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nstarksen88

Q: Problems With Migration Assistant & Time Capsule

I recently purchased a new Macbook Pro and have been having tons of trouble getting my backups.  Let me tell you the order of events.

 

I plugged in my Time Capsule via Ethernet and turned on the brand new computer.  Using Set-Up Assistant I selected "from another Disk" (or whatever it says), and my Time Capsule was listed.  I then selected it and clicked continue.  It got stuck on the next page saying "looking for other computers" with a spinning wheel.  I tried this repeatedly by turning off the computer, reinstalling the OS, with no luck.  So I decided to just boot it with a new user.

 

After booting the computer as a new user, I opened Migration Assistant hoping to get it to work that way.  I went through all of the neccesary steps, it again listed my Time Capsule, but when I click continue, the only thing that happens is the "continue" button goes from blue to grey.  I let this sit overnight, and...nothing.

 

I rebooted the computer in Recovery and chose to open from a Time Machine Backup.  This was the most promising, I got a list of backups.  The problem was that it only shows complete backups, so the most recent was in February.  So it is missing 3 months of information.  But I decided to boot this one because at least it is something.

 

I then went back to migration assistant, with no luck.

 

I then used Disk Utility to repair the Time Machine drive.  And it told me that the drive appears to be ok.

 

So I went back to migration assistant to try again, and of course no luck.  I read that some people were able to just click the grey continue and it worked, not for me, I tried that as well.

 

The other odd thing is that I am able to open the sparsebundle and get to all of the files.  So I know that there is nothing wrong with the backups.

 

Any thoughts on what is going wrong here?

MacBook Pro, iOS 6.1.4

Posted on Jun 2, 2013 3:14 PM

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Q: Problems With Migration Assistant & Time Capsule

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  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 6, 2013 8:55 PM in response to nstarksen88
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 6, 2013 8:55 PM in response to nstarksen88

    Oh, sorry, I forget who's familiar with what   

     

    Are you logged-on as an Admin user?  If so, the widget ought to show messages for the backup that's running.  You may have to click the little triangle to the left of the word Messages to show the box. 

     

    If not, the pink box in #A1 shows how to use Console instead, complete with sample, faster than I can type it here. 

  • by nstarksen88,

    nstarksen88 nstarksen88 Jun 6, 2013 8:57 PM in response to nstarksen88
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 6, 2013 8:57 PM in response to nstarksen88

    Ok, now that I stopped being clueless I understand what you meant by console.  It showed a bunch of "deleted backup for space" so I stopped the backup.  I didn't want it to delete too much without needing to.  Here are other messages:

     

    Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb

     

    Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume.  Enabling.

     

    Inherited root volume (null), UUID: 1B987311-8858-3C6B-966A-500918556BC0

     

    Forcing deep traversal on source: "Macintosh HD" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 691B4674-ACCF-3B10-B225-0E4C44895478 eventDBUUID: 05291AE0-4C7D-4AD2-BA5A-4E3536653667)

     

    Waiting for index to be ready (100)

     

    Deep event scan at path:/ reason:must scan subdirs|require scan|

     

    Finished scan

     

    Found 826881 files (160.08 GB) needing backup

     

    193.49 GB required (including padding), 164.71 GB available

     

    Ejected Time Machine disk image: /Volumes/Noah Starksen's Time Capsul-1/Noah Starksens Computer (2).sparsebundle

     

    Compacting backup disk image to recover free space

     

    Failed to compact disk image, DIHLDiskImageCompact returned: 78

     

    Starting manual backup

     

    Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Noah Starksen's Time Capsul-1

    Disk image /Volumes/Noah Starksen's Time Capsul-1/Noah Starksens Computer (2).sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups

     

    Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb

     

    Forcing deep traversal on source: "Macintosh HD" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 691B4674-ACCF-3B10-B225-0E4C44895478 eventDBUUID: 05291AE0-4C7D-4AD2-BA5A-4E3536653667)

     

    Waiting for index to be ready (100)

     

    Deep event scan at path:/ reason:must scan subdirs|require scan|

     

    Finished scan

     

    Found 826894 files (160.08 GB) needing backup

     

    193.49 GB required (including padding), 164.71 GB available

  • by Pondini,Helpful

    Pondini Pondini Jun 6, 2013 9:09 PM in response to nstarksen88
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 6, 2013 9:09 PM in response to nstarksen88

    nstarksen88 wrote:

    . . .

    It showed a bunch of "deleted backup for space" so I stopped the backup.

    Good!

     

    Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume.  Enabling.

     

    Inherited root volume (null), UUID: 1B987311-8858-3C6B-966A-500918556BC0

    So the root (ie, machine) "inherit" part seems to have worked.

     

    But no message about the disk. 

     

    Forcing deep traversal on source: "Macintosh HD" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 691B4674-ACCF-3B10-B225-0E4C44895478 eventDBUUID: 05291AE0-4C7D-4AD2-BA5A-4E3536653667)

    That's the part where it compares your new drive to the backups.

     

    Found 826881 files (160.08 GB) needing backup

    And found pretty much everything new? 

     

     

    Forcing deep traversal on source: "Macintosh HD" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 691B4674-ACCF-3B10-B225-0E4C44895478 eventDBUUID: 05291AE0-4C7D-4AD2-BA5A-4E3536653667)

    Not sure why it does it again.  I've filed a bug report long ago. 

     

     

    Found 826894 files (160.08 GB) needing backup

    At least it's consistent. 

     

     

    Looks like for some reason, it didn't "associate" the new Mac's drive with the drive on the backups.

    You might be able to force it, per #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.  The computer-level "inheritance" seems to be ok, so you don't need to do that; just the one in the pink box.

     

    Otherwise, it's going to delete backups until it gets to that 193 GB of free space. 

     

    Message was edited by: Pondini

  • by nstarksen88,

    nstarksen88 nstarksen88 Jun 6, 2013 9:26 PM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 6, 2013 9:26 PM in response to Pondini

    Seems like it's about time to call it then.  After all of this stuff I have gone through, I think I can deal with it deleting some old backups.

     

    I disobeyed the golden rule of deleting stuff to save space, but I was new to this whole thing and dumb (this was a couple years ago).  I deleted Logic 8 (think photoshop for recording music) as well as it's 30 Gigs of files because I stopped using it after college.  But that program is now outdated, so it's a waste of time anyway.

     

    So it's time to let it go and start from scratch.

     

    Message was edited by: nstarksen88 (didn't realize the c word for poo gets **, silly apple)

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 6, 2013 9:23 PM in response to nstarksen88
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 6, 2013 9:23 PM in response to nstarksen88

    nstarksen88 wrote:

     

    Seems like it's about time to call it then.  After all of this **** I have gone through, I think I can deal with it deleting some old backups.

    How old is (or was) your oldest backup?

     

    Some folks get kinda nuts about it -- I tried to convince one that 4 years was far more than he needed, but he wouldn't buy it. 

     

    So it's time to let it go and start from scratch.

    Uh, you mean, let it keep deleting, or erase and start over?  

     

    (If you run another backup, it will go through all that again, including the two deep traversals . . .)

  • by nstarksen88,

    nstarksen88 nstarksen88 Jun 6, 2013 9:29 PM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 6, 2013 9:29 PM in response to Pondini

    Pondini wrote:

     

    How old is (or was) your oldest backup?

     

    Some folks get kinda nuts about it -- I tried to convince one that 4 years was far more than he needed, but he wouldn't buy it.

     

    My oldest was about 2 and a half years.  I was only trying to save it for that program, but it's kind of dumb of me seeing as how long it's been since I have used it/had it on my computer.

     

     

    Pondini wrote:

     

    Uh, you mean, let it keep deleting, or erase and start over? 

     

    (If you run another backup, it will go through all that again, including the two deep traversals . . .)

     

    I just meant let it keep deleting.  "Start from scratch" was a poor choice of words.  More meant "it's time to forget about the old days."

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 6, 2013 9:31 PM in response to nstarksen88
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 6, 2013 9:31 PM in response to nstarksen88

    Ah, ok. 

     

    It'll take a while, of course, but you should be back on track soon.

     

    Me, I'm about to hit the hay, so unless there's something else quick, I'll catch up tomorrow.

     

    Good luck!

  • by nstarksen88,

    nstarksen88 nstarksen88 Jun 6, 2013 9:33 PM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 6, 2013 9:33 PM in response to Pondini

    No, nothing else.  Just thanks for all of this.  You have been so much help!  Way more than my 3 trips to the Genius Bar who directed me to delete my hard drive only to later find out that the backups weren't accesible (at least for them).

  • by nstarksen88,

    nstarksen88 nstarksen88 Jun 7, 2013 7:21 AM in response to nstarksen88
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 7, 2013 7:21 AM in response to nstarksen88

    Ok, I now found another thing.  It finished up backing no problem.  But when I woke up, I wanted to look at the backups just to test it.  I do not have permissions to see any files/folders before the backups yesterday.  When I "get info" on a file it says that "newuser" (the temporary admin account I created) has read/write permissions.  It should also be noted that I changed the name/shortname because I was sick of it calling me "student,"

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 7, 2013 7:55 AM in response to nstarksen88
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 7, 2013 7:55 AM in response to nstarksen88

    nstarksen88 wrote:

    . . .

    When I "get info" on a file it says that "newuser" (the temporary admin account I created) has read/write permissions.  It should also be noted that I changed the name/shortname because I was sick of it calling me "student,"

    Drat.  

     

    The user account now on the Mac isn't recognized as being the same one as on the old backups.  

     

    The cause is a bit different, but see the pink box in Problems after using Migration Assistant for an explanation.

     

    We can fix it, but it will take some more finagling. 

     

    Go into System Prefs per the pink box and see what the UIDs are for all the accounts now on your Mac, and which one(s) you want to keep.

  • by nstarksen88,

    nstarksen88 nstarksen88 Jun 7, 2013 8:32 AM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 7, 2013 8:32 AM in response to Pondini

    NewUser (the temp one) is 501.  And my account is 502.

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 7, 2013 8:45 AM in response to nstarksen88
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 7, 2013 8:45 AM in response to nstarksen88

    So the backups must be 501. 

     

    You need to re-create the account you want to use as 501, presumably with the same name as the 502 now has.

     

    So, of course, you need yet another temporary Admin account (it will be 503)

     

    Create and log on to it. 

     

    Delete both the 501 and 502 accounts, but obviously do not delete the 502 home folder.  Select Don't change the home folder.

     

    Restart your Mac (to clear 501 and 502 completely).

     

    Log on to 503.  In the top-level Users folder is the 502 home folder, but it is changed -- it has (Deleted) appended to the name.  Remove that so it's the original name.

     

    Create a new account with the same names as the old 502 account.  You should get the prompt allowing you to Use Existing Folder.

     

    Restart and log on to that account.  It should be ok, and have permission to the old backups (but not the new ones).  You can delete the new ones if you want, per Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #12.

  • by nstarksen88,

    nstarksen88 nstarksen88 Jun 7, 2013 2:26 PM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 7, 2013 2:26 PM in response to Pondini

    I can't just change the numbers on the preferences page?

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 7, 2013 2:43 PM in response to nstarksen88
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 7, 2013 2:43 PM in response to nstarksen88

    I never had the guts to try it:

     

     

    2. User Account Advanced Options.jpg

     

    Message was edited by: Pondini

  • by nstarksen88,

    nstarksen88 nstarksen88 Jun 17, 2013 9:41 PM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 17, 2013 9:41 PM in response to Pondini

    I went ahead and did everything according to your directions (finally), and it created the account as 502.  I tried it again, just in case, and it did it again.  For some reason it doesn't want to create the account as 501.

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