Is there a way to access Time Machine files associated with an old user name?

My iMac was running super slow and there was a bunch of programs, etc. that I wanted to get rid of anyway so I thought I would do a "clean install" from my Snow Leopard disc. I moved items on my desktop to my Seagate external drive and then unplugged it. I have had Time Machine saving to it for a long time so I was confident I could just move a few items (pictures, music, etc.) back on to my hard drive when the install was completed. To my surprise, when I went to Time Machine I found the items I had moved from my desktop but no earlier versions of my other files.
In researching this issue a little bit, it appears that perhaps I created a new user name when I did the install and that my historical items are likely still on the Seagate but stored somewhere associated with my old user name. I understand that if I can change my user name back to the original that I may be able to access the items and transfer the items I want. To compound the situation, I have no idea what my old user name even was.
Does this make sense to Mac experts out there?
If so, is there a way to see the old user names and access the Time Machine files?
I've been avoiding telling my wife that I may have lost all our kid photos so I'm desperately hoping someone can help.

The problem is that Time Machine detects your new OS X copy as a new Mac and it doesn't let you access to your backups. To access to them, see > http://pondini.org/TM/E3.html
Another option would be to access to your backups manually. Open a Finder window, select the Time Machine drive in the sidebar and go to Backups.backupdb > your computer's name > one of the backups > your partition's name, and copy the data you want

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Is there any way to force time machine to keep retrying after disk i/o error?

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i've had a hard drive problem previously, and i managed get all the data off of my mac by trying and retrying to access the same files and also from my working time machine backup. after zeroing out and reformatting my drive and doing a clean install of Mavericks i had everything back up running no problems.
recently, my macbook pro would be stuck and slow in recently imported iphoto pics so i figured my hard drive is really failing this time around
i try to get a time machine backup to save what i can, but after a couple of tries time machine would just stop backing up and in console i would see a disk i/o error.
is there any way to force time machine to keep trying to backup through the disk i/o error so i can save what i can before getting a new drive?
edit: a little more info, i know i have a harddrive error from looking at the console, but when i do a verify disk in disk utility it comes up clean and even after doing a disk repair it comes up clean i still see disk i/o errors in the console.

See:
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Thee can also be a problem with the file(s) that store the extensions registry.
Delete the files extensions.* (extensions.sqlite, extensions.rdf, extensions.cache, extensions.ini) and compatibility.ini in the Firefox [[Profiles|profile folder]] to reset the extensions registry.<br />
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HT204057 is there a way to use time machine with a backup drive connected to my AirPort?

is there a way to use time machine with a backup drive connected to my AirPort Extreme?

Unfortunately, this is not officially supported by Apple......if you still have the 4th Gen AirPort Extreme that you list in your equipment profile.
However, the new "tower" shaped version of the AirPort Extreme does now officially support Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port of the device.

HT204053 Our macs were set up with an incorrect Apple ID. Is there any way to change the Apple ID associated with these macs?

Our macs were set up with an incorrect Apple ID. Is there any way to change the Apple ID associated with these macs? This causes increased frustration during the updating process. After maverick we cannot edit the id being used anymore.

If you can prove ownership to the Macs, call Apple Care and request the Account Security Team.

Can't access Time Machine files since upgrading to Mavericks

I have searched the community and found that people have experienced issues backing up to Time Machine since upgrading to Mavericks, but my problem appears slightly different from the ones I've found. I can see that my Time Machine is actually backing up since the upgrade as it was before the upgrade. The issue I'm having is that I can't access the backed-up files in any way.
When I try to open time machine it launches the "space view" with all of the historical tabs lined up for me to scroll through, but imediately closes that window and gives the error message: "Can't connect to a current Time Machine backup disc". It's so weird, because it says that there have been backups completed since the upgrade (most recently this morning). If it wasn't writing to the disc, it would have showed me an error of some sort.
What I am, specifically, trying to accomplish is that I need to restore some iTunes playlists that I somehow managed to delete this past weekend. I figured that I would easily be able to access the library file that contains the playlists from Saturday morning, when I KNOW that playlist was still there, and just restore it. Now that I am seeing that I can't access any of my time machine files, I'm realizing that I have an even bigger problem, and that all of my files are, essentially, going without backup at this time (assuming I can't access the files that have already been backing up).
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Hi John, (The above was for your attention) I'm 72 and must've hit the wrong button!!!
I followed your instructions to the letter, but sadly, no success...all my backups are showing on the TM external HD, but I cannot access them after instsalling 'Mavericks'
I spent the entire day on and off the phone with Applecare (they are very nice, and I'm sure they know most of the stuff needed; but not this problem. They are phoning back tomorrow as the senior chap was not available.
I love my apple products, and like you, have been using their gear for well over 25 years...not studying the things, but using them all the way through.
My present Mac, a 24" iMac is nearly 7 years old, bought on December 11th 2007, and this is the first time I have had a significant problem, and never a virus..got bless em!. I bet there are not many Windows users around who can say the same!
However, if I cannot access my backups, I'm a bit lost, as all my accumulated stuff is there!
I guess the worst case scenario is that I revert to OS X 10.7.5, and wait 'til the bugs are ironed out in Mavericks....Ho Hum
Message was edited by: briinoz

Is there a way to monitor Time Machine's current backup task?

I started a second Time Machine backup to a NAS yesterday (in addition to my local TM Backup, which will now be taken offsite). It took a good 24hrs to finish, which was expected over WiFi. Since the initial backup, all the hourly backups have seemed normal...20-80 MB or so. Then all of a sudden this morning, I noticed the backup was taking longer than usual. I think it was indicating something around "1.09 GB of 1.09 GB", which seemed like a lot. I checked again, and the latter number had increased...something like "2.10 GB of 2.10 GB". I'm not running a VM, and there are no other obvious reasons the backup would be so big. I figured I'd let it go. I checked back again 30mins later and it was up to 69.1 GB of 69.1 GB.
So what's going on here? TM typically knows exactly how much it needs to backup before it starts copying files. Why would the latter number continue to go up, particularly when there's no obvious reason for the extra data to backup?
I tried opening the .inprogress pkg, but the folder size calcs weren't nearly fast enough for me to see where the backup was going. I tried the fseventer app, but it didn't seem very clear where files were being copied from; I could see where they were being placed, but since the backup is encrypted, backupd was writing to slices in the sparseimage, rather than an obvious hiearchy.
Is there a way to monitor the files that TM is currently backing up...say in real time? Is there a debug logging mode for the backupd? Or is there a log of the files that were copied in the last backup? I'd prefer to see this in real time, so that last option would be least useful.
I've poked through the great resources over at pondini.org, but nothing seems to really cover a backup that's in progress.
Thanks in advance for any tips or ideas.
p.s. I finally ended up stopping the really long backup; rebooted; restarted the backup manually, and this time it was a much more managable 500 MB. Additionally, I could see that during the final "cleaing up" stage, it removed the huge .inprogress file.

Choose Connect to Server from the Finder's Go menu, provide the first computer's IP address, log in, and set it up in the Time Machine pane of System Preferences.
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Is there a way of excluding Time Machine from drives list?

Every time I save a file or an application scans the drives on my iMac, the Time Machine drive is included.
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Is there a way of excluding the TM drive from the normal drives list? So that it's invisible to applications?
Cheers,
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if it is spotlight that i s scanning your drives, add the time machine drive to the privacy area in system prefs:spotlight:privacy. either drag the drive to the window or click the + buttonon bottom right.

Is there a way to use Time Machine to backup my Macbook Pro to an external drive connected to my iMac?

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Choose Connect to Server from the Finder's Go menu, provide the first computer's IP address, log in, and set it up in the Time Machine pane of System Preferences.
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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, press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
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Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Try the action again. Post any messages that appear in the Console window – the text, please, not a screenshot.

Is there any way to undo Time Machine formatting?

Within 20 minutes of becoming a proud iMac owner for the first time I think I have made a serious mistake
I have two external hard drives, a 1TB Seagate that I wanted to use as my Time Machine back-up drive, and a 500MB WD drive that I had various files on that i wanted to copy to my iMac.
I had both drives connected through USB and when I went through set-up I selected the Time Machine option for the Seagate drive. I certainly don't recall my WD drive being mentioned at any point in the process, however when I look at the WD drive it now shows as 'Time Machine Backups', as does my Seagate drive, so it appears both drives were re-formatted.
Is there any way to undo this or will I need to look at data recovery software?

It sounds like you got this prompt:
And clicked Use as Backup Disk. Then got this:

Accessing Time Machine files on external drive

I'm going to be selling my iMac G5 soon and won't be replacing it for some months. I regularly back up the entire HD to an external drive using Time Machine.
I would like to be able to access my iMac files on the external drive, as and when required, using my MacBook.
Could you let me know whether this is possible as there seems to be a permissions issue when I attempt to do this?

Thank you, I've tried your suggestion and so far so good.
I'm having some issues opening my Lightroom Catalogue because of permissions issues, and also with they iPhoto library on the external drive, so I'll need to work out a way of resolving these problems.
I would like to be able to access these libraries 'as is' on the MacBook and use them just as I would on the iMac but the Time Machine backups are throwing up permissions errors. My user name is the same on both the MacBook and the iMac, so I don't think that is the issue.
Otherwise, I will have to think of another system and not bother with having a Time Machine backup. I think I'll need to copy/clone the iMac HD or at least the Documents folder but that would probably create some security issues as anyone will be able to access the files—which I don't want either.

Is there a way to access only my files from my favorites on finder to files on a microsoft based server?

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Can't Access Time Machine Files

Ok so last night I did a complete backup with Time Machine on an external HD...I made sure one the backup was done that it had in fact did a complete back up. I was able to scroll through the previous backups of everything...Mail, iPhoto etc. It was all there.
The reason I did the backup was I wanted to reinstall Snow Leopard. So once I got the OS reinstalled I went to access my Mail, iPhoto on the Time Machine backup so that I could have my pictures, emails back but it won't let me restore them. I can see the different backups and the time stamps etc. but it won't let me click and restore.
Am I missing something here? Did I do something wrong?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

cplume wrote:
Ok so last night I did a complete backup with Time Machine on an external HD...I made sure one the backup was done that it had in fact did a complete back up. I was able to scroll through the previous backups of everything...Mail, iPhoto etc. It was all there.
The reason I did the backup was I wanted to reinstall Snow Leopard. So once I got the OS reinstalled I went to access my Mail, iPhoto on the Time Machine backup so that I could have my pictures, emails back but it won't let me restore them. I can see the different backups and the time stamps etc. but it won't let me click and restore.
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Most likely, when your Mac started up again after erasing and installing OSX, you set up a user, rather than letting +Setup Assistant+ transfer everything from your backups. So now you have a user that isn't the same as the one that "owns" the data in your backups.
Your best bet is probably to start over: erase the internal HD again, install OSX again, and when your Mac starts up again, transfer everything from your backups. See #19 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum) for details.
Why did you want to do this? If all you want is a fresh copy of OSX, you can just install it, without touching anything else.

How can I access Time Machine files?

I installed an external 500 gigger external drive and dedicated it to Time Machine in June 2011. In October 2012 I upgraded to Snow Leopard and checked Time Machine only to find that all dates prior to that date were grayed out. I thus lost access to some important files since the automatic back-up began anew in November 2012.
The Finder indicates that the external drive contains over 100 GB of saved files which must be the ones under the grayed-out dates. There are no photos or movies on the Time Machine drive as I am using another external for those. I have used every trick and tried every advice given in this forum including a Utilities-Repair of that drive - to no avail.
How can I regain access to the contents hidden under the dates which do NOT light up when I pass the mouse over them?

I suggest you read Pondini's Time Machine articles; http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html

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Is there a way to access Time Machine files associated with an old user name?

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