Time machine problem with permissions

After a clean install of Mountain Lion I couldn't use the migration asistant because my iMac can't mount the disc where I have my backup. Mystery because it is running and mounted in the finder, also I tried to open the folders that are in the backup but it says that I have no permissions for this action. I need to get all my pictures from this backup, any solution?
Thanks in advance for any help

First make sure you have read & write access to the folder you're trying to restore to. You should be able to see its contents in the Finder, and to move files in and out of it.
The following is an exception to the rule that you should never make any changes to backup data. I've tested this procedure in OS X 10.8 only. I don't know whether it works in earlier versions of OS X. Use this procedure only for files that were backed up from your home folder, or a folder on another volume created by you, and would normally be writable by you. Do not touch backups of system or application files.
In the Finder (not in the time-travel view), navigate to the backup volume, then to the folder named "Backups.backupdb", and then to the snapshot you want to restore from. The snapshots are folders labeled with the date when they were created. Inside each of those folders is a file hierarchy like the one on the volume that was backed up. Descend through the hierarchy until you come to a folder named "Users," and inside that, a folder with your user name. The procedure will be different if you're trying to restore files on another volume.
Select the folder and open the Info dialog (command-I). Click the padlock icon in the lower right corner of the window and authenticate. In the Sharing & Permissions section, give your account Read & Write access. You may have to close the dialog and repeat this step in order for the change to show up. Then click the gear icon and select Apply to Enclosed Items from the popup menu.
Try the restore operation again, in the time-travel interface.

Similar Messages

Time Machine Problems with OS X Server

I have been using a MacMini with OS X server for about 5 months, backing it up to Time Machine on an external Western Digital MyBook (2 TB) hard drive. I had no problems until recently, when I migrated all of my iTunes media onto the home user profile on the Server. Time machine now completes backing up about 97% of my files, but consistently will not complete backing up the final 2-3% of files, giving the following error message? "The backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk." The backup file is listed on the external drive as "2010-04-04-10491.inProgress". This indicates to me that there are certain files that Time Machine will not backup now. I have checked the file sharing permissions on both MacMini hard drives and can not see any problems. I have restarted the system many times with a similar result. I have also reformatted the external drive, with a similar result. Does anybody out there have any suggestions? Thanks for any help you can offer.

The logs didn't really help much.
It looks like it's a permissions issues. There are permissions problems with some of the files on the source disk. Here is what I had to do to fix. I'm sure there is an easier way to do it, but this is what worked for me...
1. Deleted all of my sharepoints in Server Preferences
2. As root, changed the permissions to all of the files on my source disk (recursively) to be owned by my main admin user—the one running the backups.
3. Re-created my sharepoints
That worked for me. Hope it helps others.

Time Machine problems with MBP 2011

I've been having problems trying to back up my computer data to a hard drive using Time Machine. I've already set Time Machine up, connect my 500 GB Seagate hard drive (which says is specifically designed for Time Machine on the Mac) and press Start Backup Now. After I do that, the computer pulls out a progress bar, so I left it there and after a long time went to check the progress, but the machine said that it had 600 MB out of 320 GB to copy. Why is this? Also I try to do something because the computer seemed stuck, or frozen. So I had to do a hard shut down, and tried it again but the same thing happened. What can I do to finally back it up? I know the Hard drive is not a problem... please help me!

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Time Machine - Problem with establishing a connection to the server

Using LionMac OS X Version 10.7 and when attempting to setup Time Machine to make backupto my ReadyNas Duo, the setup fails and I receive the following message(translated from Danish):
“There wasa problem with establishing a connection to the server ”SERVERNAME”.
The versionof the server that you attempt to establish connection to, is not supported.Contact the system administrator to solve the problem.”
Any ideasfor a solution?

Please follow these instructions:
Lion: Connecting to legacy (pre-Lion) AFP services - and Mac OS X (server):
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3258472

Time Machine problem with Qnap NAS

I use Time Machine on my QNAP NAS TS 119. I backup from an iMac (connected to the network by ethernet) and a laptop (MacBook Pro) connected wirelessly. It was working fine until I upgraded the OS to Mountain Lion on both computers. Time Machine on the iMac works fine but it stopped working on the laptop. Qnap has a setting for Time Machine. It creates a mount TMBackup to which you can connect with user name TimeMachine and a password zou can set (this is done under the settings of the Qnap, accessing it with safari). In the Time Machine preferences, when I select the disk "TMBackup on Qnap(TimeMachine)" it asks me the name and password for the server Qnap-2.local. I don't understand why it asks for Qnap-2. My TS 119 NAS is named simply Qnap. I choose "registered user" and give the username TimeMachine (default, as setup) and the password I have setup. It accepts them, but when Time Machine attempts to start backing up, it gives me the error message ' "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Qnap-2". The backup disk is not available '. I don't understand where this Qnap-2 comes from. On the iMac I have no problem, it makes backups on Qnap. Please help!

Thank you very much!
That solved my problem.
I have seen a lot of posts with the MD0_DATA folder, and I had no such folder.
As my QNAP is 4 disk NAS, I tried your command "rm -r /share/HDA_DATA/.timemachine" in the four first folders in the /share folder: HDA_DATA, HDB_DATA, HDC_DATA and HDD_DATA.
In the third one, it was OK.
And after that, Time Machine could mount again the TMBacup volume and acces it.
Now I'm doing again the Backup!!

Time Machine Problem with Apple Programs after Restore from A&I

Ok here is my situation. I originally did an Archive and Install before Installing Leopard. I was having performance issues with Photobooth and Time Machine. So, I decided to back everything up and do an Full Restore from Time Machine. I resotred from the Utility menu within the Leopard boot disc. However, after the restore ALL of my Apple programs were missing from Finder and the Dock. Including mail,itunes,photobooth,keynote etc..All iwork,ilife and everything else that came pre bundled. Now, I did an install of Leopard after the Restore (upgrade) and I got the basic apps back. My question now is where my other apps are hiding?? Are they somewhere within the previous system folder from the original Archive and Install?? (I havent been able to check because i'm now at work when the possibility dawned on me)
Does anyone know where these programs would be and how I can restore them?
Also, my prebundled software (Final Cut Express HD) that came pre bundled with My imac G5 originally is asking for a product serial number before it can launch. However, i never had a serial key for it.
Can someone please help and shed some light on this situation.

Additional Info:
Imac G5
1Gb Ram
Original Install was Archive and Install
Did Full Backup With Time Machine
Restore Under Utility in Leopard Boot Disc
All Apple programs were missing
Did an Upgrade>Install of Leopard after Restore and got back the basic Apps like mail, Garage Band, iTunes etc... However, all iLife was gone as well as Soundtrack and iwork 08...not to mention my Final Cut Express HD now wants a serial # that I do not have because it was pre installed originally with the iMac G5
Where did these programs go?
How do I get them to restore?
fyi-- My dock where the programs were located (in addition to Applications folder) just had a bunch of ? marks on it where the icons would usually be.
Is it a result of the Archive and Install and the Applications are in the previous system folder?
I cant figure it out because when I search for the programs in FInder all I find is files for the programs and cache files etc... But not the actual Application icon

Time Machine and Disk Permissions + Compatibility with Snow Leopard

I have received warning from Disk Utility that I should repair permissions as several files show incorrect permissions and, more than that, my 750GB shows "769GB available".
My questions are:
1. If I use Command+R and rebuild the disk from a Time Machine backup, will permissions be reset or will the files just be copied as they are now?
2. Is there a way to verify the TM backups to check the files therein?
3. Suppose, just for the sake of an exercise, that I reload Snow Leopard; can I still use SL's Time Machine to read a Lion Time Machine backup?
Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide!
Fernando

Why are you repairing permissions? It's a waste of time unless you have a specific reason to do it, and the warnings don't mean anything.
To verify your Time Machine backup, proceed as below.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the page that opens.
Drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:
sudo tmutil compare
You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up.
The command will take at least a few minutes to run. Eventually some lines of output will appear below what you entered.
Each line that begins with a plus sign (“+”) represents a file that has been added to the source volume since the last snapshot was taken. These files have not been backed up yet.
Each line that begins with an exclamation point (“!”) represents a file that has changed on the source volume. These files have been backed up, but not in their present state.
Each line that begins with a minus sign (“-“) represents a file that has been removed from the source volume.
Files that you’ve excluded from backup, or that are excluded automatically, are ignored.
At the end of the output, you’ll get some lines like the following:
Added:
Removed:
Changed:
These lines show the total amount of data added, removed, or changed on the source(s) since the last snapshot.

Help, I am about to pull my hair out, can't get into a locked drive and Time Machine problem

I've screwed everything up, I think. I had Time Machine doing backups to an external 500Gig drive and somehow it got locked. I went into Get Info to try and change the access but it won't allow me. On top of this problem, my original drive died and I can't get into Time Machine to restore. When I click "Enter Time Machine", nothing happens. I created an eDisk and a startup disk to another external drive that I'm using now, but since everything that's been backed up is on the other drive that I can't access. When I try accessing the drive it gives: "The folder “G-DRIVE ” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents." I'm not knowledgeable enough to work from the command line, so if I need to do that to access the drive, please walk me though it. As for the Time Machine problem, I have no idea how to recover anything since it won't even come up, it just sits there. Outside of blowing my brains out, I don't know what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I can't afford to take it to Apple to let them try and fix it.

Hello, not sure how this might affect a TM drive, or not, but...
Here is what i needed to do for my drive "320GB HD", the last command is just for clean up
Open Terminal and type these commands carefully with the spaces & change 320GB HD to the name of your drive.
sudo chflags 0 "/volumes/320GB HD"
sudo chown root "/volumes/320GB HD"
sudo chmod 1775 "/volumes/320GB HD"
sudo -k
That said, these should be sufficient to do the job:
sudo chflags 0 "/Volumes/320GB HD"
sudo chmod a+rx "/Volumes/320GB HD"

Time Machine and drive permissions question

I'm using Time Machine on a MacBook with two admin accounts (let's call them admin1 and admin2). admin2 is the account used daily. admin1 is the account used very infrequently.
Things were set up with admin1. I noticed today when I was logged in as admin2 that TimeMachine reported that the last backup was more than 2 week ago (when things were set up), and that the last backup failed because the user didn't have privileges.
I did a Get Info on the drive, and it seemed to confirm that (admin 1 had read/write privileges, but admin 2 had only read access).
To get around the problem I logged in as admin1 and turned Time Machine off. I then logged in admin 2 and selected the disk from there, and turned Time Machine on.
My question is - is this normal behavior? Or if there's something wrong, how to fix it?
Thanks...

Scott Newman wrote:
After a few minutes, an external drive that is mounted on the desktop will spin down--like it should. But...each time a "Save" or "Save As..." dialog box is opened in any application, things will grind to halt for a few seconds while the external drive spins up--even though I will not be saving files to that drive. I've always hated that, which is one reason I've always done manual backups.
Does that happen with Time Machine (either with a drive physically or wirelessly connected via Export Extreme) and is there any way to avoid that?
It happens with TM. I am not sure of any convenient work-arounds. You can of course eject the drive and reattach it when you want to make a backup, but that's a bit inconvenient, IMO.
Is it possible to manually turn on and turn off Time Machine (and the external drive) so as to only do manual backups like I'm doing now? I don't really care about looking up a prior version of file that I've changed. I just want a reasonably current whole-disk backup.
Yes, TM has an on/off switch. Just turn it off until you want a backup. It will simply continue where it left off. It will not create a completely new backup.

Time Machine worked- with caveats- but worked

Ok, TIme Machine rocks!
I screwed with some applications, I tried to make the dock and desktop my own and F'd things up.
What I was trying to do was to create stacks in doc.
I wanted stacks for apple apps, stacks for business apps, stack for art, and stacks for personal.
Plus I wanted easy buttons for kids to pick out games as well.
Idea was good but I did not execute it well.
While I can do everything that I wanted to do, what I needed to do was create alias of apps and then put those into folders and drag them into doc. I did not I put apps in folders and tried to put those in dock. I screwed up the computer, BUT I had Time Machine.
With Time Machine you can rescue the whole drive. There are a few caveats here too.
One you have to do this reinstall with the OS-X install disk.
Information is not truly clear on line and I called apple.
When I was trying install the screen said it was going to reinstall system. This made me think that I was going to install system and applications but what about my docs. I was not sure. I called apple and the tech I got on line said no problem I would get all back, he was sure! Then he put me on hold, ask someone made sure, but came back saying I would get everything back. System, programs and docs.
When you do a restart from install disk it gives you choice of install, you have to choose from the above drop down menus- reinstall from time mach. NOT install from main instruction on screen. This is a little hidden but for those with some experience should be easy to find.
I then ran into another issue. I ran reinstall and it looked good till about 4% was completed and then failed. Message said try again or lose all. Not a great message. I did this over and over 5 time, each time same results. I at this point thought I maybe was losing battle. For anyone that has lost data, they know it is a battle to get back data.
I then thought that I have external drives in a dazzy chain over firewire configuration. How about taking the drive with Time Machine back up and making 1st and the solo drive- WORKED.
Took about 3 hours to back up. I have older iMac and others may go quicker.
I did get everything back and was very happy.
Interesting thing after reboot was that the computer had to reintroduce it self.
Programs came up like mail and had too find accounts, mail saved, trashed and still valid.
iphoto and iTunes needed to find their associated files. As when iTunes came up it 1st showed no music, no video, Tv shows, but quickly started to find items.
Lastly Time Machine had to rescan the computer as it does when you 1st install program.
So over all great program!
My one question would be if I am using time mach and computer dies and I tried this reinstall on a new computer would it work as well?

This looks like it was a TERRIBLE restore. The whole point of restoring from a backup is that everything should work as it did on the date of the backup. No missing files, no reconfiguration of applications...

Time Machine problems

My question is this: Is there any way to force Time Machine to make a complete backup of all files, not just the recently changed ones?
My story so far:
Installed Leopard yesterday. Detected brand-new (and newly Mac formatted Extended Journaled) Seagate 300GB hard drive and asked if I wanted to use it for Time Machine. Answered yes. Thought I was through with worrying about Time Machine- wrong! First backups went OK- so I thought. First one took several hours and seemed to back up the whole drive. Subsequent ones were shorter, which seemed to make sense. After a couple backups had been performed, decided to see if I could "go back in time". The only window to show up was the original backup (which I never bothered to check to see if it truly was complete). This morning I was greeted with an error that it couldn't do the backup because it couldn't complete the library.
So I come to this forum and read posts advising me to reformat my drive and name it with no spaces (it was previously "Backup Disk"). I did that, erasing all previous backups. Seemed to help, but...
Now, unfortunately, Time Machine doesn't realize that the backups are not there anymore and will not do a complete backup with my completely empty external drive. I even tried removing the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file from its place in the directory to see if that would force the program to build a new library. It didn't.
Not even sure that making a complete backup again will solve all my Time Machine problems but it's a start!

I had this same problem when I first started using my Time Machine on my MBP. I had a portable drive (Western Digital 160 gig passport drive).
I was advised by the tech to do the following before the first use of the drive:
1. Turn off the time machine
1. format the drive with your disk utility.
3. configure the time machine for the drive.
4. Turn on the time machine. Make sure your not backing up anything but your main hard drive. (Your shouldn't back up any other external hard drives). At least not the first time you run Time machine.
5. start the backup.
The first backup is always the longest, but it shouldn't take that long, especially if your doing the Macbook Air.
Hope this helps.

Unable to re establish Time Machine connection with Machine A

Hello,
Time Machine was working on machine A. I was able to go into time machine, look at the files in my backup and restore a file if I needed to.
My machine A was out of service due to a power supply and I used a Machine B to access my time machine files. Machine B had 2 userid's. Both users were ADMINISTRATORS. The 2nd user ID was able to SEE the files, I was NOT ABLE to RESTORE. (insufficient privileges). The 1st user ID. I was able to restore and discovered this by accident. I restored what I need to and was able to work off a laptop until Apple fixed my machine A (it took 7 days)
Problem:
When I got my workstation back I plugged in the hard drive that contains my backup and figured...I am off and away just as before.
1. I was not able to get TIME MACHINE started. ( I cannot recall the series of steps)
2. Now when I select time machine the menus offers me...
BROWSE OTHER TIME MACHINE DISKS
OPEN TIME MACHINE PREFERENCES.
When I select browse the 1st item, I am not even able to see the backup that was there.
When I select the Open Time machine preferences, I cannot figure out how to re - attach the time machine backup that I used to have connected to this workstation.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Hello Scott,
I tried a sudo cmd from the terminal application and wound up with the same error.
Prior to runnin this cmd, I managed to borrow an external hard drive and backed up all of the data I needed in case the sudo cmd did something to prevent me from seeing data on my hard drive.
Sudo cmd did not work. Time Machine was giving me the same access errors.
Since by now I had made a back up of my data to another hard drive,
I reformatted my original external hard drive.
I went back to time machine and selected the external drive I just reformatted
I received the same error again, but about 30 seconds later, Time Machine responded with ....the drive has been selected for back up and about 90 seconds later, Time Machine initiated and is starting a backup in the background.
To summarize
Prior to doing the sudo command (I am a little cautious about doing things I have no idea what the end result will be....)
I backed up the external drive A to external hard drive B
used Deja Vu to perform an entire system back up of my workstation as well as another one of everything in my USERID
I tried the sudo command...when it failed
Reformatted external drive A
Time Machine is now working again
Thanks for your comments and feeback. Between your comments and VK was enough for me to put together the pieces and decide on a course of action.
I would recommend to anyone reading this to always back up as the safest course of action

Why won't Time Machine work with my 3TB LaCie d2 Quadra v3

I just got a brand new iMac a couple of weeks ago and migrated everything from an older iMac. I also bought a bigger external HDD for Time Machine use. I've always had fine luck with LaCie. But every time I try to run a Time Machine backup (whether connected with USB 3.0 or 2.0) on the new HDD I get an error message:
"Time Machine couldn't complete teh backup to 'Time Machine (New)' Unable to complete the backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder."
I reformatted the drive per LaCie tech instructions, same result.
LaCie says it's a Time Machine problem. Yet Time Machine is working right now with a smaller, older d2 connected via USB 2.0.
I can return the drive and get by with the older drive for now. But I'm sure to need a bigger drive soon.

What format did you format the drive in? It should be Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If it isn't, try that and see if it fixes the problem. If it's already in that format I don't have any other ideas.

Will Time Machine work with an external hard drive connected (via usb) to Airport Extreme?

Will Time Machine work with an external hard drive connected (via usb) to Airport Extreme?

Sorry, but this article is about 4 years old, and was printed based on preliminary information at the time.
The bottom line here is that Apple does not officially support Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port of the AirPort Extreme.
If it works for you, great.
You might want to review the Apple Support documents below, which are far more recent than the article you reference:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2038
It is supported.....
This is NOT correct. Please do not post false information on the forums.

Access my Time Machine backup with another Mac?

The HD on my 24" iMac just bit the dust and I am using my old eMac to try to get some work done while I wait for another. Fortunately, I have a Time Machine backup. Is it okay to access files off my Time Machine backup with my eMac, as long as I don't change anything? I don't want to mess up my backup before I can restore it to my new Mac.
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Should be, if the eMac is running 10.5.x be sure to turn off TM backups though.

Time machine problem with permissions

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