Time Machine Only Displays Desktop Items

I'm using a 2GHz Intel Core Duo iMac, using Time Machine to backup to a 400GB Iomega external drive.
The problem is when I go in to Time Machine to 'look back in time', the only items which appear in the historical finder windows are those items or folders actually located on my desktop, but excluding "Macintosh HD". This means, for example, if I want to restore an old file from my "Documents" folder of 1 week ago, I can not, as this can not be accessed via the desktop (bearing in mind the Macintosh HD icon also does not appear).
Any ideas? Time Machine preferences do not account for this problem - I have not restricted backup to desktop items only.

You should post your question in the "Time Machine" discussion area.
This is the "Time Capsule" discussion area.

Similar Messages

Time machine only displays my desktop folder

When I enter Time Machine, I want to be able to move back in time and browse my ENTIRE COMPUTER in the past - - - including the top level of my internal hard disk and see all files and folders on it.
However TM only displays list views of my desktop folde and will show me this desktop folder back in time as if that was the ONLY folder it had backed up. Even though an icon for my internal HD appears on my real time desktop, the desktop folder displayed by Time Machine does NOT include the hard drive so I have no way of browsing back anywhere but in my desktop folder. How do I change views in Time Machine so I can get to the top level of the hard drive and see all files and folders on it.
It's next to useless to ONLY be able to see an incomplete snapshot of my desktop folder.

Steve Holton wrote:
If the sidebar is hidden when you enter TM, you can still navigate. The "see the location of the current folder" icon (the one just to the left of the 'i' info icon will show you the folder hierarchy up to you machine name.
You mean the "Path" icon? (which is not one of the defaults).
As with the sidebar, that works IF you have a toolbar in the Finder window, and IF it has the proper icons. As with the sidebar, once you're in TM without it, you can't make it (or new icons) appear.

HT1338 problems with time machine and parallels desktop, mac osx mountain lion 10.8

have a good day, i have been problems with time machine and parallels desktop, dont work in mac osx 10.8, i upgrate two mac´s (macbook air, imac), in the two machines shows problems, could you help me please.
two machines have good ram memory (macbook air 11.1 2010 early , imac 2009 late).
i am waiting for your help.
thanks.
Jesus.

Take a look here:
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Specifically, you'll probably want to try item #A5 on that page, but there's a lot of other info there that may be useful.

Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive. Help

Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive in the Backups.backupdb folder.
Time Machine does show the history of my Macintosh HD, but when I try to navigate to the folder I wish to restore the backup history disappears. I've been searching for answers and I have not found one that works for me.

Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive in the Backups.backupdb folder.
Time Machine does show the history of my Macintosh HD, but when I try to navigate to the folder I wish to restore the backup history disappears. I've been searching for answers and I have not found one that works for me.

How can I force Time Machine to make a complete backup of my Hard Drive. I just installed a new external drive for Backup since my previous one failed. Now when I back up, Time Machine only backs up my data folder and the Users folder.

How can I force Time Machine to make a complete backup of my Hard Drive. I just installed a new external drive for Backup since my previous one failed. Now when I back up, Time Machine only backs up my data folder and the Users folder.
When I start a backup. Time Machine says "Oldest Backup: None; Latest Backup: None", so it seems like it should do a complete backup, but it only does a partial.

Hi I'd like to jump in here. Your app showed me this:
Time Machine:
          Skip System Files: NO
          Mobile backups: OFF
          Auto backup: YES
          Volumes being backed up:
                    Macintosh HD: Disk size: 749.3 GB Disk used: 453.81 GB
          Destinations:
                    Plastic Wrapper [Local] (Last used)
                    Total size: 999.86 GB
                    Total number of backups: 64
                    Oldest backup: 2013-07-24 23:25:11 +0000
                    Last backup: 2013-11-17 01:40:47 +0000
                    Size of backup disk: Too small
                              Backup size 999.86 GB < (Disk used 453.81 GB X 3)
          Time Machine details may not be accurate.
          All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
          /sbin excluded from backup!
          /usr excluded from backup!
          /System excluded from backup!
          /bin excluded from backup!
          /private excluded from backup!
          /Library excluded from backup!
          /Applications excluded from backup!
Aside from the size of my backup drive, which I will increase at some point, I'd really like to have time machine backing up all system folders, especially Applications. How to I reset this hidden exclusions?
Thanks,
Darcy

When using Time Machine, if I delete items from my computer, will they still be backed up to access later on my external hard drive? In other words, when time machine backs up again, will it delete the files from the back up?

When using Time Machine, if I delete items from my computer, will they still be backed up to access later on my external hard drive?
In other words, when time machine backs up again, will it delete the files from the back up that I have deleted from my computer?

No, I do not believe so. Time Machine would keep all those now-deleted files in previous backups, and as time goes by those backups might be deleted if you needed room, but it would still keep one backup from each day in last month, as well as one from each week forever, as long as you don't start running out of room, then just the oldest would be deleted to make room if needed.
I use a backup drive about double the size of my drive to be backed up, so I would guess it will never get to the point where deleted files being replaced by new ones being backed fill up that drive to the point where backups actually have to get deleted.

Time machine only copies User Info and Users (Applications, Library, and System are missing) from my quad core Mac Pro. 45 Gb of 162 Gb are missing. Any one having success with time machine copying all folders using Mavericks? What do I need to do dif

Time machine only copies User Info and Users (Applications, Library, and System are missing) from my quad core Mac Pro. 45 Gb of 162 Gb are missing. Any one having success with time machine copying all folders using Mavericks?
What do I need to do differently?

The late, great Pondini was investigating that issue before he passed away.
See here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5125969
I think there might be information there on how to reset Time Machine to do a full backup. I think you basically have to reset it and start over.

I have time machine saving onto two usb drives. The backup is 4.6TB. Each drive is 6TB. Why is time machine only updating one drive? (The other has been the same for two weeks.)

I have time machine saving onto two usb drives.
The total size of the files being backed up is 4.6TB.
Each external USB drive is 6TB. So I have 12 TB of space for Time Machine.
Why is time machine only updating one USB drive? (One drive has been the same for two weeks.)
I have selected both drives in the Time Machine settings panel.
My understanding was that it would do a full backup, and then incremental backups of changed files, getting rid of old copies as needed, and alternate between the two drives.
But it looks like drive A has one complete backup, dated two weeks ago, and drive B is the only one getting action.
There is a red icon on drive one that says the drive needs 120GB more space to do a backup -- which is strange since the whole backup set is only 4.6TB in size, and the drive is 6TB in size...

You could try a clone instead.
Clone - Carbon Copy Cloner (Often recommended as it has more features than some others)
Clone – Data Backup
Clone – Deja Vu
Clone - SuperDuper
Clone - Synk
Clone Software – 6 Applications Tested
Time Machine Versus Clones and Archives
Commonly Used Backup Methods

I delete the time machine in my desktop how can i put it back

I delete the time machine in my desktop how can i put it back?

Hi, please open the 3-bar menu > Customize, and if you can see the Home icon, you can drag it to a location of your choice > Exit Customize to save.
This [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-to-set-the-home-page How to set the home page] article may also be of help.
Hope that resolves your problem.

HT203177 My Time Machine is displaying a solid amber light.

My Time Machine is displaying a solid amber light. Tried to unplug everything, including the power source. Left unplugged for 15 minutes. Re-connected back, first the cable to the WAN port and then the power supply. Still SOLID AMBER HELP PLEASE

Hello,
That is generally a sign of failing Hard Drive or Power Supply, but have you tried a Reset?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3728

Menu Bar Time Machine icon displays a Question mark - Problem and Fix

My MacBook over the weekend upon awakening from sleep showed that the Menu Bar Time Machine icon displays a Question mark. The external drive showed as mounted in the finder but repeated tries to Back up Now ended in Latest Backup Failed. Hmmm. Never saw that before. Did a restart and ran Disk Utility Verify Disk on the start up disk and it came out OK. So I then ran Disk Utility on the external FW backup drive and as soon as it reported that the FW disk was fine, Time Machine started up on it's own and did a back up and all is back to normal after leaving the TM drive attached the remainder of the weekend. All backups are back to working fine with no repeat of the problem.

If for some reason the computer has trouble communicating with the drive it will report a failure when TM tries to back up, and will display that question mark. It's good you were able to fix it and get TM running again.

when I ''ENTER TIME MACHINE'', I only see desktop items!!!

New to TM, when I ''enter time machine'' the only windows I have access is my desktop... How can I have access to my HD??? What about going back in Mail???
Thank you

nichols wrote:
New to TM, when I ''enter time machine'' the only windows I have access is my desktop... How can I have access to my HD???
click on the hard drive in the sidebar and the view will switch.
What about going back in Mail???
start TM while Mail is the front application.
Thank you

Time Machine only keeps two days backup, displays old backups that don't exist. Occurs on two separate HDD's

I have a 15" 2010 MBP C2D-2.53 in completely original form except it is running OSX 10.8. Applecare just ran out so that's not an option, FYI. Lately I went to fetch an old file from TM because the current file was corrupt and I noticed that TM was only backing up for the past couple of recent days. Oddly enough, it also displayed a couple of backups dated from 2010, even though the external HDD I'm using was purchased 2 months ago and the files displayed in the "2010" backup did not exist at that time so it's an impossibility. The backup disc is a toshiba canvio external 320gb USB.
I thought that was odd so I zeroed and reformatted that disc using disc utility. I made it the TM disc again, did the usual backup without error and waited a couple of days. Sure enough, when I checked it had continued the trend of displaying the impossible 2010-dated backup and was still only backing up the past couple of days' material correctly. I decided that this was all getting a bit silly, so I plugged an old external WD USB hard drive, formatted it and made it my second time machine backup disc. Waited a couple of days, accessed it, saw the same exact thing as with the other external drive.
I'm perplexed, however based on these rudimentary tests I'm guessing the culprit lies with the machine rather than the external hard drives. These facts may be unrelated, but I also notice that when I go to eject the toshiba external drive, it says something like "there is more than one partition, would you like to eject one or all" and the machine also had some work done on it by Apple recently. Specifically, a new logic board, airport card and complete erase/install where I reinstalled data successfully through migration assistant. The work was done due to kernel panics at boot. Thankfully for now I've also got CCC cloning the drive, but I do require the long-term snapshots that TM takes.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, and I'm willing to do some digging to fix this issue.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a test, not a solution. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Step 1
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is localized to your user account.
Enable guest logins* and log in as Guest. For instructions, launch the System Preferences application, select Help from the menu bar, and enter “Set up guest users” (without the quotes) in the search box. Don't use the Safari-only “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac.”
While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your personal files or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.
Test while logged in as Guest. Same problem?
After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.
*Note: If you’ve activated “Find My Mac” or FileVault, then you can’t enable the Guest account. The “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac” is not the same. Create a new account in which to test, and delete it, including its home folder, after testing.
Step 2
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode* and log in to the account with the problem. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Shut down your computer, wait 30 seconds, and then hold down the shift key while pressing the power button.
When you see the gray Apple logo, release the shift key.
If you are prompted to log in, type your password, and then hold down the shift key again as you click Log in.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs. The next normal boot may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
*Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t boot in safe mode.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of steps 1 and 2.

Time Machine not displaying backups of mounted /Users

Bottom Line: Time Machine 'Warp' GUI does not display available backups when using Finder to browser user directories stored on HDD, mounted on /Users in /etc/fstab, even though the backups exist and I can navigate to them from the Finder to the backup disk
Machine Config:
1. OS X Lion 10.8.5 on MBP 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running on a SSD as the OS X boot drive, and the OEM HDD in a drive tray in what used to be the superdrive bay.
2. The HDD is a single partition dedicated to Users and mounted to /Users. When unmounted, the SSD has a /Users dir with a single admin-enabled user still present to ensure I can still boot and log in as that user in the event the HDD does not mount.
3. The /Users dir mounts successfully using /etc/fstab
4. The HDD still displays in the Finder window and the desktop, which is not a problem for me
I've posted a work-around at http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/mlanham/currEvents.shtml that explains I can, inside the TM restore GUI (what I've heard called 'warp' and 'space') select the machine label under the Devices list in Finder (on the left side). I can then expand folders without double clicking them, and get TM to restore the file(s)...TM sees the backups as present and available and functions as I would expect.
However, when I select a labeled location (e.g. Google Drive, Downloads) under the Favorites label, still inside the TM restore GUI, all the backups are black and do not otherwise indicate they are present for restore actions.
I thought I read a blurd somewhere warning me of this situation, but I cannot find the blurb anymore--surely I'm not the only one to have experienced this. Has anyone else experienced it? Overcome it?
More importantly, I am interested in knowning if this is 'as designed' behavior or a bug in TM's GUI presentation. Why should TM care if a dir is a mounted partition or not...if it was present during backup, and present during a restore request, it should render the available backups as available to select. Not make me do a work around.

Earlier, I posted that the OP in https://discussions.apple.com/message/8182305#8182305 resolved this situation by making a softlink from SSD /Users to HDD's /Users and removing the entry from /etc/fstab. Initially, I thought this was a bad idea, as if the HDD fails to spin up and mount to /Volumes, that the system would fail to boot as it would not find a /Users directory available.
Then I read a different post that implied that if that happens, simply boot to single user mode and fix the trouble with the HDD.
Is this soft-link + boot to single user mode a better choice than /etc/fstab to mount the HDD to /Users (where the SDD has a non-empty /Users with a single admin-enabled user in it)?

Time Machine has been excluding items for hours... and counting!

I have been using time capsule for several years now. But today I brought a new hard drive to use with Time Machine. It's a Western Digital My Book Network drive.
Plugged it in selected the new disk and started to back up. For hours now it has been 'Excluding items..'. It has apparently excluded over 5 million items! Why is it doing this?
I've checked the list of files to exclude and it's just set to exclude the desktop and the Downloads folder.
I don't understand why it has been excluding items so long. Nothing had been copied to the external disk yet. If anyone could help me I'd be much apreciative!
Thanks, George!

georgeShawkins wrote:
Well now I have this new hard drive
You may avoid some confusion and/or problems by not calling it that. It's a +Network Attached Storage+ (NAS) device, or +network drive.+ Yes, it contains a hard drive, but OSX handles it very differently for many purposes. You've already seen that you can't format it via Disk Utility, for example.
I'd rather not have erase the whole disk and put the wanted data back onto it.
If you can copy that 50GB elsewhere temporarily, erase the drive, then copy it back, that may be much faster and easier than deleting the Backups.backupdb folder. It contains at least several hundred thousand, perhaps over a million items, that OSX must delete one at a time. It may also have permissions or other problems.
Erasing, however, takes only a few moments.
This is why we recommend giving Time Machine its own, exclusive space. See #3 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Are you putting other things on the network drive? If so, you may have problems there, too, as Time Machine will eventually use all the empty space available to it.
Those backups will be inside a rather odd container called a +sparse bundle.+ If you're really on Leopard, as per your signature, you can limit the maximum size of the sparse bundle, per #A8 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
But since you've posted in the +Snow Leopard+ Time Machine forum, if you're on 10.6.3 or later, that won't "stick," so you may want to see if you can partition the network drive via WD's software (another thing you can't do on a network drive via +Disk Utility,+ unfortunately).

Time Machine Only Displays Desktop Items

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