Time Machine is Confused about user permissions

A while ago I wiped my hard drive, reinstalled from the original install disks and then restored my previous users from time machine. Now, for some reason, I cannot access my user folders on time machine further back than the date of the re-install. It shows that I have them but they have the red dot with the minus symble and wont let me open them. This is true of the user folder for which I am currently logged into. I know I messed someing up but am not sure what or how to fix it.

Thanks for the link Eric. The three "fixes" this site gives are not really fixes but rather workarounds. The second one proved most useful to me. Apparently, time machine lets you right click a folder (even a folder that it won't give you permission to see the contents of) and select "restore to." If I restore it to an external drive that ignores permissions I can then view and access the contents of the folder. The downside is that I don't know if it is the folder I want to restore until after I restore it and examine it's contents. Also, I have to restore the whole documents folder because I can't dig any deeper than that in time machine due to lack of permission. It takes a huge amount of external hard drive space and time to restore the whole documents folder just to retrieve one file in it and then come to find that it is not the version of the file I was looking for. So then I delete the restored documents folder from the external drive and try again, restoring a documents folder backup from another date and see if it holds the file I'm looking for. It works. I eventually found what I was looking for but it can be very time consuming. It would be nice if I could just fix the problem for good and not have to resort to this workaround.
Thanks again Eric for helping me avert this crisis.

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Time Machine seems confused - can somebody explain what I am seeing?

This is on my new MacBook Pro retina 13 inch. And I just started using Time Machine with it about 10 days ago.
I was just looking at a certain folder via Time Machine and found the following strange results, as I "go back in time."
Now: a folder and 3 files (that is correct).
Today at 12:47 pm: 1 file (that is correct, because I created the folder after that, and added the 3 files).
Today at 12:47 pm: no content - why is this entry even here? It's time-stamped the same as the later one.
Today at 11:46 am: a folder and 3 files! The same as "Now." Why would that be? It doesn't make any sense.
Today at 11:45 am: the same folder and 3 files as "Now" - with a time-stamp one minute earlier.
Today at 11:45 am: a repeated entry.
It seems to be confused with all the entries prior to Today at 12:47 pm.
Any idea why?
Thanks,
Doug

Anyway, I see what the Time Machine problem is. It is an artifact resulting from the fact that the finder window I was examining is on an external monitor.
Time Machine displays on the MBP monitor, but none of the items are selectable, and some entries are incorrect.
If I move the finder window to my MBP display and run Time Machine the entries are correct and selectable.
So Time Machine apparently just doesn't play well with what is showing on an external monitor.
AppleCare's response to that was: "Well, that is odd."
Anyway, that is how it appears to work. I'll just make sure to not use Time Machine with a finder window on an external monitor for now.
I don't know whether to mark this as "resolved" or not. I think I will, but Time Machine does seem to have a bug regarding finder windows on external monitors.
doug

I was transferring data from my old iMac to my new iMac via Time Machine. After about 4 hours, the electrical power fluctuated and turned off my wi-fi. Now most of my necessary programs are useless. How do I erase and start over?

I was transferring data from my old iMac to my new iMac via Time Machine. After about 4 hours, the electrical power fluctuated and turned off my wi-fi. Now most of my necessary programs are useless. How do I erase that mess and start over?

Hello there, LynnS.
The following Knowledge Base article and it's referenced link should get you started with the Erase and Install of Mavericks:
OS X Mavericks: Erase and reinstall OS X
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14243
Once you've gone through those 2 articles, this article should help you with restoring from your Time Machine Backup:
OS X Mavericks: Recover your entire system
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14185
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Pedro.

Time Machine backup with multiple user accounts

How do I backup a machine using a Time Capsule/Time Machine that contains multiple user accounts? Ultimately I'd like to flexibility of using the Restore from Time Machine Backup command to port the user data of one account onto a new Mac. Thanks for any insight.

If Time Machine is enabled in one account, then when that account is active Time Machine (which is set up in that account) will backup the entire drive unless you exclude something. That backup will contain everything on the drive being backed up. You can restore either account separately, but when logged into one account you will not have access to files belonging to the other account. You can restore individual files and folders from either account, however.

Will using time machine also save online user names?

Will using time machine also save online user names, such as online banking, forum login etc.?

If you're using a web browser which remembers that information, yes.
(107065)

Time Machine not saving all Users

Hi,
I have just used Time Machine for the first time and noticed that it was saving "x" of around 142gb as its first save.
However, I noticed that when I go through the back up history, whilst it saved my wife's account/user files it hasn't saved mine. The icon of my "house" in the Places section doesn't highlight when you scroll over it with the mouse. It does in the "Now" window.. but page through the back up history and it's not saved. My files are also not found in the Users folder.
Any help really appreciated.
Mark

Are you using File Vault?
That's the only reason TM won't save your home folder on each backup. It should, however, save the encrypted disk image when you log out.
If not, start with a Finder window showing your home folder, then go into Time Machine. It should appear that way.
And be sure you're not looking at the first (lowest) window in the "cascade" of the "Star Wars" background; that's the +Today (Now)+ window, representing what's currently on your system. Navigate to the actual backup (behind the Today window) or via the timeline on the right.
You might want to review these:
Time Machine Tutorial
Time Machine 101
How to back up and restore your files
Time Machine Features
Apple - Support - Mac OSX v10.5 Leopard Time Machine
and perhaps browse the Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
If you have a problem setting-up or using Time Machine, start with the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum. It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it.

Time Machine backup fails about once a week

I'm backing up to an external firewire drive.
About once a week, a Time Machine backup will fail.
I have no other information on the failure. There are no errors in any of the log in
Console.app. Time Machine simply reports "Last Backup Failed", and that's it.
I looked through system.log, and found this;
system.log:Nov 25 08:59:51 kilroy-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3897]: Error: (-43) SrcErr:NO Copying /Users/mauroj/Notebook/.DS_Store to /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/kilroy/2008-11-25-085528.inProgress/D2D3A 24A-4AC2-4BBE-B95B-70F6C122AA07/MacIntosh HD/Users/mauroj/Notebook
Nov 25 08:59:51 kilroy-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3897]: Copied 1132 files (90.0 MB) from volume MacIntosh HD.
Nov 25 08:59:51 kilroy-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3897]: Copy stage failed with error:11
Nov 25 08:59:56 kilroy-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3897]: Backup failed with error: 11
I'm not 100% sure this is the reason Time Machine failed and aborted, but it correlates
time-wise. So it appears backupd (aka Time Machine) is reporting it can not or will not
copy one particular file. There is no indication as to why.
This is buggy behavior for backup software. The message is broken, because there's no
"why" to the failure mode, and the software is broken, because it should be able to
recover from this, complete the backup, and simply report that a specific file was not
backed up.
If I can, I'll file a bug. Note to Apple - We RELY on backups. Stuff like this in the backup
software does NOT make us feel warm and fuzzy.
/jim

this is a known bug introduced by 10.5.3 update. lots of people have it (including myself). it's been acknowledged by apple. there is nothing you can or should do about it yourself. we have to wait for a fix from apple.

Does Time Machine back up other users?

My wife and I share the same computer. We each have our own user accounts. Does Time Machine back up both accounts? It appears that the amount of disk space used on the computer is about equal to the amount on the external hard drive that I use for backup. So I am assuming that both users are backed up in case of a crash. I hope this is the case! Sorry that this is slightly off topic.
Lou

Yes Time Machine backs up your entire hard drive.

I can't set up Time Machine---Help! What "User Name" and password do I use

I finally got the Time Capsule and installed Leopard, but now that I'm trying to set up Time Machine, it's asking for a user name and password. I've entered the admin user name and password to my computer with no luck, then tried the name of the Time Capsule and the password for that, no luck there either. What the heck is it looking for? Thank you for any help you can give me!!!!

smithrj wrote:
Thank you for correcting me, I think it's time for bed.
Ray
Hey, I got left and right confused late one night No problem.
I mentioned it only because I once used that software and only because I checked it before upgrading to Leopard did I realize it didn't work too well, even with Tiger.
LaCie makes great hardware, but in the software area they are a bit soft.

How to use time machine to migrate a user from one mac to another

I have a brand new iMac that was set up about a week ago which contains information from my old PC. I did a time machine back up and now I am trying to import that user to my new macbook air.
Using Migration Assistant, I imported from the user from the Time Machine backup (iMac) to the Macbook Air using my external hard drive.
When I restarted the computer, all that came up on the Macbook Air was the test account I created, not the user from the other Mac. The data is on the computer because the space on the hard drive was taken up. I just don't know why the user isn't showing up.
Can anyone help me to resolve this issue?

stevem902 wrote:
I imported the user from another iMac. The user accounts had the same name. What I should have done at that point is DELETE the old user on the computer I was importing to.
What I did to resolve the issue was create an admin account on the new computer.
Delete the old account that I was replacing on the new computer
Run import from time machine backup again.
Make sure. You have an extra account, and the one you migrated may not be recognized as the same one as on the old Mac. If you need access to that user's files on the old Mac; the backups; or any other drives, be sure you do. That's the possible downside to +Migration Assistant+ vs. +Setup Assistant.+

How to move iTunes library from time machine backup to new user

I recently pruchased a new imac and woiuld like to move my entire itunes and iphoto library to a new user I set up for the new computer. I used time machine to backup my old computer (a Macbook pro I purchased in 2007), but it just transferred the exact dektop I had on the laptop, and I cannot access any of my files from the new user. So at this point I need to start with transferring the two previously mentioned sets of files to the new user, and then I also need to know how to set my computer to default to the new user when it first boots up instead of it starting up with the time machine backed up user as it does now. Thanks!

I forgot to mention the iMac is running snow leopard and macbook pro is Mountain Lion

Non Admin user can cancel the time machine backup an Admin user started?

Today I had to do a new time machine backup but as it was running the user was switched to a non admin user but that admin user was able to terminate the backup that Time Machine was running since the panel showed up on their screen. Why is that?

Barney-15E wrote:
I wouldn't think it was a bug. If I was a user trying to get something done that was processor intensive, I'd like to be able to stop the backup. As the admin, I wouldn't think missing one backup was a big deal.
The o.p. didn't seem to agree.
I'm not sure what I'd think in that situation.
But it could easily be allowed, for those who want it -- just put the TM icon in the other user's menubar before locking the preferences panel.

Time machine restore confusion

ok. As i posted earlier, I command moved a project to my movies hard drive. I have done this before. However, something happened to it during the move and it messed it up. I went into time machine and restored the file. The file shows up in finder in movies in projects. This is the weird part:
in imovie it doesn't show up on the internal hard drive where it says it is in the finder. imovie still shows the location on the external drive. When i play it, it looks ok, but the time stamp is the wrong document ie the moved one. I'm totally confused as to what to do with the document in finder? should i just leave it there. Imovie doesn't recognize it anyway and the events are on the external hard drive. Just completely confused.

i did. It could be just a fluke. The bottom line....the project is working again on the right drive, but I learned a lesson. Duplicate before MOVING! Just in case! thanks! I agree all your suggestions should work. I'm just happy that it doesn't seem to be too common.

Import Time Machine backup to new user account? Migration Assistant?

Long story short: my wife has a recent Time Machine backup from HER iMac that we would like to import as a new user account on MY iMac.
No need to import apps--just user profile, settings, photos/docs, etc.
Do I need to create a new user account for her on my iMac first? Or will it be done during the import?
Also, should I be using Time Machine for this, or the Migration Assistant?
Just looking for the easiest way to do this, as it will be a temporary situation until her new MacBook Pro arrives.
Thanks!
EDIT: Not sure if it makes a difference, but her iMac was running Snow Leopard at the time of the last Time Machine backup, and my iMac has Lion.

Use Migration assistant and import her user account from TM backup.
Don't create her user account first. Migrating her account will take care of that.
Shouldn't matter if her previous backup was SL.

Time Machine doesn't see user library backups

Greeting experts,
I updated to Yosemite 10.10.2 yesterday. After restart, the Mac would log me off within a minute of logging on. So I did a clean install (after pram zapping and disk repairing). The iMac (intel) worked normally after the clean install. So I started restoring files (music, photos, etc.).
When I enter Time Machine, I cannot navigate back in time to any previous snapshot (all the date lines are red on the calendar). I've used Finder preferences to make the user library visible on the Macintosh HD but my user library in Time Machine remains hidden. I've read and tried several suggestions in this forum, including using the Terminal to issue commands to make the user library visible, to inherit the backup, etc. but nothing has worked.
I've been able to restore my photographs to iPhoto and music to iTunes simply by dragging the folders from the last Time Machine snapshot prior to upgrading to 10.10.2.
What I REALLY need is to access my user library on Time Machine and grab my Thunderbird files (saved mail, etc.) but I can't find a way to make my user library visible.
Any suggestions are really appreciated.
Thanks,
Don

Don Stubbs wrote:
What I REALLY need is to access my user library on Time Machine and grab my Thunderbird files (saved mail, etc.) but I can't find a way to make my user library visible.
Any suggestions are really appreciated.
Thanks,
Don
Open Finder and navigate to your User home folder. In the right pane, right click in an open area and click View Options or select View options from the View menu bar. At the bottom of the View Options screen should be a checkbox for Show Library Folder. Check it and your user Library should show up in Finder along with your other Home folders. Then, after opening Library, you should be able to Enter Time Machine and navigate to the point in time you want to browse your user Library

Time Machine is Confused about user permissions

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