Time machine backup, now all applications are gone and cant reinstall anything

My computer froze earlier today and I rebooted and I kept getting the grey loading circle. Nothing seemed to work so I loaded in safe mode and reinstalled from an earlier version of a backup i had on time machine. When the computer booted back up, all the applications on the computer were gone, replaced by little grey question marks. I had no access to the internet and none of my other time machine backups seem to have applications either.
I have tired command R to reinstall, and that doesnt work either. I have a copy of 10.6.3 Snow Leopard on disc but that doesnt work either because when I try to launch it, i get a message saying the application needed to launch snow leopard is not available.
I am at a loss as to what to do. I cant install any applications that i know of to let me install snow leopard so I am left with a brick.
I was running Lion at the time, but i have no backup copy of that, and no way to put it on here. I would like to do a clean install with snow leopard, any tips you could give me to help would be great.

What happens when you try to start holding Command and R keys?
From what I see, it looks like you restored a Snow Leopard backup onto Lion, which damages OS X.
Now, what I recommend you to do is to insert the Snow Leopard DVD you have and hold the C key while your computer is starting. Then, choose your language, go to Utilities menu (on the menu bar), choose the option to restore a backup and follow the steps.
After restoring the backup, open  > Software Update, and install the latest version. Finally, upgrade to OS X Lion by downloading it from the Mac App Store

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Accidentally I have deleted my Time Machine Backup but deleted files are in the Trash !

Hi Folks,
Accidentally deleted my Time Machine backkups but all files are in the Trash. I am copying my files from Trash folder to another Portable Drive just incase I will not be able to restore my files as Put Back is not working because seems Time Machine backups is a part large database.
Is there anyway I can restore the files to Time Machine again? If there is, could you please tell me step by step ! If there is not any procedures, please advise me what should I do in this stage?
Thanks in advance.

The following excellent Support articles may help you with that:
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

I have bought a new computer and backed up off time machine backup now I cannot open photoshop get error code 150 30 help appreciated.

I have bought a new computer and backed up off time machine backup now I cannot open photoshop get error code 150 30 help appreciated.?

Have you updated your iTunes on your computer? WIth a device running iOS7, you need iTunes 11.
When you removed iTUnes, did you see something named 'apple mobile device support' or something like it? (The exact name varies from operating system to operating system). If you see that, uninstall it too. That's the drivers for your iPhone and they should self-install when you plug your device in.
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Would like to verify Time Machine backup but when I enter TM and then open iPhoto, it only provides me a gray window telling me the size of the file. How do I make sure all iPhoto pictures have been backed up on Time Machine?

Would like to verify Time Machine backup but when I enter TM and then open iPhoto, it only provides me a gray window telling me the size of the file. How do I make sure all iPhoto pictures have been backed up on Time Machine?

HaJo-aus-BS wrote:
Since Snow-Leo time machine offers an option to verify backups, but I have found that it does not work for external disks attached by USB or FireWire.
Yes, that's for network backups only.
What can I do to make sure that the backups are OK?
You can tell if the File System (the various directories, catalogs etc.) is ok by repairing your backup drive, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
You can "spot check" whether the Time Machine "Star Wars" display seems correct.
You can do a full system restore to another disk per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions, then start up from it and see if things are there and seem to work.
You can keep "secondary" backups (always a good idea). See #27 in the FAQ post for some suggestions.

HT201269 My PC crashed. iTunes was on it and now all files are gone. All music does exist on iPad. How do I get the music that had been downloaded from iTunes and copied from my CDs onto new PC from iPad. Would rather not use cloud.

PC crashed. iTunes was on it and now all files are gone. All music both purchased and copied from CDs is on iPad. How do I get the music back onto the PC without using the cloud. Afraid if sync will wipe all music from iPad.

You would need to download iTunes on comp and download purchases again (you don't have to pay again) and upload your CDs again IF you sync your iPad to your computer it will erase everything

Time Machine backup fails if you are synching your iPhone?

Time Machine has been running fine on my 10.5.4 system, but today a backup failed
with the message "...error occurred while copying files..." Looking through the
forums, I saw a mention that one should not use iTunes during a backup. In fact,
I was synching my iPhone during the failed backup. Looking at the log using
"sudo grep backupd /var/log/system.log", I saw that it failed to back up
/Users/levoy/Pictures/.DS_Store. My iPhone has lots of photos on it, which are
stored in Pictures/. This comes close to a smoking gun. Lesson: don't synch your
iPhone during a Time Machine backup. Apple should track down and fix this bug.
By the way, my iPhone software is version 2.0.2, and my backup drive is a 1TB WD
drive from Apple. I have disabled sleeping the drive, as suggested elsewhere in
these forums, to avoid hangs.

Time Machine has been running fine on my 10.5.4 system, but today a backup failed
with the message "...error occurred while copying files..." Looking through the
forums, I saw a mention that one should not use iTunes during a backup. In fact,
I was synching my iPhone during the failed backup. Looking at the log using
"sudo grep backupd /var/log/system.log", I saw that it failed to back up
/Users/levoy/Pictures/.DS_Store. My iPhone has lots of photos on it, which are
stored in Pictures/. This comes close to a smoking gun. Lesson: don't synch your
iPhone during a Time Machine backup. Apple should track down and fix this bug.
By the way, my iPhone software is version 2.0.2, and my backup drive is a 1TB WD
drive from Apple. I have disabled sleeping the drive, as suggested elsewhere in
these forums, to avoid hangs.

Should i preform a Time Machine Backup Now?

I have really screwed up my osx install and would like to reinstall osx from recovery partition problem is that i haven't done a Time Machine Backup. I have finally managed to boot into safe mode and the boot back into regular mode and everything seems to be here but preview app doesn't work and rather than figure out what doesn't and does work it seems that it would be faster to do a time machine backup for 120 gig music library and 60 gig iphoto library and who knows what else i may forget by trying to backup manually. Question is can i restore individual files as i need them without the settings for each program? I would hate to restore all the problems this current install has.
Side note.....I have been a long time windows user so i have really been rough with this operating system trying to learn and Really need to start over.
Thanks,
Matt

You can schedule backups in CCC for whatever you like. I run two CCC clones on separate disks - a weekly backup and a daily backup. You could have an hourly backup too, if you wish. You can choose to back up on some days and not others (e.g., you might not do any work on the weekend, so see no point in having a backup schedule run on those days. In this regard, CCC is far more flexible than TM.
It's also more versatile in the backup options it will allow you. Once you've restored your system to the good, I would forget about only cloning your User account, and clone your entire internal disk. This is what most people do I believe, because not only will this copy everything (literally, clone your disk) unlike Time Machine (which skips certain items), it will also make your backup bootable (again unlike Time Machine).
That menas if your internal disk ever goes kaputt, or you wreck your system with an update or upgrade, you can simply boot back into your system in minutes by connecting the clone.
About the only advantage I see that TM has over a bootable clone is the 'star wars/versions' type interface, which makes restoring individual files much simpler and user friendly than a clone (but since it's not that hard to do it with CCC anyway, that personally doesn't bother me too much). Others on this board will argue that TM is faster (not in my experience) and causes less wear on your drive (mines happily going 3 years later, but there's no way to empirically test this claim, AFAIK).

Hard drive packed up, but had Time Machine backup. I installed new sad and upgraded to Mountain Lion., but I can't find iPhoto library and photos or iTunes songs? Is there an answer to this? Graham

Hard drive packed up, but had Time Machine backup. I installed new ssd and upgraded to Mountain Lion, but I can't find iPhoto library and photos or iTunes songs? Is there an answer to this? A backup run did not install either photos or songs. Graham

Thanks so much but none of that helped. It was driving me crazy because it would back up another external drive. I just changed the name of the drive from iPhoto/iTunes Library to Media Libraries and IT WORKED!! I guess for some reason it didn't like the drive being called iPhoto or iTunes ???? I don't understand but I have tried so many solutions and exchanging things out but the name change did it????!!!
Thank you for your help and replying to this. Guess I made my own issue!

Time Machine Backups of External Disk are Missing

I have followed the troubleshooting tips at http://pondini.org/TM/E3.html.
My circumstance is this:
I have a time machine on an external drive (not a time capsule). As far as I know it's backing up my main internal drive normally. This is a macbook pro, it gets connected irregularly. The drive has plenty of space, no old backups have been deleted.
I store my photos on an external sd card. It gets attached even more irregularly. The external sd is not excluded in TM preferences, nor has it failed (thankfully), been reformatted or renamed.
Entering TM, I see only a backup of the most recent time both TM disk and photos disk were connected (today). I know for certain both have been connected previously connected, and TM has generated a backup.
I know this because I have had this problem previously. Twice I have noticed the disappearing backup except for whatever was most recent at that time. I furled my forehead, assumed I was doing something wrong, and let the problem lie (creating a manual copy of my iPhoto library for safekeeping each time).
Fortunately, I do not need access to the backups now. But who knows what tomorrow brings?
I'm grateful for any input into this problem, so I may start relying on the backups.

While in Time Machine, to see all mounted volumes shift - command - c. Information learned from Linc Davis.

Restored iMac from Time Machine backup - now it wants a password!

Hi - hope you can help!
I restored my iMac from a Time Machine backup after a hard drive password. My system (user account) was not password protected - if ever asked for a password, all I needed to do was press Enter. The Time Capsule itself was password protected, but only in so much as the admin access and the wi-fi.
After restoring overnight, I'm now presented with a login screen and two user accounts to choose from (my wife and mine) but it requires a password. Pressing enter doesn't work, nor do any of the Time Capsule passwords.
Previously the iMac was set up to auto login to my account and didn't need a password then.
Any ideas why this might suddenly require a password? Is it a standard system generated password I should know?
Thanks for any help.
I'm running the latest version of OS X.
Jon

Didn't have enough coffee yet. Of course, what I told you won't work, since you can't log in. This might work. You must boot into to Single User mode, Cmd-s at the Startup chime.
At the root# prompt enter the following commands. Press RETURN after each:
fsck -fy
mount -uw /
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist
dscl . -passwd /Users/username password
Replace "username" with one of the user names and "password" with the desired password.
Reboot

Restored Time Machine Backup, now can't find files

So, after a wipe of my computer and a reinstall of Snow Leopard, I encountered a couple problems restoring my data.
1) Migration Assistant wouldn't find my user in my time machine (which was only used for this computer)
2) I resorted to the "browse other time machine disks" feature by right clicking the Time Machine icon in the dock. From this I was easily able to find my backup and restore it.
After the files finished copying (approx. 254 gb), I was unable to find them anywhere on the drive. Finder and Disk Utility both told me that there was 254 gigs being used (that wasn't being used before, this is a clean snow Leopard install), I just can't find them anywhere.
I went to disk utility do verify permissions, it looks like there was some problems, so I repaired them, still no luck. I also logged in as root to see if I could spot them anywhere, no luck.
Can anybody out there point me in the right direction?
I really would not like to re copy all of those again, as 250 gb over USB 2.0 takes quite a while...

m-avila wrote:
Used these forums a lot for questions since my iMac is my first Apple computer. This is my first post though. My hard drive went bad so I brought it to an authorized Apple service center and had it replaced under AppleCare. My computer is back and ready for action with a newer OS (had OSX 10.5.7 I believe and now have 10.6.3).
Do you mean they installed Snow Leopard, and didn't give you a Snow Leopard disc? If so, that's a violation of the license, but worse, it means you can't do some things you may need to do, including a full system restore of a Snow Leopard Time Machine backup. Either make them put Leopard back on it, or buy a retail Snow Leopard disc ($29).
They also installed iLife '09 and I believe I actually had '08 on there.
That's also not good.
I did exactly what happened above - tried restoring from my Time Machine backup and ended up using 320GB that I now can't find. When I try to restore individual files I get the message that a file with the same name already exists. Is it possible to restore my files but KEEP this later version of OSX and iLife?
No.
If I do the "Restore From Backup" the way I'm supposed to (as outlined in #14 Time Machine FAQ), will I erase the newer versions of iLife and OSX?
Yes.
How can I get these files back
You can't, and shouldn't, without the necessary discs. Those versions of iLife probably won't work on Leopard anyway.
free up the 320GB that is now tied up
The full restore will do that. The first thing it does, after your final confirmation, is to erase the internal HD. Then it copies everything from your backups.
and keep iLife '09?
No.

Time Machine Backup now taking excessive time.

My time machine backup from my 13in MacBook Pro to my 2TB time capsule is now taking an excessive time. I left it on all evening and all night from 6 pm. At 7am it said it has backed up 3 gb of 28 gb.
I ran a verify disk using Disk Utility. It took 6 hours to complete and found no errors.
A time machine backup to a second drive took 6 hours to complete for the first time.
Any clues as to the issue.

Good idea about the file copy. Will get back with further details.
Yes am using Yosemite and yes am connected via Ethernet. Have also turned off wireless on the MacbookPro to ensure traffic is only via Ethernet and shutdown all other programs ie a time machine backup was the only activity. Also ASUS router traffic analyser showed no significant external upload or download activity.
Last backup was about 8 April. For some reason I associate that with a recent update.

Back up and access problems on MacBook Pro 15 2.2Ghz Yosemite 10.10.2 cannot finish time machine backup on My Passport for Mac, and cannot recognize LaCie quadra H2

New MacBook Retina Pro 15.4 inch with 2.2 Ghz and running Yosemite 10.10.2 will not recognize LaCie Quadra H2 disk. Also will not complete Time Machine Backup onto My Passport for Mac which it does recognize. Plenty of disc space both externals.

If you choose to use garbage such as "Intego VirusBarrier" you are going to need more memory, a lot more. I suggest you uninstall it according to its instructions, and evaluate your Mac's performance without burdening it with completely useless junk. As long as Intego remains active, your Mac will have few resources remaining to do anything else.
Using Intego's "Virus Barrier" and "Net Barrier" products on a brand new Mac containing nothing but one minimally configured user account resulted in performance degradation so severe that it became nearly unusable. No knowledgeable Mac user would consider using it even remotely tolerable.
Intego should only be uninstalled using the uninstaller included with it. Don't use anything else. A successful uninstallation will result in the following:
After that, restart your Mac. Other Intego components will remain but they will be inert and will not affect your Mac's operation.

Updated iPad to iOS5. Now all apps are gone!

I updated the OS on my iPad 1st gen to 5. I got the restore error like many people have gotten. I tried again and it succesfully updated to 5. When I finally got through the initial setup, I noticed all the apps I purchased were gone! I did a restore and it was the same state. So, I restored from a backup I did yesterday. All my apps are still gone.
Any ideas?

First of all: before you upgrade, always make a backup of your device in iTunes!
The following happens when upgrading to iOS 5 (this is different from previous system upgrades!):
The installer creates automatically a restore file
Then a clean system is installed on your device, all your data will be removed. Don't panic, this will be ok later on.
When the os is updated you get a few configuration questions (i.e. language settings).
At one point you're given a choice:
configure device as a new device
restore from iCloud
restore from iTunes
Unless you want to start all over, choose the third option.
All your settings will be restored at first and your device will restart.
Now comes the tricky bit: After restart your device will work fine as if the process is finished. i.e. you can send and recieve mails. At this point you will not see the apps you had installed, also you're photo's and movies will not be on your device. (I was fooled buy this one at first too)
Do not disconnect your device or quit iTunes! In the background iTunes is still restoring the rest of your data. (Switch to iTunes and you'll see the progress.) This can take some time, depending on how much apps you had installed. One by one you'll see apps appearing on your device. You can't use the untill the whole restore is finished.
When all apps are back, your photo's and video's will be restored.
So please be patient. It took me more than an hour to get everything back in place.
The only small annoyance: there are new Apple-apps added to the homescreen. They're 'pushed' to the second screen by your own homescreen apps, leaving your second screen almost empty. Now you only have to rearrange the apps on the second screen.
If all turns out bad, because you unplugged your device too early, go back to your restore file you made yourself before upgrade. (You did do that, didn't you?) and start the process all over.

Sync'ed iPod to pick up a new album, and now all others are gone

Background:
I'm a long-time iTunes user and am on my third iPod and third iBook on the same libary, which is over 1500 songs. All either purchased from the iTunes store or uploaded from my CD collection. The libary is stored on an external Firewire hard drive. Sometimes I've lost several albums, and upgrades and re-syncs discovers them again. Today I have a specific example to inquire about here.
I have all of the albums by the same artist--eight or so--and was given her latest, so I uploaded the CD to iTunes. Today I realized I hadn't synced it to my iPod (30gig newest gen) so ran a sync. Now I have the new album, but all of the other albums from this artist are gone.
I would like to restore them, and if possible find out what else has been blown away. I don't sync Podcasts, movies, or videos to my client devices from the library--just songs.
The current "host" Mac for the library is my G4 running 10.5.1, this was iTunes 7.5. I also share to a MacBook, and AppleTV.
I'd like iTunes to just manage my music library, regardless of size. One would expect that original function to work by version 7.

While that may work9I do not think it will) with iTunes purchased music it will not work for other music.
- Transfer iTunes purchases by:
iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iOS device or iPod to a computer
- For other music you will need a third-party program like one of those discussed here.
Copy music

Time machine backup, now all applications are gone and cant reinstall anything

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