Time Machine won't allow access to 2010 back ups

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Level 1

31 points

Time Machine won't allow access to 2010 back ups

Today was the first time I'd ever had to do a Time Machine restore, following the accidental deletion of a Contacts List. However, on entering Time Machine, although it would show me all the backups made so far this year it wouldn't actually let me select any of the entries. I'd try & click on the relevant list/entry and it just ignored me. But if I went back into 2009 there was no problem whatsoever, so I ended up restoring the List from a 2009 backup.
The other weird thing was that for the 2010 backups, the Contacts List were identical to today's - despite the fact I'd created some new Lists today and so they couldn't possibly have been in yesterday's or January's backups....
So now I'm wondering just what exactly is going on when I backup and whether I'll be able to access any of my 2010 stuff when I really need it.

macbook pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2), 2.93 GHz Intel Core Duo 4GB memory

Posted on Feb 9, 2010 5:03 AM

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Answer 1

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Feb 9, 2010 7:08 AM in response to dingsquidge

Hi, and welcome to the forums.

I suspect your data really was backed-up; but there's some sort of glitch displaying it, and since you can't see it, you can't restore from it.

I'm assuming you were starting from the Address Book application, then going into the Time Machine "Star Wars" interface?

If so, try all the things in #E4 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

If none of those helps, try starting with the Finder, and restoring +*<your home folder>/Library/Application Support/AddressBook+* from the backup in question.

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Answer 2

dingsquidge Author

Level 1

31 points

Feb 10, 2010 10:58 AM in response to Pondini

Hi there and thanks for your message.
What actually happens is that I can, in the Star Wars interface, scroll through and select a backup point anytime in 2010, but when I try to click on a List or single entry, nothing happens. It won't let me click on any of the screen. But if I go back to any of my 2009 backups it works perfectly - I can highlight a single contact, a List, whatever, and select it and restore it.
But 2010 is unresponsive and won't let select any item to restore it.
This seems only to be a problem for Address Book, I've been able to access documents etc.
I've had a look through the Troubleshooting guide but nothing seems to match my problem!

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Answer 3

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Feb 10, 2010 11:22 AM in response to dingsquidge

dingsquidge wrote:
Hi there and thanks for your message.
What actually happens is that I can, in the Star Wars interface, scroll through and select a backup point anytime in 2010, but when I try to click on a List or single entry, nothing happens. It won't let me click on any of the screen. But if I go back to any of my 2009 backups it works perfectly - I can highlight a single contact, a List, whatever, and select it and restore it.
But 2010 is unresponsive and won't let select any item to restore it.
This seems only to be a problem for Address Book, I've been able to access documents etc.

Yes, some other folks are having what seems to be the same problem: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2317886

You probably didn't see that thread, since you've posted in the +Leopard > Time Machine+ forum. I'll ask a host to move this one there.

I suspect your data was backed-up, and can be restored via Finder, as posted earlier.

Try the things in #E4 of the Troubleshooting Tip.

If that doesn't help:

To restore the whole Address Book from a prior backup, use the Finder, then +Enter Time Machine,+ navigate to the desired folder, and restore the +*<your home folder>/Library/Application Support/AddressBook+* folder.

To restore individual items, you'll have to display (double-click) each bizarrely named item in the Metadata folder there until you find the one you want. That's obviously a pain in the asterisk, but the only workaround we have at the moment.

If you have AppleCare, we'd all appreciate you contacting them about this problem, per the last post in the thread referenced above.

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Answer 4

dingsquidge Author

Level 1

31 points

Feb 11, 2010 10:19 AM in response to Pondini

Thanks for this - am moving to the posting under snow leopard as per your suggestion, se you there...

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Answer 5

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Feb 11, 2010 10:24 AM in response to dingsquidge

dingsquidge wrote:
Thanks for this - am moving to the posting under snow leopard as per your suggestion, se you there...

A Host already moved it.

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