Time Machine does not see backups

Hello, I have started to use time machine but it only shows today and now. I can see all of the backups on the time machine drive but nothing shows up when I open time machine. I have seen the problem with the hostname but my hostname is Machintosh, so that should not be a problem. My machine is a 1.25ghz mac mini using an external drive for booting.
Thanks in advance for any help

Are you absolutely positive that your computer name in System Preferences > Sharing has been changed as Bob suggested? Fixing the computer name has, so far, seemed to fix any problems that people have posted about not being able to see their Time Machine backups. This is from the KB article about your issue:
Mac OS X 10.5: Time Machine backups are not visible
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306928
Check your computer name in Sharing preferences. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from following set and is not blank (no matter which Mac OS X language version you are using):
0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

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Time Machine does not see my external HD

I would like to setup TM but it does not see my external HD, but I can see it on desktop in and finder. I can browse it. But time machine does not see it and forces me to use airport time capsule but I don't have it. Help please.

What format is the external drive in?
If it's formatted for Windows (either using the MBR partition table or using FAT/NTFS volumes) then Time Machine cannot back up to this disk.
The disk needs to be formatted as Mac OS X Extended using either the APM or GPT partition tables.
Life is complicated somewhat by the fact that the OS, in general, can read MBR/FAT drives, but they're not suitable for Time Machine (limitations in the disk formats prevent some of Time Machine's features from working).
You can check the current partition map/disk format in Disk Utility.app - just select the disk on the left and the information will be displayed below. If the disk is using MBR and/or FAT then you'd need to reformat the drive in order to use it with Time Machine.

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 see a Time Capsule external drive

Time Machine will not recognize an external drive attached to my Time Capsule, even though it did so last week. How do I get it working again?
Until last week, I was using Time Machine to back up to a Verbatim 2 TB drive attached to a Time Capsule. It occasionally hung, requiring me to restart the Time Capsule in order to get backups working again, so I bought a Seagate 2 TB drive to replace the Verbatim in case the problem was a flaky drive. Now I can't get Time Machine to recognize either disk when the disk is attached to the Time Capsule.
Both disks are formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Both disks work correctly when I attach them directly to my Mac. When I attach either disk to the Time Capsule, Airport Utility shows the external drive, shows that sharing is enabled, and I can even mount the Time Capsule with Finder and see the external disk with Finder. But when I try to Select Disk in Time Machine Preferences, whether or not the Time Capsule is mounted with Finder, Time Machine Preferences doesn't see the disk—the only choices of disk are My User Account on the Time Capsule, and Other Time Capsule.
Restarting my Mac and restarting the Time Capsule does not help. Software and firmware updates are (and have been) up to date. I'm running OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 and Time Capsule version 7.6.4.
To reiterate, this was working a week ago. How do I get it working again?

If nothing in your configuration has changed, you can try plugging the disks one at a time directly into your mac, run Disk Utility and perform a Repair Disk. If any errors are displayed, rerun Repair Disk until there are none. Then try them back on the Time Capsule.

Time machine does not recognize backup disk after Yosemite

I have this issue in both macs I own, a 2010 MBP, and a 2012 Mac mini. After I upgraded to yosemite, Time Machine will not find my backup disk. I have been using the same network attached storage drive for 4 years for time machine backups. I has worked fine with all the macs I've owned until now. I can see the disk in Finder, I can go to disk utility and mount the Time Machine disk, but when I go to Time Machine preferences and try to select the list, the disk is not listed there, even though is mounted.
Any ideas?
Thanks!

A third-party NAS is unsuitable for use with Time Machine, especially if it's your only backup. I know this isn't the answer you want. I know Time Machine accepted the NAS as a backup destination. I know that the manufacturer says the device will work with Time Machine, and I also know that it usually seems to work. Except when you try to restore, and find that you can't.
Apple has published a specification for network devices that work with Time Machine. None of the third-party NAS vendors, as far as I know, meets that specification. They all use the incomplete, obsolete Netatalk implementation of Apple Filing Protocol.
If you want network backup, use as the destination either an Apple Time Capsule or an external storage device connected to another Mac or to an 802.11ac AirPort base station. Only the 802.11ac base stations support Time Machine, not any older model.
Otherwise, don't use Time Machine at all. There are other ways to back up, though none of them is anywhere near as efficient or as well integrated with OS X. I don't have a specific recommendation.
If you're determined to keep using the NAS with Time Machine, your only recourse for any problems that result is to the manufacturer (which will blame Apple, or you, or anyone but itself.)

Time machine does not recognize backups

I need to do a restore because after a logic board replacement my apps are not showing as registered, in other words they are all asking for serial numbers. I would like to see if I can use time machine to restore these apps. I don't want to do a full restore using the OS X install CD because it says it erases the contents of the volume. I'm assuming that means teh system and apps will be restored but I'll lose my files.
I can;t get time machine to recognize backups and I found this...
Symptoms
In the Mac OS X 10.5 Time Machine "time travel" window, past backups may not appear if your computer name includes certain characters.
Products Affected
Resolution
Check your computer name in Sharing preferences. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from following set and is not blank (no matter which Mac OS X language version you are using):
0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
so I changed my computer name accordingly but the backup folder in Backups.backupdb still has the old name with a character not allowed. Nothing I do to change priveleges allows me to rename the folder!
Advice needed! Thanks!

It is not a simple matter of the computer name. A simple rename of the backup doesn't do it. It my be necessary but its not the obstacle.
The MAC address of the old board is in the Extended Attributes (EAs -"invisible" metadata) for the old board backups and the MAC address of the new board is in its EAs. If they MAC address in the EA doesn't match the MAC address of the machine that Time Machine is trying to backup it won't do it and it will start a new backup. That certainly appears to be the situation you face.
You can see this by a simple check in terminal. Below is a sample I have two machines name Juvenal and Pliny. The xattr command with the -l option lists all the extended attributes of a file. For the backups of my systems it returns a value that is, in fact, the MAC address of that machine. If the MAC address of the target and source don't match Time Machine won't do the backup and will start a newbackup'
~ $xattr -l /Volumes/Backup\ of\ Juvenal/Backups.backupdb/Juvenal
com.apple.backupd.BackupMachineAddress:
0000 30 30 3A 31 64 3A 34 66 3A 34 61 3A 66 31 3A 64 00:1d:4f:1a:f4:d6
0010 36 00
~ $xattr -l /Volumes/Backup\ of\ Pliny/Backups.backupdb/Pliny
com.apple.backupd.BackupMachineAddress:
0000 30 30 3A 31 62 3A 36 33 3A 33 66 3A 66 64 3A 37 00:1b:63:3f:fd:76
0010 36 00
The actual path to your backups will depend on your configuration and whether or not the backup is on a locally attached drive or not. Mine - in the example above - are on a TC and the results occur after opening the sparse bundles.
The solution I pointed you do is trying to deal with this and change it so the MAC addresses match.
I agree this is a known problem and warrant an official fix which should not be complicated.

Time Machine does not see older backups on Time Capsule

I use a wifi network to connect to the internet as well as a USB modem. The result is that my Time Capsule is not always connected.
I set up my Time Capsule (using the wifi network) and ran what I believe was a successful backup.
Now Im trying to run another backup and I have my iMac connected using the wifi network.
When I open Time Machine it show an icon on my desktop saying "Time Machine Backups" Inside this is lots of folders that appears to be some form of backup.
If I then click on "Select Disk" it give me the Time Capsule as a option to select. Once this is done it says 1.76TB of 2TB available.
Below that it says Oldest backup: None AND Latest Backup: None. Below that is the white and blue backing up bar that has been running for some time with "preparing backup..."
I have the Time Capsule connected to the iMac with a LAN cable...thinking that this will speed up the process?

vlakvarkie wrote:
Below that it says Oldest backup: None AND Latest Backup: None.
Once you're disconnected from the backups, those fields won't be shown until the next backup completes successfully. (Prior to Lion, it showed a couple of dashes -- instead of None. We've asked for either the dashes back or something like "unknown" or "not available," but so far they haven't changed it.)
Below that is the white and blue backing up bar that has been running for some time with "preparing backup..."
That can take quite a while, especially if it's been a while since the last one. See #D1 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
I have the Time Capsule connected to the iMac with a LAN cable...thinking that this will speed up the process?
Yes, by all means. It should be 2-3 times faster, and much more reliable, than WIFI.

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 complete backup to Time Capsule

Within the past few days my iMac will not complete a backup to my Time Capsule. The two other computers connected to the Time Capsule appear to be backing up but they size of the backup is smaller. The Time Machine starts but then stops after 10 or so minutes. Also, the size of the to backup is ver large, and I have not added that much to my files since the last complete backup.
Here is what I tried:
1. Deleting the com/apple/Timecapsule.plist file and restarting the Time Capsule.
2. turning off WIFI and connecting to an ethernet cable
3. Verifying the disk (when connected to with the ethernet cable)
Nothing worked although Deleting the com/apple/Timecapsule.plist file and restarting the Time Capsule it got about 50% through before crapping out.
Appreciate any ideas.
Thanks

What OS is the computer running? Expect issues with Yosemite.. it is just not that reliable.
How much space does it require and how much is available on the TC?
What speed is the backup doing? If it is super slow it can trip out.
You did the right things, using ethernet and verifying the old backup.. But if you upgraded to Yosemite (upgraded??) then I strongly recommend you start a completely new backup.
Did you load the widget so you can actually check the log info.. to find out why TM stopped??
A1 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
It is hard to fix issues when you don't even know what the issue is.

Time machine does not restore backup

After my iMac crashed, it prompted me to restore from my Time Machine. I started doing it, but about 20% and 4-5 hours later, I got a message saying 'Cannot find any connected Time Machines' . And I could actually see the connected volume of Time machine on the Desktop!
Please help, 700Gb of Data are at stake!!
Thanks,
GL

What is the backup device?

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.

Restore from time machine does not list all my backups. I know they exist but there dates are not present on the restore list. Any help appreciated.

Restore from time machine does not list all my backups. I know they exist but their dates are not present on the restore list. Any help appreciated. If I must use one of these older dates to restore, how do I then get the more current data off time machine?

Ok, so am i correct in saying that the steps to fix are as follows.
That's one option, but not what I meant by restoring in the time-travel view. The latter is what you get when you enter Time Machine.
is the fresh install not going to be able to "see" the time machine backups that I have at the moment.
It should, but sometimes people report that it fails. I'm not sure why that happens.

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 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 see backups

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