Time Machine is listed as excluded folder after migration

I just bought a new iMac and used Time Machine to migrate files and folders over. The first time the new iMac attempted to do a Time Machine backup, I clicked for it to inherit backup history. I just entered Time Machine to look for a file that existed prior to the migration and my backups only go back to the date of the migration, about 2 days ago. However, when I go into Finder and click on Time Machine, it has all of my old backups in folders and I am able to open each folder and see the backups/contents of each day prior to migration. Also, when I click on options in Time Machine System Preferences, it has Time Machine listed as an excluded folder for back up.
How can I get the Time Machine application to recognize the folders saved on the Time Machine external harddrive, i.e., I want to click on Time Machine in the dock and view old backups rather than go into Finder and search the folders for each back up?
Thanks!!

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. The Time Machine volume itself is always excluded from backup. That has nothing to do with what I believe to be your problem, which is that you can't directly access snapshots of your old boot volume where you expect them to be in the time-travel view. That's the subject of the page I linked to.
The snapshots are grayed because they contain no data from your new boot volume. You have to go up to the Computer level, then navigate to the snapshot you want to restore from, and then down to the files.

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bump

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always a pleasure doing business with you, dear sir
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Hi,
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Regards,
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If you synchronize any of your calendars with a server such as iCloud, disable that synchronization. Quit Calendar.
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*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
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HT201250 When migrating from time machine to my new hard drive, it migrates the first back-up I made several years ago. How can I migrate the latest back-up ?

When migrating from time machine to my new hard drive, it migrates the first back-up I made several years ago. How can I migrate the latest back-up ? I need time machine to migrate the latest back-up. Should I delete the older back-ups ?

As noondaywitch says, it should use the latest backup.
Where are your backups (external HD, Time Capsule, etc.)?
It sounds like there are two separate sets, and you're not connected to the right set.

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Although you can restore messages from a Time Machine snapshot within the Mail application, it generally won't work with messages that were saved by an older version of Mail. In that case, you have to use an alternative method.
Triple-click the line below to select it:
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Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
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They aren't what they appear to be on the TM, most are aliases to aliases to aliases when files are changed, I think only TM understands how/where the files are actually stored.
Later versions of the OS with Restore Partitions can Restore also
Do run DU on the TM drive... it certainly can't hurt at this point.
I recommend cloning your drives instead of TM, not only can you copy files/folders over if needed, you can actually boot from your backup & continue working, or even clone back to the Internal...
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Or SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
Or the most expensive one & my favorite, Tri-Backup...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html

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I just completed a full backup onto my Time Machine. (After completely erasing it.) If I enter the Time Machine, it shows '0' items in the backup...ie, no list of files.
If I use the finder and click on 'Time Machine Backups'...I am able to see that in fact 300GB of data was backed up.
I'm confused! I've used time machine before and was expecting to see a complete inventory of all the files after I enter Time Machine...

The default is where you are when you +Enter Time Machine.+
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Time Machine only backing up Users folder

Since upgrding to Mountain Lion my Time Machine is now only backing up my ~/users/ folders and not the whole hard drive like it used to.
Nothing is excluded in Time Machine settings.
Has anybody else got this same scenario? I'm wondering if it's an isseu on my MacBook or if it's by design with Mountain Lion.
Hopefully it's not by design as none of my Application Preferences and other files in Library are being backed up

My other Mac was fine, but comparing the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist files of the two machines reveals something interesting.
On the problematic Mac (Mac #1), before I deleted the .plist, all of the system paths (/Applications, /Library, etc.) somehow got added to ExcludeByPath on or around August 30. After deleting the .plist and starting fresh, the ExcludeByPath key and values are gone, as is expected.
But on Mac #2 (the Mac with no Time Machine problem), those exact same paths that were under ExcludeByPath on Mac #1 are specifically enumerated under IncludeByPath, whereas they are not specifically listed after starting fresh on Mac #1. (It's possible these existed on Mac #2 before my upgrade to 10.8.)
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In summary:
Mac #1 (Mac that stopped archiving system files):
.plist contained system paths under ExcludeByPath
after deleting .plist and resetting Time Machine, .plist no longer contains ExcludeByPath
before and after resetting TM, IncludeByPath was/is absent
Mac #2 (Mac with no TM issue):
system paths specifically listed under IncludeByPath

Time Machine is listed as excluded folder after migration

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