When I open Time Machine all I see is the desktop. Where r the other folders?

All I see are copies of desktops that were bacjed up on my time machine. I can only restore the desktop. Where can I find the rest of hard drive contents?

See Here How do I view or restore selected items?
Video here http://support.apple.com/kb/VI29

Similar Messages

HT201250 When I open time machine, everything outside of the last 5 weeks is faded and the dates are gone. Have I lost those back-ups? Thank you.

When I open time machine, I only see dates of the last 5 weeks. The bars before those dates are faded with no dates beside them. Did I lose those backups? Thanks for your help.

Most commonly used backup methods

My mac Doesn't seem to see my external hard drive (seagate 1tb) I have it usb'd in to the back of my computer, but when I open time machine...it does not see it. Help

My mac Doesn't seem to see my external hard drive (seagate 1tb) I have it usb'd in to the back of my computer, but when I open time machine...it does not see it. Help...please

Yes...at least I thought it was....I have 10.6.8.
That's the whole issue. I want to run/install photoshop elements but I have to have 10.8. for that. So...be fore I install an upgrade (Yosemite is getting BAD press) I thought I'd check my back up...it's not there...I have the seagate plugged in and the usb into the back of the mac...when I try to turn the time machine "ON" it says airport device not found not ....
By the way...I REALLY appreciate the help here....

HT1178 I have set up Time Capsule to use with Time Machine. When I open Time Machine it 'cannot find' the Time Capsule and I have the Select the Disk each time. In the Next Backup tab it always says "When disk is connected" even though the disk is alrea

I have set up Time Capsule to use with Time Machine but when I open Time Machine it 'cannot find' the Time Capsule and I have to 'Select the Disk' each time. In the Next Backup tab it always says "When disk is connected" even though the disk is already connected.

Your pro doesn't matter.. I presume it is happily working.
Your imac setup has got messed up because you changed from a local (my book being USB type I presume) to network drive. Did you do a clean install of Lion?
Did you use the backup from the Pro on the imac? Otherwise I don't see how the Pro shows up in use previous disk. Where is Pondini when you need him??
You cannot download Time Machine as an App and replace the current version. It is built into the OS.. the only way to do it is a clean install. Unfortunately that might be the only way around the issue.
There is a number of issues that Pondini has covered in the setup issues of troubleshooting.
This is the most relevant I think. http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html
But look at the whole section B setup problems.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
If it was me, I would store all the info you need.. not using TM but using a straight copy of files.
Then clean install Lion. I doubt any of these issues would exist if you had not installed Lion over existing setup or used a different backup.
See if you can get Pondini to respond.. !!

HT201250 when restoring a time machine backup to a new computer, does it affect the new operating system on the new computer

when restoring a time machine backup to a new computer, does it affect the new operating system on the new computer?

That depends on how you do it.
By far the best, easiest, most reliable method is to use Setup Assistant when your shiny new Mac first starts up, to transfer your apps, users, data, etc. That doesn't disturb either the OS or basic Apple apps that came with the new Mac. See Using Setup Assistant on Mountain Lion or Lion.
There is a facility to restore an entire system from Time Machine backups, including the version of OSX on the backup, but that's for use when your internal HD has been erased or replaced only. It's not a good idea to restore the full backup of one Mac to a different one. Depending on the circumstances, the installer may not allow it. Even if it does, the Mac may not start up, or may kernel panic, or not work properly.

Time machine backing up my HD on Airport but does not show when I open time machine

Good day all,
I have been playing with this forever.
I have a HD on my Airport Extreme which I keep my Itunes library and I have a stand alone external HD which I connect directly to my machines about once a week which is used exclusively for time machine. Time Machine does it's thing when it comes to backing up the internal HD on my MacBook and the HD that is shared on the Airport but once I open Time machine to see the time line, I cannot see the HD hanging from the Airport.
My question is, why does it back it up but at the same time when I want to check it out on the Time machine time line, I can't see it.
Thanks

Time Machine (like most backup apps) cannot back up from a network disk.
Either connect the drive to your Mac occasionally, so Time Machine can back it up (remove it from the exclusion list in TM Prefs > Options), or try a 3rd-party app. Chronosync may be a good alternative.

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

HT201250 When I open time machine I can click on any time, arrow, or file and nothing happens. What am I doing wrong?

I cannot get my time machine to work properly.
When I open the program I see the back-up dates on the right and click the date I would like to access. Nothing happens.
Next, I try to flip through the dated files but can't get past the first one.
The arrows do not highlight and therefore I cannot scroll to the date I need to restore an item.
What am I doing wrong?
Do I need to reinstall the software?
Any suggestions are welcomed
Thank you
Lonnie Schwartz

It sounds like you're starting from a Finder window showing something that wasn't backed-up on any of those backups.
Try either selecting your Computer or internal HD in the sidebar before going into Time Machine, or pressing Shift+Cmd+C after getting there.
You might want to take a look at Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #15A, especially the pink box there.
If that doesn't help, post back with a bit of detail; are you still on Lion (10.7.x), what sort of Mac do you have, where are your backups (external HD, Time Capsule, Network Drive, etc.)? It might help to post a screenshot, too.

HT3275 I have attached an external hard drive via usb to back up my OSX Snow Leopard. When I open Time Machine and click set up time machine, I then click Select Disk but there is nothing to select. No information is in the box. I do have Airport Extreme

Not sure how this all works but my problem is this: I have attached an external hard drive to my mac snow leopard 10.6 and am trying to back up my computer through Time Machine. When asked to select the drive as part of the set up, there is nothing to select. The box is empty. How do I set up Time Machine for back ups with an external drive? I am running Airport Extreme WI-FI (VERY confusing as I did not know the difference between Extreme and Capsule). Now to add another component...how does Icloud figure into all of this if I want to back up my computer systems, documents, etc? Is this a simplier way as long as I download Lion? Help!!!

Hello,
Problem is likely the Format of the External drive, for TM it needs to be Mac OSX extended Journaled & GUID Partition scheme for Intel based Macs...
How to format your disks...
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
(To Install OSX on an IntelMac the Drive it needs the GUID Partitioning scheme mentioned at the bottom.)
Thanks to Pondini, Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks...
http://Pondini.org/OSX/DU.html
There are other free options for backing up if interested!

When I open my pics all I see is an !!!

I am new to iphoto and I am trying to set up albums, actually just trying to view my pictures. I have imported all of my photos into iphoto. I can see my picture thumbnails, but when I click to enlarge my photos they flash on the screen really fast, and then they are replaced by an EXCLAMATION MARK in a frame. Is there anything that I can do to solve this problem. I never had this problem with my pc, and from what I hear Iphoto is much better than anything for the pc.
Thanks

Smtr is so right about Tampering with files in the iPhoto Library folder from the Finder. A definite no-no. But what you're experiencing can crop up without messing with the library. For some know and unknown reasons the iPhoto database file, Library6.iPhoto, gets damaged/corrupted and iPhoto thinks there's a new library with zero photos. You can try to download and run BatChmod on the iPhoto Library folder with the settings shown here, substituting your account name for mine. You can either type in the path to the folder or just drag the folder into that field. It's a long shot in this case but worth a try.
Otherwise you'll have to move the old library to the desktop, launch iPhoto and create a new library and import just the Originals folder from your old library,.
Do you Twango?

Time Machine does not see older backups on Time Capsule

I use a wifi network to connect to the internet as well as a USB modem. The result is that my Time Capsule is not always connected.
I set up my Time Capsule (using the wifi network) and ran what I believe was a successful backup.
Now Im trying to run another backup and I have my iMac connected using the wifi network.
When I open Time Machine it show an icon on my desktop saying "Time Machine Backups" Inside this is lots of folders that appears to be some form of backup.
If I then click on "Select Disk" it give me the Time Capsule as a option to select. Once this is done it says 1.76TB of 2TB available.
Below that it says Oldest backup: None AND Latest Backup: None. Below that is the white and blue backing up bar that has been running for some time with "preparing backup..."
I have the Time Capsule connected to the iMac with a LAN cable...thinking that this will speed up the process?

vlakvarkie wrote:
Below that it says Oldest backup: None AND Latest Backup: None.
Once you're disconnected from the backups, those fields won't be shown until the next backup completes successfully. (Prior to Lion, it showed a couple of dashes -- instead of None. We've asked for either the dashes back or something like "unknown" or "not available," but so far they haven't changed it.)
Below that is the white and blue backing up bar that has been running for some time with "preparing backup..."
That can take quite a while, especially if it's been a while since the last one. See #D1 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
I have the Time Capsule connected to the iMac with a LAN cable...thinking that this will speed up the process?
Yes, by all means. It should be 2-3 times faster, and much more reliable, than WIFI.

Time Machine does not see backups

Hello, I have started to use time machine but it only shows today and now. I can see all of the backups on the time machine drive but nothing shows up when I open time machine. I have seen the problem with the hostname but my hostname is Machintosh, so that should not be a problem. My machine is a 1.25ghz mac mini using an external drive for booting.
Thanks in advance for any help

Are you absolutely positive that your computer name in System Preferences > Sharing has been changed as Bob suggested? Fixing the computer name has, so far, seemed to fix any problems that people have posted about not being able to see their Time Machine backups. This is from the KB article about your issue:
Mac OS X 10.5: Time Machine backups are not visible
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306928
Check your computer name in Sharing preferences. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from following set and is not blank (no matter which Mac OS X language version you are using):
0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Time machine all recent backups missing after reboot

I accidentally deleted an important file on my mac, and when i opened time machine, i discovered that my it couldn't be found wirelessly. The green light was still on the front of the device but my mac couldn't locate it.
I'm not sure exactly how long it has been since timecapsule made a backup, but i have a clear memory of it working about 3 months ago.
I rebooted it and now its running, and has backed up.
My problem is when i go into the "star wars screen" to view past backups, the only backups are from today and then next most recent are from July 2012 when i first bought the time capsule, everything else in between has disappeared. It definitely had 2013 backups.
Are the backups from 2013 still there and can't be seen, or have they been deleted permanently?

I presume then you upgraded to Mavericks?
It has a nasty habit of doing this.
If not on Mavericks please tell me what OS you are on.
Did you search by Finder.. after mounting the sparsebundle.. ie do not use Time Machine directly.
I know this is silly question .. but if you deleted the file is it in Trash??
If you deleted from Trash an immediate recovery is possible at times.. you will need to purchase a recovery software unless your are good with the CLI.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4070374
If it is deleted weeks ago then recovery is unlikely as the area of the drive will have been written over.

When i enter time machine with mail open can see past mail . when i open iPhoto and enter time machine can not see past photos have i got a problem ????

when i enter time machine with mail open can see past mail . when i open iPhoto and enter time machine can not see past photos have i got a problem ????

iPhoto '11: Restoring from Time Machine with iPhoto '11 (9.2 or later) and OS X Lion 10.7.2 (or later)

I keep getting this when trying to open Time machine: An unexpected error occurred (error code -6584).

I keep getting this when trying to open Time machine: An unexpected error occurred (error code -6584). time machine wont even open up. My Time capsule has a green lite and appears fine
Thaks,

This often means the backup is corrupted.
First of all reboot the network.. turn everything off and restart in order.. modem.. TC.. clients.
If you still have issues, hold the option key when you click the Time Machine icon on the top menu and it will bring up verify backups.
Do that.
Read this thread if you need more..
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3123920?tstart=0
It seems to be a fairly complex problem if the above don't work.

When I open Time Machine all I see is the desktop. Where r the other folders?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for