Time Machine does not display old files: the star wars screen stays stuck

I have been looking for an known report, but can't find it.
In Time Machine, I don't see the 'star wars' panels anymore. It was working when I installed it.
In an activated Timemachine screen, the date slider on the right of the screen does not react. Only the front most screen is seen = "now".
I used to have time machine on an airportextreme; but because of adding a shared USB printer I had to move the external HDD to my own iMac.
Time machine tells the backups are successful.
Did I do something wrong by moving the HDD around?
Did I do something wrong with 'permissions'? [I added myself as a user with read permissions.]
Should I reinstall Timemachine?
thanks in advance
albert

alberti-nl wrote:
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
I used to have time machine on an airportextreme; but because of adding a shared USB printer I had to move the external HDD to my own iMac.
Time machine tells the backups are successful.
Did I do something wrong by moving the HDD around?
Sort of. Time Machine stores backup differently when they're done locally vs. over a network.
Double-click your external HD. It should have a "sparse bundle" including the name of your computer. Those are your network backups.
Double-click the sparse bundle to mount it, then try Time Machine again. If that doesn't work, quit Time Machine and control-click the TM icon in your menubar, or right-click the TM icon in your Dock, and select the +Browse ...+ option. That should show your backups in a small window; select them and click the +Use Selected Disk+ button.
Post back with your results and we'll explain further and see how you want to proceed.

Similar Messages

Time Machine does not backup all files

I recently did a clean install and to my horror i can see that Time Machine does NOT back up all my files.
It seems to be worst in my music library which fortunately is pretty easy to rebuild do to itunes index.
But is there any way to make sure that Time Machine does in fact back up all files?
Or is it just broken and should be avoided?
I have 1,5 year old Macbook Pro Retina 15 inches 500 GB SSD

If you use the third-party application "Dropbox," you may see files in the Finder that are not present locally, but are actually on a network server. Those files won't be backed up and won't appear in Time Machine, even though they show in a Finder window. If the files in question are in a Dropbox folder, disable the software or refer to its developer for support.
Continue only if you've ruled out Dropbox or any similar product as a possible cause of the issue.
Open the Time Machine preference pane and unlock the settings, if necessary. Click the Options button. If there is one particular folder with items that are not being backed up reliably, add it to the list of excluded items. If there are many such folders, add your home folder to the list, or add a whole volume (i.e., what Apple calls a "disk.") Save the changes.
Start a backup, or wait for one to happen automatically. When it's done, open the preference pane again and remove the exclusion(s) you made earlier. Back up again and see whether there's a change.

Time Machine does not display older backups.

Running 10.6.4 with Time Machine saving to a Time Capsule, for the past year.
Opening Time Machine displays the bars for older backups but does not display dates/times against them and I cannot move backwards or forward to select an option to restore. However, it does mount the Time Machine backup disk image on the desktop and I can browse this and restore a file using Finder. So, I know that I have my years-worth of backups on the Time Capsule, but how can I get Time Machine to display them -- I'm guessing it needs a re-instal of Time Machine?
cheers
Birdflier

Hi Pondini,
I got it fixed today, thank you everyone for your help. The thing that ended up fixing it was deleting the hidden files ".com.apple.timemachine.supported" and ".002332b4a7fc" on the root directory of the time machine disk. Now my months worth of backups are viewable again!
I didn't find this on your website (maybe I didn't look hard enough). If it's not there, perhaps it would be a good thing to add to your site? Hopefully it will save a few people some frustration! Thanks for making the site - it looks like a great resource.
--Hayden

Time Machine does not recover old backups

Dear All,
I have a Time Machine disk for a long time (from the Leopard days) and have been using it without any trouble even after updating to Snow Leopard (iMac- intel).
However, a few days back I upgraded my system with the latest Snow Leopard release (over software update) to install the Apple Store application.
Now, today, when I put my Time Machine disk in, it correctly shows all the backup dates correctly (on the right hand side Time Machine index pane), but I could recover only files from my Snow Leopard backups. The Leopard backups, though shown correctly do not reveal anything when I click on the date.
I am feeling desperate as some of my important files are in Leopard backups. Any help would be welcome!

Madhurjya wrote:
Now, today, when I put my Time Machine disk in, it correctly shows all the backup dates correctly (on the right hand side Time Machine index pane), but I could recover only files from my Snow Leopard backups. The Leopard backups, though shown correctly do not reveal anything when I click on the date.
What you see in the "Star Wars" display depends on how you get there. If you're starting from a Finder Window, then entering Time Machine, be sure the Finder window shows something that was backed-up on Leopard.
Or, try the procedure in #E3 of [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
If nothing helps, try Repairing your backups, per #A5 there.
I am feeling desperate as some of my important files are in Leopard backups.
Do you mean you've been deleting things from your system, counting on Time Machine to keep the backups indefinitely? If so, that's NOT a good idea. See #20 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Time Machine does not see old Time Capsule backsups after change in network setting?

Hi all,
Just brought our TC to our summer home for the season and have a few issues.
Instead of using it as our router, I added it to our existing AEBS network. After doing this, all of our macs did not backup for a day or so. Once I noticed this issue, I pointed them all back to the TC drive and backups have begun again.
However, 8 months worth of backups are no longer accessible via Time Machine on any of the macs. The files are there on the TC disk and they sorta show up in Time Machine. That is, they are showing up on the right hand side as dates and little lines, but these dates and little lines are dead links. (the equivalent of being greyed out and unavailable)
Why did this happen when simply changing the TC network settings? More importantly, how do I fix it so my older backups become available again?
Thanks!
Stu

The grayed-out lines mean that whatever's in the Finder window wasn't backed-up on that particular backup.
Try selecting your Computer name in the Finder sidebar (or pressing Shift+Cmd+C) before Entering Time Machine. That will show one folder representing each the volumes (disks or partitions) currently connected. Without changing anything on the Today (Now) window, click one of the backups in question. That should show a folder for each volume that was included in that particular backup.

Time Machine does not display Oldest or Latest Backup details

I had previously posted this but had no luck (or replies)...
Shortly after the most recent Time Capsule software update, I had an issue where Time Machine stopped working. I was getting a"Backup volume cannot be found" message.
As per Apple's instructions to remedy this, "Time Capsule: Time Machine backups do not mount" (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1170), I re-named my Time Capsule to a shorter name.
Shortly afterward, I noticed that details were missing for "Latest Backup" when I'd click the Time Machine icon in my menu bar. All that is displayed in this field is " -- ". I have also noticed that when I open the Time Machine Preferences window, the details are missing from the following fields: "Available", "Oldest Backup", & "Latest Backup". (However, when a backup is in progress, space details are shown in the "Available" field.)
I expect the missing details have something to do with changing the name of the Time Capsule, but have no idea how to fix this... Please help.

Installed Snow Leopard, and, for whatever reason the missing details are now there. Yay.

Time Machine does not save all file to a second target

Hi all folks,
today I use a Time Capsule and a FW Disk to store my data to two Backups volumes.
Now I see, sometimes the FW Backup does not contain all data. Especially my iTunes data was not stored completely to the second Backup Volume. Some other data is not store completely too, maybe.
In general, a backup is taken every hour to the Time Capsule and one/two times a week I switch to the FW Disk to store an additional backup to this media too. I switch the target via the Time Machine Settings.
Any Idea what's going wrong,
Lutz

You can use an external drive. Connect the disk to your PowerBook, copy the pictures and move them to your MacBook Pro

Time Machine does not erase old backups

Hi,
I have a problem using Time Machine on my MacBook Air. I use a LaCie 500GB Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drive for backup. The external drive has 3 partitions, one of which is dedicated to time machine and measures 128 Gb. It happens very often that I receive an error message saying that Time Machine cannot complete backup as there is not enough space and that I should manually remove old backups. Time Machine is supposed to do that automatically. The backup partition is of the same size as the internal flash drive which is not even full so I don't see why there should be a problem.
I also have a MacMini with an external Iomega drive and same setup (3 partitions on the external drive and the Time Machine dedicated one of the same size as the internal drive) and I never had an issue with the Time Machine not erasing old backups to make room for the new ones.
How can I fix the problem on the MacBook Air?
Many thanks in advance,
Igor

How much space is currently in use on the volume TM is backing up from? If it needs to do a large backup for some reason, there may not be space to do so without deleting so much that you are left with less than a full backup. TM needs the backup drive to be a minimum of 2-3 times larger than what is being backed up.

Time Machine does not backup all of my files

Hi,
If I compare my Dropbox folder to what Time Machine backups there are differences which means that Time Machine does not backup all files:
diff <(cd "/Users/phil/Dropbox" && ls -R | sort) <(cd "/Volumes/TimeMachineBackup/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/phil/Dropbox" && ls -R | sort)
There are also differences if I compare my user folder to the Time Machine Backup:
diff <(cd "/Users/phil/" && ls -R | sort) <(cd "/Volumes/TimeMachineBackup/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/phil/" && ls -R | sort)
I did not exclude the folders affected from the Time Machine backup.
I have verified this behaviour on other computers as well.
Does anybody else have this kind of problem?
Philipp

These commands solved the problem for now:
1) Stop the Dropbox desktop application (if needed)
- Click on the Dropbox icon.
- Choose Quit/Stop/Exit
2) Open your Terminal app (Located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
3) Copy and paste the following lines into the Terminal, one at a time, and press RETURN after each one. PLEASE make sure you copy and paste these commands (don't type them by hand), as getting them wrong could cause some harm. You'll be prompted for your computer user's password (not your Dropbox password) after entering the first command. Keep in mind that the password field in the terminal will remain blank as you type your password. After you type it, just press ENTER.
sudo chflags -R nouchg ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-master
sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"
sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-master
sudo chmod -RN ~/.dropbox ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox-master
chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-master

I have a 2013 macpro I upgraded to yosemite. Now I find time machine does not work, nor my old back up using a click free wireless back up. What is the status of time machine and yosemite?

What is the status of time machine not working with yosemite?
I upgraded mu mac pro to yosemite and since have found time machine does not work.
Also, my old backup via a clikfree wireless backup does not work any longer.
Is anyone working on this issue?
Is there anyway I can backup my information today and until time machine &
yosemite get fixed?

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the 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 and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of an an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
☞ If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Since installing Lion, I have not been able to utilize Time Machine (does not recognize the back-up drive); my wireless mouse does not function properly; I have experienced unreasonable delays in the system. Is there a fix or upgrade coming?

Is there a fix or upgrade to deal with the many problems I am experiencing since I installed Lion? I can no longer utilize Time Machine (Does not see the back-up drive); my wireless mouse does not work properly; my iMac has slowed down considerably. I am reminded of having a PC machine again. Bummer!

Either downgrade to Snow Leopard or try reinstalling Lion.
Reinstalling Lion Without the Installer
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. Alterhatively, 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.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue 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.
Downgrade Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. 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 Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.1.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.

Time Machine does not see original backup file on Time Capsuel after reset.

I recently moved. I have a Time Capsule which is also my airport base station. I have about 7 months worth of back-ups on the drive for an iMac and a MacBook. The local cable company would only hook up the modem directly to my iMac and would not set up through the Time Capsule as it is not one of their routers. No problem. I did it once -- I could do it again. After discovering that it was not as simple as plugging the ethernet cable into the Time Capsule (after doing so, the Time Capsule recognized it had internet feed -- the iMac recognized the Time Capsule/Airport network -- but I could not get onto the net.) I discovered that I needed to do a hard reset. The instructions said the files would not be erased. They were not. I can still see the original back-ups for both computers in finder. But Time Machine does not recognize that either computer was ever backed up. There is no history and when I try a back-up it begins from scratch and creates a brand new back-up file.
How do I get Time Machine to recognize the original back-up files? I tried "choosing disk" in Time Machine preferences but it only lets me choose the actual disk (the Time Capsule) and not an individual back-up file
Thanks in advance to the collective brain trust.
Robert

I saw a post on another discussion about this subject, and one user found this workaround:
2) Start the backup via wireless connection. Stop the backup. Unplug external HD and plug in via USB or FW (you want FW800). Time Machine appears smart enough to continue your backup in a manner that is useable by the AEBS.
This only makes sense for the first backup (or if you have a lot of data for one particular incremental backup), as it removes the whole convenience factor of wireless.
The post got this reply:
Thx for your #2 tip on using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Base Station, then switching to a wired connection. Worked perfectly.
Started the TimeMachine b/up wirelessly, allowed it to run for a couple minutes, then stopped it, unplugged the USB drive from the AEBS, plugged it into the computer directly via FW400, opened TimeMachine and it recognized the Disk. Ran TimeMachine via the wired connection, after it finished I ejected it, plugged it back into the AEBS, initiated the AirDisk in the finder, then opened TimeMachine and presto!!
Awesome tip. Note: this works for first-time TimeMachine wireless backups only. Saved me over 40 hours of wireless waiting!!
http://gizmodo.com/370017/how+to-use-time-machine-with-an-airport-extreme
Can anyone confirm that this will work?

Time Machine does not see back-up file on Time Capsule

I recently moved. I have a Time Capsule which is also my airport base station. I have about 7 months worth of back-ups on the drive for an iMac and a MacBook. The local cable company would only hook up the modem directly to my iMac and would not set up through the Time Capsule as it is not one of their routers. No problem. I did it once -- I could do it again. After discovering that it was not as simple as plugging the ethernet cable into the Time Capsule (after doing so, the Time Capsule recognized it had internet feed -- the iMac recognized the Time Capsule/Airport network -- but I could not get onto the net.) I discovered that I needed to do a hard reset. The instructions said the files would not be erased. They were not. I can still see the original back-ups for both computers in finder. But Time Machine does not recognize that either computer was ever backed up. There is no history and when I try a back-up it begins from scratch and creates a brand new back-up file.
How do I get Time Machine to recognize the original back-up files? I tried "choosing disk" in Time Machine preferences but it only lets me choose the actual disk (the Time Capsule) and not an individual back-up file
Thanks in advance to the collective brain trust.
Robert

I recently moved. I have a Time Capsule which is also my airport base station. I have about 7 months worth of back-ups on the drive for an iMac and a MacBook. The local cable company would only hook up the modem directly to my iMac and would not set up through the Time Capsule as it is not one of their routers. No problem. I did it once -- I could do it again. After discovering that it was not as simple as plugging the ethernet cable into the Time Capsule (after doing so, the Time Capsule recognized it had internet feed -- the iMac recognized the Time Capsule/Airport network -- but I could not get onto the net.) I discovered that I needed to do a hard reset. The instructions said the files would not be erased. They were not. I can still see the original back-ups for both computers in finder. But Time Machine does not recognize that either computer was ever backed up. There is no history and when I try a back-up it begins from scratch and creates a brand new back-up file.
How do I get Time Machine to recognize the original back-up files? I tried "choosing disk" in Time Machine preferences but it only lets me choose the actual disk (the Time Capsule) and not an individual back-up file
Thanks in advance to the collective brain trust.
Robert

Time Machine does not recognize my iMac backup. Reports: not enough space; can't back up. How do I get it to recognize the backup?

Time Machine does not recognize my 430 GB iMac backup on 1 terabyte Time Capsule. Reports: not enough space; can’t back up. How do I get it to recognize the old backup and continue backups?

Thanks for the Time Machine Troubleshooting link. Apparently things have changed since 10.7.0. Backups.backupdb doesn’t exist. Path now is: Time Capsule/Data/Daru’s iMac.sparsebundle. So I did Terminal (I usually avoid Terminal) using the instruction in B6. It does not appear to be working. It went through looking for backup, preparing backup, and is now stopping backup, and the TMBackup has disappeared from the sidebar.
Well, just now Time Machine progressed to preparing backup again; the Tiime Machine Backups appeared in sidebar, and with it Backups.backupdb/Daru’s iMac/2012-04-21-112939.inProgress. So it does exist... I’ll let it run, see what happens... But that is a strange date. Today is 28.
I’ll let you know the outcome.
Oops. Just ended! Real time report: “Backup too large for disk...“ So it is not recognizing the old backup. I’ll look at those instructions again, see if I can do the Terminal thing with the backup running. I doubt I can damage anything except the existing baackup which I'll lose anywy if I can’t achieve recognition.
Daru

Time Machine does not back up all iTunes music files

Hello, I'm trying to view the music files, on my Time Machine backup disc, from a CD that I recently imported into iTunes. My iTunes library resides on my hard drive. The backup disc shows files for some of the other music that is in my iTunes library, but not from the new CD. I did several backups after importing the new music, but the song files still do not show up in Time Machine. Any ideas for why the files don't show up?
My ultimate aim is to copy those music files onto another computer, but my research on the support pages suggests that I should not do it this way. Instead, I will copy the music files onto another disc (not using Time Machine) and then import them onto the other computer. Please confirm that this is the best way to proceed.
But in the meantime, I'm wondering why Time Machine does not show my newly imported music.
Thanks very much for any help you can provide.

New formulation of my question:
A file dated at 10:00 may not appear in the back-up dated 11:00.

Time Machine does not display old files: the star wars screen stays stuck

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