Migration assistant does not recognize time machine backup

Hi Guru,
I made a time machine backup today, 10.8.2, then made full reinstall of system in Apple store, in Berkeley, because my iMac experinced some unstability.
we installed new Mac OS, and now I face a problem: migration assistant does not recognize hard disk with buckup.
Finder sees this disk, it has Backups folder.
OS: 10.8.2
BackUp made: Time Machine 10.8.2
Hard Disk: Lacie 500MB
any ideas?
Thank you

I am conserned about restoring using setup assistant because I need to transfer personal files and applications only.
You can do that in Setup Assistant.
Migration Assistant doesn't accept Time Machine backups of the computer it's running on; it only accepts compatible backups of other computers. You can't migrate a system to itself. To restore files from the same computer, enter Time Machine in the usual way, or else boot into Recovery and either restore the whole startup volume or erase, reinstall OS X, and restore in Setup Assistant.

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Mavericks Migration assistant does not see time machine backup of older Lion Mac

Used to have a Macbook Pro. It was stolen (circa July 2014). Luckily I had up to date Time Machine Backups. The Macbook Pro was completely up to date running the latest OSX Lion (circa July 2014) when stolen.
Bought a new Macbook Air just now (Mar 2015).
Plugged in the old Mac's Time Machine Backup Disk, Migration Assistant doesn't see the old Mac's Backups.
So I setup the new Macbook Air without restoring.
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Tried running Migration Assistant many time , but still it does not see the the old Mac's Time Machine Backups. (although they continue to show in the drive if I navigate to it)
Pls help so I can migrate the old Mac to the new Mac!!!!

Thanks Turbostar.
Well, I think there should be solution to use TIME CAPSULE restore as it should I mean I bought Time Capsule because it is easy to use and I really do not want to solve any issues or make any workarounds.
I think APPLE should resolve this ASAP. Meantime maybe anybody knows any trick about this issue?

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I recently had my computer wiped clean by Apple genius bar. After updating the ISO X 10.8 software to 10.8.3, I attempted to restore files from my Time Machine backup to the computer. Unfortunately, the migration assistant would not lock onto the Time Machine disk, as if it were not there. What can I do to restore my original files back into the repaired computer?
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I am conserned about restoring using setup assistant because I need to transfer personal files and applications only.
You can do that in Setup Assistant.
Migration Assistant doesn't accept Time Machine backups of the computer it's running on; it only accepts compatible backups of other computers. You can't migrate a system to itself. To restore files from the same computer, enter Time Machine in the usual way, or else boot into Recovery and either restore the whole startup volume or erase, reinstall OS X, and restore in Setup Assistant.

Miggration assistant does not see time machine backup disk

I recently had a power surge that fried my hard disk. Erased the disk, reinstalled Mountain Line and when I get tot he dialogue box for Migrating all my setting and files etc from my Time Machine Backup it cannot see the disk. It sees the Bootabel backup I made on a partition on that disk but not all my Time Machine Back-ups. The bootable disk is in Lion not Mountain line and does not contain all the latest settings, applications etc. How can I get to the latest Time Machine Back-ups? Help Please!

See Pondini's Excellent information here...
Setting-up a new Mac from an old one, its backups, or a PC
Also See the Second Chance to Use Setup Assistant here...
http://Pondini.org/OSX/SetupLion.html

Migration Assistant won't recognize Time Machine Backup

I recenly got my old thunderbolt-less macbook pro back from a repair and I can't seem to resotre my data. My external drive it reconized in finder, but not in Migration Assistant. I have updated to the newest OS and still nothing. I was tunning mavrics before the repair so this should be working right? Thanks for any help you can offer.

A possible reason for backups not to be available in Migration Assistant is that the computer doesn't have a name, or the name is corrupt. Open the Sharing preference pane and check the name. If you can't do that, reset the PRAM. Credit to ASC member Csnote for this observation.
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

How can I copy programs (iWorks) and files from Time Capsule to my HD manually? The problem is that the migration assistant does not recognize my backup file and the user on the TC. (If I open the TC on finder, it it there though)

How can I copy programs (iWorks) and files from Time Capsule to my HD manually? The problem is that the migration assistant does not recognize my backup file and the user on the TC. (If I open the TC on finder, it it there though)

How can I copy programs (iWorks) and files from Time Capsule to my HD manually? The problem is that the migration assistant does not recognize my backup file and the user on the TC. (If I open the TC on finder, it it there though)

Trying to use Migration Assistant to restore from Time Machine backup but it keeps "Looking for other computers..."

Hi!
I just bought a new MacBook Pro 15" and I wanted to transfer my old files from a previous Time Machine backup done with my old MacBook Pro 15".
Both computers have Mac OS X 10.8.2 (Mountain Lion) installed.
I always used Migration Assistant without any problem to accomplish this task, but now I don't know why it's stuck on a screen displaying "Looking for other computers...". What? What computer? I'm trying to restore from a Time Machine backup on an external hard drive, so I don't understand what computer it is looking for.
Do you have any idea to solve the problem?
Thanks!

At the screen in Migration Assistant titled "Select a Migration Method," select From a Time Machine backup or other disk.
How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac

Restore from back up does not recognize time machine drive

My wife's hard drive in her 2010 MB Pro decided to give up the ghost a few days ago, so I purchased a new hard drive for her, booted from the Snow Leopard Install disc that came with the computer. However, after the installation is complete, when it gives the option to "Restore from backup", it will not locate the drive with the Time Machine Backups. The drive with the time machine backups is a dedicated 500 Gig Seagate External, that is set up on the network through our Airport Extreme. When I plug the drive directly into the computer, the drive doesn't even show up on the list. When I plug it back into the router it will recognize it as the Time Machine Disk, but will say "Connection Failed" when I try to connect with it. I have watched several youtube videos and read several blogs, and it looks so easy, simply click on "Restore From Backup" and bang! You're in business, but my drive and its backups won't even show up!
After going through with the intitial set up, I can click on the Time Machine Icon, and choose to view other Time Machine disks, and it shows up there, and I can see about two (2) years worth of back ups; however, each time I boot from the install disks, it still doesn't show up in the "Restore from Backup" mode. Migration assistant shows the files, but when I migrated them, it says that I do not have permission to view the files. Also, when I enter the Time Machine it only shows a blue folder with "Macintosh HD" on it, and when I try to simply "Restore" that folder, it will start transfering files for about an hour (Maybe get up to 10-15 Gigs, and then it will say that it cannot replace or over right "Systems", and then stop the transfer.
Thinking that some of the drives were from when we upgraded to Lion, I redownloaded Lion, and it is more of the same.
I am in a really tight spot here, because I have been faithfully using Time Machine Backups, and was told that if a situation like this ever occurred I would be good to go with a new hard drive, or even a new computer. We have about 80 Gigs (not kidding) of family photos on the computer, and those are precious to my wife, so if nothing else I would just like to get those off of the drive.
If anyone could provide me with any tips as to
1) How to make Restore from Backup recognize the drive; or
2) Migrate the files, but actually have permission to view them; or
3) Any other way to Restore from Time Machine that I may be overlooking,
I would greatly appreciate it.

Well the first thing you should do is have a local professional image the TimeMachine drive to another drive, then you can install Data Rescue on your computer and use that to read the 1's and 0's of the imaged drive directly and recover any files out of the morrase that is TimeMachine.
TimeMachine is a freaking eyecandy abortion, when it screws up, it screws up royally. However it's easy and better than nothing for computer newbies who tend to delete stuff by accident.
Computer professionals prefer "imaging" or "cloning" which makes a exact duplicate of a drive in every detail and accessability. Carbon Copy Cloner is the choice software for that.
If you not comptuer savvy or want to take a risk, then I'd advise you to get a local PC/Mac data recovery expert to recover your files, they are still on the drive and somewhat accessible, but if you fool around too much TM can delete them as it "copies" your present new boot drive. Then data recovery could cost thousands for platter dissection if the TM drive is overwritten/updated by TM software.
So to be safe, get profesisonal data recovery help, and not the clueless types at the Genius bar.
FYI, once a TM drive has been infected with Lion, you can't use it with SL.
So it's best to stop and get a image, then decide to play with the image or allow the pro's to recover your files before they are really gone forever.

Migration assistant does not allow selection of backup

The HD on my MBP failed. Under warranty. So made an appointment and took her in to my closest Apple Store. I had a recent full backup on my Time Capsule and thought I would be bringing the "not quite dead yet" old drive home. Wrong. Bringing the old HD home would have cost me $200... and I was shocked that there was no provision for erasing the old drive. Yikes.
A couple days later, the new HD is installed and I bring the laptop home and proceed with trying to restore. The machine hangs on reboot... I let it run over night before doing a powerbutton shutdown followed by using option startup to access Recovery disk and reinstall Mavericks. Attempt using an older backup.... repeat... three times. Same outcome. Somewhere in there, I attempted rebuilding and repairing the restored setup. Problems were found and I think I did finally get a system that would startup, but it had issues.... issues with the MS Office install, issues with an Apogee plugin... enough to make me keep trying something else. By now it is several days later and somehow Time Machine has managed to slip in at least one full backup of the disfunctional setup. Not knowing this, I redo the installation of Mavericks and attempt to use Migration Assistant. I am presented with exactly one option for which backup to use... the latest one.
So what to try next?
Somehow delete off all backups after replacement of the HD and try again?
Go back to trying earlier versions of backup using Restore?
I understand now that I should have done a carbon copy cloner backup sometime before the HD got really ill.... whenever that was?
So far this has not been a satisfying experience... a top of the line laptop, with the extended warranty, with regular backups on a time capsule. Still it was not enough. Fortunately, I am not trying to make a living off of this machine and can take some time getting it back up to where it was. It is making me understand why it might be good to have a Mac Pro with a RAID setup if I had real work on real deadlines. Not very portable though.

Continuing to research options for utilizing my Time Machine backups has led to the Pondini pages. Great stuff. In there I learned it would be possible to delete individual backups. This might allow me to get rid of the 3 backups which occured after my HD failed... backups of the new HD that are getting in the way of using Migration Assistant.
Here is my question.
In the listing of backups is a alias called Latest. It seems to be pointing to one of the backups that I want to delete. Will I cause a problem by deleting it? Or better yet, is it possible to edit this alias to point to the backup I want to use in Migration Assistant?
Status of attempts to Restore: Each attempt to restore is taking the better part of a day due to needs like sleeping and goiing to work...
Attempt 1 restore to day before HD failure worked but a strange assortment of error messages showed up indicating that the Drive failure was corrupting things
Attempt 2 restore to earlier same day... same result
Attempt 3 restore to 2 weeks earlier... same result
Attempt 4 restore to 5 months earlier... good result but l would like to get much closer
Is it possible to use Migration Assistant to utilize the "corrupt" backup?

Unable to use Migration assistant to access my Time Machine backup???

I recently had hard drive issues in my IMac G5, archive and install would not work and required an erase and install this happened twice over two months so I decided to install a new hard drive on my four year old machine, replaced a 160 with a 500 and beefed the RAM up to 2 gb -- a friend and Mac 'expert' did the installs for me... after bringing the machine home I went to reinstall all my files & profiles from time machine using 'Migration Assistant' - I choose the second option, and my external hard drive fires up but then in the Select System to Transfer screen it remains blank, I click on Time Machine and get 'A storage location for Time Machine backups isn't setup.' I click on 'Setup Time Machine' and it opens Time Machine with an On Off toggle, it is Off so I toggle to ON, then get a setup Time Capsule screen, I click on that, it opens Airport Utility and scans for my network, it finds my Airport Extreme and two Airport Expresses, but what does this mean? I have no idea what to do from there... Any suggestions would be appreciated

Should be, if the eMac is running 10.5.x be sure to turn off TM backups though.

Migration Assistant Won't Recognize Time Machine Disk

Hi,
I'm trying to restore a Time Machine backup using migration assistant. The backup is on a USB disk connected directly to the computer. I can open the volume and browse the files. I used Disk Utility to check the volume and it found no errors.
When I run Migration Assistant, it sees no backup disks and instead tries to search the network for other computers, even though I said I had a disk.
This is very frustrating. What am I doing wrong?
Frank

You may have been bitten by a bug we've just identified.
See #D10 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
If so, home folders are not affected, and there may be a way to recover them.
Post back with your results and we'll work on a recovery plan.

Migration Assistant or Install From Time Machine Backup?

Hi,
I have a question. I currently have an older iMac and I'm thinking of buying a new iMac. I'd like to transfer EVERYTHING on my old iMac to my new iMac, so that the new iMac is identical in terms of Applications installed, Mail, Documents, Dashboard setup, etc.
Which is the best technique to use to do this? Migration Assistant or installing OS X from your Time Machine Backups? Why is one better than the other? Really, I want the cleanest, most accurate solution, so that nothing is lost, and so I can continue on from where I left off.

Reuben Feffer wrote:
what if I have an expensive piece of software installed on my old iMac? Will Migration Assistant copy that over to my new iMac, without messing up the number of activations?
Yes, but depending on which you may need to deactivate and re-activate. This question would be better put to the software vendor. I am guessing Quark?
Reuben Feffer wrote:
And what about things like the way I've customised my Desktop, icon sizes, and such. Will they automatically be copied over to the new iMac, or will I have to start again from scratch?
Not to worry, all your settings will be brought over. It will be identical to your old Mac.
Read this on Migration Manager. for a fuller understanding.
-mj
Message was edited by: macjack

Migration assistant crashes when restoring time machine backup from mountain lion

Hi
I installed a new HDD in my MacBook Pro Mid 2009, installed the original OS again and tried to import using the Setup/Migration Assistant. It told me that since the time machine backup is newer, this can't be done. So I first upgraded to Mountain Lion (suspecting that I can install my SnowLeopard TM-backup there) and tried the same. The migration assistant started, found the image (on Tiime Capsule) and started to calculate the items that need to be transferred. After 17hours, I interrupted it.
Next thing was to upgrade the old HDD with mountain lion, create a fresh TM backup of this on an external USB drive and try the same. It finds the image, identifies the files (about 420GB), I can see the users, all fine. When I hit Next, it starts to calculatate of locate the files. I assumed that my drives were not the fastest ones so I did expect it to take a while. This time I interrupted it after 34hours as it was still giving me the "progress" bar.
For all I know, I have a TM-Backup of Mountaion Lion and a freshly installed Mountain Lion and I am using the Apple software for transfer - perfect world, no?
Any ideas?
Thanks
patPfe

The migration assistant or the original backup?
I tried WiFi, Ethernet and on the second attempt with a fresh backup on a USB drive.

New Macbook does not recognize Time Capsule backup from old macbook

I just purchased a late 2013 13" macbook pro. I have a mid 2009 macbook pro running Mavericks. The new macbook will not recognize the time capsule backup from my old macbook. I am trying to migrate all data over, but the new mac does not ever acknowledge the external drive that contains the backup. I've tried two different external drives with the same result each time. Both computers are running Mavericks.

Do you see the drive in Disk Utility?
If yes, run Repair Permissions then restart the drive.
1. Open Disk Utility in your Applications/Utility folder.
2. Click on the First Aid tab and select Repair Permissions
3. Click on the icon for your boot volume.
4. Click the repair permissions button.
In System Preferences > Time Machine can you select the old Time Machine with Select Disk?

Migration Assistant does not see my WD backup drives!

Apple recalled my Seagate HD and I just had it replaced with a new HD at the Genius Bar. I picked up my iMac today and am now attempting to RESTORE with my backup to my new (internal) HD. However, when I used the Setup Assistant, it did not see either of my external backup drives. I continued through the setup process and thought I'd try the Migration Assistant. Even THAT did not see either of my back up drives. When I use Time Machine to RESTORE, I navigate to the latest folder but the Restore button is greyed out.
The drives are both on my desktop and they work in the Finder with no issue, I've repaired and verified both and they check out just fine. I've seen this problem in other posts in the Apple forums and elsewhere on the web, and I've tried the suggestions with no success. Some I haven't tried because they refer to Lion—I have 10.6.8.
BTW: I had a HD fail on my MacBook a year ago and after the new HD was installed, I ran the Setup Assistant on it and everything went smoothly (same BU drive manufacturer) when restoring with the backup.
Do I need to go back to Genius now (no no no!) or call Apple Support (yikes!)?
I am going MAD without my Mac!
Any suggestions welcome.
Thanks—katorama

Thanks sanjampet.
I called Apple support and the tech had me make a bogus account with a different user account name. I then logged into the bogus account and ran Migration Assistant. MA cannot override while logged into your main account, thus the bogus one is needed.
Turns out that while in MA, you will *not* see your backup drive in the list when it comes to the "select a drive" screen. It wants you to select a drive to migrate to, not from. Once you select the "Macintosh HD" and Continue, Migration Assistant will locate your latest backup and restore it to your new HD.
Once the migration is complete (this takes a while of course), log out of the bogus account, then log back into your main account. You can delete the bogus account.
That's it!

Migration assistant does not recognize time machine backup

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