Migration assistant can't see TM on external HDD

Tonight I got a new iMac. I'm trying to restore via the external HDD from my last TM backup using the Migration Assistant.
My previous iMac was fully updated to the current edition of Lion.
(Side note: after repeated failures of the power supply over the past 18 months, the Apple Store gave me this new machine instead of repairing my 2008 iMac again [for free again]).
Migration Assistant does not see my external HDD though it's visible on the desktop now, and accessible.
How do you force Lion to see this HDD and migrate from it?
I'd like to restore my system to be completely as it was before without a tedious folder-by-folder migration effort.

Tonight I found most of the solution I needed:
-Create a new administrator account on your machine.
-Run the Migration Assistant.
-It should identify your previous hard drive's name, and that's what you migrate from to your new account.
-If your new account and your old account (the one on your old machine), have the same name, you cannot migrate to an account with the same name. You should get a prompt to change the account name in the three options that are given.
-I gave the account being migrated TO a new name, and in about 30 minutes everything came over.
The remaining problem is that some of my items did not make it and I cannot find those folders in my Time Machine.
Also, iTunes is looking like it needs to be rebuilt for the most part. I have an iTunes Match account. That auto-imported all of my playlists but my movies have to be re-imported into iTunes for it to recognize them again.
Oh yea...my backup of the iTunes library list is nowhere to be found. I think it's in and among those items that are yet to be found.

Similar Messages

Migration Assistant can't see my external hard drive.

Migration Assistant can't see my external hard drive with my back-up info on it. I need to migrate my user data from an older back-up ( OS X 10.4.11) to a recently installed OS X 10.5.8 system on a Mac Pro. The external drive is not bootable. Any ideas?

Great news, thanks!
On iTunes see this...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Expand the External drive section & it's 6 steps.
More info, especially the Wrong Way part...
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/

Migration assistant can't see time machine disk

New hard drive to replace broken one - Migration Assistant doesn't see the external hard drive with my time machine backup, even though it mounts to the desktop... Anyone else had this problem? Using a MacBook pro with OSX 10.8.4

Here are the articles I have on Migration Assistant. None of them had the answer to your problem (or at least I couldn't find it). Check what you did versus the recommendations in the articles is about the best I can offer.
Migration Assistant
Migration Assistant (2)
Migration Assistant – Tips and Tricks

Migration Assistant can't see external Time Machine

I appreciate Macs and all they can do but I am not great with the technical side. I apologise if this is an stupid question. Probably all my technical questions seem stupid to people who can find their way around the mac.
Shiny new iMac. Yah!
Hmm there's a problem.
External drive with Time Machine backups on it shows on the desktop, however when I use Migration Assistant to transfer info it can't find it.
The external drive is plugged directly into the iMac.
I can open the external drive and see there are Time Machine backups.
The Time Machine App is currently set to off on my new iMac. Is it as simply as switching it to "on"? I was concerned about overwriting the old backups and losing them.
Thanks for assistance.

Most likely, some folders were excluded from your backups as the result of a failed or aborted software installation.
Starting from a clean installation of OS X, set up a new administrator account and log in. Enter Time Machine and press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible.* Select the one you want and navigate to your home folder (in the Users folder at the top level of the old startup volume.)
You should now be able to restore your user data. I suggest you do this in two stages. Quit all applications except the Finder before you begin.
Restore all the visible items at the top level of your home folder.
Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. Enter Time Machine and restore all items in the Library folder. Log out and log back in as soon as the restore is complete.
Any other invisible folders or files at the top level of your home folder that you want to preserve will have to be restored separately. For most users, that isn't necessary.
You'll have to reinstall all third-party applications from scratch, or restore them from another kind of backup, if you have one.
You'll have another problem if this is a new computer, or if you erased the startup volume: The next time you back up, Time Machine won't recognize any files as being the same as they were before, and will make a full copy of all files. There might not be enough space on one or more of your backup volumes for that. There are different ways of dealing with that situation, depending on your needs. The easiest way is to set your backup drives aside, if possible, until you're sure you'll no longer need the data on them, then erase them and start over. Meanwhile start a new backup on one or more empty storage devices. If that solution isn't workable for you, ask for instructions.
*If you don't see any snapshots in Time Machine, exit the time-travel view and then hold down the option key while selecting
Browse Other Backup Disks...
from the Time Machine menu, which has an icon that looks like a clock running backwards. Select the backups of your computer by its previous name. If you don't have the Time Machine menu, open the Time Machine preference pane in System Preferences and check the box marked
Show Time Machine in menu bar

Migration Assistant can't see my USB ext HD for Time Machine!

Here is a question for Pondini!
I've read through many of the threads here, including Pondini's tutorials on how to set-up Time Machine, use Migration Assistant, etc. Alas, I'm not a technical person and have hit a wall.
Here's the scenario:
Last week my iMac running Mountain Lion crashed. The hard drive was initially "repaired" using Recovery, erasing all data then restoring the drive from Time Machine backups stored on a Hitachi 2TB Touro USB3 external HD. But soon after the system froze again and a 2nd restore did not work. I concluded that my almost 5 year old HD was gone.
Where I stand now is that the iMac's HD has been replaced with a new one which came preinstalled with Snow Leopard. I absolutely want (need!) to restored my Mac from Time Machine to get back all my settings and info.
During the iMac first boot Setup Assistant did NOT see the external hard drive even though they are connected properly. (Note: My older iMac is undoubtedly USB2 but the external HD is backwards-compatible USB3. THAT is the connection, from the external HD directly into the back of the Mac. It is mounted on my desktop and files can be accessed through Finder.) So I then proceeded to set-up my "new" computer with basic settings, which is how I came to see my external HD was properly mounted and connected. I also upgraded the OS on this new HD to Mountain Lion so it would be the same as my most recent Time Machine back-ups.
Since then I have tried using Migration Assistant to migrate from Time Machine on my external drive but it still does not recognize any drives - Migration Assistant just searches endlessly for other computers. Argh! I've tried all the tips I've read in these forums and none have helped. I scanned my external drive for errors using disk utility but none were found.
On my external drive there is a folder in the root called Backups.backupdb. Double-clicking it simply opens the folder in Finder, to reveal folders with names familiar to me - the previous HDs computer name, then a bunch of dated folders within that, including a lone file called 2012-08-17-062839.inProgress. I suppose my HD may have died while backing up to Time Machine.
WHAT do I do?
Let's say the worst case scenario is that I cannot use these Time Machine backups. Is there any way to root through them for data I can hand-copy to my iMac's new internal drive? It would be grueling but at least it's something. How can I retrieve years of email? Luckily photos, music, videos, etc were backed up manually into a separate folder (also in the root of my external drive).
THANK YOU!!
Danielle

This happened to me after hard drive replacement under the Seagate Drive Recall at the local Apple Store. Here's what I learned from the process:
I Wagged the Mac home, fired it up (with naked OS installed at the Apple Store), and it wouldn't see my Time Machine drive with Setup Assistant - not on firewire 800 nor USB. Just a grey spinner that lasts forever. When I try just continuing anyway, it offers me something that looks plausible, but then puts up a dialog about duplicate user name, and no matter what I enter, it always says "that user already exists". So I think - maybe Migration Assistant. Complete the setup, create an account, watch the nice welcome movie. BAM - there's my Time Machine drive on the desktop. OK - it has to work . . . but no. Same behavior in Migration Assistant, plus the new OS offers to start making backups on my Time Machine disk - it's not recognizing it at all.
So - back to the Apple Store - let the genius figure it out. It turns out there are multiple problems. First, the "genius" who imaged my new machine picked 10.7.2 but my machine had 10.7.5 - turns out, it's not enough just to have right cat. Even a point release older OS may not recognize a newer Time Machine drive. The guy at the desk said "We have images of everything but the 10.7.2 has free iLife in it, so they like to use that one". What the heck? They don't image what you had originally as a matter of sane process?
Having figured that out, we re-image 10.7.5 at the store thinking we've fixed it. But no - Setup Assistant still won't see the Time Machine drive. Not on USB, not on Firewire. Not in a box, not with a fox.
So here's the second trick - newer machines have a recovery partion. see: http://www.apple.com/osx/recovery/ Boot with the option key held down, pick that partition, then you'll get a "system restore" option, to restore your whole system from a Time Machine backup. My drive was recognized by the recovery partition restore process when neither Setup nor Migration Assistant would. Obviously, there's something broken in Setup/Migration Assistant.
Takeaway:
- if you're getting a drive replaced by Apple, make sure they image *exactly* the same OS you had
- if Setup Assistant fails, use the recovery partition for system restore
- Use Recovery Disk Assistant http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433 to make yourself a recovery thumb drive just in case. With Apple's new "no media" approach to the OS, you're hosed without it.

Migration Assistant can't see partition

Following the advice of my local Apple Store, I purchased a LaCie external drive from them and set up several partitions, each used to back up one computer using Carbon Copy Cloner.
Now that a hard disk has failed, I want to use Migration Assistant to copy the backed up data but it only sees the first and last partitions on the external drive, and the one I need to restore from is neither the first nor the last.
All the partitions show up on the Desktop when I plug in the drive. Why can't Migration Assistant see them? And how do I fix this?
Thanks.
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Clone the data you need to the boot partition of another hard drive, and in the future don't partition hard drives except when necessary like to use one partition as a scratch partition that you can erase at will.

Set up and migration assistant can't see time machine back ups

Hi. Trying to cut this short.
I Tried installing osx 10.8. Halfway through the installation it told me I didn't have enough free space. Helpful.
i tried to restore from time machine, the back ups were viewable, but it said i couldn't as the disk was in use or couldn't be un mounted.
Ive now deleted the hard drive and reinstalled 10.7.5.
Set up couldn't restore from time machine back ups as it couldn't find them.
Ive started osx and tried to use migration assistant. It can't see the time machine back ups.
However, if I open the time machine app it can see the back ups.
I've rebooted in recovery and

Seems my text has vanished. This site is terrible on my iphone. Would expect better.
I've rebooted in recovery and tried to restore from time machine but again it won't find the back ups.

Migration Assistant can't see MacBook Air, but Finder does

Hello,
I purchased an iMac 2 weeks ago. Now I'd like to make the best of this Migration Assistant by automatically move files and setting from the MBA (MacBook Air) to the new iMac, but this utility is looking for other computers forever without finding anything.
Facts:
The iMac Finder see the MBA
The MBA Finder does not see the iMac.
Firewalls on both computers are set to "Allow All Incoming Connections"
Both computers are loaded with Leopard 10.5.5
Both computers are connected to Time Capsule through Ethernet cables.
Any idea on how to make the Migration Assistant see the MBA?
Thanks!

When connecting the MBA directly into the iMac's Ethernet port, I get the same symptoms.
From the Finder, iMac sees MBA but not the opposite!
From the Migraton Assistant, the little wheel turns endlessly without seeing the MBA.
I think I'll have to call Apple about this one. Then again I think the Support representative will be clueless...

I can't see my shared external HDD from my Macbook

I have a Mac Pro on 10.5.8 that has an External HDD connected to it. It mounts and works properly.
I went to 'System Preferences/Sharing/File Sharing' and shared many internal drives as well as the external HDD. Users for the shares are: My local user name, and also everyone with R&R access granted, and in options I tried with AFP and SMB selected.
Now from my Macbook Pro on 10.6.6 I can see my MacPro. When I click on it I can see all the local drives shared on my MacPro, but not the external HDD.
I also tried 'connect to server' with afp://localipaddress/ExternalHDD but I am asked for the user/passw. There I enter the local user/passw for the MacPro where I have the shares and I get "There was an error connecting to the server 192.168.1.8. Check the server name or IP address and then try again"
Can anyone help me with this?
Thank you!

Me too. I have a Mac mini running 10.6.7 with an external USB drive. I have set it up to share the drive, but in System Preferences, the access column is grayed out for all users. In Finder, if I click on the drive, it shows up with the Shared Folder designation. But the drive does not show up when I connect to the Mac mini from my MacBook (also 10.6.7). Other shared folders do show up.

Can't see files on external hdd

Hi all I am a noob to MAC so here goes.
I am running ML OS 10.8.4 Server. I was MOVING music from my internal hdd to my external hdd and the battery died in the middle of the move. I am able to see the files that were moved on my windows machine but the folder is grayed out on my mac. It can read that data is in the folder but wont allow me to open it. The good news is even though I did a move the files are stil on my internal hdd. I could easily delete the folder and re do it again but I am talking over 400gig of music so far and it was taking hours to move.
Why can't I access the folder and its there but I can access it via windows, Any suggestion.
Thanks
QS

Oh boy. Excuse me for my mistake. Yes I am in the wrong place. I have my 250Gig Westernal digital hard drive connected to my macbook pro.
Yeah it's weird. But as I said, Fileziller seems to see it and I have a test site running on one host's server that is fine. When I went FTP the files (they are drupal). Everything comes over except my one folder where all my images are.
So do you want me to post this in the leopard forum?

Migration Assistant can't see old computer

I just got a new MBP running Snow Leopard 10.6.3. I want to transfer the contents of my old computer, a Power Book G4 running 10.5.8. I have them connected with a Belkin Firewire 800/800 9 pin to 9 pin cable. When I launch the MA on the MBP, I get to the screen that says to restart the old mac holding down the T key until the Firewire symbol appears. I do that and the MA screen is still "waiting for the other Mac to restart". It doesn't see the old Mac. Any ideas as to why? Thanks.

Took the computer to the Apple store and like your car at the mechanic, it behaved perfectly. No problem with target disk, and the old volume mounted on the new desk top. All data migrated successfully. Thanks.

Migration assistant doesn't see my time machine backup

Since upgading to mavericks migration assistant no longer sees my backup on my external drive that I use for my time machine backups. The drive mounts fine and I can access my backups through my finder using "enter time machine", but I can not restore because migration assistant can't see the drive. I don't knoe if it's a time machine issue or a mighration assistant issue. I have tried on several macs and with several different hard drives but migration assistant cannot restore from my time machine backups. I suggest everyone make sure they can restore from their time machine backups because this may be a major problem and result in complete loss of data. I have found no solution yet.

Here are the articles I have on Migration Assistant. None of them had the answer to your problem (or at least I couldn't find it). Check what you did versus the recommendations in the articles is about the best I can offer.
Migration Assistant
Migration Assistant (2)
Migration Assistant – Tips and Tricks

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 see TM on external HDD

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