Restoring from Time Machine to iPhoto issue

Good day,
as this wonderful soft has lost all the 400 photo titles I had modified yesterday, I found a time machine backup with the correct titles. So, I selected all the photos and asked for a restore.
iPhoto does an importation in a new album.
The problem is that the photos have not kept their modified title during the restore ; for instance, instead of "121 - sunset in Corsica", the name was the original one "P10005093".
How can I do? It would be nice not to have typing all the titles again, especially I will have to write them down from TM to paper before, because I can't remember 400 titles.
Thanks

First try rebuilding the library by launching iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library. Select option #5 regarding rebuilding the database file.
Click to view full size
If that doesn't restore the titles try rebuilding with iPhoto Library Manager as follows:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 -Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 -Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your User/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
3 - Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File->Rebuild Library menu option
4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
5 - Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be untouched for further attempts at fixing or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory .

Similar Messages

  • Restored from Time Machine but iPhoto library file corrupted

    iMac OSX 10.9.4 crashed mid-use. Would not chime let alone re-start. Restored successfully from Time Machine and apart from Mail sending (hopefully) a few up to four year old emails again, it seemed fine. However, apart from one or two images, iPhoto (9.5.1) library was not visible in its location on an external hard drive. Inspecting Package Contents revealed that the size seemed right and the masters were present so I used Photo Library First Aid (Command Option start) to Repair Permissions and then again to Repair Database. All images and events now ok, as I believe are the locations, but the previously identified Faces are all missing. Is there a way to recover these?
    I do have a separate Carbon Copy Cloner back up from the iPhoto external hard drive to another external hard drive and before, throughout and after the iMac crash, this back up process continued to operate normally. So I could try and re-store the iPhoto library from a CCC back. I just wondered if anyone knew another way that I could just repair the Faces part as the rest seems ok now.

    Hi Mr D
    Still wading through treacle!
    I recall I used iPhoto Library Manager and then selected largest file size and most metadata to merge the two libraries. Still not perfect but images are there even if a few face thumbnails are absent.
    Using SMART Utility I checked to see what was going on with hard drives as a CCC back up reported some deep system files were on an unreadable block. I should have replaced them from CCC but there were only a few and they were so unusual I hesitated. Whilst searching which replacement hard drive I could fit and whether I could fit it myself, iMac crashed again so another restore from TM. (According to SU my hard drive is failing as it has 6 re-allocated blocks and 1 event error). Back up and restored, I now see that various movies in iMovie '09 cannot access the source files as they are not in the original location. This I think is more to do with me relocating my iPhoto library for space reasons to an external hard drive rather than the crashes and re-builds. I hadn't realised the distinction between imported movies into iMovie '09 (from a movie camera say) and those from iPhoto (from an iPhone say) and what would happen if, for space reasons, I moved the iPhoto library to an external hard drive. Yes, I know now I should have consolidated the movies. There are occasions when a small user guide might help! Also the new iMovie '10 library, which runs as an alternative alongside iMovie '09, is happily located on the external hard drive whereas the iMovie '09 library sits on the iMac's hard drive.. All the still images are ok in all the movies in iMovie '09 (even having moved?) its just the .avi files that it cannot locate. Simples, I thought. I created a folder in iPhoto '09 with all the iPhoto avi files and thought if I exported them and then imported them into a new library in the location (my iMac user pictures folder) it would then be able to 'see' them. Problem is in the iPhoto '09 library on the external hard drive I have many more folders than in the newly created iMovie '09 library on the iMac hard drive. iMovie '09 is looking for /Users/'me'/Pictures/iPhoto library/Originals/'movie file title'/'file name'.avi but the 'Originals' folder is in fact just an alias to point to an adjacent folder in the iMovie library package called 'Masters' and in the new library I only have 'Masters' and not an alias 'Originals' folder.
    So iMovie '09 still cannot 'see' the .avi files even though they are now (almost) in the right location on the correct drive (the iMac) as I don't have an 'Originals' folder in this library whereas the legacy library does. Can I get around this? Why does one library have a 'Masters' folder as well as an 'Originals' and 'Modified' aliases and the new library only 'Masters'? As I cannot re-point iMovie I need to have an 'Originals' alias pointing at 'Masters' for this to possibly work. My plan was to resolve the project issues once the files were all accessible in the correct place and then consolidate and move the iMovie '09 library as a working entity to the external hard drive where there is space.
    The second issue is that of the c600 .avi files I exported (all of which function in the library from whence they were exported), 129 will not import into the new '09 library I have created on my iMac hard drive. This is odd as they are visible and play in their source library but refuse to be imported into the new one made with the same application. Other than a couple of the ones that do import showing a format in QT as 16 bit little-endian signed integer 44100Hz as opposed to 8 bit unsigend integer 16000HGz for one that didn't, I am at a loss to understand what the new library objects to.
    I have now isolated all the exported .avi files that will not import into a folder pending someone hopefully providing a answer....

  • Restore from Time Machine after FileValut issues

    Hi,
    I foolishly converted my personal folder (including iTunes library) to Filevalut over the weekend. Due to the size it is causing issues and making my Mac incredibly slow and unusable... I should have moved the large files out of my personal folder first.
    Yesterday I turned filevalut off, then more than 15 hours later it still said "preparing" - which I guess means it's crashed and is not unencrypting. It seems my best option now would be to restore from a pre-Filevalut backup.
    Does anyone know if I now try to restore from a time machine backup taken BEFORE my original file valut encryption - will this work OK or will filevalut have deleted history in my Time machine?
    thanks
    Matthew

    Hello, I personally don't use TM, but...
    Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
    http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
    Can't imagine something not being covered there.

  • IPhoto 09 - some recent events lost after restoring from Time Machine

    recently my early-2009 iMac hanged during boot up on the white screen. so i a restore from Time Machine and it works. this freezing occurred twice of the last one week, which i did 2 restore to last backup. then i notice there's an issue with iPhoto 09. i notice some latest events which supposedly been backup during the restore point, appears 'blank'. when i enter Time Machine, i see all previous events but the recent day or two, it just turn out to be black squares, and when i enter the events there weren't any photos but just files with names.
    i tested again but loading in a couple of new photos into iPhoto yesterday night, back it up and double check in Time Machine, it is (the new photos) there. about 6-hours later i make a check again (on Time Machine), the photos event became the black square again. this is really a pain for me as i have lost enough photos
    i desperately need help on this. anyone?
    here a couple of the screenshot from my Time Machine:
    http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t272/mujiland/Screenshot2010-05-29at104554PM. png
    http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t272/mujiland/Screenshot2010-05-29at104602PM. png

    Hello mook,
    So if I understand:
    1.) The goal is to restore the iPhoto Library from a point before the issues started happening
    2.) When you try to go backwards in Time Machine while inside the iPhoto window you get a blank Library when you get to the date range you want.
    What to do:
    - As you cannot seem to access the iPhoto contents using the iPhoto window I would suggest the following:
    1.) Navigate using the Finder to ~/Pictures (or whatever folder you are currently housing your iPhoto Library in)
    2.) Rename the current iPhoto Library to something else (Like iPhoto Library Old etc)
    3.) While looking at this Pictures window, activate Time Machine and go back in time to a date when YOU ARE SURE iPhoto was working fine and had the images you want
    4.) Click on the iPhoto Library in the Time Machine window and click on Restore
    -- This will restore the Library from the date in question
    -- You will have 2 libraries once the restore is complete. The freshly restored library and the old library. Keep the old library just for safe keeping until such time as you determine you have all the pictures you want. Then you can do whatever you want with it (trash it, etc)
    Hope that helps.

  • IPhoto: Photos appear as "exclamation" after restore from Time Machine

    My hard drive was recently having issues so Apple replaced it for free. I have a 2TB Time Capsule and restored the new hard drive using Time Machine. It seemed to go without issue. However, when going into iPhoto, with some of the Events (seems to be the more recent ones), I get a big exclamation icon instead of the image. The thumbnails seem fine for I can browse the Events just fine. It is when I click a thumbnail that I get the big exclamation. Does this mean that my master image is somehow gone. Mind you, I could see the images just fine before getting the new hard drive. I was have some sort of seek issues on the old one so Apple decided to replace it however the seek issues didn't affect iPhoto as I could use it and see all the images just fine. But now on the new hard drive with the restore from Time Machine, I can't see the images.
    Any ideas?

    Ah, yes, that is a PITA. Unfortunately, you're not the first.
    All I can think is, iPhoto may have been open at the wrong time during a backup.
    The iPhoto library is a rather unusual critter. It's actually a "package" (a special folder that's treated like a single file for most purposes), with all sorts of cross-linking and indexing and there's no telling what all (at least by us mere mortals). When iPhoto is open, apparently there can be some things updated on disk, but others still in memory, so a backup of what's on disk would be out of sync and not usable if you restored it. Time Machine usually seems to handle this ok, but I'm not convinced it always does.
    Time Machine really ought to send a message if it can't back it up. I don't have a problem with it continuing, and backing-up everything else, since you might not be around, but it sure ought to tell you so you can be sure to close iPhoto and run another backup to be sure. But it doesn't.
    Please feel free to provide your opinion here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/timemachine.html

  • During upgrade to Lion on Macbook Pro the upgrade stops at OS utilites after rebooting asking to restore from time machine backup or install new copy

    My Daughter is currently upgrading her MacBook Pro to OS X Lion.  During the upgrade the system rebooted and then stops at the OS X Utilites menu.  I have installed this same upgrade on My MacBook Pro and the family iMAC without issue.  Did the upgrade encounter a problem?  The only options are to Restore from Time Machine Backup, Reinstall Mac OS X, Get help, or Disk Utility.  
    I'm not sure how recient the backup is on the TimeMachine for her system and she is concered that she may loose a lot of updates she has made to iTunes and iPhoto.  
    Please help.

    I have 8 GB of RAM, but would that even matter during install? Performance once installed and running sure, but I questiong whether the installer would demand that much more, or why it would affect mountain lion when restoring from a time machine backup.

  • I'm having a problem with logging into a FileVault-protected user account after restoring from Time Machine backup.

    Hi all,
    My computer had been running really slowly for a while, so I decided to erase the whole hard drive and reinstall the operating system, and then I was going to restore the files I cared about from Time Machine. The main account, which had all my documents and photos, was FileVault-protected. The last thing I did before erasing the hard drive was to run one last Time Machine backup. As far as I remember, I always ran Time Machine backups with the FileVaulted user logged in.
    I don't remember whether I was using FileVault 1 or 2. I had been using FileVault 1, but I installed Lion as soon as it came out and I thought I had migrated to FileVault 2 at that point.
    Once I erased the hard drive and reinstalled the operating system, I browsed the Time Machine disk and, within the Users folder, there was no folder for the main user account. When I tried to reinstall everything by restoring from Time Machine backup, I'd get the option for all the user accounts, but when I tried to log in with the main one I'd get the dreaded "You are unable to log in to the FileVault user account "User" at this time. Log in failed because an error occurred." Finally, when attempting to restore from the Time Machine backup again, I noticed something strange: After the computer got to about 10% done restoring, it declared itself completed successfully and rebooted.
    I've tried a number of tips that came up from questions about similar issues on the Apple support forum, but had no luck. Is there any way to get these files back? Did they ever even get backed up?
    Thanks.

    Hroodbwai wrote:
    I can't find it! not sure what's going on but the only folder shown is the " Shared" folder.
    Did you have only the one user account? If there were others, they should also be in the "Users" folder. You probably won't have access to the files inside them, but they should be there.
    From what can make out, it looks like it's not backed up any of the files for the filevault account. Can't see user folder when looking through previous backups in Time Machine galaxy view.
    Are you doing that from a Finder window set to your internal HD, or your computer name? It should look something like this (with the Finder in List view):
    |
    |
    I'd been logging out and backing up manually on a regular basis.
    Scheduled backups should run normally; but they won't back up the File Vault sparse bundle, nor will any run manually.
    The only time it's backed-up is when you actually log out.
    You should have seen this window on logout:
    |
    |
    followed by this one:
    |
    |
    If you didn't see the second one, or cancelled it, the account wasn't backed-up.

  • Quirks and problems after a restore from Time Machine

    I had need to restore from Time Machine. It did the job, but it wasn't as easy as restoring from SuperDuper. Apple iTunes Store passwords and iTunes registrations were all lost, requiring me to re-enter passwords for the various users' authorizations to play music (and burning a user on each of those accounts.)
    As I used the restored system, there were several things that weren't quite right and had to be fixed as I encountered them. One persistent issue is that Safari cookies aren't working. For all the sites that had cookies to recognize me and log me in, the cookies no longer work. I have to log into the sites on each visit now. It will remember nothing.
    Is there a general purpose restore tonic that will fix all these quirks?
    I'm thinking of going back to SuperDuper and just set it up back up to a different volume each night for a week to have a full week's worth and skip this Time Machine mess.

    In Safari, some of that password stuff is indeed handled by cookies from the various sites, but a lot of it is actually handled by the "autofill" function which fills in form fields (in this case name and password) with whatever you last used there -- independent of any cookies.
    While running Safari, go to Safari / Preferences... Go to Security. Be sure that you are allowing cookies to be received in the first place.
    Then go to Autofill. See if you have the item checked to allow recording and automatic filling of "User names and passwords". You can edit the list of them to see what's currently in there.
    If this doesn't do it for you, you might want to try selecting Safari / Reset Safari... from the menu bar. The panel will allow you to select which data items to reset.

  • How to restore from Time Machine WITHOUT install discs using a second Mac

    It's a question that is asked repeatedly all over the web by Mac users like me that bought in to Time Machine (TM) on the assumption that if their computer died one day it would be a piece of cake to restore from it, only for that day to come and then to be told "ahh, okay the first thing is to get your computers install discs..." (loud crashing sound of world falling around ears).
    I've never been able to afford a new Mac and both of my machines were bought second-hand. Neither came with Leopard (both have Tiger and have been upgraded to Leopard via the net). This was never supposed to be a problem as I've been backing up with TM. However it appears that Tiger discs are as much use as an inflatable dart board when it comes to using TM. So I've been faced with the possibility of having to spend £130 (about two hundred Pres Sheets, Yankees) on the Leopard install discs just so that I can have the option of restoring from TM. Bonkers.
    However after much nashing of teeth, a very long weekend learning all sorts of things about 'Target Mode', 'Single User Mode', 'Verbose Mode', 'Open Source 9' etc the following solution has worked without the need to go out and buy those over-priced discs...
    What you will need:
    1 broken Mac requiring restoration
    1 second donor Mac running Leopard (or Snow Leopard so long as the broken Mac can run it)
    1 firewire cable with the correct fitting at either end to attach both Macs together
    1 Time Machine backup
    Note: The following is for when you have given up trying to boot from your hard drive. In my case I couldn't boot in to Safe Mode etc. so was forced to format my drive and re-import everything. If you've read this far I'm assuming your at the same point as well and have tried everything else that's out there first.
    Also - both my Macs are Power PC's so can't run Snow Leopard, so I can't say 100% this will work with SL (Intel) machines. From what I've read Snow Leopard will work with this procedure too, but if you've found differently please feel free to add your experiences below...
    STEP ONE: Format the corrupt Hard Drive or replace with a fresh HDD
    *Link the two computers with a firewire.
    *If you're replacing your HDD, remove your corrupted hard drive from the 'broken' machine and insert a new one.
    *Power up the broken Mac whilst holding down the 'T' key. This will start it up in Target Mode and you'll get a nice firewire symbol floating around that machine's screen.
    *Power up the second 'healthy' Mac. This will be our 'donor' machine. When it starts up after a few seconds you will see the hard drive of the broken Mac appear on the donor Mac's desktop.
    *Using your donor Mac's 'Disc Utility', format the broken Mac's hard drive (now's the time to partition it etc. if you want to).
    STEP TWO: Clone your donor Mac
    Your broken Mac is no longer broken and now needs a new OS. But you don't have the discs, right? Well get this... you can clone your donor mac on to your machine, even if they are totally different i.e. a laptop on to a tower.
    *Again using Disc Utility, click on your donor Mac's hard drive. The restore tab appears as an option.
    *Click on restore and drag the donor Mac's hard drive that contains the operating system in to the Source box.
    *Drag the newly formatted hard drive on the broken Mac in to the Destination box.
    *Click restore. Your donor Mac's hard drive will now be 'cloned' on to your no-longer-broken Mac. Once this is done, eject the first Mac's hard drive from your donor Mac's desktop. You no longer need the donor Mac.
    Ta daa! Your machine now starts up happy and smily again. Time to restore all that stuff that's been sat on your Time Machine drive...
    STEP 3: Restore from Time Machine using Migration Assistant
    This is the really clever part that prompted me to write this piece in the first place. Time Machine IS accessible without those Leopard install discs you don't have. You need to use something called 'Migration Assistant'.
    *Start up your machine as normal and you'll see it is an exact clone of the donor machine. Weird huh?
    *Attach your Time Machine hard drive. It will show up as an icon on the desktop and because of it's size, you'll be asked if you want to use it as a Time Machine backup. Err, NO YOU DON'T! Click 'cancel'.
    *Open Migration Assistant (if you can't find it just type it in to Finder and click). There are three options, the middle one being to restore from TM or another disc. Yup, you want that one.
    *Migration Assistant will now ask you what you want to restore in stages, firstly User Accounts, then folders, Apps etc. It will even import internet settings
    And that's you done. Let Migration Assistant do it's thang... altogether I had about 140gb to restore, so it wasn't exactly speedy. This wasn't helped by the fact that my TM hard drive is connected via USB (yes, I know). Just leave it alone and it'll whirr happily away...
    Before I go - you don't have an option of when to restore from, and will restore from the last Time Machine save. At least then you should be able to access TM and go 'backwards' if you need to.
    Also - for a Mac expert, the above will be up there with 'Spot Goes To The Farm' in terms of complexity. However, for the rest of us the above is only available in fragments all over the net. By far the most common response to 'how do I restore from Time Machine without install discs' is 'you can't'. If I'd found the above information in one place I could have saved a lot of hair pulling and swearing over the last couple of days, so forgive me for sharing this workaround with the rest of the world. Meanwhile your expertise will come in very handy for the inevitable questions that will get posted below, so please feel free to help those people that won't be sure if this solution is the right one for them. I'm no expert, I just want to help people that were stuck in the same situation (and looking at the web, there's a LOT of them).
    Hope this is of use to someone, thanks and *good luck*!

    Most maintenance and repair, restore and install procedures require the use
    of the correct OS X install DVD; be it an original machine-specific restore/install
    disc set or a later retail non-specific general install disc set.
    By having an unsupported system, perhaps installed via an illegal download or
    other file-sharing scheme, where no retail official discs are involved and the
    initial upgrade was done by other means outside of the License Agreements,
    you are asking us to discuss a matter of illegal installation and use of a product.
    There are no legal complete OS X system download upgrades online; only bits
    that are update segments to a retail or as-shipped machine's original OS X install.
    +{Or an installation where a previous owner had correct retail upgrade discs, &+
    +chose to not include them with the re-sale of the computer it was installed in.}+
    However, to answer the initial question. To get and use an externally enclosed
    hard drive in suitable boot-capable housing, and get a free-running Clone
    Utility (download online; often a donation-ware product, runs free) you can
    make a bootable backup of everything in your computer to an external HDD.
    This is the way to make a complete backup to restore all functions to the computer.
    The Time Machine has some limits, in that it can restore only that which it saves.
    It does not make a bootable clone of your entire computer system with apps and
    your files, to an external drive device. A clone can. And some of the clone utility's
    settings can also backup changes to an external drive's system; if that other drive
    is attached to the computer correctly.
    Carbon Copy Cloner, from Bombich Software; and also SuperDuper, another of
    the most known software names you can download and use to clone boot-capable
    system backups of your computer's hard disk drive contents, are often cited.
    However you resolve the matter of the running OS X system in your computer,
    derived from what appears to be questionable means, is part of the initial issue.
    Since you do need to be able to fix an existing installation by unmounting the
    computer's hard disk drive and run the computer from the other (install disc or
    system clone) while it is Unmounted; and use the correct Disk Utility version to
    help diagnose and perhaps be able to fix it. You can't use a Tiger version Disk
    Utility to fix a Leopard installation, and so on.
    So, the situation and replies as far as they can go (since the matter does
    constitute an illegal system, if it was arrived at without correct discs) is a
    limited one. And file sharing of copied Mac OS X (and other) software is
    also considered illegal.
    And, one way to get odd malware and unusual stuff, is to get an unauthorized
    system upgrade from an illegal source online. You never know what's inside it.
    The other reply was not a personal attack; the matter is of legal status and as
    you have a product with a questionable system, the answer is to correct it.
    And if you want to save everything in your computer, make a clone to a suitable
    externally enclosed self-powered boot capable hard disk drive. With older PPC
    Macs, that would best be to one with FireWire and the Oxford-type control chips.
    However that works out...
    Good luck & happy computing!

  • 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 from Time Machine using recovery partition

    I came up with the idéa to put in an extra disk (SSD) into my mid 2009 13" Macbook Pro running Mountain Lion and create my own fusion drive.
    In order to make sure not to lose all of my data I made sure to back up all my files using Time Machine so that simply could restore my entire system to the new drive.
    Careful as one should be when about to wipe the entire drive on a computer I wanted to check so that I could make a proper restore from my TM backup disk. So I booted into recovery mode and choose to restore from Time Machine and then I selected my external drive, but then nothing. Where the list of my latest backups should be there was nothing.
    I've tried to format the disk several times, changing disk permissions etc.
    Does anyone have a clue what could solve this? Is it possible that it has something to do with the fact that I'm (probably) running 10.8.3 and that my recovery partition is 10.8.2?

    Is the TM backup complete? When you Enter Time Machine, do you have snapshots going back in time?
    See here for info on a problem Pondini has found with Time Machine that may have affected you:
    UPDATED: Serious Time Machine bug on Mountain Lion (Updated)
    You may just have to restart your TM backups to get those folders backed up.
    If you do have that issue, please post at his link. He is trying to get enough background info to pass to Apple to solve the problem.

  • Restore from Time Machine / Migration Assistance Utility

    Sorry if this is obvious, but just want to restore wo further user complications.
    _Back story:_ 2006 iMac running Snow Leopard won't boot. Genius Bar determines HD needs reformatting. Reformats and installs OS v10.5.7, not Snow Leopard. Explained to follow new setup and when prompted select from Time Machine (external HD) and restore. At home I do, it won't. Everything is recognized (External HD, Time Machine, File), but tells me OS on machine older than Time Machine files and to upgrade iMac (and can try again from Migration Assistant Utility).
    Continue with prompted new setup and created User Account. iMac now ready and like new. Installed Snow Leopard. Run Migration Assistant Utility and select restore from Time Machine.
    Issue: External HD recognized by iMac but not by Migration Assistant Utility. Only selection choice is internal HD. Additionally when connecting external, always get prompted (separate prompt from Migration Assistance) if I want to setup Time Machine and I've been declining. Do I have to set up Time Machine before? It didn't require that when doing new user setup.
    Thanks for any and all assistance.

    Chad Krukowski wrote:
    Than you! that is what I wanted to do, a full restore. Unfortunately was following the direction of the genius bar.
    Yup. The Geniuses (like most Apple folks) don't actually use Time Machine on their work computers, and aren't real familiar with it, so this sort of thing isn't all that unusual, unfortunately. You could even have gotten similar advice from AppleCare, depending on the expertise of whoever you happened to get. Sigh.

  • After restoring from Time Machine to new Hard drive, system will not boot

    I replaced my hard drive on my Macbook (2008 model) with a larger drive. I then put in my Snow Leopard disk, and followed the steps to restore from Time Machine backup. a few hours later it said it was restored, but when trying to boot up, I just get a blue screen with an occasional flicker to the Leopard screen. I tried an earlier back up as well but with the same results. Any suggestions??

    Same exact problem here just yesterday, folks.
    Got a bigger hard drive on my MacBook Pro (15-inch Core 2 Duo) and installed it. Followed the restore procedures from Gizmodo (http://gizmodo.com/333319/the-secret-of-the-time-machine+assisted-hard-drive-swa p). Then got the blue screen immediately after the chimes.
    I only managed to transfer my old disk content by using CarbonCopyCloner.
    Having said that, your solution looks uselful, Portland Mac! :
    Portland Mac wrote:
    ... But when I decided to try and just do a fresh install and work my way back through all my software, I started by installing Snow Leopard and suddenly it boots and everything from my Time Machine backup is there...
    But I would not say the following:
    Portland Mac wrote:
    ... On a new drive apparently you have to install Snow Leopard before you do a time machine restore.
    Am I mistaken, or did you do a fresh install after restoring your TimeMachine backup?
    In any case, I found an interesting Apple article that might confirm that there is a problem: [Mac OS X v10.6: Issues after restoring a Mac from a Time Machine backup made with a different Mac ("Restore System From Backup…")|http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3243]. Or is it a completely different thing?
    And another discussion that might give some good advice: [http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12578529#12578529]. Personally, I will now do as the man says: two backups, on two different external hard drives, using different apps, the other one being CarbonCopyCloner...
    For info, and I don't know whether that matters, my backup disk had been full and some past content had been erased automatically by Time Machine. But I don't think this should have mattered...

  • Late 2011 Macbook Pro wont upgrade to Mavericks or restore from time machine backup

    I recently tried installing Mavericks on my MBP, but during the installation, it will hang up and restart. I then tried to restore with time machine, same issue. I have used check disk and repair, no issues. I have a boot camp partition on the hard drive as well. When mavericks first came out, I tried to install with the same issues, and I remember recieving an error saying core services couldnt be found. I was able to restore from time machine then.
    I have cleared the PRAM, repaired the hard drive, attempted a clean install from a bootable usb, and re-install the OS from the recovery partition with no results. At this point, the mac is a aluminium paper weight.

    I have 8 GB of RAM, but would that even matter during install? Performance once installed and running sure, but I questiong whether the installer would demand that much more, or why it would affect mountain lion when restoring from a time machine backup.

  • Install new hard drive, restore from Time Machine, File Vault Problems

    Hello all,
    I spent way too much time on this seemingly simple task, so I thought I would share my experience with others so they can avoid some pitfalls when upgrading a hard drive in a system that uses File Vault 2 encryption. The basic goal here is to replace a drive in a system that has only one drive, and the OS is Mavericks, and then have the new drive encrypted as before.
    The problem is that a Time Machine restore onto a new drive will leave that without a Recovery Partition, which is required for File Vault 2 and some other important things. So we need to build a recovery partition. There are possibly several ways to do this.
    Here's what worked for me (this is compiled from many sources that I found and already closed the tabs in my browser so I can't list all my sources):
    1) Make a full backup to an external hard drive using Time Machine.
    2) Go into the App Store and download OS X Mavericks but dont install it (close the window when it pops up asking to continue the install). Do this even if you already have Mavericks. At this point, there will be a folder in your Applications folder called Install OS X Mavericks (or similar).
    3) Insert a USB drive that is at least 8 GB and format it using Disk Utility, naming it the default "Untitled".
    4) Open a terminal and type
    sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction
    5) Wait for this to finish (took me about 30 min). Eject the USB drive and power down.
    6) Remove the old hard drive and set it aside. Keep it for a few weeks until you know the new drive is working as expected.
    7) Install the new hard drive and insert the USB drive. Hold the option key and press the power button. Choose to boot from the USB installer.
    8) Use the disk utility to erase whatever partition shipped with the new drive, replacing it with a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) system. Verify that GUID is the partition type (in Advanced options).
    9) Close the disk utility and install Mavericks. This can take a long time. My new drive is an SSD, and it sat at the "1 second remaining" part for about 20 min. Let it reboot (maybe it was 2 times?) and go through the setup until it finishes the install.
    10) Boot into the freshly installed OS and open a terminal and type:
    diskutil list
    11) If there is a partition listed as Apple_Boot Recovery HD (mine was 650 MB), then you now have a recovery partition. If not, then go into the App store and download Mavericks, but don't use the USB this time, choose to do a regular install (or reinstall to be more correct).
    12) Now there will be a recovery partition on the new drive and Time Machine will not overwrite it when restoring. Power down the system.
    13) Plug in the Time Machine backup drive used in step 1. Press the option key and power on. Choose to boot from the recovery partiton (Mavericks).
    14) Choose to restore from Time Machine backup. Wait until it finishes and log into the old familiar account.
    15) Start a terminal and verify the recovery partition is still there (type diskutil list and see that the Apple_Boot Recovery HD is there). If it's missing, choose to download Mavericks from the App Store again and run the installation from this one.
    16) Once there is a Mavericks recovery partition on the restored data you can simply turn on File Vault from the System Preferences Security section. It will require a reboot and then you login and wait for it to finish.
    What a major pain to go through all of this for the sake of upgrading a hard drive. This should not be anywhere near as complicated. I hope this helps others avoid the very time consuming trial and error I went through in developing this procedure.

    Talked with Apple last night. Everything we did to restore lost images failed to fix the issue. I did have the images still on my camera's SD card so I was not breaking out in a cold sweat.
    All Time Machine backups showed the same issue. HOWEVER, I suddenly remembered I also had a SuperDuper backup and voila. The images were there.
    Moral of the story: you can't ever be too rich or have too many backups (I also have an offsite backup).

Maybe you are looking for