Time Machine not visible from SNow Leopard

I have a Time Capsule that has been performing sterling duty on my iMac and Macbook for the past couple of years.
Having just upgraded the Macbook to Snow Leopard I set it to backup for the first time (>60 GB) which took a day or so over Wifi - at this point the backup was visible and browsable.
After the backup the time capsule is visible in the Finder and I can see the sparsebundle, however the preferences suggest that I need a new backup and I cannot enter Time Machine.
The iMac, still running 10.5.8, can still see it's own backups.
There is approx. 250GB left on the Time Capsule.
Any help?

JonSeph wrote:
Hi James - I realised the error in Carolyn's file path, so it was the 'right' prefs file I deleted. Should have mentioned that.
Here's the log from last backup using +Time Machine Buddy+.
"Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/TM Backup/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 676.2 MB requested (including padding), 640.59 GB available
Copied 135 files (109 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 677.1 MB requested (including padding), 640.59 GB available
Copied 10 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
Deleted backup /Volumes/TM Backup/Backups.backupdb/JonSeph MacBook Pro/2009-09-16-113240: 640.59 GB now available
Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully."
All seems fine, but no backup made of any new files!
Yes, just not finding anything changed. What's in the +Do not back up+ box in TM Preferences > Options, and what's the "Estimated size of full backup? just below it?
Are you running File Vault?

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I had to restore my 2006 MacBook Pro back to factory settings (Tiger 10.4). Can I use my Time Machine back up from Snow Leopard to put it back the way it was?

I cannot locate my Snow Leopard disks but I was able to use the Tiger disk that came with the computer to restore it. However, it completely erased it and set it back to Tiger. Can I use my Time Machine to put Snow Leopard and my data back on the computer?

You can't restore a Time Machine backup made with Snow Leopard onto a system with Tiger. You can, but you will damage Mac OS X.
In order to restore your Time Machine backup, you should have your Snow Leopard disc. Then, insert it and hold the C key while your MacBook Pro is starting. Finally, choose your language, go to Utilities menu (on the menu bar), choose the option to restore the backup and follow its steps, so you will recover Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Cannot enter Time Machine after upgrading from Snow Leopard

Hi all,
I've had Lion installed for a few days now and am enjoying the changes to OSX.
Last night I wanted to delete a few redundant files out of my TimeMachine backup and found I could not open the application at all.
I can still backup to Time Machine successfully (so it indicates with preparing, backing up progress (xGB of yGB), finishing, etc). So for the last few days everything appeared to be functioning as expected until last night, when I tried to enter Time Machine.
My specs:
iMac (Oct 2010), 4GB, 1TB, 3.6GHz, backing up to a WD My Passport Essential (1TB) via USB 2.0 (25% full)
I can see the destination drive (and its contents) on my desktop, via Finder and can select it via TimeMachine System Preferences (Select drive). There are no issues 'seeing' or accessing the drive in normal use.
Trying to open the Time Machine application, I have tried via the TimeMachine icon in the TitleBar (ie 'Enter Time Machine'), via Mission Control (double-clicking on Time Machine), typing 'Time Machine' into Spotlight and selecting it from the resulting list, but in all scenarios, nothing happens. Nothing at all. And yet I can backup to Time Machine without a hitch.
I have seen a number of online conversations about the AFP spec having been changed by Apple and third party periphial manufacturers being slow to comply, but using USB, I'm not sure this applies to my case? I have used Macs at home for 8 years and have never heard of AFP until now... So I don't really know if I am impacted by this or not (don't think so).
There have been some troubleshooting solutions involving identifying and deleting the com.apple.timemachine.plist from the Library/Preferences folder (going from memory here) which I did (had to use PathFinder to find the file).
Unfortunately that did not help and Time Machine still refuses to open. There are no errors appearing as a result of trying to open TimeMachine. I have checked the Console, but nothing obvious appears there. I have read others are prompted with an error about AFP, but I get no such error. I can copy files to the drive okay so I can't see how it is the drive. Just Time Machine not wanting to play...
Can anyone suggest anything?
I do have Snow Leopard SuperDupered to another 320GB WD drive if I need to go back, but I don't really want to if I can help it...
Thanks,
Alex Makin

Well finally, after 2 days of trying to work out what was the issue, I have resolved the problem.
Its very strange given that I can successfully back up but not restore, as described in my original post.
One thing I neglected to mention was the fact I had set up my Time Machine backup to use 'sparsebundles'. This allows me to have the external drive plugged into my Airport Extreme and use much like Time Capsule.
It didn't seem relevant at the time since I could backup successfully (and still now, I can't understand why Time Machine knows where to back up to, but doesn't know where to restore from).
I didn't have the Time Machine icon sitting in my dock (never needed to since if I need to restore, I access TM from the TitleBar icon). So in putting the TM app in the dock I played a little around with it by clicking it (as you would normally for any other app in the dock) and eventually held down the mouse key to bring up the menu. Tried 'Enter Time Machine' a couple of times without luck, before trying a menu item along the lines of "Try another backup destination' and voila!! Time Machine opens, animated stars, vertical time line, etc.
Well hang on now... Why the heck can't TM have worked this out already?? Why do I need to look somewhere else for my Time Machine backup, when I've already told TM (in System Preferences) where the backup is?
Pretty darn odd, but there you have it. It was there the whole time, but according to TM, it wasn't...
I still have to select the menu item 'Try another backup destination' each time I want to enter TM, but at least I know where to find it...
I'm assumming its the sparsebundles setting (which I'm sticking with), but at least I know its not my iMac, its not the hard drive, its not Lion (well, it sort of is as Snow Leopard knew where to find it...)
Alex Makin

Time Machine not opening after Snow Leopard 10.6.3 install

The install from Leopard 10.5.8 seemed to go well but I'm unable to open Time Machine now...I get this error message:
The operation can't be completed
An unexpected error occurred (error code -43)

Alls lost wrote:
I upgraded from Leopard to Snow Leopard on my existing MacBook. I'd never done any work on Time Machine on the old version outside of opening it and am obviously completely ignorant of the entire application.
I'm still not clear -- had you done any backups while you were on Leopard?
I wanted to start using it and am receiving that error message when I try to open it so I can't get into it to do any manipulation...etc. Maybe my best bet is to go to an Apple store and get some basic help with it including reloading.
I'm still not clear on what's going on, but I don't think you need to reload anything.
If you've never done any backups, then you won't see anything when you click the Time Machine icon in your Dock.
If you want to start using Time Machine, you'll need an external HD, or perhaps a Time Capsule, for Time Machine to store the backups on. You set that up via +System Preferences > Time Machine.+ Once there are some backups, you should be able to view them via the Time Machine application.
You might want to review the [Time Machine Tutorial|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics] and perhaps browse [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).
Then post back with any questions.

Time Machine not backing after Snow Leopard

This seems one that hasn't been encountered yet.
After installing SL, Time Machine apparently works fine and doesn't report any problems. 'Last Backup' time always fine, icon revolves etc. Problem is that even going back 1 hour goes back to the day SL was installed. Backing up to the same USB disc as previous - under 10.5.x always fine.
Any ideas?

JonSeph wrote:
Hi James - I realised the error in Carolyn's file path, so it was the 'right' prefs file I deleted. Should have mentioned that.
Here's the log from last backup using +Time Machine Buddy+.
"Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/TM Backup/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 676.2 MB requested (including padding), 640.59 GB available
Copied 135 files (109 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 677.1 MB requested (including padding), 640.59 GB available
Copied 10 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
Deleted backup /Volumes/TM Backup/Backups.backupdb/JonSeph MacBook Pro/2009-09-16-113240: 640.59 GB now available
Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully."
All seems fine, but no backup made of any new files!
Yes, just not finding anything changed. What's in the +Do not back up+ box in TM Preferences > Options, and what's the "Estimated size of full backup? just below it?
Are you running File Vault?

Time machine can not access time capsule after upgrade from snow leopard to mountain lion

Two days ago I upgraded my 2009 17" MBP from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. That evening my time capsule/time machine combination worked fine and did an incremental backup of about 12 gigabyte. Yesterday - only one day later - the time machine backup did not work anymore.
It appears that the system can not find the time capsule - even though it shows the remaining free space on the time capsule (so it did find it after all).
The message is always the same:
Time Machine can not complete the backup "Time Capsule"
The image of the backup volume "/Volumes/Data/Pauls MacBookPro.sparsebundle" is not accessable (Error -1).
I also can not delete the backup image on the time capsule since it is read-only. And I do not want to format the time caspsule yet since my wife's MBAir is also using the same time casule.
I tried out all kinds of suggestions (hard and soft resetting both the MBP and the TC, entering the password again, setting the TC up again) all to no avail. No backup is possible anymore.

Mr. Zooot wrote:
Time Machine can not complete the backup "Time Capsule"
The image of the backup volume "/Volumes/Data/Pauls MacBookPro.sparsebundle" is not accessable (Error -1).
I also can not delete the backup image on the time capsule since it is read-only.
Sounds like you got this message earlier:
If so, see #C13 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Offhand, I don't recall anyone not being able to delete one via the Finder (but most were only backing-up one Mac, so just erased the disk).
You may have to wait for that message to appear again (24 hours later), or you might try holding Alt/Option with the TM icon in the menubar, and select Verify Backups if it will let you.

TIme machine backup made under snow leopard to be used in leopard

Hi I have just down-graded back to leopard from snow leopard due to problems i was encountering. Prior to re-installing leopard OS10.5 I made a backup of my hard drive with time machine under snow leopard 10.6. now i have tried to restore this hard drive back-up once i had succesfully re-installed leopard 10.5 but it wont allow me. is there any way around this? do the back-ups have to be from same operating systems. any advice much appreciated

willouk2 wrote:
What I wanted to acheive was for my macbook to look the same to when before i installed snow leopard, as in with all files in place, apps, desktop etc! so having made a time machine backup in 10.6 I Inserted Leopard disk OSX 10.5, held down the C key and rebooted, formatted HDD, installed Leopard
There's no point to installing OSX, then restoring +*your entire system+* from backups: "your entire system" includes OSX. The first thing it does (as you're warned on the screen) is erase the HD.
The message you got was apparently the Leopard installer (on the disc) saying you can't use it to restore a complete Snow Leopard system. But if it had, you'd have been back on SL.
If you don't have a backup from Leopard, you can't make your system look exactly like it was under SL but with a Leopard version of OSX. Even getting close won't be easy: you no doubt have many files that were created in SL, or upgraded by SL. They're not compatible with Leopard; OSX and Leopard apps may not work right, if at all, with them.
At this point, you've got two options:
First (and almost certainly best) is to restore your entire system to the way it was at the time of the backup (by using the Snow Leopard install disc). Then fix whatever problems you were having.
If you really want to go back, do an Erase and Install of Leopard. When it boots up, and asks if you already have a Mac and want to "transfer" data from it, say no. Set up your first user, etc,. Then download and install the "combo" update to get back to 10.5.8. Info and download available at: http://support.apple.com/downloads/MacOS_X_10_5_8_ComboUpdate Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards.
Then reinstall all apps that came with installers (and are compatible with Leopard) from the original discs.
You'll have to set up all your email accounts, passwords, and other preferences and settings.
Then you might be able to selectively restore some things from your Snow Leopard backup, but be aware that you may be restoring incompatible versions of files. The behavior of OSX and your apps will be unpredictable at best.

Retrieving files from Time Machine after updating to Snow Leopard

Updated my 2 year old iMac to Snow Leopard and erased the hard disk first to do a clean start. Having carried out all the updates and loaded on iLife11 tried to use the migration assistant to retrieve data from Time Machine backup but will only find the updated iMac! How do I get it to retrieve from previous Time Machine backups? Know they are on the external Hard Drive somewhere as it still has 400GB on it. Thanks

+Setup Assistant+ and +Migration Assistant+ automatically use the most recent backup. There's no choice. See #19 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).
Your best bet is to do a +full system restore+ per #14 in the FAQ. Choose the last backup before the upgrade. That will, of course, put you back on Leopard.
Then just install Snow Leopard (there are no +Erase and Install+ or +Archive and Install+ options anymore). That will install the new version of OSX, without touching anything else.
Potential problems with using +Migration Assistant+ (after setting-up a user account), are that you end up with an extra account; and the accounts you migrate may not be recognized as the same ones as on your backups or other volumes, and won't have the proper permissions to them.
Message was edited by: Pondini

How do I use Time Machine to downgrade from Snow back to Leopard?

I have a MBA and optical drive, and I use Time Machine to backup.
I'd like to revert back to pre-Snow, and pre 10.6.1. Where/how do I do this with time machine? Do I go to a previous date that had the old OS, and just select the System folder and then restore?

If you want to go back to Leo, then you have two options at this point (ignoring what's above): erase and install (A&I) and archive and install (A&I). I am assuming that you know how to go back with an E&I, but probably don't want to do so now. Post back if you need help with this method. Note that you will need your original Leo install DVD to do either type of install.
A&I is a good play, under your current circumstances, given that you are not ready, if ever, to do an E&I. Note that Apple doesn't recommend going backwards this far (i.e., going back beyond the current major version, say, 10.6.2.x back to 10.6.1.x) via A&I. But, regardless it is a way to get back to Leo and to pave the way for an restoring with your TM or doing an E&I of Leo in the future assuming your E&I fails to produce an acceptable installation.
Note that if you go backwards, then you will not be able to preserve user and network settings--which may be a good thing. Fortunately, there is a way to extract anything needed from a prior user home folder. [Here is the explanation|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2196].
Even though you don't want Sno any more, it would be nice to have a bootable clone of your Sno installation on an external for safety purposes--as mentioned above. On the other hand, your TM backup takes much of the need to have a clone away. Also, I would repair disk and permissions before archiving and installing and unplug all peripherals during installation, but not your Ethernet connection if you have one.

Recovering data from Time Capsule after conversion from Snow Leopard to Lion

Had a problem with my iMac, which was running Snow Leopard O/S. Data was backed up on Time Capsule using Time Machine, although recent back-ups had failed (but earlier back-ups had been OK). Apple support determined that I needed to re-install the O/S and they walked me through it. After blowing away all data (believing that once O/S reinstalled, could recover from Time Capsule), the reinstall failed. Took to Apple store, where they installed Lion at my request. Then tried to recover from Time Capsule, but couldn't do so. Sparse file doesn't work (it shows 10GB, which is wrong as it had several hundred GB's before due to lots of photos). Apple Support couldn't solve issue, believes it was corrupted with the last backup. Ultimately recommended that I have professional data recovery service recover data from the iMac hard-drive (as opposed to Time Capsule). Spoke to recovery service recommended by Apple, and it is very expensive (also, given the O/S reinstall, anything they recover will have new file names and no directory structure). They also said getting data off the Time Capsule is even more difficult and expensive to recover. I'm not a happy camper.
I would welcome any thoughts on what to do. FWIW, I live in South Florida and there appear to be lots of data recovery companies locally, but Apple support had said that they have only a few authorized vendors that can do it without voiding warranty, so I'm reluctant to even call them. Thanks. Steve

Your backups may be corrupted.
Try to repair them, via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder).
Mount the sparse bundle by opening the TC in the Finder and double-clicking on the sparse bundle. Drag the sparse bundle into Disk Utility's sidebar, and do a +*Repair Disk*+ (not permissions) on it. If it finds errors it can't fix, run it again (and again), until it either fixes them all, or can't fix any more.

IMac will not boot from Snow Leopard DVD or original Leopard disc!

Hey,
I am going mad! I am trying to update my iMac (with original Leopard installed) to Snow Leopard. Here is what I have tried:
Using the Snow Leopard DVD:
- A standard install: the disc ejects after about 15 minutes.
- Put another working DVD in and verified it in Disk Utility, all ok.
- Verified the internal hard drive in Disk Utility, all ok.
- Verfied the SL DVD, all ok.
- Decided to try a clean install, so backed up everything.
- Tried to boot from SL DVD by using the Utilities option, it ejects the disc at restart.
- Tried to force it to boot to the DVD by restarting and holding the C key, it ejects.
- Restart holding the Option key, it ejects.
- Restart holding the Ctrl, Alt and Option keys, ejects.
- Everytime it ejects and starts up normally.
- So I cleaned the disc, updated all the firmware, reset the NVRAM/PRAM via holding keys when restarting, and repaired disc permissions.
- Tried to force it to boot again, ejects.
- Tried to put the disc back in straight after it ejects with all the steps, still starts up normally.
- Changed the start up disc in System Preferences to the SL DVD, restart, it ejects.
By now I am readying the noose...
- Dug out the original Leopard installation CDs.
- Repeated all the forced boot restarts (C key, Option key, Ctrl, Alt, Option keys), same story.
- Repeated changing the start up disc in System Prefs, same story again.
- Call Apple Support, they told me to try everything I have tried and that the DVD drive is dodgy, well it works with everyhting else! Burning and reading! I really don't want to have to go to an Apple Store- it's miles away (a costly journey) and I just do not have the time for all of this.
RAWR! Does anyone know what to do? Please? S.O.S.?

Possible scenarios:
1: The 10.6.3 SL retail disk is bad, it happens.
2: Your not using the 10.6.3 SL retail disk but one from another machine which doesn't have the drivers for that machine.
3: Your optical drive is funky or some other hardware issues.
4: Your trying to install 10.6 onto a PowerPC based Mac, no can do.
5: Your not using a wired keyboard for boot key commands, have some other hardware conflicts.
Possible solutions.
1: Copy the SL 10.6.3 disk using Disk Utility to another DVD, the error checking may resolve the original disk's issue.
http://www.brokenhomeboy.co.uk/pierow/blog/2011/10/make-a-bootable-backup-snow-l eopard-install-disc/
2: Make a SL bootable USB
http://www.maciverse.com/install-os-x-snow-leopard-from-usb-flash-drive.html
3: Call Apple for a new 10.6.3 disk (and make copies for backup before Apple discontinues selling it)
If your upgrading to 10.6 to get to 10.6.8 to upgrade to 10.7, be warned of this:
1: Your 10.5 software will not work in 10.7, no more Rosetta or PPC based code.
2: Your hardware will not qualify if it's a 32 bit Intel Core Duo, also you may experience slowdowns in performance over 10.6 (10.6 is the fastest OS X version for Intel Macs) in older Intel hardware (I suggest Early 2011 Mac's and later only for Lion)
3: Mountain Lion 10.8 is reportingly coming out this summer and will not run on a lot of older Intel based Mac's because of heftier graphics requirements.
4: 10.6 has the widest range of current avaialble software and drivers for third party hardware.
My advice, stick with 10.6.8 and stay there, buy a new Mountain Lion machine after this summer. Skip Lion completely.

Losing connection to time machine since upgrading to snow leopard

My wife's mac mini has routinely started saying 'no connection available' since we upgraded to snow leopard. It also keeps asking for the network password, which it has never done before on my time machine. I thought it was a fluke with the mini, till my macbook started doing the same thing.
Please have someone look at the issue between the dual band time capsule and snow leopard.
Thanks.

You're not talking to Apple here -- this is a user-to user forum.
Try just re-selecting the Time Capsule in TM Preferences. If that doesn't help, try restarting both the Macs and the TC.
To contact Apple directly, call AppleCare at (800-275-2273), or make an appointment at the Genius Bar at your local Apple store, and take your TC and one or both Macs along.
This appears to be a Time Capsule problem, not a Time Machine problem, so you'll probably do better in the +Time Capsule+ forum, hiding in the +Digital Life+ section, at: http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1253

Will not upgrade from snow leopard

have snow leopard 10.6.8 but it will not download mountain lion what could be the problem?
Have and Imac

Your iMac needs to meet the technical requirements and then you have to buy it from the App Store.
http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/

Time Machine restore fails from Snow Leo disc. iMac 24" 2007

My hard drive sufferd some kind of crash yesterday. I booted to the SL-disc and formatted the drive. I then verified it with no errors before formatting again - this time I told it to write 0´s. The drive verifies fine in disk utility. I go into the Time Machine restore dialogue and selects the latest recovery point and it goes to work and I go to bed. Wake up the error "the OS X install could not be completed" or something like that only in norwegian. I try again with an earlier recovery point, but after a few hours it displays the same message.
The only weird thing about my setup is that the TM drive is connected through my firewire audio interface. I am at work now and came to think of this little weirdness. Can this be the problem? I seem to remember having recovered before without this causing a problem. Any other suggestions? Is my drive really troubled even though it reports no problems after the format?

It's hard to tell, but just to be safe, I'd connect the drive directly.
It might have been damaged by the crash; you might also want to repair it, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
When you do the restore, select Window, then Show Log and Show All logs from the menubar. These selections may require several seconds to take effect, but you can tell how far the process has gotten.
If the restore seems to get most of the way, but fails again, see if it will start up. If not, try installing a fresh copy of OSX. See what didn't get copied; you may be able to recover the missing stuff by restoring it selectively.

Win 7 in Boot Camp: Drivers will not install from snow leopard cd.

I have a early 2011 Macbook Pro (8,1). I am loading Windows 7 with Boot Camp, but cannot get any of the drivers to install. (ethernet, video, etc)
I have tried both the Snow Leopard cd (I think it's Boot Camp 3.2?), and also downloading drivers online, neither work. I have tried reformatting/reinstalling, and even tried loading a old copy of XP and I had the exact same problem there too.
What happens: I install the drivers successfully, restart, and nothing has changed. I can see the drivers installed in the programs list (when I go to "uninstall programs") but if I go to Device Manager all of the devices (ethernet, video, etc) show a yellow triangle and say they need drivers! It's like I'm installing the wrong drivers or something.
I can't find any other posts with a problem like this, I have been working on this forever and am kind of at my wits end. Any ideas??

Don't believe what Apple posts.
If you don't have EFI64 like 2008 and later Mac Pro, then you will run into a hurdle and have to modify the Windows DVD to get it to boot and install.
To Apple, and due to the non-standard way they implemented UEFI, and that ours (2006/7 Mac Pro) all there was that we got was the 2005 EFI32 (affects our choices in graphics cards too).
I installed 32-bit, then installed 64-bit on another partition.
The DVD can be modified, from Windows, most easy method would be from any of the VMs like VirtualBox. Then use one of the 2-3 Imgburn or other tricks mentioned online (search for "Jowie" and search for the "Select CD-ROM" error you get trying to boot).
FAQ, Updates, etc http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp
System Requirements: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1899
Windows 7 FAQ: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3986
List 64-bit Compatible: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1846
Boot Camp 64-bit 3.1 http://support.apple.com/kb/DL979
Boot Camp Vista Upgrade Utility http://support.apple.com/kb/DL977

Time Machine not visible from SNow Leopard

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