Migration Assistant restore of Time Machine backup

I have problems using Migration Assistant to restore Time Machine backup after replacing my hard drive (the old hard drive crashed so I replaced one and installed snow leopard). During the migration, I created a new user account for the TM backup because of the same account name with my new system. The migration turned out to be incomplete. I found only the applications are transferred, all other things like preferences and settings, documents etc are not transferred; and I'm not allowed to open my backup files (no permission to view the contents). How can I have a complete migration? And can I restore all my previous personal settings?
Thanks!

Then can I transfer my previous settings especially those of Mails, Safari bookmarks, iTunes music... using Migration Assistant anyway?
You should be able to, but I'm not sure exactly what might have gone wrong in your case.
I'm afraid I may not be able to restore the entire system b/c the service center replaced my hard drive and installed the Snow Leopard, but I don't have the installation disk, I only have a Leopard I bought months earlier, the Time Machine backup is the leopard version.
If you don't have a Snow Leopard install disk, you shouldn't try to keep Snow Leopard installed. You shouldn't use a Leopard install disk for troubleshooting problems on a Snow Leopard system, so you have no troubleshooting tools. Just follow the directions at that link I gave you (at step c, you should reformat the hard drive), using your Leopard disk, to get Leopard and all your data restored from your backup.
If you want Snow Leopard, buy a copy (it's only $29) and install it over Leopard after you've got everything working.
The hard drive crashed this morning without any precaution. Do do you think I can still do the restore?
Well, what do you mean when you say "the hard drive crashed"? Seems odd that Apple would have replaced your hard drive and installed a clean system, only to have it fail again shortly after you get it back. Not that that couldn't happen, it's just odd. What exactly happened?

Similar Messages

Migration Assistant restore of Time Machine backup is incomplete

Some app, I don't know which one, keeps messing up the disk drive catalog structure, forcing me to wipe the drive and do a complete restore. I just had to do it again today (third time in a year), but this time Time Machine isn't restoring the user accounts, only the applications.
A random check of the user accounts shows they've been fully backed up on the Time Machine drive and they show up in Migration Assistant as accounts that can be transferred, but they're not transferring. I'm getting no errors from Migration Assistant, it just finishes with the applications and says my files have been transferred.
Any ideas?

I had the same problems when migrating from Time Machine (same computer but the hard drive crashed so I replaced one). During the migration, I created a new user account for the TM backup because of the same account name with my new system. I found only the applications are migrated, all other things like user accounts, preferences and settings, documents etc are not transferred; and I'm not allowed to manually open backup documents. How can I deal with it?

In migration assistant, using a time machine backup, what is the extra data that appears after I deselect all the checkmarks under the user?

When restoring a time machine backup using Migration Assistant, I'm given a choice of what to restore. If I click on a user, and I deselect everything(Desktop, Music, Movies, Documents, etc.) there is still 40 Gygabites of stuff. What is in the 40 Gygabites?!

Is the HDD in the 2009 15" MBP dead? (The original source of your data) If not, you might want ot take it out and put it in an enclosure.
You might try spotlight on know files to see if that gives you any clues where your data is located.
You might down load from the Internet OmniDiskSweeper (free) and open it. It should show you all of the files you have on your MBP and enable to locate them.
Ciao.

Migration Assistant from a Time Machine backup

I have a 2009 MacBook Pro. I recently had the hard drive replaced, and now I want to use Migration Assistant to restore settings and files from a Time Machine backup. The backup was done to a hard drive connected to an Airport Extreme. I am attempting to restore with the drive directly connected via USB. Migration Assistant does not recognize the backup as a source for the migration.
This is what the backup disk looks like:
If I mount the backup I see this:
I have the drive connected and the backup mounted, so neither is recognized for the migration.
MacBook Pro running OS X 10.10.1

Try using Setup Assistant.
Setup Assistant – How to re-run

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.

Migration assistant cannot see time machine backup

I have used internet backup to reinstall Lion on my early 2011 MBP, having installed a SSD drive.
I now want to recover all of my data, which is stored on a time machine backup on a USB external drive.
I ran migration assistant, but I just get the spinning logo and it does not see any data; the time machine backups drive is mounted and I can open the volume in finder.
What is the best way to get my data back? I want to selectively recover certain folders- I dont need to restore applications or the system (I purposely wanted to perform a clean install).
Thanks
Charles

I have used internet backup to reinstall Lion on my early 2011 MBP, having installed a SSD drive.
I now want to recover all of my data, which is stored on a time machine backup on a USB external drive.
I ran migration assistant, but I just get the spinning logo and it does not see any data; the time machine backups drive is mounted and I can open the volume in finder.
What is the best way to get my data back? I want to selectively recover certain folders- I dont need to restore applications or the system (I purposely wanted to perform a clean install).
Thanks
Charles

Force migration assistant to recognize time machine backup

I was trying to reformat Bootcamp partition and it reformated an attached external hard drive with my Time Machine backup on it and my internal hard drive that I boot from. I have professionally gotten the Time Machine backup recovered but it is not recognize by Migration Assistant or Time Machine so that it will restore my whole computer or at least transfer my account folder back to my reinstalled internal hard drive. I have 20 years of stuff locked in that Time machine backup and really need it back.

ahlquist wrote:
There are a lot of extra named files broken out in addition to the main folders (which look the same) that have 0-k in them and it looks like they were "links" or something like that.
Yup. Those are (or were) "hard links" (sort of like extra-fancy aliases) that are the key to how Time Machine can back up only changes, but still have every backup be, in effect, a full one. See How Time Machine works its Magic if you're interested in an overview of the details.
I'm very surprised you could see those via the Browse option.
You might try repairing the drive, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. I doubt it will help, but it's worth a shot.
I don't know if deleting the broken links will help or not.
is it safe to assume the links are messed up and I will have to recover the files manually?
It sure sounds like it.
If so, I'd put two Finder windows side-by-side; your current system and the most recent recovered backup, in List view, so you can see the contents more easily.
Start with /Users/<your home folder> unless you know you'd put stuff elsewhere.
Compare the two, and copy what's different/missing from the backups to your system. In some cases, you'll have to delete the (probably empty) folders on your system first. Note that you can't delete the "default" folders (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc.), so you'll have to copy the contents instead. This will be quite tedious, I'm afraid.
Then, if you can tell that things are missing, look in the previous backup for them. You might have to go back several backups for some, and may not find all the missing items anywhere.
I am most interested in documents, pictures, movies, mail and quicken files.
Assuming you hadn't moved them, docs will be in your Documents folder, iPhoto in your Pictures folder, Movies in your movies folder. Be especially careful with your iPhoto Library. Copy it all at once; it's like a database, and can't be copied in pieces.
For Mail and some other common things, see #28 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
I don't use Quicken, and don't know where it puts things. For that or other apps whose data you can't find, either check with the maker, or start the app. See if it shows a default location; if not, create a bit of data, then go hunting for a file/folder with a name similar to the app and/or with a current creation or modified date. They'll probably be somewhere in your Documents folder, your /Library folder, or your /Library/Application Support folder.
When this is done, you'll have learned a whole lot about how OSX organizes things.
Keep us posted.

I have just taken delivery of a brand new 15" macbook pro, tried migration assistant from a time machine backup, music, photos, programs etc. They now take up 350gb of my hard drive but the files are nowhere to be found? can anyone help?

Set migration assistant to run whilst on a lunch break, given that it needed 2 hours or so, when i returned all programs and applications had moved across from my time machine backup of a now dead 15"macbook pro 2009 edition running snow leopard...When i look at my new system information it shows my new 500gb drive is full of music, movies and photos and has only 168gb free, not enough to run a new migration and i don't have any boot disks for Lion so really don't want to erase the hard drive. To compound the problem i'm in Vietnam where there isn't a genius bar just around the corner, or even an aasp within 700km - what should I do?

Is the HDD in the 2009 15" MBP dead? (The original source of your data) If not, you might want ot take it out and put it in an enclosure.
You might try spotlight on know files to see if that gives you any clues where your data is located.
You might down load from the Internet OmniDiskSweeper (free) and open it. It should show you all of the files you have on your MBP and enable to locate them.
Ciao.

How long for Migration Assistant to calculate Time Machine backup file size

I have just bought a new MacBook Pro to replace one that will not start up. Consequently I am trying to migrate my user account, files and applications from a Time Machine back up - but it seems to be taking an age to calculate the Applications and "other files" sizes.
How long should I be looking at for 145GB's worth of data to be recognised by Migration Assistant?
If there is a problem with the migration, can I replace the User and Applications folders on the new MBP with those from the Time Machine back up?

it's quite safe to assume that the Migration process is stuck. there is no sense in waiting any longer. stop the migration and see what got transferred. did the home folder get transferred? you can restore just the home folder using TM and reinstall applications but that has to be done correctly. DO NOT try to copy anything from TM backups using finder.
First, make sure that your current user has different short name than the user you are trying to migrate. then control-click on TM in the dock and choose "browse other TM disks". this will let you browse TM backups. select the folder /users/username there. click on the "gears" action button in the toolbar and select 'restore to...". select to restore to /users on your main drive. you'll have to enter your admin password to do it. once the copy is complete, go to system preferences->accounts and create a new account with the same short name and password as the user you are restoring. it will say that a home directory by that name already exists and ask if you want to use it. say yes.

Restore a Time Machine backup on a newer version of the OS

My MacBook running Leopard (10.5.5) was recently stolen, but fortunately I have a Time Machine backup.
I'll make do with an old iBook running Tiger for now, but when I 've saved up a bit, and when Snow Leopard is released (and preferably a new version of iLife as well), I'll buy a new MacBook.
I was wondering though, what would happen if I would restore my Time Machine backup (made under Leopard) to a machine running Snow Leopard. Of course nobody can tell now, but has anybody tried restoring from a TM backup made in a previous version of the OS? For example from 10.5.2 to a Mac that came with 10.5.4 pre-installed? Do you need to update the OS afterwards?
If updating is necessary: is it easy to use the grey disk that comes with your computer to update the OS? I never needed it before...

In the situation you are talking about, Time Machine offers the option of migrating data, using Migration Assistant, from a Time Machine backup, ie the same process you use to transfer to a new computer but coming out of a backup rather than a previous machine. This process will generally work between different versions of operating system and so it's a reasonable bet it will work to transfer from a backup under Leopard to a machine running Snow Leopard. That process allows you to bring applications and settings across as well, although whether that would be a good idea would depend on how confident you were that your apps would work under Snow Leopard.

Imac won't restore from time machine backup after HD (hard drive) recall replacement

I have an imac bought in 2011, running Snow Leopard. It required an HD replacement due to the 1 TB Seagate recall - the replacement was done by a certified Apple repair station yesterday. Before the guy left he started a backup/restore from my latest time machine backup set. It failed. I attempted it two times and got error messages that it failed and the computer needed to be restarted to try it again. No luck. I called the guy back and he told me to call Apple Care. Not thrilled about that response since the guy had just left my house I did what he told me to do. (A quick sideline here: I recognize that a time machine backup should be no big deal and SHOULD work everytime, but it doesn't. It irks me that Apple is replacing my HD through no fault of mine and yet they don't allow the restore of data to be a "covered" expense in this process - this isn't just because this was an authorized repair guy - the Apple store would have done the same).
Back to the issue. When I called apple care they pretty much had me try the same thing again with an earlier back up set. To my knowledge, it didn't work. I say this because it looked like it was working and when I came back to the imac later, it had restarted and once again booted to the OSX install. (The boot disc is still in the imac). When I tried to boot from another location, one did not show up to boot from so I assumed that the data didn't transfer and it forced another restart. So, I tried something else. I tried to re-install the snow leopard OSX without using the restore function. That appeared to work and then when the machine restarted it asked if I had another mac and I chose the option to get the files/apps/etc. from my time machine backup. The computer chose what I can only assume is the most recent backup set (It chose what I know to be a subfolder that appears under the dated backup folder - Macintosh HD--which btw is confusing seeing as that's always the name of the HD on the imac). I again stepped away from the computer so it could do its thing for two hours. When I returned, I was back to the MAC OSX screen that asks you to choose a language. There were no more options to choose DISK UTILITY or RESTORE FROM BACKUP, etc. When I clicked on English it took me right back into the screen where you say whether you have another Apple that you want to transfer data from. I realized that the imac must have restarted and I assumed maybe it was because the boot disk was still in - except how do you get the disc to eject? I also initially assumed that the backup had somehow failed again and triggered a restart. I tried to choose the option to just set up the machine without transferring data and when I got to the choose a name for your HOME folder message I tried to enter the same name I had it as before and it wouldn't allow me to do so, saying that that name was already in use. I also tried a different name and that didn't work either - got the same message (I assume if it is not the same name that it won't sync up with the time machine data from the backup set). So, I almost tried the "select time machine backup" option again until I looked at my HD space. Clearly, there is space that has been used. HD space was 997 at the start and now it's 636. My initial thought is to somehow get back into the setup area where I can use disc utility and erase the whole thing and then start over but 1) I don't think it's going to work even if I could get back there 2) I have no idea how to get this thing to reboot into that mode 3) I can't get the boot CD out to even try to restart to see if this thing did what it was supposed to, SO NOW I AM TOTALLY STUCK! I have not called Apple Care back because quite frankly they were useless the first time. I have a call into the repair guy but who knows how much help he will be. In the mean time, I have a million things to do and a computer that isn't working - Whoever said Apples never have issues needs to be seriously censored!
A few other notes: I use Time Machine Editor to run my backups weekly. It was set up that way from the get go by an Apple rep who came to my house to get us up and running. Editor should not effect the way that time machine does its work, so I doubt there is relevance but thought it worth mentioning.
One other note is that the Apple Care agent tried to have me do something called a "Source" something or other from the disk utility screen but when she realized that my backup file (shown by date) contained many other sub files (11-27-12/MacintoshHD/MyNamesIMAC/etc.), it was not possible to run this operation - thus we aborted. Sorry I don't remember the name of the process and unfortunately now can't access that option to go find it.
If you can help me, I would be eternally grateful! I am open to having a phone conversation if you are willing to give me your email to mail you my number. I have so much work to do this week and this was the last thing I needed. Did I mention this was supposed to be EASY?
I used to be quite the geek with my PC - still on the learning curve with the mac but not enjoying it. I am fairly tech savvy and I can follow instructions for a step by step solution if you've got one.

I got a recall and had the drive replaced. I have retored 3 timesa dn even had apple do the job and it is still not right. I still can't get a simple ghost of the data from time machineback tot he new drive.
This is Apple's explaination as taken from their web page.:
Restoring your entire system from a backup
If you are restoring a backup made by a Mac to the same Mac
With your backup drive connected, start up your Mac from the Recovery system (Command-R at startup) or Mac OS X v10.6 installation disc. Then use the "Restore From Time Machine Backup" utility.
Note: If "You can't restore this backup because it was created by a different model of Mac" appears when restoring a backup that was made on a different Mac, follow the onscreen instructions.
I even posted this information on the community and apple removed it... because they don't like the:
Off-topic or non-technical posts
Non-constructive rants or complaints
But here is my experieince:
Take in 27iMac running 10.6.8, 5-7 days, what a joke, my boss will be happy to pay for a week without working. Finally get, "if you have TM back up, 3 days." Get machine back with 10.6.3, hit the R recovery, click TM back up, runs for 2 hours, reboots, looks great. Box up take back to office... update to install - OH NO, still running 10.6.3. Updates crash with no specific error on install, BUG PROBELM, nothing runs.
Call Apple... after hours, tells me to boot using 10.6.2 disk, wipe, reinstall OS, udate to 10.6.8, THEN do the restore. GREAT! Only thing 10.6.2 DVD won't read... now back on phone... take back to the store, Genius says, he'll ix it just like it was. PROMISES it'll be fixed.
Pick up next day, supposedly, booted to disk, wiped drive, reinstalled, updated to 10.6.8 and THEN did the RIGHT restore... Looks GREAT... apps run and 10.6.8 OS. Back to the office... NOT RUNNING right!!!... fonts messed up, drop box app needs new install, cocktail needs upgrade, Fetch not working, memorized paths gone... back ups locked out of permissions... ***!!
4 hours on phone with apple and still no rsolution - to missing "settings". Seems there are THREE WAYS TO RESTORE (according to apply tech)... Running MIGRATE ASSISTANT and being able to choose your files, including settings, "R" RESTORE after they load a new OS... or NOW WAITING for them to send me a bootable 10.6.3 disk and then boot from disk, w/o installing OS and doing a restore from TM. I think this is done via the disk Utilties application.
So now can't back up without doing a full 400 GB back up since permissons are screwed and possibly destroying any good back ups... can't work, like having hands tied behind back. WAITING for solution! Very upset!!!
I did my first restore just like they said and now an 10 days without proper machine. Just FYI. I thnk I am going to make the store do the tech work so I have somthing to fall back on.

Can't restore latest Time Machine backup after drive replacement- only the very first.

My 13" Macbook Pro running 10.8.5 had a bad hard drive which had to be replaced. After the new drive was put in I tried to restore everything to the new drive with Time Machine but could only restore the first backup I ever did after getting the computer, which was over a year ago. I can drag and drop files but I would rather have all my preferences and bookmarks etc. How do I restore the latest backup which was only about a week ago? Thank you.

Not yet; I'm not sure if Migration Assistant is quite right. Since I posted the question I ran across this youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYUem-QfYBs
which suggests that I need to start up from a bootable external disc in order to restore a Time Machine backup to the same computer that the backup came from when the drive is replaced. The video actually seems to describe my issue exactly. The only confusing thing is I don't know why I would have been able to restore the very first Time Machine backup if I need to boot from an external disc. More investigation needed.

Can't restore latest time machine backup

I have just had my the hard drive in my macbook pro replaced and am trying to restore from a time machine backup. I back up regularly (about once a week) to an external hard drive, but the most recent option for backup is October... help!
I can see a backup from yesterday if I navigate the hard drive in finder, but it won't show me this option in the restore from time machine backup prompt.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
It looks like you want to have the whole backup restored. In this case, instead of using the Time Machine app and restoring files individually, you need to use Migration Assistant (in /Applications/Utilities).
If you do not have anything you need on your new MacBook Pro's hard drive, there's even a cleaner way of restoring the backup. Hold Command and R keys while your Mac is starting up to start up into OS X Recover, select the option to restore a Time Machine backup and follow its steps. The backup you select will be restored and your Mac will be the same as before replacing the hard drive

Issues with restoring a Time Machine backup onto new Macbook Pro Retina

I recently got a new Macbook Pro Retina and I've been trying to restore a Time Machine backup made today from my old Macbook Pro laptop. I didn't restore from the first start up (foolishly, seemingly) simply because of the trivial reason of wanting to see the system all clean and new.
I've tried the Migration Assistant but it gets stuck on "looking for source..", despite having the ex.HD plugged in and double checking the existance of the backup itself on the ex.HD.
I've also tried booting the laptop up in the 'restore' mode (cmd R) and restoring from there but it sends me in a constant loop of 'this backup was from a previous model of laptop' or something to that affect. It also doesn't display the recent backups at all, only displaying those from the beginning of this year for some reason. All backups are in the same place on the ex.HD so its not an issue with locating the backups.
Really stuck on this one! Would really appreciate some help!
Thanks a lot, and merry Christmas

Yes, you can restore to another machine if needs be.

Clean install selective restore from time machine backup

Hi,
My harddisk crashed, and I have just installed a new harddrive.
I have just installed a fresh OS and am wondering if it is possible to selective restore stuff from my time machine backup.
I only want to restore some of my data file.
When I plugin my time machine backup. the preference pane does recognize that i have previous backup. But when I go into time machine state, the older stuff doesn't show up.
how can i get my old files back?
I can't see anything from before I changed my harddisk and did a few reinstall of the OS.

Restoring specific files or folders
While your backup disk is connected, click the Time Machine icon in the Dock and the Time Machine restore interface appears. You can literally see your windows as they appeared "back in time." Note: If you use FileVault, you cannot browse for individual items in your Home folder. However, you can restore all files and folders by using the Restore System from Backup feature of the Mac OS X Installer.
You can use the timeline on the right side of the window to reach a certain point back in time (the timeline shows the times of all backups on your backup disk). If you don’t know exactly when you deleted or changed a file, you can use the back arrow to let Time Machine automatically travel through time to show you when that folder last changed.
You can also perform a Spotlight search in the Time Machine Finder Window search field to find a file. Simply type the Spotlight search field and use the back arrow to have Time Machine search through your backups to find what you are looking for.
Before you restore a file, you can also use Quick Look to preview a file to make sure its the one you want. Highlight the file and press the Space Bar to bring up a preview.
To restore, select the file/folder and click the "Restore" button. The file will automatically be copied to the desktop or appropriate folder. If the file you are restoring has another file in the same location with the same name, you will be prompted to choose which file to keep or keep both.
Restoring your entire system from a backup
If you are restoring a backup made by a Mac to the same Mac
With your backup disk connected, start up your Mac from your Mac OS X v10.5 or Mac OS X v10.6 installation disc. After starting up, use the Restore System from Backup feature of the Mac OS X Installer.
Note: If "You can't restore this backup because it was created by a different model of Mac" appears when restoring a backup that was made on a different Mac, follow the onscreen instructions.
If you are restoring a backup made by one Mac to a completely different Mac
Important: If the backup you are about to restore is from a completely different Mac, use the Migration Assistantto transfer data from the backup, as described in the next section.
Restoring a Time Machine backup on a new Mac
When you buy a new Mac, you can transfer all of your applications, files, settings, and other information from a Time Machine backup you've already made.
You will be asked if you want to transfer files when you start up your new Mac for the first time. Or, you can use the Migration Assistant (located in Applications/Utilities).
If you use a Time Capsule, see Restoring files from a Time Capsule backup.
Deleting data from a Time Machine backup
To delete all backups of one or more items from a Time Machine backup, follow these steps:
Click the Time Machine icon on your Dock to enter the Time Machine restore interface.
Click on the item you would like to delete. Command-click to select multiple items.
Control-click (or right click) the highlighted item(s) and select "Delete All Backups of..." from the contextual menu, or select "Delete all backups of..." from the Action Item menu.
Authenticate with an administrator password when prompted.
Important: Do not use the Finder to move to the items to the Trash, or to move or delete items in your Time Machine backup repository. The folder containing your Time Machine backup repository is called "Backups.backupd" and is located on the external disk or Time Capsule you have chosen in Time Machine preferences.

Migration Assistant restore of Time Machine backup

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