Migration assistant can´t find TM backup

I have just done a clean install of Mavericks on my MBPr. However, the migration assistant does not recognize the time machine backup.
I CAN se the disk just fine, and I can even choose to to a complete recovery of the TM backup, so it seems to me that the machine knows that there is an external drive with a working backup there.
How can I get migration assistant to understand the same thing?

WhyCantThingsBeSimple wrote:
Well I have good news. By following the various steps and repairing the sparse bundle file on the TC, the Migration Assistant was able to see the backup like it had always been there.
The restore of my entire backup file seems to have transferred completely.
Yay!
I will spend the weekend pairing down my HD and moving data I don't readily access to an external HD, then running a running a new TM backup to that external drive.
Not to the same external HD, I hope? That's not a good idea. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #3 for details.
Can I run a repair on the TC the same way to see if that helps the disk, or is there something else that I can/must do if portions of the TC's HD are failing?
As far as I know, there's no utility that will do that. There are plenty of disk evaluation/repair utilities, but they only work on internal or directly-connected drives.
About the only thing you can do is to erase and zero-out the disk; if that fails, you know the disk is bad, but if it succeeds, that doesn't necessarily mean it's ok. And, of course, you lose all your data!
At this point my gut says that the backup file was probably damaged from Time Machine backing up during my last round of issues with the new OS updates crashing the system
That's quite possible.
How old is your Time Capsule? A few fail in the first few months, of course, and some of the original 2008 models are still going strong, but a fair number seem to start having trouble after 2 or 3 years.
But, as posted earlier, depending on a single set of backups, especially if made wirelessly, is a bit risky. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #27 for more explanation and some recommendations. I'd strongly recommend making some sort of "secondary" backups.

Similar Messages

Migration Assistant can not find my backups on Time Capsule

Yesterday I installed a fresh copy of OS X leopard and wanted to recover data from time capsule using migration assistant,the first time that I connected to TC using migration assistant it found everything on my TC and was calculation the size of that account there but suddenly it went away and now when I connect to time capsule it says (migration assistant) that there is 0 backup found. I can myself recover some data from time capsule which I stored just as a disk drive which means that the hard drive of TC is working , the sparsebundle is even there . but no result.
Even when I want to go to time machine with the icon in menu bar it takes too much time says; connecting to server but nothing happens !
Please help all the data from years ago are there !!
null

For backups on a Time Capsule, you may have to mount the sparsebundle first.
Open Finder. Click on Time Capsule -> Time Capsule Disk -> yourbackup.sparsebundle. Double-click on it and press Skip when prompted. Your sparsebundle should now be mounted on your Desktop.
Try to +Browse Other Time Machine disks+ via the ctrl-click on the TM icon.

Migration Assistant can't find External HD on MacBook Pro Mid-2012

Hi, I have a MacBook Pro Mid-2012 running OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 and I am trying to use Migration Assistant to transfer Time Machine backups that are on my external hard drive, that I backed up from my old MacBook Mid-2010. The problem I am having is that Migration Assistant can't find my external hard drive. My MacBook Pro can find it when I plug it in (I see it in Finder), but Migration Assistant can't. Can anyone help or should I go to the Apple Store? I need help with this problem as soon as possible.
Thanks in advance,
- Daniel 

Since no one replied I figured out how to do it myself.
1.) First I plugged in my external hard drive with my Time Machine backups on them, then I opened Finder and click on my external hard drive under devices.
2.) Next I clicked on and opened the folder named "Backups.backupdb"
3.) Once inside that folder I could see folders with the backups from Time Machine and all of the folders names were the date I backed up that backup. I clicked and opended the lastest backup folder.
4.) Inside that folder, I clicked and opened the folder named "Macintosh HD"
5.) Inside that folder, I clicked and opended the folder named "Users"
6.) Inside that folder, I clicked and opended the folder named "Daniel" which was my Username on my previous Mac.
7.) Finally I could see and access all my folders from my Time Machine backups from my previous Mac.
Keep in mind this is only helpful if you are trying to access old backups (backed up from another Mac) on a new or different Mac. (Sorry for the blurry images)
Hope this somehow helps someone else,
- Daniel 

Migration assistant can't find external hard drive

I bought a Macbook Air and I can't move my files from the Time Machine created by my previous MacBook. Specifically, migration assistant can't find the external disk. I can see the external disc on the desktop, it's just the migration assistant that can't find it. I've done software update, I've attached and detached the external disk and restarted the Air in all imaginable combinations, migration assistant still can't see the external disk. Anyone know how to fix this problem?

franz1 wrote:
The top one has icons showing the two partitions from the external drive and the Air's HD.
That sounds like the Today (Now) display, the one that's show in full when you first Enter Time Machine. It's not a backup; it's the current contents of your Mac.
When I clicked on the 2nd window, it seems to be a back up from July 20, which I remember making on the old MacBook. It has one folder on it with my username.
Yes, that's a backup.
When I click on this folder, I find 4 folders inside it titled: Applications, Users, Library and System. I clicked on Applications and it was empty
That sounds like you'd excluded Applications from backups. Or else you didn't wait long enough for all the apps to be displayed.
sometimes the names of programs covered with a see-through "no parking" sign - a circle with a slash through it
That's an incompatible app.
Is this the Time Machine's records?
Yup.
Can I click on the July 20 date and click on restore? Will everything just come back on it's own?
No. You can restore individual items that way (if you have permission to them), but not a whole system. You can restore "simple" apps that way, too, but not "complex" ones -- ones that came with their own installers, because they install other files in other places. If you don't restore those other things too, the app won't work well, if at all.
Can you post a screenshot of the Migration Assistant window that should show your backups (something like this):

Migration assistent, can't find my external HD, help!

I have reinstalled OSX 10.8.6 on my moms Mac mini2,1, 1,83 GHz, 80 Gb harddisc, 2Gb ram, bus 667MHz, to keep the speed fresh. The time machine copy from her mac is on a Iomega external hardisc 160 Gb, the "disctool/help" detects it as Toshiba MK1652GSX Media, physically it has two USB connections. But when I use Migration Assistant it doesn't appear as a option to choose.
On this external harddisc I have a Timemachine copy that goes back to 2008. I can see the harddick on the screen, I can connect the harddisc to Timemachine and it can start to copy and save, I can even copy back my moms documents, but still Migration Assistant can't find it.
I need to migrate all her applications, iPhoto for instance as the most important as well as her I need to migrate her letters and adresses.
What do I do?

Dear MrHoffmann
Maybe it is because I am foreign, that I don't understand correctly, and for that I am very sorry. I can't imagine what a restore of a Time Machine disk is then. And I tried to find out what a scratch disk is, and the online computer dictionary told me it was an external HD, with a space for not permanent files. Maybe I misunderstood that too. Where do I then perform a restore of the backup? And where am I told if the disk is vail and bootable... sorry for my lack of understanding. As I understand I am not able to boot from a Time Machine backup, at least before Lion, and I am talking about Snowleopard. And I am not able to understand Install logs. This just sounds too difficult and far beyond what I am cabable of with my skills. Sorry.
But on the other hand, I like to learn. And I am returning to my moms house for a few days in the end of september. And with me I can bring all kinds of tools to examin her Time Machine disk, extra hardisks, my macbook with the same system and age as my moms old Mac Mini2,1 (2006) and other things, mayby if I can find out excactly what to do, I can find out what was wrong with her Time Machine disk or Migration Assistent, to prevent that from happening again.
Thank you for taking your time to help me :-)
Bodil

Migration assistant can't find computer/is it bc of 2 OS?

I have a macbook pro and macbook air. I am trying to transfer ichat from pro to air but the migration assistant can't seem to connect.
I have the same network, fileshare is on, etc. One has snow leopard (pro) and the other leopard (air). Can't I still transfer them? I'm trying to get ichat on my air -- forwhatever reason it keeps crashing and won't open and I thought I'd reinstall it...but now I've been working for an hour on this simple task and losing my mind (sorry that slipped out)
Kate

Yes, I feel sheepish. I figured it out.
But I had too much stuff on the iMac to transfer my files, so all I transferred was my applications. Now I have to figure out how to get my documents and my iTunes over there. I don't want to transfer all my pics, etc. because that's what's eating up all my memory. It doesn't look like Migration Assistant can be used for just a few things like this.
Thanks for the QUICK response!

The Migration Assistant can not find my Time Machine Backup

Hello,
I had to reinstall Mountain Lion on my iMac. So I made a fresh backup with TM on friday, everything was fine with it.
Then I formated my HD and installed 10.8.2 from the AppStore. After setting up the Admin-Account I opended the Migration Assistant
to migrate my User Account from the TM-Backup, but it is not showing up. There are 4 backups on the Time Capsule, but only 3 are
showing up. And for sure it is mine, which is missing. :-(
When I start in Revorery-Mode and choose to set up the iMac from a Time Machine Backup, the latest Backup is from the 1. of November,
which I really don't want to use right now.
Would be very nice to get some help in here.
Thank you

No, both the backup and the new system are OSX10.6.
I'm afraid your solution doesn't work. If I go through finder and open up the folders on the backup, and try, for example, to open my "Movies" folder (which is one I dearly hope to recover), I get a message that:
"The folder "Movies" can't be opened because you don't have permission to see its contents."
I have tried Repair Permissions, but this doesn't help. All of the important folders have a little red stop sign on them.
Thanks though.

Migration assistant can't find my time machine backups?

Here's the situation: I just bought a new 13" Macbook Pro 2.53 GHz last night to replace my current 13" white Macbook. I've kept Time Machine backups on the white MB for well over a year on an external 500GB USB drive, so I figured I'd use migration assistant to move all my data over. Well, I plugged in my external HD to my new computer, it recognized the disk, and asked if I wanted to use it as my time machine backup disk for the computer: I said no, for the time being. Then I went to migration assistant, opted to restore from my backups.... but when I got to selecting from where, it gave me no options, just a totally blank selection screen. I figured I must have screwed up, so I tried rebooting, then making the external HD my backup location, all to no avail. The only thing I can think of that's messing it up is the fact that I have probably 50GB of virtual machines and other things on the HD in a separate folder from my backups.
What am I doing wrong?

mily_pl wrote:
I've found the solution!
You have to simply delete from TM disk all backup folders made by Snow Leopard. Then migration assistant will see your backups made from 10.5 Leopard.
Do that only as a last resort, and only via TM, not the Finder, as that can hopelessly corrupt your backups. See item #12 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.

Migration assistant can't find backups on Time Machine drive that contains backups from multiple computers

My Retina Macbook Pro died due to a hardware error. During the diagnosis I was asked by Apple support personnel to format and reinstall OSX, which I did but did not fix the issue. The mainboard has since been replaced and I am trying to restore the TimeMachine backup I have.
The USB disk containing the TimeMachine backup contains TimeMachine backups for two different computers, my last Mac and the one I owned before that, which died earlier this year.
When I plug the drive in, I am able to browse the backups from both machines, as shown in the screenshot below.
The problem comes in when I attempt to run the migration assistant. I select the first option (restore from USB drive, etc). The migration assistant finds the USB volume and in the list underneath shows backups from a single computer - which it calls Unknown. The date of the last back is shown as 10 December 2012, the same date as the last backup from my old Mac (doolittle). There is no trace of the backups from my new mac.
Any ideas of how to get around this?
Thanks
Andrew

http://pondini.org/OSX/MigrationProblems.html

Migration Assistant can't find mounted external disc

Running Snow Leopard on newer iMac Dual Core. Trying to migrate users of dead G5. The G5 User data is intact, and on an external disc, and was transferred to this external disc from the G5's HD, by techs at The Apple Store. The specs of this external drive are:
30.74 GB
Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
Partition Map Scheme : Apple Partition Map
Mount Point : /Volumes/Macintosh HD 1
The external disc mounts to the desktop, but Migration Assistant just spins and spins looking for it, without success.
I have tried to boot from the external drive; Restart/Option does not result in the external disc as a startup option.
I'm thinking when the Mac boys wiped the external disc to make room for the G5 User data, they reformatted the disc to non-bootable. In an experiment, Migration Assistant easily found and transferred User data from my laptop (when restarted in target disc mode).
Is there a way to help Migration Assistant find this external disk - or an option that transfers the User files intact from the external drive to the new SL machine?
Thanks,
lex

lexsongs wrote:
+then MA will not work on it, period. you need to migrate manually. Migration assistant does not give a hoot what the partition scheme is on the drive you are migrating from so don't bother with that. the partition scheme on your main drive should be GUID but it's probably that already.+
+P.S. if you still have access to the old drive of the G5 then you can migrate from that drive directly.+
Thanks V.K. I did open Disk Utility and was ready to change the partition scheme (on the external disc) to GUID, but based on your last post I will hold off.
Yes, I have the old G5 HD, and will get some help with connections for migrating - or will build an enclosure (or have one built) and then use MA to move the User folders. In the meantime, I can still access the data in all User folders on the external disk.
if all the data you need is in the user folders you can simply do the following. drag a user folder from Users on your backup drive to the /Users folder at the top level of the main hard drive. make sure you don't have another user by that name already present there. you'll need to authenticate with your admin password. once you copied the user folder to Users on the main drive go to system preferences->accounts. unlock the lock at the bottom, click on + and create an account with the same short user name as the name of the folder you just copied to Users. it will tell you that a home directory by that name already exists and ask if you want to use it. say "yes".
Question: What allows MA to work with the original G5 HD but not with the copied User data on the external disc?
I don't know the exact innerworkings of MA but it clearly checks the drive to see if it recognizes it as something it can possibly migrate from as it needs a lot of stuff present to work. It doesn't just migrate user folders. it migrates applications, some library files etc. so unless it sees a full clone of another system drive or a TM backup of another drive (which both have all that stuff present) it won't even try migrating.

Migration Assistant can´t find correct external drive

Hi,
I have an iMac that I replaced an harddrive through Apple´s Seagate program. Now I am trying to get use the Migration Assistant to get my backup onto the new harddrive and I am having the most frustrating problem. I am running OS X 10.6.8 and have an external (Synology NAS) mounted by ethernet to the iMac and I can´t get Migration Assistant to select the correct disk.
I can see that my share is mounted correcly in the Finder and I can see the backup file (.sparsebundle) but Migration Assistant go to another share. I have of course chosen the Migration Method "From a Time Machine backup or other disk". The only disk I can select is the wrong one and I can´t for the life of me see how I can force the Migration Assistant to look for the other share. In Time Machine it can find the disk correct disk. In the Finder my drive also appears with <name of drive>(Time Machine) which might be the source of confusion but I don´t know how to solve this. This also of course appears in the Time Machine setup when selecting what disk to use....
I have used a lot of time crawling through webpages about this and I thought connecting directly through ethernet would solve this but no luck. I have called Apple support with no luck...I just want my "old" iMac back..help!
Regards,
Ann

Hi Ann, was the old drive & hence the backup of a later OSX version?
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3193144?start=15&tstart=0

HT4889 Using USB time machine drive to move to new rMBP and Migration assistant can't find my drive

I have a time machine backup on my USB drive. I can see it clearly in finder, then when I run migration assistant, it can't be found.
I've tried repairing the disk, it's fine, it just can't find it. Any ideas?
Both machines are on the same rev of Mt. Lion, 2010 MBP and 2013 rMBP. . . .
Please advise.
--Andrew

No, both the backup and the new system are OSX10.6.
I'm afraid your solution doesn't work. If I go through finder and open up the folders on the backup, and try, for example, to open my "Movies" folder (which is one I dearly hope to recover), I get a message that:
"The folder "Movies" can't be opened because you don't have permission to see its contents."
I have tried Repair Permissions, but this doesn't help. All of the important folders have a little red stop sign on them.
Thanks though.

Mavericks Migration Assistant Can't Find Destination

I have a 2010 Mac Pro from which I wish to import data to my brand new cylinder Mac Pro.   I've done this before, easy enough.
Unfortunately, after resetting the SMC, reboots, checking cabling, etc., /and/ speaking upwards through senior Apple Support, I still cannot get this to work.
Each system can see the other in the Finder. Firewalls are not enabled.
What happens is the destination Mac Pro can see the source just fine; however, the source cannot see the destination.   I can otherwise see the IPs 169.x and I can ping from/to each host.   I double checked "pfctl -d" and it is indeed disabled. I run Sophos on the older host, but I've never had an issue with it. I have VMware Fusion, but that shouldn't apply.
[ it's worth noting here, I have two new Mac Pros which would not display on the new thunderbolt displays, which was probably due to firmware -- OS updates seem to have resolved it ]
Wifi is also off on both.
I have the exact same results regardless of whether I'm on the local ethernet LAN or just a plain old point-to-point LAN (with different IPs) and I'm puzzled as to what could be wrong. Apple senior advisors were stumped as well -- they suggested I try this over firewire, but I'll need to get a firewire-to-thunderbolt adapter first.
So I am wondering if anyone out there has run into and solved this pernicious problem.   I've been working on this all day :-) I'll be damned if I have to install all these apps manually again, but I will if I have to.
Thanks.

franz1 wrote:
The top one has icons showing the two partitions from the external drive and the Air's HD.
That sounds like the Today (Now) display, the one that's show in full when you first Enter Time Machine. It's not a backup; it's the current contents of your Mac.
When I clicked on the 2nd window, it seems to be a back up from July 20, which I remember making on the old MacBook. It has one folder on it with my username.
Yes, that's a backup.
When I click on this folder, I find 4 folders inside it titled: Applications, Users, Library and System. I clicked on Applications and it was empty
That sounds like you'd excluded Applications from backups.   Or else you didn't wait long enough for all the apps to be displayed.
sometimes the names of programs covered with a see-through "no parking" sign - a circle with a slash through it
That's an incompatible app.
Is this the Time Machine's records?
Yup.
Can I click on the July 20 date and click on restore? Will everything just come back on it's own?
No. You can restore individual items that way (if you have permission to them), but not a whole system. You can restore "simple" apps that way, too, but not "complex" ones -- ones that came with their own installers, because they install other files in other places. If you don't restore those other things too, the app won't work well, if at all.
Can you post a screenshot of the Migration Assistant window that should show your backups (something like this):

Migration assistant can't find 2nd hard drive.

Hello. I'm trying to use Migration Assistant to transfer data (music) from a 2nd hard drive
I have installed in my older tower. MA has no problem finding my first drive but no detection of my second. Is there simply a preference I'm overlooking? Any help would be great!

franz1 wrote:
The top one has icons showing the two partitions from the external drive and the Air's HD.
That sounds like the Today (Now) display, the one that's show in full when you first Enter Time Machine. It's not a backup; it's the current contents of your Mac.
When I clicked on the 2nd window, it seems to be a back up from July 20, which I remember making on the old MacBook. It has one folder on it with my username.
Yes, that's a backup.
When I click on this folder, I find 4 folders inside it titled: Applications, Users, Library and System. I clicked on Applications and it was empty
That sounds like you'd excluded Applications from backups. Or else you didn't wait long enough for all the apps to be displayed.
sometimes the names of programs covered with a see-through "no parking" sign - a circle with a slash through it
That's an incompatible app.
Is this the Time Machine's records?
Yup.
Can I click on the July 20 date and click on restore? Will everything just come back on it's own?
No. You can restore individual items that way (if you have permission to them), but not a whole system. You can restore "simple" apps that way, too, but not "complex" ones -- ones that came with their own installers, because they install other files in other places. If you don't restore those other things too, the app won't work well, if at all.
Can you post a screenshot of the Migration Assistant window that should show your backups (something like this):

Migration Assistant can't find my hard drive - can you help?

Hi, I've just bought a new MacBook Pro (Lion) as my 6 year old iMac (Snow Leopard) has died. I wanted to restore my data from my iMac, via my Time Machine back-ups which are stored on a WD MyPassport. When using the migration assistant, I've followed the instructions, but the assistant refuses to see the hard drive and all I get is "Looking for Other Computers" and a spinning wheel. I've done this before when a hard drive went south and it worked really well, but this is not good at all.
Any advice gratefully received. Thanks.

John Brandt wrote:
Setup Assistant never sees the source drive:
Does it show anything at all? The disk should have a yellow icon.
Is the main issue that I am trying to migrate from too old of an OS X version (e.g. 10.4.11)?
I don't think so. I don't have a Mac running Tiger, so couldn't test it, but many folks have done it without a problem.
Have you run Verify Disk or Repair Disk on the old Mac and/or the backups? If there's a directory problem, it may boot the old Mac, but the new one may not recognize it.
If all else fails, you may have to do it manually. Try starting the new Mac normally, logging on as a normal (Admin) user, connect the clone to it, and see if it appears. If so, you should be able to manually copy from the backups via drag & drop.
If so, you'll have to be careful of two things:
User accounts: If the old Mac only has a single account, the first account you set up on the new one should have permission to copy from the backups. If not, either set up a second account on the new Mac and try it, or use Get Info on the backups to grant the user account on the new Mac permission to read the data on the backups.
Special files/folders like Mail and Address Book / Contacts. You can't just copy the files since the structure has changed, but you may be able to import the old mailboxes via File > Import Mailboxes from the Mail menu on the new Mac. Similarly, you may be able to use File > Import in Contacts on the new Mac to import contacts.
(Note: it's late here, and I'll be going to bed soon, but will be back tomorrow.)

Migration assistant can´t find TM backup

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