Time Machine - Need to manually enter backup disk

When I enter Time Machine for a particular folder, it does not work. All it shows me is the current state; the Finder windows in the back, which are supposed to represent past states, are all black/blank. The time line on the right side only shows me Today; it has nothing to show me in the past.
However, when I manually browse the Time Machine backup disk, I am able to successfully navigate to previous files. I have successfully "restored" past versions by doing it this way. So, I am not using Time Machine. Rather, it's time machine, as I have to do it manually.
I don't want to reset/restore anything, because I don't want to lose any previous versions. I suppose I will continue doing it this way, unless there's a fix that doesn't kill my backups.

Check out topic E2 of Troubleshooting at the Apple OS X and Time Machine website.

Similar Messages

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    I have deleted all files in the Time Machine backup via Windows, Finder, and GoFlex UI.
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  • My Time Machine says there is no backup disk available.  I've never had any problems with my time machine.  I'm not technologically savvy, so if anyone can help, I'd appreciate it!

    My Time Machine says there is no backup disk available.  I've never had any problems with my time machine completing backups.  I was away from house with my laptop for about 9 days so I'm wondering if there is something I need to do now that I'm home to get it working again.  I'm not technologically savvy, so if anyone can help, I'd appreciate it!
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  • "Time Machine could not delete the backup disk"

    This morning, I got the "Time Machine must create a new backup for you" message referred to here:  http://pondini.org/TM/C13.html
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  • Time machine can't access the backup disk ''time machine backup'' on WD My Cloud, Time machine can't access the backup disk ''time machine backup'' on WD My Cloud?

    Every time I try to start my Mac's time Machine receive above message and it seems no possible to reopen/start properly the application.
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    WD Back up connection problems for Networked WD hard drive
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    Open Finder
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    Password: “backup”
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    As in the screen shot below.
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  • Time Machine gets stuck on 'Making Backup Disk Available'

    This has been happening a few days now. Time machine kicks off a backup but it never gets anywhere. It just keeps spinning and saying 'Making Backup Disk Available'
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    Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Jim's%20Time%20Capsule
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    Where do I go from here?
    Thanks

    Where do I go from here?
    if disk utility can not repair the sparse bundle you can try repairing it with disk warrior or a similar tool. if that does not work either you need to trash the sparse bundle and start backups from scratch. there isn't anything else you can do.
    Thanks

  • Time Machine no longer finds the backup disk

    Time Machine running smoothly for the past 6 months. Then had an error that the "......sparsebundle" was in use by another user. So, went into Time Machine preferences, removed the Backup Disk I had been using. Also renamed the hard drive on my laptop (which shouldn't have anything to do with this issue). Now, wehn I go into Time Machine preferences, no disks are available. The disk that I had been using is online with no issues, I can connect to it from my laptop no problem (it is connected physically to my Mini). Can't figure out a way to get TIme Machine to recognize that its there (it's a Seagate drive). Ideas?

    Backing up to a third-party NAS with Time Machine is risky, and unacceptably risky if it's your only backup. This is an example of what can happen.
    If you want network backup with Time Machine, use as the destination either an Apple Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to another Mac or a mini-tower (802.11ac) AirPort base station. Only the 802.11ac base station supports Time Machine, not any previous model.

  • Time Machine Back Up Delayed, The backup disk is not available

    Just noticed that my Time Machine has not backed up my MacBook Pro to my Time Capsule in three days:
    Selecting Back Up Now brings up this error message
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    The date of the last backup is the date that I had to reboot and reset my Time Capsule as I needed to connect to the Internet via Ethernet and had problems when trying to reconnect over WiFi.
    I unplugged the Time Capsule and plugged it back in. That didn't help.
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    Resetting an AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule FAQ

  • Time Machine stuck at "Looking for backup disk" after installing Windows 8 via Boot Camp

    I've been backing up via Time Machine to an external USB drive and it's been working fine. I recenty installed Windows 8 via Boot Camp and now TM gets stuck forever at "Looking for backup disk...".
    I've tried the following, to no avail:
    Using "Select Disk" in TM preferences to re-select the disk
    Deleting /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
    Running system maintenance via Onyx
    Resetting PRAM
    Formatting the drive and setting it up for TM backups again
    The Boot Camp partition is on the same drive as OS X (on a 180GB Intel 330 series SSD). During the Windows installation I re-formatted the partition as NTFS.
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    I installed Paragon NTFS for Mac and it started working all of a sudden.

  • Time Machine stuck at "Looking for backup disk"

    I've been backing up via Time Machine to an external USB drive and it's been working fine. I recenty installed Windows 8 via Boot Camp and now TM gets stuck forever at "Looking for backup disk...".
    I've tried the following, to no avail:
    Using "Select Disk" in TM preferences to re-select the disk
    Deleting /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
    Running system maintenance via Onyx
    Resetting PRAM
    Formatting the drive and setting it up for TM backups again
    The Boot Camp partition is on the same drive as OS X (on a 180GB Intel 330 series SSD). During the Windows installation I re-formatted the partition as NTFS.
    If I start OS X in Safe Boot mode, TM backups work. In Safe Boot mode, the NTFS partition isn't loaded so I suspect it has something to do with this. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

    I'm going to assume during the install setup of Windows, you deleted the partition made by Apple and created your own and formatted in NTFS. This is probably the cause as to what happened.
    Try this:
    1. backup anything you did in Windows 8.
    2. In Boot Camp, remove the Windows Partition. Reboot when prompted.
    3. Try and see if Time Machine works again.
    If its working, create a bootcamp partition and re-install Windows. Do not delete the partitions that Boot Camp created. See if TM works again after that.

  • I am having issues with Time Machine. Error message "The backup disk image could not be created.

    Error message "The backup disk image could not be created." I have tried everything I have found online in the community from TM full reset  to changing my computers name. Anything else I can try? I am using a Seagate external HD with a connection through my router. I spent an hour on the phone with seagate and everything is ok on the HD end.
    TM sees it and it is mounted but cannot go any further. HELP?!!!!
    Thanks
    -A

    How should it be connected? It has a usb port and ethernet. The USB on the ExHD looks like the port on the back of my computer, so I would need one wth the same ends? Do they make those?
    I can usually fix most my comp problems myself, but this new ExHD has stumped me.
    Thanks for your help.
    -A

  • HT3275 what do I do about this time machine error message?  The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Paul Brandow's Computer.sparsebundle" is already in use.

    How to resolve the following time capsule error message: 
    The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/XXXX Computer.sparsebundle” is already in use.

    If you are running Mountain Lion try this:
    Open AirPort Utility (If you are in Mountain Lion this will be 6.0 or Higher)
    Select you Time Capsule
    Select the Disk Tab
    Deselect "Enable File Sharing"
    Click OK Let the Time Capsule Re-Boot
    Go Back into AirPort Utility and re-select "Enable File Sharing" and let it Re-Boot again.
    This should fix the problem.
    If you are not running Mountain Lion the advice provided by other should work  (http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html).  The main thing is to reset users.

  • Time Machine can no longer find backup disk

    I have a USB drive hooked up to my airport extreme that I used to use as a TimeMachine backup for my MacBook Pro. I use another external drive to back up my iMac, but it is connected to the iMac directly. The drive on the airport extreme used to back up my MacBook Pro flawlessly. Suddenly, about a week ago it stopped recognizing it as a TimeMachine back up drive. I can access the drive via both my iMac and MacBook Pro and I have a small data base that I use on both Macs there as well as the "sparse bundle.." back up for the MacBook Pro. I go to TimeMachine preferences and "select backup drive". Highlighted is the external drive on the airport extreme. Underneath on the list is the red "do not enter" sign and NONE. But only the drive is in blue. I select and it begins a countdown to back up on the drive (even says the name of the drive name and location "airport extreme".) But when the back up begins it quits and gives me the message "Back Up disk not available". But I can go to that drive and open up the small data base that is there, immediately.
    I have now deleted the sparsebundle from that drive and tried to start over, but for some reason it can't use that drive for back ups. What could have changed to make this drive "not available" as a TimeMachine back up?

    Ron Bird wrote:
    Sorry to have ended so quickly. After doing the whole repair thing
    Try repairing the +sparse bundle,+ not just the partition. With the disk connected directly, drag the sparse bundle into Disk Utility's sidebar, select it, and click +*Repair Disk.+*
    and re-connecting the drive and going to TM I did select the drive (after opening it up and it appearing in the list) and then it went to the 120 second countdown BUT after the time expired I got the same message that the drive was unavailable.
    Are you connected via Ethernet or WIFI? If WIFI, try Ethernet. If that works, you've probably got a WIFI problem.
    If it happens over Ethernet, the combination of the problems repairing it, and not being able to connect to the sparse bundle once it was repaired, may mean the drive is failing. How old is it?
    And, don't forget, backing-up this way is "iffy" and +*not supported by Apple.+* I've had exactly the same scenario occur; in my case it worked fine for about 3 months, then every few days the sparse bundle would come up corrupted. On occasion Disk Utility could fix it, on occasion Disk Warrior could, but usually I had to erase and start over. That went on for a couple of weeks; since then it's been fine, although very slow on occasion. That's all with the same hardware in the same locations, and a very good WIFI connection. If you browse the +Airport Extreme+ forum (in the +Digital Life+ section at http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1135 , you'll see a number of similar stories.
    That's why I don't recommend it, and keep secondary backups as well.

  • Time Machine can't access the backup disk "Data".

    The operation couldn't be completed. ( OSStatus error 22. )
    anyone else having this problem when trying to back-up on TC ?

    Strange.. two in a row looks bad.
    I want you to ensure you have ipv6 set to link-local for both wireless and ethernet on the computer.
    Power down the TC and leave it for an hour or two.
    Then power it up again.. does it still have the same issue.
    Do a full factory reset.
    Universal Factory Reset.. any model TC or AE.
    Unplug your TC/AE from power or turn off at the power point.
    Hold in reset. and power the TC/AE back on..  all without releasing reset and keep holding in for about 10sec. (this is often difficult without a 2nd person or a 3rd arm).
    Release it when the status light flashes rapidly. If it doesn’t flash rapidly you have missed it and try again.
    Note..
    Be Gentle! Feel the switch click on. It has a positive feel..  add no more pressure after that.
    TC/AE will reboot after a couple of minutes with default factory settings and will wipe out previous configurations of the router.
    No files are deleted on the hard disk in a TC.. No reset of the TC deletes files.. to do that you use erase from the airport utility.
    Power down and see if it will come up again after an hour with the same problem.
    Go to the Disk tab of the airport utility .. is the erase button working.. please try and do a quick erase first.. does that work? If not try a one pass erase?
    If everything fails.. ring apple support .. or do that anyway and let them talk you through the problem.
    The fact that it worked for 3days and failed and the first was dead out of the box might mean you have some other issue.. but I cannot figure out what it could be. Hard drive failure early on is not unusual.. two in a row is.

  • Why won't time machine give me access to backups?

    My Macbook Pro wasn't working so I took it to an Apple store and they said the file system was corrupted and it needed be reformatted.  I had a time machine backup and they said I should restore the files from it but not the complete restore or I would just recreate the problem.
    So, my laptop is now up and running and it works again.  But I can't get access to my old files.  ACK!!!
    The time machine backups are stored on an almost brand new "WD My Passport" external drive.  I mounted the drive, went to time machine and selected "browse other backup disks".  My old backup is there and I can select it.  Then I zip into the Star Wars interface and...nothing happens.  No backups ever show up as available.  It just sits there and nothing happens when I click on the bar to the right or the arrows or any of the windows in the background.  Nothing.
    I know backups are there on the disk because there is a huge amount of disk space taken up in the partion with this backup and b/c I can "show package contents" in the finder and see gobs of files with in the "bands" folder (with meaningless names like "1a1c").  Also, I think the WD backup drive is fine b/c I can add, delete and access files from a separate (non-backup) partion on the disk.  Also, I used disk utility to verify and repair all partions on the disk and they said OK.
    I need these files!  It's all my pictures, music and lots of important documents.  What the heck!?!?!

    Halbey, I understand your frustration. In the past couple of years a lot of terms updates have seemed invasive of privacy and software updates have seemed counter-intuitive. Because I don't simply blindly accept what's put in front of me, I don't enjoy "being a Mac" too much anymore either. Several years ago Apple's focus shifted from user experience to stock price, from creativity to mobile gaming, and the Mac experience began to die.
    As Apple grows, it is turning into the very monster it once provided an alternative to.
    iTunes has become what Internet Explorer used to be: a once great program now weighted down with years of patches and misdirection. Unfortunately Apple has made this bloated old patient both the cornerstone and connecting tissue of virtually every user function.
    The reason we can't install previous versions is likely something to do with the terms of service that we're forced to agree to before installation. Remember that huge page of legal mumbo-jumbo? It's likely that some of the terms of service can no longer be supported by the old software.

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