HT201250 existing Time Machine backups to a new Mac

how do i migrate existing time machine backups to a new mac from my time capsule?

It took a little more research, but that link in the end solved my problem.  After mounting the Time Capsule and the previous backup sparsebundle, I ran these commands to inherit the old backup (with <capsule> and <machine> representing the names of the Time Capsule and machine/hard drive respectively:
          sudo tmutil inheritbackup /Volumes/<capsule>/<machine>.sparsebundle
          sudo tmutil associatedisk -a / /Volumes/Time\ Machine\ Backups/Backups.backupdb/<machine>/2012-12-09-114511/<machine>
          sudo tmutil setdestination /Volumes/<capsule>/
"2012-12-09-114511" was the latest snapshot that was there.  According to the documentation, you can pick any snapshot, since the "-a" in that command will update all of the associated snapshots.

Similar Messages

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    I used migration assn't to load a Time Machine backup onto a new mac.  The first TM backup after that took some time, perhaps not surprising.  But the backups thereafter have all taken hours, with huge amounts of "indexing" time.  Time to reload TM?

    Does every backup require lots of indexing?  If so, the index may be damaged.
    Try Repairing the backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
    If that doesn't help, see the pink box in #D2 of the same link.

  • Can I still use my "old" Mac after restoring Time Machine backup to a new Mac?

    Hi guys.
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    It should work if the drive is connected directly to your Mac. That is not the same as saying that it will work.
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  • Going on using existing time machine backup in a new network

    Hello community,
    I just set up a wireless network with my new time capsule. As I used to do my time machine backups on an external USB hard drive (Intenso), I connected it to the TC for extending my network space and going on using this volume as my backup-volume.
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    Fabian

    Unfortunately Time Machine doesn't recognize the Intenso drive as my old backup volume although I did nothing else than plugging it into the TC instead of my Macbook.
    Nothing is the same. There is a huge difference here depending on whether a hard drive is connected directly to a Mac......in which case it is a "local" drive.....or if a drive is connected to a device like the Time Capsule.....which is a "network" device.
    In other words, if you connect a drive to the USB port on the Time Capsule, the drive becomes a "network" drive.
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    You can set up Time Machine to back up to the drive connected to the Time Capsule.......but Time Machine will not continue to back up to the same file that was being used when the drive was connected directly to your Mac.  Instead, Time Machine will make a new, complete backup and then continue to back up incrementally once the first "master" back up is done.
    Obviously, this will require quite a bit more space on the hard drive, since you will have two sets of backups on the drive.
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  • Linking previous Time Machine Backup to a new Mac OS X Reinstall

    Hi guys,
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    I had that problem and a more challenging one as well - don't feel bad, mine was caused by the Apple geniuses at my local Apple store doing the same backup and reinstall OS thing.
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  • Using Time machine backup drive on new mac

    Hi
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  • How can I migrate data from old macs second harddrive in time machine backup to my new mac?

    Hi,
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    If the migration assistant doesn't work and you have no backup then you will have to take another path that involves a little more manual work. Anyway in your situation a fresh start seems like a good idea. So set up your new Mac with the same username and afterwards copy your user folder from the old to the new either using your ethernet connection or an external USB drive. This will also bring your user's Library folder along and retain most of your settings at least as far as they are applicable in Mavericks.
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  • Time Machine backup fails on new Mac

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    in DU, select the whole drive (model, not name) and click on the partition tab. set the number of partitions to 1 and click on "options". set the partition scheme to GUID there. set the format to mac os extended journaled and click "apply".
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  • Migration of Time Machine backup files to new Mac

    I am the proud owner of a new iMac which is replacing an old 2006 model. I have 2 external hard drives which I have now connected to the new computer, I used to back these up using TM on my old mac. Can I migrate those backup files to the new mac so that if needed I can go back to restore files from months back ? The TM backup is held on a 3rd external drive.
    Looking across the web it looks like if I switch on TM it will start with new backup files and wont read the old ones. Any ideas please ? Thanks

    TM will make a completely new backup of your new computer, so you may wish to use a freshly formatted drive large enough to handle TM backups (roughly double the size of the drive you are backing up.) You can use TM or Migration Assistant to transfer from an old backup. MA is only useful if you want to transfer the entire Home folder, all third-party applications and support folders, system support folders, and system preferences. But if you want to move selected files and/or folders then you would need to use the TM application.
    See User Tips for Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.

  • Getting Photos from Time Machine Backup disc to new mac

    Hi! I have everything saved from my macbook on an external hard drive via time machine. When I go into time machine and the back up from my mac book, I click on users and then photos and then iphoto library and have no problem seeing my library...
    BUT
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    I think it's because you're trying to restore to a computer with a different Owner. I would post that on the Time Machine forum.
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  • Time Machine Backup Restore to New Mac

    Hi!
    I have just got a new Macbook Pro with a 500gb HD. However, my old mac had a 750gb HD and I only had 100gb left.
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    If you can recover the old machine (may not be worth the cost), then you could deactivate directly. A lot depends on what crashed, the HD, mother board, or other. On a PC, the hard drive can sometimes be recovered with SpinRite as long as the crash was not fatal. There are other tricks too, but all of them depend on the crash conditions and what the problem is. If the hard drive is actually good, maybe you could just put it in another machine and run the deactivation. Of course, not everyone has a bunch of machines on hand to play with. For PCs, I often head to the department surplus pile and see if I can find something to work with (not my stock). If I find a working machine there, then I just swap it out. Of course, that is for work machines. For a home machine, I might do it for testing or repair and then put things back after the repair.

  • Restoring an existing Time Capsule backup to a new HD

    The hard drive on my 6 month old MacBook Pro failed inexplicably several days ago. After wasting half a day trying to repair the disk, I caved in and made an appointment at the dreaded "Genius" Bar.
    They verified my suspicions; complete failure. They kept the laptop, ordered a new drive and two days later informed me it was fixed. I sat down and connected it to my Time Capsule with an ethernet cable. When I turned it on, it played through that now insufferable multicultural "welcome"-in-twenty-languages jam and I followed Apple's instructions +Restoring an existing Time Capsule backup to a new Mac+:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1177?viewlocale=en_US
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    Would they have installed Snow Leopard on my Leopard machine? I definitely told them what I had been running, but it seems like a plausible reason for the hang-ups.
    Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks!

    Amenity wrote:
    Almost immediately, it dove back into the welcome song! Now, for the third time, I'm at step #12. It's been over half an hour, and still no sign of hope. Just the progress bar checking for backups.
    Connect to your Time Capsule via Ethernet if at all possible.
    After booting from your Leopard Install disc and selecting Utilities, select +Disk Utility+ and see if it can find the +sparse bundle+ containing your backups on your Time Capsule. You may have to join the network, etc., via the Airport icon in the menubar. If you can get the sparse bundle to appear in Disk Utility's sidebar, select it and do a +*Repair Disk+* (not permissions) on it.
    Would they have installed Snow Leopard on my Leopard machine? I definitely told them what I had been running, but it seems like a plausible reason for the hang-ups.
    That's fairly likely; it happens a lot, probably because most folks have upgraded and installing SL has become a habit. But it shouldn't matter -- as long as you're using your Leopard Install disc, it should work fine. Once the restore actually starts, the first thing that happens is your internal HD is erased, and everything is restored from your backups.
    It's also possible that whatever was going wrong on your internal HD corrupted something critical in your installation of OSX, and the corrupted stuff was backed-up, and that's what's giving TM a problem. If nothing else seems to help, try restoring from a previous backup.

  • HT201250 when restoring a time machine backup to a new computer, does it affect the new operating system on the new computer

    when restoring a time machine backup to a new computer, does it affect the new operating system on the new computer?

    That depends on how you do it.
    By far the best, easiest, most reliable method is to use Setup Assistant when your shiny new Mac first starts up, to transfer your apps, users, data, etc.   That doesn't disturb either the OS or basic Apple apps that came with the new Mac.  See Using Setup Assistant on Mountain Lion or Lion.
    There is a facility to restore an entire system from Time Machine backups, including the version of OSX on the backup, but that's for use when your internal HD has been erased or replaced only.  It's not a good idea to restore the full backup of one Mac to a different one.  Depending on the circumstances, the installer may not allow it.  Even if it does, the Mac may not start up, or may kernel panic, or not work properly.

  • How to keep using existing Time Machine backup after replacing main hard drive

    The hard drive in my iMac (Lion) is failing. I cloned it to a new drive and installed it in the iMac. Now the system wants to start fresh with a whole new Time Machine backup.
    It seems obvious that there must be a way to keep using the existing Time Machine backup set, but I can't figure out how to do it. Help, please.

    If you had done a full system restore from Time Machine, it would have been done automatically.  But 3rd-party cloning apps don't leave a "trail" so Time Machine can figure out that the new drive has all the old stuff on it.
    Effective with Lion, there is a way to "associate" the new drive with the backups of the old one, but it requires the use of Terminal.  See #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.  As noted though, this only works on directly-connected backup drives, not backups made over a network.

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