Multiple users in Time Machine

Before receiving a new motherboard, TM backed up multiple users. After the new motherboard, only one user was backed up. Now TM will not index before the date where multiple users were replaced by one user (who was also present in the users from earlier backups). Do I need to recreate those users in order for TM to index earlier backup sets?

~Zork~ wrote:
Thanks for the quick reply. But when I log on under the standard account is when I only see blank finder windows. Any other ideas?
I don't think we're on the same page. When signed-on as the standard user, open a Finder window to +that user's+ home folder, then go into TM. You should then see +that user's+ backups, for all backups since that user was created.
If all you see is the +Today (Now)+ window, that's an occasional bug in Snow Leopard. Just exit TM and try again.

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HT201250 backup multiple users on time machine

Can I / should I setup Time Machine to backup multiple users from a single administrator account?

Time Machine backs up all users.

Delete multiple backups in time machine?

Is there a way to delete multiple backups in TIme Machine and not have to delete old files one by one by slow one by one?

pcp0827 wrote:
Is there a way to delete multiple backups in TIme Machine and not have to delete old files one by one by slow one by one?
Yes, sort of. You can delete indiividual backups, or all backups of selected items,via Time Machine. See #12 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. You can only select one backup at a time, but they're deleted in a separate process, so you can select another before the first one completes. When you exit from Time Machine, you may see one or more progress bars for the individual deletions. (As noted there, never delete anything from your backups via the Finder.)
But you really shouldn't have to do that. Time Machine will delete your oldest backups automatically, when it needs room for new ones.

Can I switch users during time machine backup?

I have a laptop with multiple users.
I am trying to do a Time Machine back-up using a fire-wire connected western digital drive.
Either because I had not backed up in a few weeks, or had updated to 10.7.2, I am not sure, but when I connected the drive to do a backup Time Machine started doing a deep scan.
The preparing phase took several (over 5) hours before the backup would start, but it finally did begin backing up.
It is trying to back up 8 GB of files and is taking a very long time. It backed up 1.5 of 8 GB over the course of the entire day.
Then my kids came home from school and switched to their users.
Looking at the logs, it looks like the backup got canceled when we switched users.
After switching back to the admin user, I am back to the preparing phase again.
I thought you could log out, swtich users etc with Time Machine.
Can someone explain this behavior to me?
Thank you

I just wanted to update all after my experieces:
Time Machine was not the problem. The problem was a defective WD external firewire drive (WD Green drive) which has since been replaced under warantee. Thank you WD for your comiitment.
Whenever I used this drive, I could hear it chugging and chugging away during mount and whenever I was accessing the drive.
I finally checked the drive (WD My Book) with DISK WARRIOR and the thing was toast. Tons of unrepairable hardware errors.
Thankfully the drive was under warantee and after receiving a replacement from WD (no issues with RMA replacement process, kudos to WD) have had ZERO issues with time machine and the replacement drive.
Initial 1st time- time machine backup was ~ 5 hours. (~120 GB of info). (I added the drive to spotlight 'do not index' prefs prior to setting up time machine.)
-This was a HUGE time difference. My prior initial backup with the defective drive was 3 DAYS, yes, DAYS.
If you are having these kind of problems, check you drive with Disk Warrior (Disk Utitlty does not cut it). If Disk Warrior reports problems, it is a hassle, but replace the drive.
Good luck. Karma +1

HT201250 Can I back up multiple volumes using Time Machine on Snow Leopard?

I have a fault with my time machine software where it is no longer able to perform incremental back ups of the volumes (partitions) I have created on my internal hard drive - every attempt results in a full back up. However incremental back up of the Mac HD is working. I have had it working perfectly in the past. I'm backing up to a dedicated external hard drive.
I have just been told by an apple support manager that Time machine on OS 10.6.8 is not designed to back up multiple volumes (partitions) on my internal hard drive, only the current Mac HD drive - is this correct? He said it shouldn't be backing up the other volumes and the reason it is doing so and has done so in the past is because of bug!
Surely this is not the case?

I would read and try this. Pondini is very knowledgeable about Time Machine:
http://pondini.org/TM/32.html
Ciao.

Shared Photo & Music Libraries for Multiple Users on Same Machine

I've setup multiple users on a single machine and I'm trying to have a common shared folder for photos (w/ Adobe PSE) and music (w/ iTunes). First, on photos:
-Tried setting up a folder on /users/shared/pictures. How can I "share" the main folder and have permissions carry down to all subfolders and files?
-I've given the other user permission, but when logged on, Finder window only displays icon, not preview of image? In cover flow mode, image shows up, though?
-Is this the best approach or is /me/public the better way or /me/pictures (shared) a better way?
And then on music:
-recommendations on best approach to have a single library with multiple users and multiple iTunes accounts.
Thanks in advance

The iTunes sharing is for sharing music between computers on a network.
To share music on a single PC, read this article
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93195

First time user of Time Machine. Have some questions....

To All,
Sorry for starting another thread as I could not find the answers I was looking for in other threads.
Basically I have been on a Mac (iMac) for about a year, and I wanted to start using the Time Machine utility to back up my iMac to my external USB 1TB HDD, and I had a question about the entire setup process.
What I was looking to find out is if I could create a blank folder on my usb drive and call it 'backup' and then go into Time Machine and set it up, so that it will always backup my stuff to that folder I created? I ask because I have a lot of other stuff on that drive that I do not want to lose, so I am hoping I can create this folder and have it backup there.
Right now I have about 750gb of free space on the drive, so I know I have plenty of room, and I want to get this setup rather quickly, so any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much!!!!

Mattc867 wrote:
I keep other stuff on my external HD too.
Assuming the drive is already formatted properly, all you need to do is select it as the drive for Time Machine Backups.
It will create a new folder in the root directory of the external drive called, incidentally, 'backups'.
Actually, it's named Backups.backupdb.
Anything that you currently have on the drive should be left alone.
True, but it's not a good idea to put other things in the same partition as Time Machine backups. Either partition the drive, or use a separate one. See #1 and #3 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
You might want to review these:
Time Machine Tutorial
How to back up and restore your files
Time Machine Features
Time Machine 101
and perhaps browse the rest of he FAQ Tip.

How do I access old folders from a different user on Time Machine

Hi
I migrated my old macbook to my new macbook pro with all the files and backed up to time machine.
I then restored my macbook pro using erase and install and started from scratch installing most apps from scratch and restoring some documents and apps from time machine from the old backup of the macbook pro (before erase and install).
I'm now having lots of issues with permissions. I can't save a lot of files in the folders they are already in - e.g. If I try to save a Logic song, it often won't let me save it in the folder it was in.
iWeb is refusing to save anything at all.
I can't seem to get my photos back into iPhoto.
My primary concern at the moment is getting access to documents in Time Machine that were on an old user of the MacBook Pro. My current user is set up from scratch I think (not too sure - I'm getting confused about which user was on which computer).
When I try to open a folder, it says "the folder cannot be accessed because you do not have permission to use its contents".
Any help around these problems would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Steve

okstevep wrote:
The reason I did the erase and install in the first place was because I had some kind of bug that was really slowing down my computer. An apple genius said that there were probably some issues with files that was causing this and the best way was to restore and start from scratch.
That's a last resort, but doesn't include a full restore. You have to reinstall all your 3rd-party apps from the original discs; re-enter all your preferences, configuration, and settings; and copy selected data files back. Not a quick or easy procedure, especially if you're not prepared in advance.
If I do a restore from back-up won't the problem come back?
Possibly, but it will get you back where you were, without the permissions problems, and without the confusion about which user account is which, so you can do something constructive.
Is there another way?
Depends. If you haven't done any backups since you erased, you could erase again, install a fresh copy of OSX, then use Setup Assistant to transfer everything else from your backups. Assuming you're running Snow Leopard (per your profile), see Using Setup Assistant on Snow Leopard or Leopard, especially the green box there.
Either way, you may still have to fix the original problem, but there are ways to do that short of the "nuclear" option. I hate to guess with nothing more than "some kind of bug that was really slowing down my computer," but one possibility is a partially-installed or partially-deleted app. Once you get back to where you were, see OSX Log Files, especially the Application Installation or Removal problems section in the blue box

Restoring desktop from backed up user folder - Time machine doesn't ??

I need to restore my desktop from a backed up copy of my user files. Went to the Genius Bar and discovered my disk was failing (Apple replaced it at No Charge! kudos) The Genius backed up my files to a folder on my external hard drive before replacing the disk and installing Leopard. Got the machine back and installed the Leopard updates to 10.5.2 and then tried to reinstall my files. The migration assistant does not recognize my folder as a viable volume to back up. Time machine does not do it either (probably since it was not created in TIme machine).
Folders inside my backup folder include: Desktop, Documents, Downloads,Library, Magazines, Movies, Music, Pictures, Public, Sites, plus the remaining files that I had stored on my desktop.
Any thoughts on how to restore these files? I noticed my application folder was not in the back up, so I imagine that I will need to restore my applications separately. The ones that I am concerned about are iTunes and iPhoto, and they were part of the Leopard image that the Genius bar installed.

I have always had problems restoring from my backups. I just replaced my hard drive and did a restore and now there are no icons in the dock (all ?'s) and I cannot click on my Applications folder in any finder window. (Oh, and the fans run constantly at top speed after being on for about 3 minutes.)
This is probably the 10th restore I've done in the past couple of years and I don't think one has worked for me.

Cannot access users in Time Machine

Forgive the titling; I wasn't sure how to title this issue. Here's the problem:
1) I had a MBP that was running Mountain Lion, that routinely was backed up to a time capsule. Since my last backup of that machine (May 2013), I had upgraded to 10.9 Mavericks, and then subsequently upgraded machines to a new 15" MBP.
2) In the migration to my new 15", I realized that the aperture library had not transferred over (unfortunately after I had clean installed on the old computer).
3) Fear not, I'll just go and restore from the TM backup, right? However, I'm running into the following issues. When I enter TM, I cannot see any users at all inside the folder. However, if I try to restore the user account via migration assistant, it will find my user folder that was backed up. When I do attempt restoration however, migration assistant tells me "this user account does not need transferred" under the user account containing the aperture library.
My end goal: access my aperture library (and actually, anything that would've been contained in the user folder) somehow from the time machine backups, which I cannot seem to do for the life of me. Thoughts??

Opening iPhoto libraries directly in Time Machine was never intended.
It was the upgrade to iPhoto 9 (11) that removed the option to Browse Backups as shown in the following screenshot:
With iPhoto 8 (09) we had the following menu:
That option was removed with iPhoto 9 (11). So now all we can do is restore the entire library as follows:
1 - go to your Pictures folder.
2 - enter Time Machine.
3 - go back in time to get the copy you need.
4 - select it and click on the Restore button.
Do not try to open a library in the Time Machine folder with iPhoto. That's not what is intended use of Time Machine.
OT

Non-admin users and Time Machine

We have a 1-1 laptop program with 7th and 8th grade students. The students are not admins of their own laptops.
This year we gave each student an external hard drive and had them use Time Machine to back-up their accounts. The problem was when a student needed to restore from Time Machine, we needed to enter the administrator's password.
We'll be switching to Lion over the summer, and by default, a non-admin user cannot even turn on Time Machine without an adminsitrator's password, which makes Time Machine useless. I don't want to have our students go back to manually dragging and dropping all of their school data (and movies and music) to back it all up (what a messy process).
Is there any way around the need for an admin password to use Time Machine?

Time Machine (the application) is already allowed. That's not the problem.
In order to set-up Time Machine the first time, users have to open the Time Machine Preference, and that is locked. When a user tries to unlock it, they need to enter an administrator's password, but our students are only standar users.
We don't want to have to enter that password for 250 machines each time students need to access that preference.
In addition, an administrator's password is needed to restore anything from a Time Machine drive, and we'd like a way around that too.

Can remote users use Time Machine to back up to the server?

We have 4 Mac users in our office, and a 5th remote Mac user. All 5 users are using a Mac Mini Server at our office for file sharing services. The 4 local users are all set up for Time Machine backups to the server. I wasn't able to set up the remote user - although she can 'see' the Backups share point when she connects to the server by afp, the Backups device can't be selected from her Time Machine settings in System Preferences.
Am I going about this wrong? Or are remote backups not supported? I'm aware they may be very slow over a regular internet connection...
PS - All 5 users are on 10.6

Sorry for the late reply. There's a slight difference for the minimum system requirements for what Leopard CAN run on vs. what it SHOULD be run on. Although a 667MHz G4-based machine with 512MB RAM may suffice technically, I would propose that a reasonable minimum from a performance perspective is a 1GHz PPC processor (or any Intel processor), with 1GB minimum RAM. Thus, the 1GHz eMac with 1GB RAM is probably the cheapest way you could reasonably run Leopard.
One of the issues with Finder and iTunes is that Apple is increasingly making use of "Cover Flow" and other sophisticated graphics. These will run slowly (if at all) on systems with PPC processors under 1GHz. You don't want to choke your processor, especially if there's a single PPC processor in your system.

Restoring user from Time Machine backup

Time Machine help
OK, i have a Time Machine issue that I have a feeling won't be an easy fix.
I had to completely wipe my powerbook clean and reinstall the other day (an archive and install wouldn't even work).
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of excluding system files when I created my TM backups. Now, at no part in the install process (nor by using the Migration utility later) can I get the OS to recognize my TM files.
Is my only option to drag and drop from the TM backups? Can this be done with entire users or the entire application folder, or is that going to screw things up? I suppose I could start over with everything, though I'd like to restore Mail to its previous state and I'd like to have my web browsers back as before, at a minimum.

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.

Backup multiple computers using Time machine to a single external drive

Is it possible to backup multiple computers to a single external drive connected to an Xserve using Time machine? We have a Six TB external drive that we are connecting to an Xserve that has three drives. We want to backup the entire

Set the drive as a network share in the File Sharing section of System Preferences on the Xserve it is connected to and see if Time Capsule on the other machines can see it. If so, it should work. If you don't want the whole drive as a network share create a folder for backups on it and set that folder as a network share.

Can't transfer user via time machine

I had installed leopard on oct 26. everthing ok. So I get a 250gig internal drive and reinstall leopard. After the welcome screen it gives me an option to recover via time machine and I select that option. It gets to "Transferring files to suport applications" & "Less then one minutes remaining" and sits there for hours. I started last night at 9:00pm and went to bed it now 6:30am and its at the same point. So, I rebooted and started again. It moved the current downloaded user info to deleted users folder and started again. Its now 9:21am and it has been sitting at the same point again "Transferring files to suport applications" & "Less then one minutes remaining". Has anyone successfully recoverd user info via time machine? If so, what am I doing wrong? I really need my system back!
Thanks in advance for your input,

just didn't use time machine

Multiple users in Time Machine

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