Time Machine backups disappeared... in a way.

I've been having problems with my iMac for months now. I'm feeling like I'm on Microsoft PC again... not even joking.
I had to bring it to the Genius bar 4 times, first time my HDD was failing, was replaced (no more AppleCare so, shucks), but it started behaving even worst after that... they changed it AGAIN, I changed and upgraded the RAM to no avail, they did diagnostics, all was in fine condition... so their only idea was corrupted files or prefs.
So I reinstalled OS 10.8 clean and imported everything but the prefs (to start) and it seemed to do the trick... for about a month. And it went bad again.
Main problem was Finder : wouldn't see anything plugged in USB (or would stop seeing it after a few seconds/min), would get sluggish, I wouldn't be able to shut it off...
I got the SBBOD regularly, in any app...
And MAINLY... if I restarted or shut off and re-started, I would get stuck on the grey login screen... with no actual login screen (just the grey fabric-like background). Or, sometimes, just the white screen after the "dong", spinning gear, or not, apple icon, or not.
All in all... bad.
So... I re-installed OS 10.8 from scratch, AGAIN. But didn't import anything.
I had a fresh backup in Time machine AND I used Carbon Copy Cloner to get a full copy of my HD (not a startup disk, just the files). I also copied my documents on my macbook, just to be on the safe side.
(side note: to those intereste, is the iMac running well now? Seems so. But last time it did too, for almost a month... so I can't trust it at all, I don't dare start to use it as my main computer again, I don't know what to re-install and how long to run it before installing the next app to be sure I could put my finger on what the **** problem was, if indeed it WAS coming from my side and not something in the hardware!)
Main bug...
As I said, before I pulled the plug and did the clean install, I made sure I had a full, fresh backup on TM.
Now, if I plug in my backup HDD and look inside, I see, indeed, that the latest backup is from a few days ago. And if I open it, everything seems to be there (as far as I can tell. I'm far from being a newbie but I couldn't know if all the hidden files are there for all apps)
BUT... if I open, say, the Finder or Mail app and go in Time Machine to bring back "lost" files... it says my last backup (or last available files) are from 3 MONTHS AGO! Which is when my HDD first failed.
What the heck?!
Now... I'm happy to see the backups are in fact, there. But how do I access those files?
Why don't they show up?
Does it mean that nothing in Mail was backed up? Why wouldn't it be? (No, it wasn't selected as "exclude from backup")
Plus... all my documents are there in the latest backup... so, shouldn't they show up when I try to see them in Finder/TM?
Thanks!

Hey...
I'm not sure I get what you mean... do you mean if you move your mouse around on the grey "fabric" screen you eventually can "guess" where to enter your login and it eventually works?
In my case I also can move the mouse around, but I never got it to change to anything other than the arrow, and the Genius couldn't get it to do anything either... the only solution is to shut the computer off manually, unplug it from the wall, wait 10 sec, replug it, wait another 10 sec and try again...
(they tried all the possible options of starting with CTRL-this and shift-CTRL-that and nothing had worked)
Now we're getting off topic, but I'm happy to see I'm not alone!
And right now I'm almost happy because my iMac seems to be getting buggy again! Yup, almost happy because it's better than not knowing... and because it proves that it wasn't my data, HA! I knew it didn't make sense!
I tried to change preferences in Finder (show hard drives and start with Home folder screen) and it wouldn't take effect... I also got the SBBOD... so I tried to restart my computer... and now it wouldn't because iPhoto is unresponsive (I was using it with my externa HDD, but just so you know, last time things bugged it had not been used at all)...
AND... I also got the error message that "this disk has not been ejected properly"... while all my external HDDs have not been touched and my energy settings are set to NEVER go to sleep (except the screen). That had been a symptom before too. And killed an HDD or 2.
Isn't this fun.
Anyone knows how long the AppleCare repair lasts for? Is it for 90 days after the last time they had it, or since they first did ANY repair? 'cause I only have a few weeks left if it's the latter...

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Time Machine backup disappears when iMac sleeps

Tried finding this topic but could not find the specifics. I have an Intel iMac running 10.6.7 and I use a Mercury enclosure with a Seagate Barracuda 2TB SATA for Time Machine backup, connected with FireWire. Every time my Mac goes to sleep overnight, the next morning, the Time Machine icon disappears from the desktop. It's been disconnected, because when I run Check Time Machine, the log reads thusly:
<<Thu Apr 21 10:29:30 com.apple.backupd-auto Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup - time machine destination not resolvable.
Thu Apr 21 12:30:05 [0x0-0x2d22d2].backupd-helper Not starting Time Machine backup after wake - failed to resolve alias to backup volume
>>
Occasionally I'll get the error message on the Mac that a device has been "improperly disconnected" but most of the time when it sleeps the TM drive icon just goes away (even tho the backup drive is still on).
Any ideas? Can I fix this or have to live with it? Are there alternatives to TM that may work better?
Thanks for any help/suggestions.
Best,
Mike

I had the same problem as Bru-Hed, but with a Samsung G3 Station 1 TB with USB-connection. After waking up the MAC the message "improperly disconnected" appeared. Was happy with the solution you gave and changed the power save settings accordingly, the drive holds its power, but....... things did not change. Switching off the MAC and restarting gives no problems with the back-up drive, but after waking up I have to reinstall the back-up drive every time by disconnecting and connecting the USB-connector. After choosing the drive again in Time Machine, everything works properly until the next time the MAC goes asleep......
Any other solution to this problem ?

Time machine backups disappear Yosemite

Since upgrading (that is a joke) from ML to Yosemite I am seeing backups on time machine disappear from my back up drive. Another oddity is that the icon does not spin around while backing up. Any help would be appreciated.

The Time Machine icon stopped spinning when Mavericks was released in the Fall of 2013. Instead, since that time, there is a bit more of a separation in the lower left area of the circle (near the arrowhead) when the backup is occurring. Further, the arrow turns into a double arrow.
Backups may well disappear as the disk housing the Time Machine backups becomes full.
OS X Yosemite: If your Time Machine backup disk runs out of space

Time Machine Backups Disappearing

I am running an iMac 2.7 GHz with 12 GB memory and 2 TB Hard drive. I have a very large iPhoto library which has become corrupted. I entered Time Machine and grabbed the last backup and moved it forward. At that time, I could see backups extending into the past as usual. The file took 14 hours to be moved to the present and it had the same corruption problem, so I threw it away and returned to Time Machine to go further into the past - to my surprise all backups after late yesterday are grayed out / not accessable (no dates next to the timeline on right) - it looks like I just set up Time Machine yesterday instead of months ago. Since I never trust anything completely I did a manual backup a few weeks ago but I have done a lot of work on the library since then. Any way to re-gain access to those grayed out backups? BTW the Time Capsule disk is no where near full; not sure how this would have happened. Any help appreciated.

Hi:
I have never seen anything like that happen, but I am no "expert."
It occurred to me that you might try running repair disk on your external drive. Candidly, I do not know whether that will help either, but it might be worth a try.
You might also look at these articles about Time Machine problems to see if any fit your circumstance:
https://discussions.apple.com/search.jspa?resultTypes=&dateRange=all&peopleEnabl ed=true&q=time+machine+backup+grayed+out&containerType=&container=&containerName =&username=&rankBy=relevance&numResults=15
Barry

Time Machine Backup is Full, best way to delete?

Hi,
I'm stuck in this problem. Few days ago my TM told me that it didn't have the required space to make a backup which I though was odd because it has always automatically removed older backups to make room for new ones. But not this time.
Which means I need to manually delete some backups. What is the best way to do it?
I marked some of them and pressed command+backspace to delete them put they ended up in my trash so when I tried to empty my trash it tells me I have 1 306 229 objects to delete and this is probably gonna take weeks.
Can someone help me with this?

Time Machine should normally remove old items from the backup to make room for new. If it is unable to do that, it could be because your backup drive is not large enough for what you're backing up. TM needs a minimum of 2-3 times more space for the backups as what is being backed up. There could also be something wrong with your backup, in which case you could visit the [Time Machine Troubleshooting guide|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2057525].
Unfortunately, since you deleted stuff from your Time Machine backup in the Finder (from the sounds of it), it's too late for any troubleshooting. You have destroyed your backup, and will have to erase the backup drive and start from scratch.

Time Machine backups disappear

Hi - All my Time Machine backups (3 months worth) have disappeared from my LaCie Quadra Hard Drive after my last Time Machine backup. Either at the end or during the backup, I got an error message saying "Bitmap Mismatch". Any suggestions? Thanks, Bernie

Hamish Morrison wrote:
Well yes in principal I'm sure you're right about the drive capacity but I don't believe its a space, or lack thereof problem. I can't say that there was any unusually large backup that occurred that might cause it to wipe off the older backups.
I have done verification on both source & target drives. No issues found. Same with Techtool.
Yes, I also run Superduper every day to an external drive so at least all is not lost when TM fails. All drives are permanently attached & the Mac runs 24/7.
I also run the TM Buddy widget, but it only records info so far back and the challenge is being aware that you have lost the backup when you don't check it every day. By the time I notice the problem the info that might help diagnose the problem is gone!
I understand but it's really impossible to say now what might have caused it without seeing log info. file system errors are one possible reason but you say all drives check out fine. anything else would be unverifiable speculation at this point. once thing i've noticed in the past that any kind of problems with superduper backups can cause this. so if you ever get any issue with superduper check what's happening with TM.

Time Machine backup disappeared--devastating loss

Long story short, my system drive became corrupted and I wasn't able to repair it with Disk Utility or DiskWarrior. I knew my Time Machine backup was up to date on my Time Capsule, so I formatted (quick format) my drive and installed OS X again, thinking I could just reimport my info back from the Time Machine backup.
What happened is now the hard drive is not showing up in the sparsebundle file. The other 2 internal drives seem to be fine.
In retrospect, I know I screwed up process. But my question is, is there ANY way to make that backup available again? I know it all must still be there but somehow the link to it must have been broken and I can't access it.
I lost everything but the videos/photos of my 17 month old son is devastation. I really hope someone can save me here.
(I did use a recovery app (read only) on the system drive so I do have access to the raw data, but there are literally millions of files to sort through, many corrupted).

Frozo wrote:
Disk Utility returned "The volume Time Machine Backups appears to be OK."
That was quick!
Would you know what the preference file would be that holds the information as to which drives are being backed up? I may be able to do a content search for it on my recovered raw data files. Id be curious--maybe I had accidentally added the disk on the exclude list somehow!? Maybe I wasnt 100% sure, because I havent had to access it for over a year at least.
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
(That's the top-level Library folder, not the one in your user home folder). It contains the current instructions; if you make a change, that will be reflected in subsequent backups, but earlier ones won't be changed.
But of course, if you don't have the backups, you can't tell what was in that file.
Lets say it was recently deleted somehow, is there any recourse to pulling anything off it?
Even if it was recently added to the exclusion list (all internals are backed-up by default), that wouldn't affect prior backups. Those would still be in the Backups.backupdb folder, until the entire backup (or all backups of a selected item, as below) was deleted. Since you have at least a year's worth of backups, it would still have been there.
If you really want to double-check, Time Machine puts a hidden, somewhat cryptic, log in each backup folder. Among other things, it shows which volumes were backed-up.
First, you have to change the Finder to show hidden items. See #A3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting if you don't know how to do that.
Then via the Finder, locate the log file, shown in gray since we mere mortals are not authorized to read it, either:
Then you must give yourself read rights to the file. Right-click it and select Get Info. In the window that shows, open the Sharing & Permissions section at the bottom. Click the padlock and enter your Admin password, then click the plus sign and select your user account. That will give you read rights.
Open it with a text editor. Here's part of a sample, showing the "preflight" to back up two drives:
See if the "missing" drive shows up there. If not, it wasn't backed-up.
But then, even it it were physically delted, it wouldnt have been an accident, since it would have to be manually removed from each incremental folder and there are about 70 of them!
There is a "Delete all backups of ..." option in the TM browser that would do them all at once. It's almost impossible to do it by accident, though. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #12.

Time Machine backups disappeared. HELP!!!

Last night I ran a Time Machine backup of my MacBook Pro just like I do every night, and it completed successfully. This morning I noticed a msg saying my backup failed because there wasn't enough room on the disk (I leave my Time Machine disk plugged in all of the time when I'm home). When I enter Time Machine it doesn't show any of the old backups--it looks like it's never used the disk. When I browse the disk in Finder I see a backups folder. I really need to have access to my backups! I've tried restarting the computer, and control clicking Time Machine and selecting "Browse other Time Machine Disks" and nothing seems to help.
The OS is 10.5.8
I will greatly appreciate any assistance anyone can provide!

Open Disk Utility & highlight the external drive, see if it needs Repair.
Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

Time machine backup disappeared after upgrading OS from Lion to Mountain Lion.

I made a full backup of my 2011 Macbook Pro to my network drive through Time Machine in order to upgrade to Mountain Lion. However, after the upgrade, the backup could not be found. As it went through the install, I opted to recover the backup afterwards as I have read that you can do that after the upgrade. But the migration assistant could not find a backup.
So I looked in Finder at my external drive, and sure enough the backup is gone.
Some extra info:
So I don't know if this has affected anything important, I'm not that computer smart.
Prior to this I've been trying to get Windows 7 to work on bootcamp (still not working). I needed the OS X install disc, but I didn't have the install disc(I had OS Lion installed) and I bought the laptop from someone at work, so I couldn't get the Lion iso pulled from the recovery to a flash drive (it required the previous owners password to his apple account). Therefore I purchased the Mountain Lion Upgrade (Lion being no longer available. I didn't really want mountain lion). So when I started the Mountain Lion install, I had the "brilliant" idea to install it on the flash drive I had intended to use in the first place. Well, I didn't think it was gonna start the upgrade immediately after that. Anyways, after I realised my mistake I redid the install, process was the same, chose the main HD, went well. This was where I opted out of the recover-from-backup option. At this point I tried to restore my backup through the migration assistant. It said there was not enough room on the hard drive. I then noticed that all the memory used up prior upgrading was still in use, but under the old main user. I didn't do much with it, and thinking that my backup had my back, I did a full clean install. Another mistake. After the clean install, the migration assistant said there was no backup. I looked in finder, it was gone.
I didn't touch the hard drive thinking it is either hidden, or deleted but not written over yet and still could be recovered. I don't know how to explore these options, I can't find anything online about either. Or perhaps there are other options to consider?
Please advise.

It's early 2011.
I have been able to purchase the upgrade under my username at the upgrade price. I didn't know that Lion stays under the previous owner's Apple account. I mean I got that when I tried putting the Lion Iso on a bootable drive (for the purpose of bootcamp) it said I needed the username and password of the Lion purchaser, but I went to get my own license then, but it was Mountain Lion at the upgrade price. I didn't think it had anything to do with my backup.
So looking back, that seems like a warning Apple should have put out for people to be wary of. "Hey, don't buy a laptop from someone and then upgrade, you'll lose everything." That's a load of crap. I thought I had no worries as long as I had a backup. I've never needed a backup, then the one time I thought I was in good hands. Nope, I try to do something, and it takes everything from me. That was a lot of data worth of stuff. 550 Gigs! I was shocked and in complete disbelief the moment I realized what I had done.
I just don't want to give this up.

Can i revert to snow leopard from lion without a time machine backup?

can I revert to snow leopard from lion without a time machine backup?

You can with a Snow Leopard DVD, but if you don't have that or a Time Machine backup there's no way.

Wipe new Macbook Pro - Time Machine Backup Issue

Hi,
I recently purchased a 15" Macbook Pro, i'd previously been using a Mac Pro - through which everything was backed up through Time Machine onto a external HD.
When i started using the Macbook Pro i by-passed the initial Migration request as i had'nt yet got the 6 pin to 4 pin firewire cable for my external HD (have one now).
When i tried routing timeline on the MBP to the Time Machine backup on my external HD it ended up creating a separate user account on my MBP. This isn't what i wanted - i thought i could pick up where the Mac Pro left off but have'nt been able to figure out how. It's also slowed the MBP down alot, so i want to wipe it and start afresh - hopefully figuring out the Time Machine issue in the process.
Thanks,
brokenboy

You can by doing this:
Install or Reinstall Lion from Scratch
If possible backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.
When the system restarts you will be in the Setup Assistant from which you can initiate a migration from a Time Machine backup. In this way you will not end up with multiple user accounts.

HT201250 is there any way to retrieve deleted time machine backups?

is there any way to retrieve deleted time machine backups? it has now deleted the oldest, but most important backup. It was made right before before upgrading to mountain lion. Because I had some issues with placing the files back the way I wanted, I had to connect my hard drive to my mac several times. Result, everytime I did so, a backup was made. Like today, when I was transferring everything from that specific backup. But in the meantime Time Machine made a new backup, deleting the old one I was using. Ironically, I lost everything while I was transferring the files back to my mac. Please give me good news.

Once the external hard drive that you use for Time machine deleted its oldest backup and overwrote it, the ability to retrieve those files disappeared. They are gone for good.
Hope this helps

I have a Seagate Freeagent 1TB external drive that ejects it's self in the middle of the time machine backup, then disappears and can't be found unless I turn it off and back on again

I have a Seagate Freeagent 1TB external drive that ejects it's self in the middle of the time machine backup, then disappears and can't be found unless I turn it off and back on again. Any ideas?

Hmmm.. sorry to jump in but...
I Wish I had seen this before I got mine.
Mine has been doing this auto eject stuff too.
I think I just plugged it in and TM let me select it but is it possible
I should have reformatted it with DU first, like with all the WD drive problems ?
Is it too late for that ?
Or just try to return it or get rid of it ?
TIA

I am using an external drive for a time machine backup. It has disappeared from the desktop. How do I get it back again?

My time machine backup disc, which has been working ok for a couple of years has suddenly disappeared from the desktop. The time machine program tels me it is unavailable. I have checked that the drive is working by booting up in Windows. and Windows can see it and read it ok. What has gone wrong, and how can I fix it?
I have tried unplugging it and reconnecting, but it is still apparently not seen by the system.
I could use Windows to reformat it, and start again, but this would loose all my previous backups, and I've no guarantee that the system would notice it even then.
Has anyone any ideas?

I think it's formatted on FAT 32 system, but I'm not sure. It's been working for a couple of years so far without any problems, so I think it must be compatible with Mac. The problem is that all of a sudden, the Mac doesn't acknowledge that it is present.

Any way to restore iTunes and iPhoto libraries from failed Time Machine backup?

Is there a way to restore iTunes and iPhoto libraries from an unmountable Time Machine backup?
Background: I received an update alert on my iMac (mid-2010, 1TB) from Time Machine (wirelessly connected to a Time Capsule, 2TB 2013) that it required an update and required rebooting, of course, it happened when I was in the middle of a project and I postponed the restart for later. That evening I turned off the computer and coincidentally the next morning, the iMac would not start; it loaded to the Apple logo and about an 1/8 of the progress bar would load before the iMac would turn off.
The iMac had been fine to that day (OS upgrades and all since 2010) so I was assuming something misfired when I declined the Time Machine update. I tried the PRAM and SMC resets mentioned in the forums but no dice. I then went into Disk Utility to try repairs and there were errors on the hard drive that could not be fixed. My next step was to erase the drive and restore from my Time Machine backup. Before doing that I checked Disk Utility and to my horror, it told me that my Time Machine backups were unmountable so of course my first thought was that all my files were gone.
The TC was under warranty so I called support and they referred me to the local Genius Bar. The Genius was great and showed me that my files weren't lost even though the Time Machine backup was unmountable. They recommended I erase the partitions, starting from scratch and I would have to transfer the Time Machine backup files manually by directly connecting an ethernet cable from the TC to the computer. If that didn't work, the hard drive was bad and needed replacement which they could take care of.
I followed their recommendation and the hard drive is fine. I was so relieved to hear that my files were safe that I forgot to ask about all of the metadata that was lost in iTunes (de-selected songs, playlists, rankings, play counts) and iPhoto (geotags, names, etc). Any ideas / help? I sank considerable time into my music and photos and would love to have that time back.
FWIW, I'm in the process of buying an external hard drive as a secondary backup to the TC as my confidence is a little shaken on the product line - the first time I ever actually need a backup and the backup is unmountable. My whole point of spending a little more and buying into the Apple ecosystem for a backup solution was to streamline the backup process and avoid these types of issues.

Thank you for the reply. I tried the Disk Utility to repair my TC's Time Machine backup disk with no luck, it stopped with the message:
Disk utility stopped repairing "iMac"
Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
It took a night but I was able to copy all the TC Time Machine files to the external hard drive as a backup to a backup just in case. I'm still pretty bummed the TC's backup didn't allow for Disk Utility's restore functionality. Fortunately, the iPhoto library backup I dragged to the iMac from the Time Capsule backup worked without a hitch. On the downside, the "iTunes Library.itl" backup I dragged over is locked so now I'm checking out the forums for any ways to fix that. I temporarily created a new iTunes library with all my apps and music but plan on reverting to the old iTunes library if possible so I can start syncing my iOS devices again.

Time Machine backups disappeared... in a way.

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