Time Machine defaults to User folder

I'm using OSX Mavericks 10.9.5
Whenever I enter Time Machine, my User folder opens instead of the the folder I currently have open. I then have to navigate back to the folder I want to work with.
In 10.8.x the default behaviour was that Time Machine opened to whatever folder was currently in front (open).
Is there a preference or a terminal command to restore this as a default to Mavericks?

When I open the 2 TB hard drive used exclusively for Time Machine backups, there are only folders, each with a time stamp title. When the latest folder and its alias were deleted, all was well.

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Time Machine locks out User Folder

suddenly our TM (1TB TimeCapsule) has locked us out of the backups for a user account. when navigating TM, a little negative sign appears on all the folders. it's as if TM doesn't recognize the login credentials…
totally hosed unless i can figure out a solution. any advice would be very much appreciated. thanks.

have you changed anything about your TM or user setup? log in as the user in question enter TM and scroll back in time. select a file or folder with do not enter sign and enter command+i. in the resulting popup look in the permissions section at the bottom. what does it say?

Time Machine with multiple users on single computer

Hi All,
I have an iMac at home with multiple user log ons. I'm about to get the Time Capsule and start using Time Machine (currently I use backup).
When I switch on Time Machine, does it switch on for all users, or will each user need to turn on Time Machine?
If I have to switch on Time Machine for each user, will each user's time machine back up the entire computer (so I'll have two complete copies on my computer on the external drive)?
If this does occur, can I control what Time Machine backs up so TM only backs up user specific information?
Thanks in advance,
Chris

When you first backup it will backup your whole system (user directories, system directories, applications, etc) unless you specify folders to exclude. When a user account is added to the computer, their home folder will be added to the backup in a similar way to if you added a new application. It will back up the directory structure exactly as it is on your main hard drive. The backup will essentially keep a copy of the whole hard drive on the backup drive.
The Time Machine will either be on for the whole system, or off for the whole system. It is not on or off for a specific user account. Users (depending on if they've got admin privileges) may have control over turning time machine on or off, but this does not change who can access the backups. All users will be able to invoke Time Machine to get to their backed up files.
Time Machine does not make separate backups for individual users. Instead, it preserves the permissions for backed up files, so while every user can access the backups, they cant just browse other users' files on the backup. The same restrictions on the main drive are carried over to the backup. Still, a standard user who's lost a file will be able to go into Time Machine, access a backed up version of the file, and restore it. Unlike standard users who are restricted from seeing other users' files in the backups, Admins are also restricted but they can be authenticated to view other users' files if they want to.

How to restore from time machine for another user login

I use time machine to back my computer which has multiple user login.
First I set up time machine backup using User A. I checked that User B files in the hard disk is also backed up, and I can restore using User B login.
Then I changed the hard disk today and all users I need to recreate again.
After recreating users, I found that User A can restore files from time machine backup.
However, files originally under User B cannot be restored using either User A and User B. The error message is
"The folder “Documents” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents."
Anyone can help?

Not sure if this is related enough, but I just wrestled trying to restore from time machine too, trying to reinstall 10.5.8 after putting a new HD in my MBP, 2006 vintage.
That took sooooo long to get back to where I was before swapping disks; what did the trick was ordering a free copy of Snow Leopard install disk (free due to Apple trying to push people from idisk to icloud) which was rushed FedEx (yay) and which allowed me to access Time Machine where my ancient original OSX install disk had not.
And all it took was 2 weeks of cursing!

Unable to access time machine backup. The folder "Documents" can't be opened because you don't have permission to see its contents.

My MacBook Pro with 750GB storage refuses to startup due to a problem with logic board (unfortunately I'm in Singapore and there is no Apple store here and zero customer support). I'm trying to access some of the files from the time machine back-up using my MacBook Air with 120GB storage, but I'm unable to open the backup. I receive an error message "you don't have permission to see its contents". Unable to access time machine backup. The folder “Documents” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.
I don't really want to migrate the data from the time machine to the MacBook Air as I simply don't have sufficient storage space on the MacBook Air. The iPhoto library which I'm trying to access is 200GB, which is more than the size of the MacBookAir.
Is there any way I can view the photos and documents stored on the time machine backup.
Thank you very much.

When you setup the Mac, you created a Admin user account with say name X
You ran Migration Assistant and it migrated user Y from the Windows machine.
User Y has different permissions than User X.
User X can't normally access User Y's account.
So what you do is log out of User X via the Apple menu and into User Y, this way you have permission to access the files.
If you want to transfer files from User Y to User X account
Transfer files between user accounts on the same machine instructions
Finder > Go menu > Computer
A window appears with your boot drive, double click on it to open
Inside is Users folder, double click to open it
Inside is your User accounts, double click on the one you want to send files too
Double click on the Public folder drop the files into the DropBox folder,
The permissions will change and can be used in the other user account when you log into it and moved to the appropriate folders.
Applications are typically installed and kept in the Applications folder which is a global access folder all users can access to run them from, but not all users can modify unless they are a Admin user.
Windows programs won't run on a Mac, but they can be instaled into a virtual machine program that is running Windows.
Windows in BootCamp or Virtual Machine?

Time machine only copies User Info and Users (Applications, Library, and System are missing) from my quad core Mac Pro. 45 Gb of 162 Gb are missing. Any one having success with time machine copying all folders using Mavericks? What do I need to do dif

Time machine only copies User Info and Users (Applications, Library, and System are missing) from my quad core Mac Pro. 45 Gb of 162 Gb are missing. Any one having success with time machine copying all folders using Mavericks?
What do I need to do differently?

The late, great Pondini was investigating that issue before he passed away.
See here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5125969
I think there might be information there on how to reset Time Machine to do a full backup. I think you basically have to reset it and start over.

Does Time Machine backup the Applications folder?

Hi everyone. I'm backing up my MBP with Time Machine with the intention of formatting and reinstalling ML. It's completed it's first backup, however the backup is 133GB and in Disk Utility it says I've used 220GB on my hard drive? What's happened to that 87GB? I've noticed also that on the Time Machine disk, the Applications folder is nowhere to be seen.... Has it backed up my applications? Why has it missed out 87GB of stuff? Thanks

Hi Steve, thanks for the reply.
Yes I've checked all that, applications is not in the exclude list, and the "used" value in disk utility is vastly different...
If you look at the number of files/folders on the Time Machine, it's almost half....

How do I access time machine from different user account

Hi there.
Last week I had to take my comupter into the local Apple Store because I was having problems with Boot Camp. The genius at the store had to delete everything from my hard drive and reinstall it from my external hard drive. As part of the process she created a "Apple" user account. I now want to restore some files (unrelated to this Boot Camp story) from my time machine archive. However, all the files prior to this Apple Store encounter are red -- and it says I do not have permission to view them. When I click "get info" it says that the "Apple" account has the read/write access to them and the option to unlock them is greyed out. How can I get these files from the archive and get them onto my main user account where they belong? The "Apple" account does not have a password so I think I can easily log on as that account, but I don't know where to go from there.
PS The files in question are iTunes libraries.
Thanks for your help.

Ok, I fixed it. Here's what I did.
I logged into my computer under the Apple account. Then I went into Time Machine. I found my old files under Users-->"my main account". I was able to restore those files to Users-->Shared. Then I was able to log back into "my main account" and retrieve the files from the shared folder. It worked! Hope this helps someone else some time!

How to Restore from Time Machine in Single-user mode?

Hi there, I am trying to fix a Macbook Pro that has had its /private folder trashed and emptied. Obviously it won't boot unless you you boot in to Single User mode and I'm wondering if its possible to do a Time Machine restore from the terminal, I would need the 2nd more recent Time Machine image which is sitting on a Firewire HDD.
I was going to just see if I could find the orignal OSX install disk and just do a fresh install of the OS which I don't mind doing (since everything important is backed up in Dropbox), but I can't seem to find the CD anywhere nearby, so the Time Machine option would be much preferred.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Not sure if this is related enough, but I just wrestled trying to restore from time machine too, trying to reinstall 10.5.8 after putting a new HD in my MBP, 2006 vintage.
That took sooooo long to get back to where I was before swapping disks; what did the trick was ordering a free copy of Snow Leopard install disk (free due to Apple trying to push people from idisk to icloud) which was rushed FedEx (yay) and which allowed me to access Time Machine where my ancient original OSX install disk had not.
And all it took was 2 weeks of cursing!

Time Machine for 2 Users on same MBP

I read the archive posting at
https://discussions.apple.com/message/10759785#10759785
where someone said the TM logs the compuer and there were no follow on comments
We havea MBP running 10.7.1 with two users (me and my wife). We set it up this way becase we each like dfferent setups the ability to fast swtch by clickin on the user name it upper right.
We have been backing up the MBP two a Time Machine on an external hard drive. I needed a file from the TM backup and loggned in as ME with the TimeMachin drive up and mounted.I clicked on the Enter Time Macine and nothing was found. This may because we usuallyrun the TM while my wife's user was active. She can find here files on the Time Machine mine cannot be found.
Also she can run VMWare and I cannot because the virtual machine is in my wife's Documents folder.
What do I need to change so both users have access to the TM backup and how can we share the Virtual Machine

I find it hard to beleive I am the only MacBook Pro with two users. I sure coud use some help with how to share files between the two users. To get very specific. I installed VM ware while logged in as my wife. It works perfect for her; however, when I log her out and come in with my user ID I can load VMWare but it cannogt find rthe Virtual Macine the machine in my my wife's Documents folder. I could not copy the Machine form her Documents file to my documents file.
I also have a TM issue in that I cannogt resgtore files from the TM backup

Time machine for second user account erases other backups

I have a system drive and one other drive (two partitions: Files and Movies) on my iMac, and have been using Time Machine to back up these three drives.
Yesterday I created a second user account, but when logged in to that account Time Machine started to back up, it erased the previous backups and started from scratch, just backing up the system drive.
Can anyone tell me how to avoid this happening please?

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console 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 Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Post the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear.
Post the log text, please, not a screenshot. If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into a message.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — edit that out, too, but don’t remove the context.

Handling Time Machine after change user shortname

I used the instructions at https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3872 to change my user shortname and as predicted, while I have access to my TM backups, I'm concerned that TM will make a complete backup of all my data again, since the username is different so will the paths to my data files.
I have looked at Pondini's wonderful TM website, particularly at http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html. It isn't clear to me whether I should be using his "inherit" trick or his "associate" trick, as none of the described scenarios is exactly what is going on with me.
Does anyone know whether when changing the user shortname it's better to "inherit" the backup or "associate" the backup?

Robert Camner wrote:
I'm concerned that TM will make a complete backup of all my data again, since the username is different
Correct. If the home folder has a different name, it will be backed-up in its entirety. You cannot prevent it.
I have looked at Pondini's wonderful TM website, particularly athttp://pondini.org/TM/B6.html. It isn't clear to me whether I should be using his "inherit" trick or his "associate" trick
Thanks, but the answer is "neither." You don't have an actual or apparently different Mac or HD.
You'll have a wrinkle with the Time Machine browser, too. When looking at backups of, say, the Documents folder in the new backups, you won't be able to go directly to the backups of the old one, since they're in a whole different folder. Select your HD in the sidebar (or press Shift+Cmd+C), select the Users folder, then navigate to an earlier backup until you find the old home folder.

How to save in time machine for multiple user on one iMac

I have 3-users on my iMAC.
How can I save to Time machine?
Does it save all of files/changes when I save as Administrator?
Please advise.

No worries...Time Machine backs up all user profiles with few exceptions (see link below):
http://pondini.org/TM/26.html

Time machine for new HOME FOLDER location?

i am on lion on a mac pro and for some reason i am getting a bit clutched here redoing my backup routine after having MOVED MY HOME FOLDER to a NEW DISK (it is now in bay 3). i have just wiped the external "Time Machine" disk and then in TIME MACHINE SETTINGS:
"SELECT DISK" is to select the destination (i.e. the Backup HD that the data goes to) - and then -
do i just make sure that the NEW DISK with the newly located HOME FOLDER is simply not listed in OPTIONS > "Exclude these items from backups"??
also, if i /also/ want to BACKUP the disk that i am booting into (it is in Bay 1) do i just make sure that this disk is not listed either??
thanks for any help as my brain is not working very well with this.
- jon

Default is to back up everything on your Mac. Everything on every drive that is locally attached. Things NOT to be backed up are on the BlackList.
You understand perfectly.

Any way to have time machine when every user is logged out?

Hello. I have a small server running os x.5 and a hard disk with Time machine attached to it. For security reasons, the best way to have it run is to have the machine run with no user logged in. Several people work on it at distance by uploading/downloading material (via SVN, SSH, and so on), but I do not want that the random passer by tinker with it (it's in a public place).
Now, I would like it to be regularly backed up, but I discovered that Time Machine does not work if there is no user logged in. This is a drag. Do you people have any trick I could use to keep TM working even when everybody is logged out (that is, when one can only see the login window)?
Best,
l.

You might find this interesting:
http://systemsboy.blogspot.com/2008/04/time-machine-after-logout.html

Time Machine defaults to User folder

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