Migration Assistant not seeing OS X Server time machine backups

Hello,
I use my OS X Server box as a time machine server, to which my other computers back up, just like you would to a time capsule. However, I now want to use one of those backups to restore to a new computer. When I try to use migration assistant to do this, it sees my server machine, but it says there are no backups on it. I noticed on the hard drive the server uses to back up the clients, the sparse bundles are saved under a "Shared Items" folder, unlike what happens if you do time machine backups connected directly to an external disc with USB, where the backups directory is at the top level directory.
Any ideas what could be going on here? As it is it looks like no time machine backups managed by my server machine are usable by migration assistant.

In the sidebar of a Finder window on the client, select the icon representing the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) At the top level of the volume are folders with these names, among others:
Applications
Library
System
Enter Time Machine and select the most recent snapshot, which is behind the frontmost window. Are those folders present in the snapshot?

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Migration Assistant in Lion won't recognize Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard

I just got an iMac with Lion. I am trying to use the Migration Assistant to move my files/apps etc from a Time Machine backup to the new computer. The MA will not recognize the backup drive - (external firewire 800). I can see the backup drive on my desktop but it does not show up as an option to choose in the Migration Assistant. Any idea what might be wrong. The backup is from an iMac running Snow Leopard and all the system software was last updated on Dec 9th. It think it is as current as I could get with Snow Leopard. Any ideas what is wrong?
Thanks,
Chad

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
- if Setup Assistant fails, use the recovery partition for system restore
- Use Recovery Disk Assistant http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433 NOW 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.

Can not see historical data in Time Machine backup

Hi folks
First my setup:
   MBP Late2012
   Samsung Evo 840 SSD
   external USB 3.0 1TB as TimeMachine HD
   Mac OS X Mavericks
Now my problem.
After updating to Mavericks I've made a full backup with Time Machine.
Then I swapped the former 500TB HDD to the Samsung Evo 840 500TB.
A clean setup of Mavericks follows.
After that I restored the Backup from Time Machine.
Everything ok. Til now.
Because everthing works fine in the past, I did not control the Time Machine.
Today I wanna restore a File from my "Pictures" folder.
So I opened Time Machine.
Oops.
There I can only see the latest run.
Also in the timeline on the right side the only entries are TODAY and NOW.
I can not scroll into the past.
All windows behind the current window have a black titlebar.
In Mountain lion the titlebars are grey if there is data available
and the title contains the date of the backup.
What is the problem?
Is there a bug?
Did I something wrong?
Thanx in adv.
      Stoiker

Hi masong517
What a treasure trove of hints and solutions.
I didn't know this page.
But you are right with "E2".
This solved my problem.
Thank you very much.

I used the Migration Assistant to move data from my Time Machine to my new Mac.   Most data has been moved successfully but none of my iPhoto pictures have been moved.   Looking at my Time Machine now I find that the earliest back-up is dated after the Mi

I used the Migration Assistant to move data from my Time Machine to my new Mac.   Most data seems to have been transferred successfully but none of my iPhoto pictures have been transferred.
My Time Machine now shows the earliest available Back-up to be after the Migration Date.   My iPhoto pictures seem to have either been lost in the migration process or are locked in my Time Machine prior to the earliest back-up date now accessible.
Any advice on recovering my old iPhoto pictures would be greatly appreciated.

First go to iPhoto Preferences, look in both General and Advanced tabs to make sure that things are set to import from camera into iPhoto.
Then if that doesn't help, connect the camera and open Image Capture in your Applications > Utilities folder and see if you can use Image Capture to reset the import path from the camera to iPhoto.
Image Capture: Free import tool on Mac OS X - Macgasm
Message was edited by: den.thed
Sorry John, I didn't see your post when I clicked the reply button. Dennis

Best Setup for Lion Server Time Machine Backup with Drobo?

I've been thinking about this a lot, yet I don't feel I have a good solution for this, so I'm going to throw it out to the community.
I have a home server setup using a Mac Mini running Lion Server 10.7.2 with a Firewire 800 Drobo attached. The Drobo is used for both Time Machine backups and files. I also have a Powerbook G4 running Leopard and a MacBook 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with Lion 10.7.2 which connect to the Server and the Drobo wirelessly thorugh an Airport Extreme.
I want to use Time Machine to have all of my computers back up to the server & Drobo, but realize there are several ways to go, each with their pluses and minuses:
Server Time Machine Backup:
+ Centralizes backup process, rules, and other elements
+ Currently Mac Mini is backing up to the Drobo correctly using this process
+ Have setup size limit on Server backup so that it does not eat up file space
- Would combine laptop backups with server backup into one sparse image: this would lead to the computer with the largest backup needs taking up too much space
Client-Driven Time Machine Backup:
+ Allows for customization of backup processes by computer
+ Can setup specific space requirements for each computer
+ Backups are separate from each other
- Wireless backup from laptops to Drobo is not functioning currently
Any thoughts or experiences on how best to set this up? I tend to do most of my work on the MacBook, hence I am concerned about it having it's backup space eaten up by the server, but that may be more of a theoretical issue than a real one.
Thanks in advance for your help!

Well I'm not sure if I am following you but I will explain how I set mine up. When I got the Drobo I inserted 2 drives and selected the highest available volume I could (16TB). My drives are 4 TB each and I knew I would soon add 2 more. Then Drobo did its thing and prepared these drives. The Drobo shows up on my mini desktop as an external drive. When I log into my server from my other computer I can see the mini server volume and the Drobo volume. I can access each no problem. They act as regular volumes. Soon after I added the second two drives and everything stayed the same meaning I could still see and access the Drobo on the desktop of my mini. So it sounds like you used the Drobo dashboard to partition yours for two volumes? Are they both showing on the desktop?
"Maybe the Drobo needs to be mounted on the desktop to be considered AFP feature enabled." I could be wrong and hopefully someone will correct me but I think the Drobo (or volumes) have to be mounted on the desktop to work with AFP.

Just bought a used MacBook pro after my previous died. I want to migrate my applications, data, etc from a time machine backup of the old computer to the new. Will this affect, or overwrite the Apps., data, etc existing on the new machine?

Just bought a used MacBook pro after my previous died. I want to migrate my applications, data, etc from a time machine backup of the old computer to the new. Will this affect, or overwrite the Apps., data, etc existing on the new machine?

No. Only those Apps that are not installed on the new will migrate over.

The file could not be saved in folder "Time Machine Backups"

I've tried to setup TM with several external drives (USB and Firewire) and I get the same results... the file "xxx" could not be saved in folder "Time Machine Backups". Any ideas?

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
If that's exactly what the message says, it's a new one. If it's actually "An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume" or "Aborting backup because indexing a file failed," see #C3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
If not, see #A1 there for a handy widget that shows the backup messages from your logs. Download and install it, then copy and post all the messages for one backup attempt here.

Why is Migration Assistant not seeing Time Machine backup?

Had year old iMac with Snow Leopard and recently was lucky enough to have it replaced with a brand new model with Lion. Had the previous iMac backed up on external drive with Time Machine.
I know I can't restore from that Time Machine backup since I am now on Lion but shouldn't I be able to migrate my old user account from the Snow Leopard Time Machine backup to the new Lion system? The Lion Migration Assistant will not recogize or show the drive or backup from Time Machine though even though it is mounted in the Finder in Lion.
Any ideas?

I just had a similar problem to this. I have a MacBook Pro (Lion) that has been backed up to an attached USB Time Machine disk that was formatted on this same machine. I had a major crash, and had to reinstall Lion, and my Time Machine backup drive did not show up in the list. I do see several drives on my network, but not the locally attached USB drive. I rebooted and tried several time, no joy.
The backup drive passes all disk tests, and shows up when plugged in to other machines, and even shows up in the boot menu (but will not boot) when the MacBook Pro starts. And it has the secret flag file (if you do not know, the drive MUST have a zero length file titled ".com.apple.timemachine.supported" (note the leading .) at the root of the drive or the drive will not be recognized) and it should just work. It did backup to it just fine, but I cannot restore.
I finally made this work (I think) by actually getting another external USB drive, formatting it, and then using another machine to copy the Time Machine backup from the old drive to the new drive. I added the myster flag file to the new drive (see above) and connected it to the MacBook Pro. This time, it did recognize it.
I am trying to do a restore now, and looks like it should work just fine. What a pain in the butt.
I would love to hear from Apple what causes this. There must be an easier solution than to spend 6 hours copying a full back from one 2 TB drive to another! SIgh!
UPDATE: OK, it showed up as a restore disk in the "restore utility" in the energency partition, but I need to install a new OS (there was some curruption) and after installing a New OS, and getting to the migration screen, once again, this new drive does not show up. ARGHHHHhhhhhhh
Message was edited by: orubin after thinking it was working.

How do you migrate a FileVault-protected account from a Time Machine backup?

Recently the hard drive on my Macbook Pro died and had to be replaced. Prior to the hard drive's failure, I had backed up my sole user account to an external hard drive using Time Machine. When setting up the new hard drive for the first time, I used Migration Assistant to restore my user account to my new hard drive. However, when I go to log in to the user account I transferred over, I encounter the following error: "You are unable to log in to the FileVault user account "User" at this time. Log in failed because an error occurred." I am absolutely positive I entered the correct password.
My next step was to boot from the install disc and repair the hard drive and permissions. The same problem occurred when I tried to login.
Then I wiped the hard drive and installed Snow Leopard normally without attempting to migrate anything. After the installation, I attempted migration, only to see an error message under the "Users" heading, saying, "User accounts protected by FileVault can't be transferred." Looking at the backups I have on my external hard drive, I cannot see any of my individual files, which I could when logged in on my previous hard drive.
I have scoured the internet for possible solutions but none seem to fit the situation. The techs at the Genius Bar tried a few things beyond my level of technical know-how and were unsuccessful, and they did not seem too optimistic about my chances. They mentioned that I should consider a visit to a data recovery center if I could not find any way to fix this issue.
This is immensely important, considering my FileVault-protected account nestled away in the Time Machine backups on my external hard drive contains all of my work. While I am willing to make the trip to the data recovery center, I would like that to be a measure of last resort. Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated!

A google search for You are unable to log in to the FileVault user account yielded many hits, including this one: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4184 which might help resolve your issue. I don't use TM, so that's all I have to offer.

How to reinstall on client from Lion Server Time Machine backup?

I have a Mac Mini running Lion Server and a black MacBook running Lion. I recently needed to to perform a format and reinstall of the MacBook, so I used the MacBook's Recovery HD partition and reinstalled Lion. I then went back to Recovery HD to reinstall apps from my Time Machine backup' which is managed by the Lion Server Mac Mini. On first attempt, I saw the right files, but in the process it hung. I recently tried to do it again, and now it claims that there are no backups found.
My suspicion is that as this is a Lion Server managed backup, it bundles the server backup and the MacBook backup in the same bundle. Revovery HD looks for the latest compete bundle, then finds the matching backup for the MacBook. However, if the Mini is continuing backups of its own, the more recent bundle backups only have mini info, not the MackBook, hence they "disappeared".
I can see older backups when I look at the backup drive, so I suspect that my MacBook files are still there.
Any suggestions on how to recover and get my MacBook files reinstalled? I'm new to this home server thing, so any help would be greatly appreciated!
Jason

One partition 2.5TB will be my new Time Machine Backups and the other 2.5TB for iTunes Library so I never have to worry about this again.
Your worry now is what will you do when the single hard drive containing both your library and its backup makes a screeching sound one day and is toast, or get stolen?
from a YouTube video
Uh-oh, those unspecific and sometimes incorrect YouTube videos. I dislike those things. I watched one once and some kid droned on in a barely audible monotone for about 5 minutes to show how to do something to which I could have typed instructions in two sentences.
Downloading (using iOS or computer) past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519

Can't see photos from previous Time Machine backup

Here is my issue:
I had two MacBook Pros (one old, one new).
I bought an external hard drive.
I backed up both the old and the new MacBook.
I wiped and sold my old MacBook.
I opened the backup of the old MacBook on the external hard drive in an effort to find my old photos.
On the external drive, I went to Backups.backupdb > Users > Pictures.
On the Pictures icon I see a red "caution" type icon.
I click on the folder and get a popup that says, "The folder pictures can't be opened because you don't have permission to see its contents."
How do I access all my photos that are in this "locked" folder?
Thanks!!
Jim

You do not directly access Time Machine backups - you use Time Machine to restore them - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
For detailed TM questions the TM forum is a much better place to ask
LN

"Latest Backup" time/date is incorrect for OS X Server Time Machine backups

I administer a OS X Server that provides Time Machine backups for clients across our small business network. I'm running Server on a Mac Mini (2.3 GHz i7 with 8GB RAM), and after going from Mavericks to Yosemite (and from Server 3 to Server 4) the other day, the TM backups are still running hourly, but the "Latest Backup" times are incorrect. Has anyone noticed this behavior? In case it matters, none of the clients currently being backed up are Yosemite clients. I mentioned this because for our older clients (10.6), the "Latest Backup" times/dates were always listed as "Unknown" in Server 3, and continue to be in Server 4. Thanks!

I also had to restart the server and client after applying the "fix" I described above. Basically, no user should have multiple, simultaneous file sharing sessions on the server. But even clearing the user sessions does not resolve the problem beyond the next Time Machine backup, so I also tried disabling and enabling file sharing, but the problem also returns after doing this. Only restarting both the client and server after clearing the sessions has worked for me when I have this problem. The problem may return much later, but this work aroudn definitely works as a temporary solution.
Next time I encounter this problem I will try restarting just the server or just the client, because it is unlikely that the problem exists due to something on both systems. Server 3.x is definitely not as stable as it should be, but for my use, it is getting the job done.

Restore Lion OS from Lion Server Time Machine Backup?

I am running a Intel Imac 2008 clean install SL then Lion upgrade, followed by Lion Server install. I have multiple home macs, and intnded the server as a way to monitor and restrict kids internet use. In short, it has changes/screwed up multiple programs, and complicated home sharing issues considerably. Mail on the server machine has permission problems (cannot send mail, unable to sign), Spotlight in mail is non-functioning, finder spotlight searches are inconsistent, etc. I want to revert to plain old Lion.
I have done disk utility/verify disk and verified/repaired permissions, and have 'fiddled' (i'm not an expert) in the keychain/certificates areas, but I think the best solution is a clean install of Lion. QUESTION: When I backup to TIme Machine, is there a way to pull a 'Lion' version of my disk image back, and just not upgrade to Server? I understand I can disable Server and turn off applications in Server, but it doesn't fix my buggy machine. My options are to back up my 250GB of music, 100GB of photos, 100GB of movies, etc on to external drives, and clean install and then reimport everything, but even that will probably mean I cant reinstall my single user licesnse of MS office, VMware fusion, etc that I didn't buy on the App store. I'd really love to be able to do this with Time machine. Any chance? or do I need to do the dark deed of 2 days of backup?

Sorry, I don't mean to be stupid, but I want to be sure. My impresion of Time machine disk images (I'm not a computer genius, but I'm , lets say, an expert novice) is that disk images (my term for the 'total view' of a computers main disk), differ depending on the OS. I assume that applications and preferences referenced under SL could not be seamlessly imported into a Lion environment. I'm assumng that the upgrade to Lion server has irrevocaby altered my startup/main volume into a "Lion Server" volume, and that if I try to pull my applications/data/preferences/mailboxes back onto a fresh Lion interface, it won't work. Are you saying I'm wrong, and that I can simply erase my disc, clean install Lion via an internet connection, and re-import my "lion Server- altered' stuff back from aLion-server Time Machine disk image, seamlessly, into a Lion OS environment? Sorry to be so concrete, but my wife will kill me if I %$@ the bed on this. I appreciatre your help.

Leopard Server - Time Machine Backup - Full

IHi, I have Leopard Server (10.5.2) running on a Mac Pro. Its is setup with 1 Boot Drive and a pair Mirrored Data Drives. It also has a large External Drive that the Data from the Mirrored Drives is backed up onto via Time Machine. The Boot Drive is excluded from the Time Machine Backup. After a couple of weeks Time Machine reported that the External Drive was full and Time Machine stopped working. I was under the impression Time Machine would delete older files and replace them with new files. To get around this I have replaced the External with an even larger drive, but guess this will report the same problem soon. Has anyone got any ideas why Time Machine isn't doing what its meant to? Cheers.

No - Leopard Server acting as a File Sharer and Retrospect Backup Server. No false volume/data sizes are listed. Its just filled the external Lacie RAID Drive and is refusing to discard old TM data to create enough room for newer TM data.
I've tried reformatting external since first posted and all works great until the disk is full and the problem reoccurs.
The reason TM filling drive up fast is because the server is accessed my a group of designers storing a lot of data. It would just be great to give designers ability to recover files at various stages through a job process.

User not showing after restoring from time machine backup

I was having issues with my 2009 Macbook pro. took it to the Genius Bar. Diagnosistics all showed ok. (I had done troubleshooting before I had the appointment). They suggested wipe and reinstalll from my time machine backup. I agreed.
Returned home to do the reinstall. When I went to log in found that one of my user accounts did not show in the log in - only my main and "guest" accounts. On checking the "users" folder the user is present. It also does not show in the system preferences user screen but when I try to recreate it says it exists. Note I have done this wipe and reinstall with Mavericks
Help! Most of the content I have on my main BUT there are several things that are not.
Thank you for your attention.

Issue solved with visit to Genius Bar.
As I understand it here are the steps the Genius did. Attempt to create the account (system preferences->users) with the same information. It will say it already exists. Very carefully read the options. One will say use the existing account. BE CAREFUL because one option will wipe your data.
If you need to do this it might be worth the trip to the Genius Bar as you could wipe your data. One precaution I took was to bring a full copy of that user account onto my desktop (from the backup immediately before the wipe) in addition to the one in the user folder. Once we verified that the account was working I moved the desktop copy to the trash and again verified the account (just to be safe).
Hope this helps someone else.

Migration Assistant not seeing OS X Server time machine backups

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