Migration Assistant and Time Machine Problems on Clean Install of OS Lion

I just completed a clean install of Mac OS X Lion. However, the Migration Assistant application does not detect my time machine backup on my external hard drive when I try to copy my files to my mac. Is there a way where I can transfer my files?

Are you sure its not shown? It should have a yellow or green icon, and list the name of the system and HD that was backed-up, not the one it's on.
If not, try to repair the backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

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Relocating music files after using migration assistant and time machine

Hello
I recently purchased an i7 MBP because my previous 15 in was stolen. Luckily I had a time machine backup of the old machine - my previous MBP was the Intel 2 Core Duo model just before the refresh to the i5/i7s
So far what I did is ran migration assistant to bring my files over
Everything seems to be fine, except when I got to iTunes much of my music is listed but I get the exclamation mark symbol next to most of the music and movies and apps
I am trying to figure out how to fix this and relocate my files
I know I could access my time machine backup by browsing other time machine disks, but I can't browse the music folder in a previous backup because I don't have the permisson to access it
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Victor:
If you correctly transferred your music files the problem is with your iTunes Library file.
Open iTunes and quickly press the option key. A window will show to ask you to select the library file. Browse for it and it should fix the problem.

User Not Found Using Migration Assistant and Time Machine

My iMac running Leopard kernel panicked which forced me to do a hard reset. After rebooting, the account I was logged in as disappeared. Fortunately, that wasn't the admin account. I logged into my admin account and thought I would use Migration Assistant to recreate the missing account (I did run Disk First Aid first to ensure the hard drive was in good working order). However, Migration Assistant does not list the missing user account when reading my Time Machine backup. I do see the user if I go directly into into Time Machine. I'm guessing that Migration Assistant may only be looking at the most recent backup which obviously doesn't contain the missing user.
Suggestions on how to restore the missing user or how to get Migration Assistant to read all of the users in my Time Machine backups?

BobParr wrote:
I'm guessing that Migration Assistant may only be looking at the most recent backup which obviously doesn't contain the missing user.
Correct.
Suggestions on how to restore the missing user or how to get Migration Assistant to read all of the users in my Time Machine backups?
How many backups were done after the problem occurred? One possibility would be to delete those backups (see #12 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum), so the last one has the missing user's data, and Migration Assistant can find it. If you do that, once everything's properly restored, boot up from your Leopard Install disk, then reboot normally. That will trigger a "deep traversal" in the next backup, where TM will compare everything on your system to it's backups, thus assuring that nothing was lost via the earlier deletions.
Another would be to do a full restore from Time Machine, per #14 in the FAQ.

Migration Assistant and Time Machine

I had an iMac G5 and bought an iMac Intel. Used Migration Assistant to load iMac Intel. Still using iMac G5. Time Machine can't tell difference between two, when one is on the other won't let Time machine mount. Time Machine thinks the new iMac Intel is the iMac G5. I trashed the TimeMachine preference fie on the iMac Intel but it did not help, suggestions.

axk2 wrote:
Thanks, yes the new Mac is running snow leopard. Can two network computers back up at the same time to one time machine.
Ah, a bit of terminology clarification: +*Time Machine+* is the software in Leopard and Snow Leopard that performs backups, to various places, including a +*Time Capsule,+* which is a piece of Apple hardware.
Yes, that's very common, often to a Time Capsule, or a shared drive on another Mac on the same network.
Your problem apparently is, you told TM to "take over" the old Mac's backups. The old Mac cannot use that set any more.
So you'll need to start it fresh. On the old Mac, go to TM Preferences > Change Disk. First select the "none" drive, then the destination. That should start a whole new set of backups for the old Mac, in a separate sparse bundle on the Time Capsule. The first backup will be a full one, so connect to it via an Ethernet cable if possible -- it will be much faster.
Also be sure there's enough room on the TC's internal HD for a new full backup of the old Mac, plus a lot of extra space, so TM can keep a reasonable "depth" of old backups of it. If there isn't enough, post back with the sizes of the data on both Macs and the size and amount used on the TC.

Error using migration assistant and time machine

Daughter dropped water on our old macbook pro. Got a new one and trying to restore using backups to our time capsule, but we are receiving this error using the migration assistant: "Make sure that all of your network devices are connected and turned on. It appears that some backups are already in use. If you don't see the backup you need, make sure it is not currently mounted by another machine and try again."
any suggestions on how to transfer the data from time capsule to new macbook?

Do you see the backups in the Select Your Disk window?
If so, can you connect to them?
Make sure Time Machine is OFF on all Macs on your network. If any backups are trying to run, cancel them. If they won't cancel after a few minutes, see #D6 inTime Machine - Troubleshooting.
Also be sure no other Mac is looking at them. If you continue to get that message, disconnect all users, per #C12 in the same article.
If none of that helps, the backups may be damaged (could have happened when the old Mac died). Try to Repair them, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting

TS1963 migration assistant and time machine

How do I use My Book WD drive with all my time machine back ups from my dead 2006 iMac intel base to restore to my new 2012 iMac.
I was using snow leopard and now have Mt Lion?
Thanks,
Ken

Here you go:
How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac
Despite the title you can use a Time Machine backup as the "source" Mac for Migration Assistant's purposes.
Scroll down to Time Machine or other disk migration
A wired connection is recommended. Migration over wireless is subject to all the variables involved with wireless networking, and could take an unacceptable amount of time to complete.

Migration assistance and time machine in OS X Lion

I use Mac OS X Lion. Before that I had Mac OS X. I had all data in my Western Digital 500 GB external hard drive (as time machine). After switching to Lion, when I try to use Migration Assistant, the application does not find the time machine. Would any one give me some assistance. Thanking you in anticipation.

Have a Look Here
http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/MigrateLion.html
From Here
http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Index.html

Migration assistant and time machine: now I have two profiles

Hi all!
I wasn't able to do what I was hoping to (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2791592&stqc=true) since I had the wrong torx screwdriver (by the way if anybody knows the size...), so i restored my data from time machine.
After that i was logged in in the profile I created when I first booted the mbp. I was able to see all the application restored from time machine but not the data. Under users, there were the new profile and the one I used to have before (and that was on time machine). To access "old" data I had to log in in the old profile.
My questions are:
- Should I eliminate (and is it safe to do so) the new profile created on the new mbp and keep only the old one imported from time machine? Will this save space/increase performance?
- Is there any risk to loose something that was by default on the new macbook pro (programs etc)?Actually using the old profile averything seems the same as in the old mb, even desktop settings etc.
-I ran geekbench just after booting the mb and I scored around 6000 and 5800 (don't have details here now). After importing data I was between 5400 and 5600...why?
thankyou all
Message was edited by: mrc

keep the blank user account.
you can use it in case you have a problem on your normal user account. by checking the problem on the blank user, you can see whether it originates from a user file or from deeper down your system.

Time machine problems on clean-install, doesn't recognize old backups as such/permissions issues

My iMac had been pretty slow, and never received a clean install since I'd gotten it. With the security that I'd just restore whatever I wanted from Time Machine afterward, I used the recovery partition to format the hard drive and install Lion.
Everything's fast now! It's remarkably like it was when it was brand new with Tiger, which is pretty good for a nearly-six-year-old computer running today's OS. I'm having problems with the Time Machine part, though. Even after ensuring that my username is the same as it was before and making all the permissions my own in both Finder and with chmod, it throws me permissions errors when restoring some, but not all files, with no pattern about it. This isn't a big deal for restoration because I've just used sudo cp to put everything back where I wanted it, but now I have issues with backups. Even though TM sees my old backups and can restore the ones that don't give permissions errors, it still wants to take new backups of things I've manually restored, such as my iTunes folder of about 50GB. That's the big conflict now; I don't want to take up all that space for files that are already backed up. Can anyone offer a fix? Thanks!

coldcaption wrote:
Yes, the other drive was backed up before. If it was previously associated then perhaps something was messed up trying to re-associate.
As long as you pointed it to the backups of that disk, it should be fine. If not, or if in doubt, just run the command again.
It changes whether or not I have the previously-backed up external drive added to the things to back up (unless it's supposed to do delete the old ones in this case?),
I don't quite follow that. The Estimated size of full backup is just the total data on the drives that are included (unfortunately, there's no display of them), less any exclusions of files/folders on them.
Finally, though, the size of a backup if I were to take one right now would be 363 GB;
How do you know that? The only way to tell what Time Machine thinks is new or changed is to actually start a backup, and see what the display ("xxx GB of yyy GB") and/or log messages (". . . xxx MB/GB requested (including padding), yyy MB/GB available.") say. See #A1 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for a handy widget to display the log messages.

Time Machine problem after clean install

I installed an SSD drive on my mac and did a clean install of OS X Lion.
Now, when I access my time machine backup disk I can only restore applications and not any files.
Is there anything I should do to be able to restore files etc.?

Erase Lion from the hold commnad r boot into Recovery, then reinstall it again.
Next when you setup Lion, have teh TM drive connected and use Setup Assistant to transfer from TM drive.
What I suspect happened is you have the same named account and it's conflicting.
Most commonly used backup methods explained

Cloning VS Migration Assistant VS Time Machine restore

Dec 2006 MBP, disk has never been defragged or re-formatted from day 1, so it's pretty cluttered up.
New HDD coming in today, what do you think is the best way to transfer my system, apps and files to the new drive in a clean way?
(running OS X 10.5.8 now, think I want to do an upgrade to OS X 10.6 while I'm at it...
Should I do that before/after transfer? How does that affect Migration Assistant or Time Machine?)

My preference would be to make a bootable clone on my internal on an external. The clone will allow extraction of users, files, apps, and data at the end of an erase and install. Also, if your Sno install goes bad, then you can clone back to your internal to get back where you started. My preference for installing Sno is an erase and install.
Upgrading ought to be pretty much as good as, as good as, or better than (depends on who you talk to) erasing and installing, and having done so everything still should be in place except for archived incompatible programs after the install. Having a bootable clone is just as important in the case of upgrade as in the case of erase and install.
You bootcamp partition won't be affected under either install method. But, keep in mind that if you want to change its size, then erasing and installing will give you the opportunity to do so. No migrating needed for the Boot Camp partition.
Message was edited by: donv (The Ghost)

Migration assistant versus time machine

I am about to get a new mac, is there a reason to prefer migration assistant or Time Machine
to transfer the data from the old to the new? Will any method allow my computer to recognize
the time machine data as its own? Thanks

Jhalev wrote:
I am about to get a new mac, is there a reason to prefer migration assistant or Time Machine
to transfer the data from the old to the new?
Your best bet is to use +Setup Assistant+ (when your shiny new Mac first starts up), per the link supplied by Baltwo. You can transfer from your old Mac, or it's backups. It's probably best to do it directly from your old Mac, but if it doesn't have a FireWire port, or isn't available, and your backups are on a external HD, you can use that instead.
Will any method allow my computer to recognize the time machine data as its own? Thanks
Not exactly. Time Machine will do a new, full backup of your new Mac. But you will get a prompt about whether you want to "reuse" the backups. See #B5 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum), for details.

What's best: restore using migration assistant or time machine back up?

Hi,
here's the scoops, wondering what to do:
1-tech support at apple store did a clean install of os lion on my macbook.
2-I have a back up from time machine
3-I want to restore everything but applications
4-Problem is: "I think" it's better to use the back up rather than install one certain program (quickbooks) again
5-Should I just use migration assistant to restore everything after setting the computer as a new one; or restore using time machine, without the applications, and restore quickbooks from the back up by itself later on?
Sorry for the sillyness of this question..
Thanks

Where is Pondini...

Help, I am about to pull my hair out, can't get into a locked drive and Time Machine problem

I've screwed everything up, I think. I had Time Machine doing backups to an external 500Gig drive and somehow it got locked. I went into Get Info to try and change the access but it won't allow me. On top of this problem, my original drive died and I can't get into Time Machine to restore. When I click "Enter Time Machine", nothing happens. I created an eDisk and a startup disk to another external drive that I'm using now, but since everything that's been backed up is on the other drive that I can't access. When I try accessing the drive it gives: "The folder “G-DRIVE ” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents." I'm not knowledgeable enough to work from the command line, so if I need to do that to access the drive, please walk me though it. As for the Time Machine problem, I have no idea how to recover anything since it won't even come up, it just sits there. Outside of blowing my brains out, I don't know what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I can't afford to take it to Apple to let them try and fix it.

Hello, not sure how this might affect a TM drive, or not, but...
Here is what i needed to do for my drive "320GB HD", the last command is just for clean up
Open Terminal and type these commands carefully with the spaces & change 320GB HD to the name of your drive.
sudo chflags 0 "/volumes/320GB HD"
sudo chown root "/volumes/320GB HD"
sudo chmod 1775 "/volumes/320GB HD"
sudo -k
That said, these should be sufficient to do the job:
sudo chflags 0 "/Volumes/320GB HD"
sudo chmod a+rx "/Volumes/320GB HD"

How to get 10.6 calendar out of Time Machine after a clean install of 10.8

I recently did a clean install of Mountain Lion on my 2007 2.2GHz Intel, 4GB RAM with 120GB SATA Disk. First, I backed up all of my files in a 1 terabyte WD external harddrive using Time Machine on Oct. 26; as I used my MacBook Pro during the week Time Machine continued to back up my files as I kept it connected to my laptop.
On November 1st I disconnected the WDHD and initiated the clean install. Using a Jonathan Morrison video on YouTube I erased all of my files on Snow Leopard and installed Mountain Lion. (I only want to import certain data back into my laptop at to keep it free from choking on files and programs that I never or rarely use; I only use it for writing and the calendar and misc: no pictures or movies: I am trying to be gentle with it because of its age.) For the next 9 days I backed up all of my Word docs and files in various cloud storage.
On November 10th I connected the WDHD again and Time Machine did its backups; as I worked I assumed that iCloud and iTunes was taking care of the internal syncing, of my calendar and notebook, contacts et. al, as I merely connected my phone, signed in to iCloud and opened iTunes and clicked SYNC. After the syncs, I opened Calendar and found none of my events; Notes, likewise, had only 7 notes: on my phone are over 40.
I began research online and found that the majority of post and responses to the question of retrieving this type of data (Calendar, Notes) was best accomplished by using Time Machine.
http://chasingaftermoonbeams.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/restoring-lost-ical-events-a nd.html
This blog informed me that if I turn off my wifi and erase certain files, I can then restore my calendar from my Time Machine back up. The only problem is that my Time Machine, while it is in the "Star Wars" mode will not let me access anything beyond November 10th. I went into my Time Machine user files to access my calender files - and they are there - and discovered that my old 10.6 drive is separate from my new 10.8 drive. I did a bit of research and found an article on that subject:
http://creativetechs.com/tipsblog/access-files-from-other-time-machine-backups/
This article informed me that one can browse other disks in Time Machine.
The only problem with this solution, for me, was that my new 10.8 drive was the only drive available to choose in the Time Machine "Choose Time Machine Disk To Browse" dialog box.
My question is this: How do I retrieve the 10.6 Snow Leopard OS X Calendar files (pre-November 10th) from Time Machine and install them on the 10.8 Mountain Lion OS X Calendar?

I recently used Migration Assistant to migrate the calendar folders but that only created another user; after I deleted that user I attempted to drag the folders to my desktop but recieved a prompt that I did not have permission to do this. If anyone has any ideas on this problem I would very much appriciate any advice that might assist me in understanding the concatenating process of what I am attempting to do. It has been quite curious and vexing.

Migration Assistant and Time Machine Problems on Clean Install of OS Lion

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