Time Machine won't recognize old backups

I have an external hard drive with about a dozen backups on it. I tried to backup today, and instead of looking at the last back up, from a few weeks ago, and updating from there, it insists on creating a new folder for my computer (My Computer 2) and doing a back-up of the entire thing.
I looked at the Troubleshooting guide, and tried a few things: turned TM off, trashed the prefs, and reselected the drive, but to no avail.
It still lists "Latest Backup -- " in the menu bar.
How can I get it to see my old backups and then backup from the last one?

hrishikesh wrote:
instead of looking at the last back up, from a few weeks ago, and updating from there, it insists on creating a new folder for my computer (My Computer 2) and doing a back-up of the entire
This is likely the cause of the problem. If you go several days (at least 10) without a backup, TM may do a new, full backup instead of an incremental one. Exactly how many days is not clear; some folks say it happened after two weeks, others say they've gone about a month without it happening. Some of us suspect it's a combination of being over about 10 days and the volume of changes, but none of us mere mortals really knows exactly.
So, once you've followed one of V.K.'s suggestions and have TM working again, try not to go so long without a backup. Not only does that mean you can lose many days of additions and changes when your internal HD dies (yes, when not if), but TM may do this again.

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Had to reset TC, Time Machine won't recognize old backups

Two problems really. Firmware "update" was a disaster, forcing several resets of TC and creation, eventually, of a new name. First problem is that when I start up Time Machine, it won't recognize the backups that were already made of the drive on the TC. Second problem is that it says I only have about 1/2 of the capacity left in the TC drive. It seems that it is treating the old backup files as a large unrecognizable file that it will not delete. Optimum solution would be for TM to continue backing up my hard drive on the backups already created by TM on my newly named TC. If that can't be done, can I at least erase those old backups so that the TC has the maximum capacity to start backing up again from this point forward. Thanks for any help.

To Reformat the TC Hard Disk:
Go to Airport Utility --> Manual Setup --> Disks --> Highlight "Time Capsule Disk" on the left --> Select "Erase" on the right.

Time Machine Won't Continue Old Backup

My computer was being repaired at Apple for a few weeks and I just got it back. No hard drive data was modified during the repair; the optical drive needed work. Anyway, I plugged in my external hard drive a few moments ago and it's backing up the whole system and won't let me return to the previous backups that I already have. I'm trying to recall a few files and Time Machine won't let me find them even though they're on the external drive. I did, however, accidentally rename the external hard drive when I was using it without Time Machine a few days ago.
Is there a way for me to continue where I left off with my old Time Machine backups? I'd hate to lose them all and I don't want to re-install the entire system from a previous one from a month or so ago; I just need to look at a few old files. Thanks for any help!
Greg

So, here's what happened.
Time Machine uses the xattr system to assign specific folders hidden attributes. Time Machine sets each folder up in its hierarchy with a xattr tag for the Ethernet MAC address of the machine it is backing up. This is all done invisibly. So, when I got a logic board, and a new MAC address, it wouldn't treat the old archive as concomitant with the new machine. So, here's how you fix this:
- remove the ACLs from the Time Machine DB
- use the xattr command at Terminal to put your new MAC address on the folder.
Full details are available here:
http://www.tombridge.com/rta/2008/01/after-the-apple.html

Time Machine doesn't recognize old backup after logic board replacement

I recently had my logic board on my MacBook Pro replaced and when I tried to backup, Time Machine did not recognize the old backup on the drive and tries to create a new one. The drive is mounted fine.
Is there a way to continue using my old backup, or do I need to delete it and create a new one?

lissy-loo wrote:
Hi there I've just had this problem on my computer too but is there a possibly easier way to explain what is on this site...
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080128003716101
I read through but got lost about half way down when it says:
"The last bit of information needed is the old MAC address. Open Terminal and change directory to the root of the Time Machine backup database, then get the old MAC address:...."
I was in terminal but couldn't work it out. Is this not a good idea to stumble around in if i have no idea what I'm doing? Seems difficult but I really wanna work it out because my Time Machine hard drive is full so I can't just get to back up everything from scratch and don't wanna delete what is already on there. Any help would be much appreciated!!
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
If you're not comfortable with the procedure, I'd advise against it. Mucking about with Terminal can cause all manner of problems.
But you can find your Mac's Ethernet Address via the *System Profiler* app. Click the Apple logo in your menubar, then +About This Mac,+ then +More Info+ to start it.
Select Network in the sidebar, then Ethernet in the upper panel. Near the bottom of the lower panel, under Ethernet, you should see *Mac Address.* It's 6 hex numbers (12 characters), separated by colons. Omit the colons when you type it into Terminal.
As noted in the Troubleshooting Tip, it's easy to do this wrong, get no error message, and have it not work (been there, done that!).
If it doesn't work, your only choices are to erase the drive and start over, or get a larger one and transfer your backups to it (see item #18 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum).
How big is your TM drive, vs. how much it's backing up? TM usually needs 2-3 times the space of what it's backing-up (see item #1 of the FAQ Tip).
Are you so concerned about not losing your backups because you've been deleting things from your internal HD, relying on TM to keep it's copies? If so, post back -- that's a terrible idea.

I just updated to Mountain Lion and now time machine won't recognize my backups from before the update.

I updated from Snow Leopard OS X 10.6.8 to Mountain Lion OS X 10.8.2 on my MacBook Pro
I used disk utility to restore my external hardrive because I read somewhere that that would fix the problem.
It did fix the problem but only temporarily. I was able to view my backups from Snow Leopard, but as soon as I tried to backup again, time machine was stuck
"preparing to backup" for 5 hours and when I quit the prepare I could no longer access my previous backups.

So what happens if you go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General? Are you able to go there at all? If you are able to go there, can you unlock the preferences using the lock in the lower left and your login name and password?
If you are able to do this, can you change the "Allow applications downloaded from:" to Anywhere?
Best of luck.

Time Machine won't show old backups after reformat

Hi there -
So I have a time machine backup that I made about 1 year ago. I have let it do its thing, backing up files automatically every hour. I decided to reformat my computer to start fresh before downloading Lion, so I unhooked my external drive and went to work. The install went fine, but now my old time machine backups are gone!
For example, I will go into my Pictures folder, then enter time machine, I can only go back to July 18th, 2011. Previous to me reformatting my computer, I had no problem going as far back as I wanted. Now all of a sudden, I can't do that any more!
I have NO idea what's going on, and NO idea how to fix this. I've exhausted myself reading through the communities trying to get support, but to no avail.
Hopefully someone can help!

Many, many weeks ago there were articles (MacWorld and others) that described how to check and see if you had any PowerPC apps. It was stated that these apps would not work with Lion because Rosetta, which they require, will no longer be supported. Here is how you check. Hold down Option and click the Apple in the upper left. While holding Option click System Profiler. Under Software, click Applications and wait for the list to load. Toward the right side of the window click the column header called "Kind" to sort the column. Scroll the column to see if you have any Power PC apps. If you do, they won't work in Lion.
Regarding your Office 2004...... I do know that the new version of Office will work.
Hope this is helpful.

Time Machine Doesn't Recognize Old Backups

1) Had a mid-2010 27" iMac with Snow Leopard on it.
2) Upgraded Snow Leopard to Lion. Lion recognized time machine disk like it should and backed up like it should. I was able to retain my backups I've had since 2008.
3) This iMac had a hardware issue that prompted the purchase of a new iMac. Plugged time machine into this new iMac today and recovered system like I expected it to.
4) Problem: I can't access my old backup sets. Time machine wants to start from scratch.
Is there a work-around? Do I WANT a work around. In other words, if I can fix this so that Time machine "picks up" where I left off, will it cause problems later?

I'll refer you to Pondini's site. See section B 5 & 6.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Time machine won't activate old backups

I have time machine backups for many months on two different drives. I want to restore some files from a backup of two months ago. However, when I open TM (on either drive), the backups earlier than yesterday don't activate - even though the dates and times show up in the right column.

I had a similar problem when I upgraded to 10.8. The TM searched and searchand had it brains semi-scrambled. I got tired of waiting for it to do its thing so I went to the Disk Utility and erased the TM drive. Then had it start over with a fresh backup. It has been working perfect.
It may be time to flush yours and start over.

Time Machine won't delete old backups.

I keep getting an error that the backup failed due to not having enough space yet it says in prefs that old backups will be deleted when the drive is full. Does anyone have a fix for this?

I had a similar problem when I upgraded to 10.8. The TM searched and searchand had it brains semi-scrambled. I got tired of waiting for it to do its thing so I went to the Disk Utility and erased the TM drive. Then had it start over with a fresh backup. It has been working perfect.
It may be time to flush yours and start over.

Time Machine Won't Recognize Previous BackUps transfered to new iMac

I just bought a new iMac and used the assistant wizard to transfer all the files from my previous Mac (a dual 2GHz G5). No problem. I have several external drives and one main (1TB) drive that I use as the TM backup drive.
When I went to make my first backup as a user of new iMac, TM is telling me there's not enough space to complete the process. What is happening is that TM is trying to backup my ENTIRE set of hard drives, thinking that, because I have a new iMac EVERYTHING is new and needs a top to bottom back up.
All my backups (which are performed hourly using TM) are still on the TM disk, when i went to look the file structure, this a folder named "Zephyr One" and another (the most recent failed backup) folder named "Zephyr One 2"
A few questions: I can't find where I can change the name "zephyr one" this used to the name of my main hard drive, but I changed that back to Macintosh HD, which is also the name of the drive on my iMac.
The biggest question: how do I get TM to recognize that it doesn't have to do a total backup as if this were the very first backup being done.
Thanks

bnmeeks wrote:
I just bought a new iMac and used the assistant wizard to transfer all the files from my previous Mac (a dual 2GHz G5). No problem. I have several external drives and one main (1TB) drive that I use as the TM backup drive.
When I went to make my first backup as a user of new iMac, TM is telling me there's not enough space to complete the process. What is happening is that TM is trying to backup my ENTIRE set of hard drives, thinking that, because I have a new iMac EVERYTHING is new and needs a top to bottom back up.
All my backups (which are performed hourly using TM) are still on the TM disk, when i went to look the file structure, this a folder named "Zephyr One" and another (the most recent failed backup) folder named "Zephyr One 2"
A few questions: I can't find where I can change the name "zephyr one" this used to the name of my main hard drive, but I changed that back to Macintosh HD, which is also the name of the drive on my iMac.
Zephyr One is the computer name not the drive name. That's what TM uses to name those folders. Computer name is changed in system preferences->sharing.
The biggest question: how do I get TM to recognize that it doesn't have to do a total backup as if this were the very first backup being done.
you can't. TM will make a full new backup on a new computer. there is no way around that. if you don't have enough space for that i suggest you either reformat the TM drive and start backups from scratch or use a different external drive for new backups.
Thanks

Time machine won't recognize my WD MyBook Live as a backup drive

I am having an issue with Time Machine not recognizing my 1 TB MyBook Live External Hard drive. I recently changed internet providers and have a new modem and router (motorolla modem and medialink router) and since then I can't get Time Machine to consistently recognize the backup portion of this hard drive. Every now and then, not sure why, it will recognize the drive and back it up but won't stay connected all the time. Most of the time it acts as if there is no backup drive. I checked to see when the last backup was made and it said it was made a day ago but it was while I was asleep over night. Not sure why it connected then or how. To get even more odd, it does recognize the drive because I can access all the files on the server portion of the mybook live drive. For example I have all of my iTunes library on there and run it off the drive and that works fine and recognizes everything.
I have a macbook and I'm running Snow Leopard. Any suggestions on how to resolve this issue?

TM apparently identifies the machine's backup by the Computer Name stored in the Sharing preferences. Try opening Sharing preferences and changing the Computer Name to the one you used previously when your TM backup was created.
Also see:
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Here are several articles to help troubleshoot Time Machine Problems as well as assist in properly setting up Time Machine.
Mac 101- Using Time Machine in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
Is Time Machine all you need?
Some advice for those using Time Machine
TidBITS Macs & Mac OS X- Time Machine- The Good, the Bad, and the Missing Features
Mac OS X 10.5- Time Machine backups are not visible
OS X 10.5- Time Machine stops backing up to external disk
10.5- Disable the 'use this disk?' Time Machine dialog
Time Machine tips and troubleshooting
Mac OS X 10.5 Help- Restoring files backed up with Time Machine
OS X 10.5- Using Time Machine and troubleshooting Time Machine issues

Time Machine won't recognize new external hard drive

I recently had a problem with My Passport and had to buy a new one. I have plugged it in and reformatted it and now Time Machine won't recognize it even though it shows on my desktop and the disk utility doesn't see any problem. Any ideas?

Disable Time Machine from System Preferences.
Choose Select disk button, remove the old TM backup disk and add the new one.

I am trying to update my time machine backup on time capsule, but time machine keeps trying to create an entirely new backup (evidenced by the 200GB backup size). How can I get time machine to modify my old backup rather than create a new one?

I am trying to update my time machine backup on time capsule, but time machine keeps trying to create an entirely new backup (evidenced by the 200GB backup size). How can I get time machine to modify my old backup rather than create a new one?

It must have found the old backup corrupt.. so you will more than likely have little choice. You can archive off the old backup if it is still useful.
You can also verify it. See A5 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
He also has some info on this problem. eg C13.

Time machine has deleted all old backups

Hi, I'm desperate! time machine has all the old backups deleted on my time capsule, only today's early still a backup available. It was still 1TB space on the hard disk. What did I do wrong? There was no warning!

Time Machine will not delete your old backups unless it starts to run out of space on the hard drive......or.....your backups have become corrupted and Time Machine cannot repair them.
In the latter case, a message like this will appear on your screen:
Do you recall seeing this message recently?

Time machine doesn't recognize old time machine backups after new drive

After getting my original hard drive replaced on apple care. Time machine refuses to recognize time machine backups dating back to October when I first installed Leopard. The Records are there on an "off-board" Lacie drive. Any fixes for this? I have had so many problems with Time Machine I am afraid to turn it back on. Last time it took over 40 hours to do an initial back-up.

Yes I had been having multiple problems and once saved the entire system in archive and install and also time machine had been active since October when I first installed it. all of this was saved to an off-board Lacie drive I can find the old time machine files easily enough but time machine since the new drive, does not recognize them. Since I got the drive back with tiger installed, I first had to re-install Leopard so I don't know if that caused Time machine to start over . I did do an archive and install at that time but there was nothing really to archive since they had not recovered my old files. If this wasn't bad enough The Technician replaced my administrator password with his own and the was off for a few days and I couldn't do anything for awhile. You have been very helpful thank you for your time on my behalf.
Respectfully,
Thomas Carlisle

Time Machine won't recognize old backups

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