe folders and then install everything from scratch. To remove the left over's, please delete the following folders from your machine.
Click on Go>Go to
/Library/Application Support/Adobe
/Library/Preferences/Com.adobe.....
~/Library/Application Support/Adobe
~/Library/Preferences
Cheers,
Kartikay Sharma

Missing a month's emails after time machine migration

I backed up my MacBook Pro before migrating all the data to a new iMac. Opening Mail on the iMac I discover I am missing the last month's emails. What might be the problem? Has TIme Machine lost them or not recognised them? How can I now get the missing email datga from the Macbook Pro into the new iMac Mail package? Advice, please.

Quit Mail. Force quit if necessary.
Back up all data. That means you know you can restore the Mail database, no matter what happens.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder
from the menu bar. Paste into the box that opens (command-V), then press return.
A folder window will open. Inside it there should be files with names as follows:
Envelope Index
ExternalUpdates.storedata
Move those files to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Other files in the folder may have longer names that begin as above. Move those files, if any, to the Trash.
Log out and log back in. Relaunch Mail. It should prompt you to re-import your messages. You may get a warning that the index is damaged and that Mail has to quit. Click OK. Warning: The process may take hours if you have gigantic mailboxes. For reasonable-sized mailboxes, it should only take a few minutes.
Test. If Mail now works as expected, you can delete the files you moved to the Desktop. Otherwise, post your results.

What to miss out in partial Time Machine migration?

I have a Mac Book early 2009 machine, running 10.7.5 which had become increasingly slow, with endless spining wheel syndrome, finder windows taking ages to respond etc. Sometimes it will not restart - getting as far as a blank desktop, then giving a spinning wheel instead of loading the desktop icons.
Anyway, I have bought a new Mac Book Pro as my old machine is going to be passed along for less onerous tasks.
Going through the initialisation process, I first opted to restore the new machine from my Time Machine backup. This completed fine, but the new machine is then as sluggish as the old one. Clearly something is locking things up. I tried investigating the old machine for a software problem, used spring cleaning etc and never solved it.
Given the problem, I thought I would initialise the new Mac Book Pro with a clean system install - it loaded Mountain Lion 10.8 (not Maverick) from the initialisation menu.
Now I have a window that will allow me to migrate data from my Time Machine backup.
I was hoping I would have the option of choosing which applications to bring over, rather than having to find installation discs, enter license keys etc. but it does not allow me to select individual packages.
I can select all applications or none.
There is the option of importing system settings and content (where it is possible to define which top level folders are imported).
So what is the best approach?
I'm thinking to bring over the files and system settings, then install programmes piece meal as I need them.
But could issues such as the slow running be due to system settings?
Suggestions welcome.

Time Machine will (should) restore your old accounts. If you used a different user and password to set up your new MBP, try using one of your old accounts to log in. If that doesn't work, call back. You might also want to research your problem on Pondoni's Time Machine FAQ pages - http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html.
Good luck,
Clinton

Mail 5.3 crash after Time Machine migration

All,
I'm facing a problem with Mail 5.3 while trying to recover my email db from Time Machine after an update of MacOS.
Here the following steps I made to perform this update:
Update my iMac from SL to Lion 10.7.1 using the clean install way.
Install last 10.7.5 combo update.
Perform migration of content and system preferences from my last Time Machine backup before the upgrade (using the Migration wizard)
Finally, run Mail.
After having performed the email db conversion (without any error message), Mail seems to crash since no main window appears in the application.
I need to force the application to show the main window with the dedicated command of the Window menu.
But the result is not what we should expect !
Please check the snapshot herein attached.
While looking at the console, it seems that an error occurs during the execution of Mail, with the following error message and code :
29/10/12 08:30:37,835 Mail: An exception occurred during invocation of -[MailboxesController _writeSmartMailboxesToDisk]
29/10/12 08:30:37,836 Mail: *** -[NSSet initWithArray:range:copyItems:]: array argument is not an NSArray
Is there any member of this community who could have an idea what's wrong with this ?
Thanks,
Michel

Some progress on this issue to share with you.
First, Mail.app on the others user account was fine and I managed to successfully perform the migration from Time Machine.
This led to the point that the problem was relying on the Mail DB rather on the Mail.app itself.
I have reinitialised the Mail.app on the user account where the problem occured using the following guidelines:
- access to the Library folder using the [Alt]+[Goto Menu] of the Finder
- rename Mail and Mail Downloads folders into Mail.old and Mail Downloads.old
- delete com.apple.mail.plist and all com.apple.mail... files in the Preferences folder
Then, start the Mail.app again
Mail.app has been reinitialised completely !

Can't log in after time machine migration.

I just bought the latest model running Lion today, used time machine to migrate my data from my old MBP running 10.5. After the migration done I couldn't log in and stuck at the start up page. Is there any way to solve this problem (I'm pretty sure that's not the password issue)?
=_= Please help.

Time Machine will (should) restore your old accounts. If you used a different user and password to set up your new MBP, try using one of your old accounts to log in. If that doesn't work, call back. You might also want to research your problem on Pondoni's Time Machine FAQ pages - http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html.
Good luck,
Clinton

Trouble Accessing Virtual Machine After Time Machine Migration

I am hoping that someone else has run up against this problem and is able to help.
I recently purchased a new iMac. I upgraded to 8 GB of ram specifically because I have VMware Fusion and want to use it on my new machine.
I chose to migrate my entire old iMac to the new machine using my Time Machine backup.
VMware appears to have migrated successfully. I do not have any trouble accessing the application, but when I try to resume my only virtual machine, which is for Windows XP I get the following message:
VMware Fusion cannont connect to the virtual machine. Make sure you have rights to run the program and to access all directories it used and rights to access all directories for temporary files.
How do I resolve this problem?
Thanks in advance to anyone who is able to offer me a clue on how to overcome this.
If I can't access this machine it appears as if I will be able to create a new one. I would like to avoid having to do that if it is possible.
Terri Schurter

Captfred,
In that folder there is a virtual machine. It is called Windows XP Professional. So it is there. When I am in VMware Fusion I can see Windows Media Player, which is what I was probably accessing the last time I was in the machine, so it does appear to have backed up the virtual machine. I would expect it to because it is a part of a Mac application, VMware Fusion.
It appears to be an issue with permissions that I don't know how to solve.
I know there is a VMware forum, but I can't even figure out how to sign up for it the darned thing is so confusing. I can't seem to post to it no matter what I do.
Terri

What to do after Time Machine migration (how to start using TM again)

Hello,
I have just restored my system from my Time Machine (TM) backup (I have a USB hdd plugged into my airport extreme (AEB), so the TM backup is a sparsebundle file on the USB hard disk).
The initial setup with migration assistant did not work - it could not find the sparsebundle on my hard disk (this was with leopard 10.5). After setting up a dummy account and doing a system update to 10.5.6 migration assistant then worked fine.
My question is how do I start doing TM backups again? If I am logged in as the user who was restored via migration assistant and then enable TM and then select the HDD that is shared over my AEB will it automatically recognize the old sparsebundle and use that as the starting point for backups? Or do I need to delete the old sparsebundle and then start a brand new backup?
My external HDD is not big enough to accomodate an additional backup, and so I would prefer to just use the existing backup if possible.
Thank You!

atticus_pf wrote:
Hello,
I have just restored my system from my Time Machine (TM) backup (I have a USB hdd plugged into my airport extreme (AEB), so the TM backup is a sparsebundle file on the USB hard disk).
The initial setup with migration assistant did not work - it could not find the sparsebundle on my hard disk (this was with leopard 10.5). After setting up a dummy account and doing a system update to 10.5.6 migration assistant then worked fine.
My question is how do I start doing TM backups again? If I am logged in as the user who was restored via migration assistant and then enable TM and then select the HDD that is shared over my AEB will it automatically recognize the old sparsebundle and use that as the starting point for backups? Or do I need to delete the old sparsebundle and then start a brand new backup?
My external HDD is not big enough to accomodate an additional backup, and so I would prefer to just use the existing backup if possible.
not possible. TM will make a complete new backup after a new install and there is no way around that. if your existing backup drive is too small for that you have to delete the existing backups and start TM backups from scratch. (just thrash the sparse bundle and empty trash).
Thank You!

Kernel panic after time machine migration after clean install of 107.3

I had the hard drive replaced in in my mid 2009 17" MacBook pro. After the clean install of lion I migrated my data from time machine (lion) to the new clean partition.. Upon completion the machine is unresponsive. The progress wheel turning for 10 minutes. I force quit and restart to kernel panic. I have been through this 3 times same sequence of events same results. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
John

See
What is a kernel panic,
Technical Note TN2063: Understanding and Debugging Kernel Panics,
Mac OS X Kernel Panic FAQ,
Resolving Kernel Panics, and
Tutorial: Avoiding and eliminating Kernel panics for more details.

Restoring From Time Machine Migration Assistant (and other ??)

Hello
Please bear with me on this long question....
For several reasons I reinstalled ML which involves erasing the HDD first. I do have everything bakced-up to Carbonite and TM. Carbonite is slow as molassess so I opted to try Migration Assistant/TM to restore my files. MA does not allow you to choose an older (good) backup and the backup that was used was an incomplete one as evidenced by the photo library being incomplete. Another poster had a similar question and the solution involved using the install disk. There is no install disc since it was a download from the Apps store.
Carbonite has a tendency to freeze-up during a long download. Restarting it brings your download back to the very beginning. I'm not happy about Carbonite. I've heard of SuperDuper and seems to have gotten good reviews.
Questions:
1. Is there a method to access an older TM backup from MA?
2. Is there a better option that Carbonite?
3. Is SuperDuper a good option for backups?
thank you, Bruce.

If your Mac shipped with a System Install DVD then boot from it and choose "Restore from Time Machine backup".
If your Mac shipped with Lion already installed you should be able to use OS X Recovery. Boot while holding ⌘ R and choose "Restore from Time Machine backup".
Either one should present a dated list of complete system backups from which to choose. Ideally it should be the most recent one, but if you have reason to believe it is incomplete (it should not be) then try an earlier one.
You can also boot from a locally connected Time Machine backup volume. Make sure it is connected with USB or FireWire and boot while holding an Option key. This will invoke Startup Manager, from which you can select your Time Machine backup volume. It will present the same restore options as OS X Recovery.
These options will be faster and should be less prone to difficulty than using Migration Assistant.
Time Machine and "clone" software use very different philosophies. SuperDuper! is good, so is Carbon Copy Cloner. They are more customizable than Time Machine, whose customizable features essentially consist of an "on / off" switch
Of course that is also its sole advantage over the others - it's boneheadedly simple to use.
Forget Carbonite, as you learned it does not work well on Macs. I know of no similar offsite backup services to recommend.

Snow Leopard Time machine migration to Lion problem?

I have a time machine backup of a mac with snow leopard that I made back in June. I want to put it on my new mac with Lion but it won't have this update - http://www.cultofmac.com/105225/if-you-want-to-migrate-from-snow-leopard-to-lion -tomorrow-you-need-this-update/ -
I don't have the old mac to install this update on and update my time machine backup so what can I do??
any suggestions please?

Thanks Pondini, I was concerned that my Snow Leopard backups may not be compatible with Time Machine on Lion and I was going to use the Migration Assistant instead of the Setup Assistant. I have the WD NAS which I'm aware currently has AFP issues like many other NAS drives. I'm holding thumbs that by the time I get my new iMac WD would have released the firmware update so I don't have any issues.
WD NAS users can setup a notification at the following link for when the new firmware becomes available:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/7081
Failing which you can always try this workaround from Alexander Wilde - http://www.alexanderwilde.com/2011/04/os-x-lion-connection-error-with-afp-and-wo rkaround/
Cheers,
Nelis

Restore from Time Machine / Migration Assistance Utility

Sorry if this is obvious, but just want to restore wo further user complications.
_Back story:_ 2006 iMac running Snow Leopard won't boot. Genius Bar determines HD needs reformatting. Reformats and installs OS v10.5.7, not Snow Leopard. Explained to follow new setup and when prompted select from Time Machine (external HD) and restore. At home I do, it won't. Everything is recognized (External HD, Time Machine, File), but tells me OS on machine older than Time Machine files and to upgrade iMac (and can try again from Migration Assistant Utility).
Continue with prompted new setup and created User Account. iMac now ready and like new. Installed Snow Leopard. Run Migration Assistant Utility and select restore from Time Machine.
Issue: External HD recognized by iMac but not by Migration Assistant Utility. Only selection choice is internal HD. Additionally when connecting external, always get prompted (separate prompt from Migration Assistance) if I want to setup Time Machine and I've been declining. Do I have to set up Time Machine before? It didn't require that when doing new user setup.
Thanks for any and all assistance.

Chad Krukowski wrote:
Than you! that is what I wanted to do, a full restore. Unfortunately was following the direction of the genius bar.
Yup. The Geniuses (like most Apple folks) don't actually use Time Machine on their work computers, and aren't real familiar with it, so this sort of thing isn't all that unusual, unfortunately. You could even have gotten similar advice from AppleCare, depending on the expertise of whoever you happened to get. Sigh.

Clarification on Time Machine migration

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