Q: Time Machine: External USB icon DOES NOT change to green Time Machine icon

This problem just happened to me. I ejected my external disk, unplugged it from the back of my iMac, waited 15 seconds, then plugged it back in.

After 30 seconds, my green Time Machine icon is back.

to anyone with this issue I found a tread here that said just open Time Machine Preferences and repack the disk using and the icon goes back to Time Machine icon. Has worked every time for me using that trick.

“Repack”?? - is that a typo or something we all never heard of before?

Re pick disk using time machine preference's.

Ok, thanks. That works until the disk is ejected. Once it’s readied the green icon doesn’t come back.

temporary fix.

Search on google or here shows problem been around for years. I found out last Xmas when I bought my rMBP 15" loaded and a Lacie external USB3/thunderbolt2 drive to use for time machine. Never found a permanent fix nor did the apple genius I spoke with at my local Apple Store. Was not a big deal for me so I don't even bother.

Still happening in Yosemite. Reminds me of issues that happened frequently in MacOS9. ;-)

Hi. Further to alexdelalane's solution, I have found that if you want to use the Yosemite icon for Time Machine (or any other OS X version-specific icon), instead of finding an icon on the web, the easiest solution is to:

1. "Get Info" (command-i) on any drive that is currently displaying the Time Machine icon.

2. In the upper left, click on the icon image so that the blue "glow" around the icon appears.

3. Copy the icon to the clipboard (command-c)

4. "Get Info" for the drive displaying the generic USB drive icon that you are using for Time Machine.

5. Click on the icon image in the upper left so that the blue "glow" around the icon appears.

6. Paste the icon on the clipboard to the Get Info window icon (command-v).

7. Go back to the "Get Info" window for the original drive that you copied the icon from (the one with the original "correct" icon).

8. Select the icon in the upper left and then paste the still-in-the-clipboard icon onto the "good" icon - even though it has the Time Machine icon.

This replaces whatever the system is assigning, icon-wise, to the drives with a custom icon - in this case the same system icon that you want to use. I have found that the Time Machine icons that I have pasted into the drives have remained in place using this method.

If you decide that you want to revert to the original icon state for these drives, that is, you want the system to resume deciding what the icon should be, all you have to do is go back into Get Info, select the small icon, hit "delete" and the original system icon (which cannot be deleted) will return.

This worked for me. Even after disconnecting and reconnecting the drive, the Time Machine drive icon stays.

I came into the same bug in OS X 10.10.5.

So far as I concerned, the only available way to "solve" this problem is to attach a icon to our external USB drive manually.

In the first place, download a Time Machine png file from google. e.g. http://icons.iconarchive.com/icons/mcdo-design/smooth-leopard/512/TimeMachine-Di sk-icon.png

Secondly, open it in preview, tap "Edit" and choose "Select All". Then you could copy it by pressing cmd+c.

Finally, get the info of your Time Machine drive, click your icon on the left side, you may view it as a small blue folder image, and paste your "Time Machine" icon picture on it by pressing cmd+v.

That's all.

PS. I have to admit that this is just a temporary solution. And I sincerely hope our assidulous engineers would solve this bug before long.

When this happens, go into Finder's preferences, General section, and deselect "external disks" under "show these items on the desktop," then reselect it. The external drive will have the Time Machine icon when it reappears.

I upgraded to El Capitan and this happened.  The solution for me was to open terminal, go to the root directory of the Time Machine volume, and delete the file named .VolumeIcon.icns.

EDIT: After a reboot it went back to the normal icon.  Shrug.

This has been going on for me on multiple machines for months!! Two iMacs, one Mac Mini, and one MacbookPro. Two running Yosemite, One El Capitan, other Mavericks. Only two have similar manufacturer external drives, three are 3.0, one is fire-wire 800. Have tried MULTIPLE solutions from various forums...all seem to be a temporary fix. Have found only changes to TM icon if left on, no "allow hard disk" sleep, for a day or two.

What's happening now, which concerns me, is the size of available space is getting larger, not smaller (one went from 20GB to 600GB available after a backup).

My solution...manual backups of all files to other drives!!!

Def a spreading problem, tech support aware, and no one seems to be addressing

This is, BY FAR, the most straight forward solution. Thank you.

I wish your solution worked for me.  I eventually just gave up and pasted the Time Machine icon onto it.  Backups are running smoothly, and that's all that really matters I guess.