Time Machine backups not available on new MBP

Okay, I've had issues with an early 2011 15" MBP that I've had for a couple years. I was replacing it today. Did a backup last night (to a LaCie FW800 external drive). Brought the new MBP home today (2.4 GHz i7 Retina). I try to migrate during initial setup. It doesn't see my backup drive (via USB). I call Apple. Create new acct. and migrate. Still can't see the drive. I try plugging the drive into my Airport Extreme. Migration Asst. sees the drive but says there are no backups on it. I go into Recovery Mode, it sees 2 out of 8 backups, latest one being 18 days ago. Apple tech tells me to not use it due to it being a 10.8.2 backup on an old machine. I run out and get a FW to Thunderbolt adapter with the hopes of success. No success. I'm totally stumped. Googling isn't helping and neither is the senior tech I've been talking to.
A few notes.
In TM, it sees the old backups, but they appear as black windows that I can't click on
I tried putting the backup drive into a new enclosure. Same result.
I would rather avoid a clean install of everything or a manual migration. Any ideas before I do one of these things?

Ah, good. Connect it directly to your Mac.
Open the drive with the Finder. You should see only a single Backups.backupdb folder at the top level of the drive. If not, what do you see?
The Time Machine browser (the "Star Wars" display) normally only shows the backups of the Mac it's running on. You should be able to see the backups from the old Mac via the Browse Other Backup Disks, per the green box in #E2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
But Migration Assistant should see them (that's what it's for!).
Does it show anything at all on this window?
If not, the backups may be damaged. Try Repairing them, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Similar Messages

Time Machine backups not available after Lion upgrade

I just upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion a week ago. Today I went to my Time Machine (backups on a Time Capsule), and can't access old files. Past dates are shown in purple, with dates since the Lion update in the usual gray. However, none of them show any files. Any ideas?

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4055

Older Time Machine backups not available in Mountain Lion?

My wife relies heavily on Time Machine to restore old files that have been deleted or previous versions of a file. Recently I upgraded her Mac OS from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. Today she discovered that she is unable to search and/or restore files from any point before the upgrade to Mountain Lion, although she can see dates along the timeline that indicate that there are backups present. She has backups going back almost 3 years now, so this is a pretty serious potential loss. Is there a work around for this? If not, we'll have to roll back to her Snow Leopard OS from theTime Machine. Just FYI, her system specs are: iMac (24-inch Mid 2007) Mac OS 10.8.x 3GB RAM

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4055

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!

Why is Time machine backup not working after Mavericks upgrade?

Why is Time machine backup not working after Mavericks upgrade?

I had the same problem due to the Fire Wire port. Apple tested it told me it is OK!, I tried a new cable, and have tested both ports on my back up device. I find it strange that as soon as I installed Mavericks. The drive does work using USB. It could be a coincidence, I don't absolutely know at this point, my back up drive ports could stop working, but I doubt it!

I am getting error "The disk is used for Time Machine Backup" when installing the new OSX Mountain Lion upgrade"

I am keep getting this error "The disk is used for Time Machine Backup" when installing the new OSX Mountain Lion" when doing the upgrade to newly OS.

The folder would be at the root of your hard drive. Double-click Macintosh HD and look there.
If it isn’t there, I’m not sure what it is seeing.

HT3275 Time Machine backup not completed because "the backup disk image ....sparsebundle already in use"

Time Machine backup not completed because the "backup disk image"/Volumes/Data/MacBookAir.sparsebundle" is already in use. ??

Reboot the TC.. this is most common issue since Mountain Lion.
Look at the More Like This just on the right column.

Can not access time machine backups. after transfer to new macbook pro

Irecently up graded to a new MacBook Pro. I baked up all my files on an external drive using time machine. Now when I try to retrive my files from the backups.backupdb folder I can not access may of my files. Message: "The folder “Music” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents."
I'm fairly certain I have a diffrent user name on my new machine but dont know what my old user name and password were (never really used them).
How can I access 3 years worth of work in this time machine backup?

Irecently up graded to a new MacBook Pro. I baked up all my files on an external drive using time machine. Now when I try to retrive my files from the backups.backupdb folder I can not access may of my files. Message: "The folder “Music” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents."
I'm fairly certain I have a diffrent user name on my new machine but dont know what my old user name and password were (never really used them).
How can I access 3 years worth of work in this time machine backup?

Time Machine Backup Not Working - Please Help!

Hey everyone - first post here, please help! I'm having trouble with TM. Here are the messages from Time Machine Buddy:
Starting automatic backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Forcing deep traversal on source: "Macintosh HD" (mount: '/' fsUUID: AD5C219F-0EC8-32C3-B827-2FF171A4AE46 eventDBUUID: 68A67596-22DD-4FB5-AA49-390E857688E1)
Backup content size: 166.93 GB excluded items size: 34.36 GB for volume Macintosh HD
Found 842174 files (132.56 GB) needing backup
160.14 GB required (including padding), 824.43 GB available
Copied 74.41 GB of 132.56 GB, 693114 of 842174 items
Copied 130.6 GB of 132.56 GB, 728437 of 842174 items
Copied 731588 files (130.76 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Backup canceled.
Starting manual backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Forcing deep traversal on source: "Macintosh HD" (mount: '/' fsUUID: AD5C219F-0EC8-32C3-B827-2FF171A4AE46 eventDBUUID: 68A67596-22DD-4FB5-AA49-390E857688E1)
Didn't get valid migration dates.
Found 842174 files (1.87 GB) needing backup
3.9 GB required (including padding), 692.16 GB available
Copied 85694 files (1.71 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Using file event preflight for Macintosh HD
Will copy (41.8 MB) from Macintosh HD
Found 430 files (42.2 MB) needing backup
2.23 GB required (including padding), 689.79 GB available
Copied 5022 files (46 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Created new backup: 2012-10-09-015038
Copying OS X Recovery set
Starting post-backup thinning
Error: Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-50 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -50.)" (paramErr: error in user parameter list) deleting backup: /Volumes/Time Machine Back
I tried to back it up the first time, and it was taking forever, so I stopped it, and then started a new backup. Can someone let me know what to do so I can be comfortable knowing the machine is definitely backed up?
Thanks!

The indication that the backup completed successfully is the best evidence that it did. If you want something more explicit, you can proceed as below.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:
sudo tmutil compare
You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up.
The command will take at least a few minutes to run. Eventually some lines of output will appear below what you entered.
Each line that begins with a plus sign (“+”) represents a file that has been added to the source volume since the last snapshot was taken. These files have not been backed up yet.
Each line that begins with an exclamation point (“!”) represents a file that has changed on the source volume. These files have been backed up, but not in their present state.
Each line that begins with a minus sign (“-“) represents a file that has been removed from the source volume.
Files that you’ve excluded from backup, or that are excluded automatically, are ignored.
At the end of the output, you’ll get some lines like the following:
Added:
Removed:
Changed:
These lines show the total amount of data added, removed, or changed on the source(s) since the last snapshot.

Time machine backup not working right!

I am running Snow Leopard on a reasonably new imac 20".
I have been having problems getting my computer to backup to our timecapule. We have it programmed to automatically backup, but it is coming up with the error message: the backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk.
I have looked in the console, and initially found an error message relating to a flashplayer/sys file (sorry can't remember all the detail, and it doesn't seem to be there now). I set it to exclude that file from backup, and crossed my fingers. Still no joy.
It is now showing the following error message:
Dec 14 22:08:21 00-25-4b-8d-28-95 com.apple.backupd[427]: Error: (5) getxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.SnapshotState path:/Volumes/Backup of Sebastian Jonsson’s iMac/Backups.backupdb/Sebastian Jonsson’s iMac/2009-12-03-053418
It keeps repeating, the only difference is the numbers at the end.
I have no idea what to do now. Can anyone please help me, I'm worried about not having my info backed up properly.

I have the same problem which has just started when all was working fine. I have done I think all the things suggested in Time Machine - Troubleshooting User Tips but I still get the same error message.
Starting standard backup
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Thom%20Dennis%20MacBookPro%[email protected] al/Thom%20Dennis%20MacBookPro%204's
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Thom%20Dennis%20MacBookPro%[email protected] al/Thom%20Dennis%20MacBookPro%204's
Disk image /Volumes/Thom Dennis MacBookPro 4's/Thom Dennis MacBookPro 4.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Thom Freedom 2
Forcing deep traversal on source: "Thom Freedom 2" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 8CCFA0EB-DF43-399B-9212-905CCB159237 eventDBUUID: BF4914D6-7DB6-447E-B0C4-71D3A5ED830B), {1, 1, 1, 0}
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|require scan|
No pre-backup thinning needed: 2.12 GB requested (including padding), 361.76 GB available
Indexing a file failed. Returned 200 for: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Version Cue CS4/Client/4.0.0/VersionCue.framework/Versions/A/Resources, /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Thom Dennis MacBookPro 4/2009-12-24-104229.inProgress/C627CFC7-FA55-4D69-936C-B192A4A
+Error message before that one:+
Starting standard backup
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Thom%20Dennis%20MacBookPro%[email protected] al/Thom%20Dennis%20MacBookPro%204's
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Thom%20Dennis%20MacBookPro%[email protected] al/Thom%20Dennis%20MacBookPro%204's
Disk image /Volumes/Thom Dennis MacBookPro 4's/Thom Dennis MacBookPro 4.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Thom Freedom 2
Forcing deep traversal on source: "Thom Freedom 2" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 8CCFA0EB-DF43-399B-9212-905CCB159237 eventDBUUID: BF4914D6-7DB6-447E-B0C4-71D3A5ED830B), {1, 1, 1, 0}
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|require scan|
Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!
+And before that ...+
Starting standard backup
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Thom%20Dennis%20MacBookPro%[email protected] al/Thom%20Dennis%20MacBookPro%204's
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Thom%20Dennis%20MacBookPro%[email protected] al/Thom%20Dennis%20MacBookPro%204's
Disk image /Volumes/Thom Dennis MacBookPro 4's/Thom Dennis MacBookPro 4.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Thom Freedom 2
Forcing deep traversal on source: "Thom Freedom 2" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 8CCFA0EB-DF43-399B-9212-905CCB159237 eventDBUUID: BF4914D6-7DB6-447E-B0C4-71D3A5ED830B), {1, 1, 1, 0}
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|require scan|
No pre-backup thinning needed: 2.05 GB requested (including padding), 361.76 GB available
Indexing a file failed. Returned 200 for: /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS4, /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Thom Dennis MacBookPro 4/2009-12-24-104229.inProgress/1A14CF13-0CE0-47C7-8689-2401DE2A51C7/Thom Freedom 2/Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS4
Aborting backup because indexing a file failed.
Stopping backup.
Copied 24 files (21 KB) from volume Thom Freedom 2.
Copy stage failed with error:11
Backup failed with error: 11
Ejected Time Machine disk image.
When I have flagged a file for not being backed up, the error message indicates an indexing problem with another file.
Where now please?

Latest Time Machine backup not Showing

Here's what I'm trying to do:
Swapping out 320 gb had on a 5,1 MacBook Pro to a 500gb hd. I DON'T have an external enclosure.
I ran another Time Machine backup last night (nov 20) before physically swapping out hard drives ( I do TM backups intermittently). My TM backups are to a FireWire attached external drive, btw, so I get the new drive in the computer, startup while holding Command-R (only works with USB connection I found out) and click on 'restore from the time machine backup'. Under Backups it shows the external drive (we'll call it 'external' )and Time Machine formatted disk image called ''Macbook Pro.tmp' on disk 'external'.
Selecting the 'MacbookPro.tmp' leads to a dialog box of "the backup cannot be opened: if this is a password-protected backup, you entered an incorrect...." in other words I go back and select the OTHER option of 'external'.
THIS gives me some time machine options but this is where my question comes in.
The only options available are from 'August 29' and 'August 23'! I JUST backed up to Time Machine on November 20! Why is the most recent backup NOT there?
If I went with the 'August 29' restore will it plug in the incremental backups I've done since then?
Please advise. I've looked on pondini.org but couldn't find an answer.

It sounds like you have two sets of backups on that drive.
Were some backups made over a network (ie, while the drive was connected to a Time Capsule, Airport Extreme, or other Mac)? That's the only way you get a disk image (unless you specifically created one).
The name "MacbookPro.tmp" sounds like the temporary name Time Machine first creates a disk image with, over a network. That would also explain why it can't be opened, as TM didn't finish creating it, but that doesn't tell us where the backup you ran on 11/20 went. Are you sure it completed normally? No error messages, etc.?
Also, did you format the new drive?

Time Machine Backups Not Recognized When Drive Added to Airport Extreme

Since January, I have been taking backups of my Mac Pro with Time Machine and a SimpleTech external drive plugged into a USB port.
Recently, I purchased an Airport Extreme router and decided that plugging the SimpeTech drive into the router would provide access all the times. After plugging the drive into the router and providing the correct password, Voila!, instant access.
Later, when it became time for the next scheduled backup, initially TM could not find the drive. No problem... in TM preferences, the SimpleTech drive was listed as available, and so it was a simple matter to telling TM to use that drive.
So far, so good... but now the issue.
Instead of creating the next incremental backup in the set, Time Machine created a new folder and started taking a full backup of the entire HD as if it were the first backup being taken. Incidentally, the name of the computer in the original backup set was "Ron's Computer". Now, TM says that it is backing up "Ron's Computer 78989018975923789637289795278957928". Obviously, I would like TM to continue taking backups of "Ron's Computer" using the original set of incremental backups.
Have I incorrectly added the drive to the network?
Was there something I failed to do in the TM setup?
I interrupted the full backup assuming that (a) it could not be merged with the original set of incrementals and (b) I would not/should not do so anyway.
Anyone else have this issue? Resolution?

I commented on another thread and came to a surprising revelation:
Time Machine backups are created differently depending on if the target drive is connected locally or if it is connected as a network attached storage (NAS) device.
Your initial backup was via a local HDD. Once connected to your AXBS, TM treats your external HDD as a NAS. Now TM will create a sparsebundle backup which is DIFFERENT than your initial local backup. It cannot add to your first backup even though it's right there on the drive. I believe you can still access the backups (ctrl-click the TM icon -> Browse other TM disks). If the old backup doesn't have too much important info, just continue with the new backup as the wireless backup option is functional. I don't know if the old backup will be deleted without warning if space starts to run out, though.
If you are intent on continuing with the old backup (January is a long time), check out these links (not really for the faint of heart):
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7860904&#7860904
http://rolf.haynberg.de/?p=83
Good luck and welcome to Apple Discussions!

10.5 Time Machine backup not visible in 10.6 Migration Assistant

Hello everyone,
Helping my not-so-tech savvy auntie move over from her old 5,1 iMac to a newer 8,1 MacBook. Her old iMac has a Time Machine backup on OS 10.5.8. I plugged in the Time Machine to the new MacBook (which is on a clean install of OS 10.6.8) and for some reason the Migration Assistant is not picking up the Time Machine in the "Select Your Disk" section. All I can see is the MacBook's internal HD. The Time Machine backup is showing up in Finder, however the disk's icon is yellow, not Time Machine green.
I'm a bit stumped - can someone please advise? By all indications, a 10.5 Time Machine backup should be able to restore to a 10.6 system. We are visiting for the weekend and I really would like to get her up and running before we leave tomorrow.
Thanks!
VIkki

Yes, that's option B as she still has the IMac but I'm curious as to why the TM backup isn't working - just in case I need to do this on another machine down the road, it would be nice to know what's going wrong with the more convenient TM restore option.... Thanks!

Time Machine Backup Not Accessible

Hello all,
Just had a computer die on me (HDD went bad) and took the oprotunity to upgrade, but my time machine backups are acting weird and I cannot get to my data. My setup is:
Dead computer: OS X 10.6.8
New computer: OS X 10.8.3 (maybe 10.8.5, reinstalled today and it took 4 freaking hours to d/l the OS. Sure miss those OS DVDs...)
TM backups: Going to the second HDD of OS X Server 10.7.5 over ethernet
Other cmoputer: OS X 10.8.4 (my laptop I used to try and view the TM backups)
First thing I did was use migration assistant on the new computer to move everything over from the old computers TM backup... and that did not go well. Files were missing, and the computer acted sluggish and displayed anomalies such as the menu bar at top vanishing until the desktop was clicked, and other weird little things. Thought: okay, must be the jump in OS versions. No problem, I'll do a fresh install.
So now I have decided to access the dead computers backup using TM from another computer. First problem: nobody has permissions to access the sparse bundle on the drive. Fixed that with the Admin account on the server, adding my u/n as having read/write access.
Now I can mount the sparse bundle, and I see all the folders are there, and some files. I do the "Browse other backup disks..." from my "other computer" on the network, and it gives me the option "Browse dead computer on ..." Click that and into space we go... and all I see are my files, on my local computer. Same thing happens when I use the server itself to try and view the sparse bundle.
I figure this is something weird with using the network and decide to try something else. I reformat another HDD connected to the server via FW800 as a case-sensitive drive, open up the sparse bundle, and copy the root folder onto the drive. Took a few hours, got one -50 error message (but it didn't stop the copy) and just tried to access it using "Browse dead computer on ..." and again, it shows me the local files. It doesn't display any of the TM backups from the dead computer.
What's going on here? Durring the OS install, I can pick the "restore system from TM" and it will find the TM server, I enter the u/n and p/w of the dead computer, and it prompts me to pick a TM backup I'd like to restore from. Likewise from migration assistant, it sees the TM backups just fine, and it "works" to an extent (in that it copies most of my files over. From what I recall, migration didn't prompt for a day to pick, it just copied probably the latest backup, which I bet wasn't complete due to the dead computer kicking the can for whatever reason. Moot point though). Is a OS version conflict preventing me from viewing a backup created with 10.6.8? Would a computer running SL be able to view the TM backup properly? (...I thought I tried this, can't recal now. But I can try at work again, I do have one last SL machine on the network).
Anyway, what other options do I have to view the data? At this point, I feel like I'm stuck rooting through the backups folder and hunting for files to copy over manually, which I know isn't prescribed practice.
Thanks for any input.

You can try a cloning program so that you'll have multiple backups which can help in a situation like this.
Clone - Carbon Copy Cloner (Often recommended as it has more features than some others)
Clone – Data Backup
Clone – Deja Vu
Clone - SuperDuper
Clone - Synk
Clone Software – 6 Applications Tested
Commonly Used Backup Methods

Time Machine backup not completed with error "The disk was not ejected probably..."

I have been using an UBS 3.0 capable external 2.5" hard drive from Lacie to backup my old 21.5" iMac for the last 2 years without problem.
Recently I bought the new late 2013 27" iMac running 10.8.5 and try to migrate the data from the Time Machine backup without success. After a while, Mountain Lion complained with the below error and only data before this message appear were migrated. When I connected the same disk back to my old iMac and ran disk utility, everything looks fine and I was able to complete the TM backup. Eventually, I managed to migrate the data using network copy, instead of TM backup.
Now that my new iMac is back online and I tried to setup Time Machine backup using the same 2.5" Lacie drive, the same error message appeared again in the middle of TM backup (after 3 minutes).
Wonder if anyone ran into the same issue and if there is an issue with the UBS 3.0 port on the new iMac, or there is a work around to this problem.
Any help or pointer would be highly appreciated.
Cheers,
Richard

The system is losing connection with the drive for some reason, likely because the drive is losing power and unmounting, but there could be other reasons as well. Do you have access to an external power supply for the drive? If so then connect tthat so it is not relying on the USB bus power to keep the drive running. I have also found this to happen with some USB 3.0 enclosures, and it appears to be a compatibility issue with them and Apple's USB 3.0 drivers, so another option is to get a USB 2.0 hub and use that for the connection. Things will not run at USB 3.0 speeds, but the drives will not continually disconnect.

Time Machine backups not available on new MBP

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for