Apple Intelligence is now available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac!

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Time Machine Backups Appear but are not Selectable

I have a locally attached 4TB drive attached to my 1TB Mac mini. Running 10.14.6.


My system appears to be running backups normally, no errors are ever reported. When I enter Time Machine I can see that I have backups going back to November 2018 however I can't select any of them. The most I can go back is usually 24 hours, and even some of the hourly ones aren't selectable. As much as I click on one of the older dates, it just sits there and does nothing.


I'm not sure if I'm seeing things but it appears the backups I can select have a vibrant red color to them where the backups that aren't selectable have a slightly muted red color to them.


I have DriveDX running and it says the drive is good.

I've turned off Time Machine, run Disk Utility and it says the drive is good.


I don't know what else I can run/do.

  • Are my backups hosed?
  • Are there some hidden terminal commands I can run?
  • Should I just wipe and restart?


Thanks!

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Sep 27, 2019 12:12 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 30, 2019 9:05 AM

I agree with you about there being no solution here so would not mark this as solved. Hopefully people with similar problem will read about your experience and understand what might have happened and become aware of what might have caused it.


Good luck...

Similar questions

13 replies

Sep 27, 2019 3:26 PM in response to dot.com

Not sure if I'm looking in the right place but I do not see a "Ignore ownership on this volume" checkbox on the Get Info screen. Am I in the right place?


ls -lae@ /Volumes/Time\ Machine/Backups.backupdb

total 2704

drwxrwxr-x  15 0    0       578 Sep 25 13:49 .

drwxr-xr-x+  7 0    0       224 Sep 27 15:07 ..

d--x--x--x   8 0    0       272 Sep 25 17:38 .DocumentRevisions-V100

drwx------   5 502  20      170 Nov 12  2016 .Spotlight-V100

d-wx-wx-wt   4 0    0       136 Jul 12  2018 .TemporaryItems

d-wx-wx-wt   2 0    0        68 Jan 16  2019 .Trashes

-rw-r--r--   1 0    0   1253256 Aug  3  2016 .VolumeIcon.icns

drwxrwxrwx   3 0    0       102 Jun 28 08:16 .bzvol

-rw-r--r--   1 0    0       785 Sep 25 13:49 .disk_label

-rw-r--r--   1 0    0      3149 Sep 25 13:49 .disk_label_2x

drwx------  13 502  20      442 Sep 25 14:51 .fseventsd

drwxrwx---+  6 0    0       204 Nov 13  2016 Backups.backupdb

-rwxr-xr-x@  1 0    0    111620 Oct 14  2016 tmbootpicker.efi

Mac-mini:~ david$ ls -lae@ /Volumes/Time\ Machine/Backups.backupdb

total 0

drwxrwxr-x+  6 root  wheel   204 Nov 13  2016 .

 0: group:everyone deny add_file,delete,add_subdirectory,delete_child,writeattr,writeextattr,chown

drwxrwxrwx  15 root  wheel   578 Sep 25 13:49 ..

drwxr-xr-x   5 root  wheel   170 Sep 25 01:53 .RecoverySets

drwx------   7 root  wheel   238 Dec 13  2018 .spotlight_repair

drwx------   2 root  wheel    68 Sep 25 13:49 .spotlight_temp

drwxr-xr-x@ 91 root  wheel  3094 Sep 27 14:56 Mac mini

LastModTime   19 

com.apple.backupd.BackupMachineAddress   18 

com.apple.backupd.HasRecoverySet   3 

com.apple.backupd.HostUUID   37 

com.apple.backupd.ModelID   10 

com.apple.backupd.RecoveryPartitionLastModificationDate   10 

com.apple.backupd.RecoveryPartitionVolumeUUID   36 

com.apple.backupd.RecoverySetName   1 

 0: group:everyone deny add_file,delete,add_subdirectory,delete_child,writeattr,writeextattr,chown

Sep 27, 2019 12:48 PM in response to Dave Razorsek

Try these Terminal commands and see what happens (you might also want to do a "man tmutil" and see all the options -- don't use quotes):


tmutil listbackups


That should produce a list of the various TM backups you have completed. Does this give you what you expected? Assuming that it does, try and look at some permissions and ownerships (change TMVOLNAME and COMPUTERNAME to match your setup):


ls -la /Volumes/TMVOLNAME/Backups.backupdb/COMPUTERNAME/


Are all the items listed owned by user "root" and group "wheel" (the third and fourth column of the output)?


Assuming they are look at these items in more detail with (might make sense to pick only one of the snapshots that fail for this test rather than all of them, e.g. /Volumes/TMVOLNAME/Backup.backupdb/COMPUTERNAME/DATE-TIME -- again change things to fit your TMVOLNAME and COMPUTERNAME and DATE-TIME and compare them with a snapshot that works):


ls -lae@ /Volumes/TMVOLNAME/Backups.backupdb/COMPUTERNAME/DATE-TIME


Basically try to find what is different about these various backup snapshots. I would suspect that there is something about ownership of the various snapshots that is preventing TM from correctly restoring files that you think are yours but it thinks they belong to someone else.


Be careful using tmutil and read and understand the man page description -- ask questions if something isn't clear. Wish there were an easy way to track down these sorts of problems, but none that I'm aware of. Looking for what is different in the two cases (some snapshots work and others don't) might turn up "why it happened", but the "how it happened" won't likely be knowable.


And don't try and manually copy files from the TM backups or try and change anything in the TM backups -- you will cause other problems. You can try and use "tmutil" command to restore a particular file or folder that is failing when you try and use the Time Machine GUI (graphical user interface - this is the normal way to interact with TM) but make sure you know what you're doing as it's easy to make mistakes -- perhaps check here first with what you think the command might be so we can comment on whether it looks like a reasonable thing to do.


Good luck...


ps -- did anything out of the oridinary happen with your system, like any username additions/changes or things like that?

Sep 27, 2019 1:17 PM in response to dot.com

I got this error;

Error enumerating (null): Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=257 "The file “Backups.backupdb” couldn’t be opened because you don’t have permission to view it." UserInfo={NSURL=file:///Volumes/Time%20Machine/Backups.backupdb, NSFilePath=/Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb, NSUnderlyingError=0x7fa8f0455370 {Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=13 "Permission denied"}}


No machine directory found for host.


I looked at the Backups.backupdb folder and under the permissions I noticed 'everyone' has No Access. I didn't think that was right so I remoted in to my machine at the office. That Time Machine folder is set to Read Only.


I clicked the lock to edit the permissions. I was able to unlock it but when I tried to change the privilege it wouldn't change. It stays on No Access.


Also yes, I did delete my original account and started with a new one because I was having issues. To be honest I can't remember when that happened. It was around that time. Maybe some of those backups go back before then? Can say for sure.


I also noticed my work machine has Read only for 'wheel' where the "broken" Time Machine has 'Read and Write'.

Sep 27, 2019 1:35 PM in response to dot.com

ls -la /Volumes/Time\ Machine

total 2704

drwxrwxr-x  15 root   wheel      578 Sep 25 13:49 .

drwxr-xr-x+  7 root   wheel      224 Sep 27 15:07 ..

d--x--x--x   8 root   wheel      272 Sep 25 17:38 .DocumentRevisions-V100

drwx------   5 david  staff      170 Nov 12  2016 .Spotlight-V100

d-wx-wx-wt   4 root   wheel      136 Jul 12  2018 .TemporaryItems

d-wx-wx-wt   2 root   wheel       68 Jan 16  2019 .Trashes

-rw-r--r--   1 root   wheel  1253256 Aug  3  2016 .VolumeIcon.icns

drwxrwxrwx   3 root   wheel      102 Jun 28 08:16 .bzvol

-rw-r--r--   1 root   wheel      785 Sep 25 13:49 .disk_label

-rw-r--r--   1 root   wheel     3149 Sep 25 13:49 .disk_label_2x

drwx------  13 david  staff      442 Sep 25 14:51 .fseventsd

drwxrwx---+  6 root   wheel      204 Nov 13  2016 Backups.backupdb

-rwxr-xr-x@  1 root   wheel   111620 Oct 14  2016 tmbootpicker.efi


ls -lan /Volumes/Time\ Machine

total 2704

drwxrwxr-x  15 0    0       578 Sep 25 13:49 .

drwxr-xr-x+  7 0    0       224 Sep 27 15:07 ..

d--x--x--x   8 0    0       272 Sep 25 17:38 .DocumentRevisions-V100

drwx------   5 502  20      170 Nov 12  2016 .Spotlight-V100

d-wx-wx-wt   4 0    0       136 Jul 12  2018 .TemporaryItems

d-wx-wx-wt   2 0    0        68 Jan 16  2019 .Trashes

-rw-r--r--   1 0    0   1253256 Aug  3  2016 .VolumeIcon.icns

drwxrwxrwx   3 0    0       102 Jun 28 08:16 .bzvol

-rw-r--r--   1 0    0       785 Sep 25 13:49 .disk_label

-rw-r--r--   1 0    0      3149 Sep 25 13:49 .disk_label_2x

drwx------  13 502  20      442 Sep 25 14:51 .fseventsd

drwxrwx---+  6 0    0       204 Nov 13  2016 Backups.backupdb

-rwxr-xr-x@  1 0    0    111620 Oct 14  2016 tmbootpicker.efi


I see dates prior to November 2018. This disk has been in use for a while, I thought I restarted in November. Maybe that's when I created a new account on the machine? This disk has probably been in use since at least 2016.

Sep 27, 2019 1:47 PM in response to Dave Razorsek

Well, the date on the Backups.backupd shows Nov 13, 2016 -- so that was when it first got created.


What about my question about the presence/setting of the "ignore ownership" checkbox on get info (you need to expand the "sharing & permissions" arrow to see if this is present and if so if checked or not).


Also look at the extended attributes of Backups.backupdb with


ls -lae@ /Volumes/Time\ Machine/Backups.backupdb


And post back those results.


Good luck..

Sep 28, 2019 1:56 PM in response to Dave Razorsek

Yeah, this is the right info - and it appears that something has been changed. It appears something has been done to modify the permissions on the TimeMachine backup volume folders themselves (this is different than the volume permissions in the get info window above -- everyone should not have write permission on this volume -- any idea how/why that got changed. The reason for this is that Time Machine should have exclusive control of this volume, and normal users (ie everyone) need only read permission, since the Time Machine software, is the one who writes/creates/manages all the files on this volume (with the exception of Spotlight). You use TM to save and retrieve files, which is why read-only status is required. Any idea what happened to change this, or what else has been done to modify permissions on this volume? Also, this Time Machine disk appears to have been used with BackBlaze software at one time (the .bzvol folder has a date of Jun 18, 2019), is BackBlaze using this volume now? Don't know if this has anything to do with your problems, but that's something to look into. If BackBlaze is mucking around with Time Machine I would think that might be a problem.


Another odd thing I just noticed is the ownership of a couple of files with userid=502 (.fseventsd and .Spotlight-V100) and on my system they are owned by userid=501 -- this is probably due to the new account you talked about creating earlier. What is the userid owner of the /Users/david folder (do a "ls -lan /Users" to see this). Do you have both a 501 and a 502 user account or just the 502 or what?


But another discrepancy I've noticed -- the Get Info window image above has read & write for system, wheel, and everyone, (on my TM volume system & wheel have read&write but everyone has only read) but your comments talk about wheel having only read access -- so is the Get Info image from a mac that has the problem or does not have the problem? This is rather confusing so please straighten out this discrepancy.


Given this 501 vs 502 issue that I see, and your statement about creating a new user sometime, I'm gonna guess your problem is due to some of the TM files being owned by user 501 and some by 502, and that may be the cause of why TM won't restore some files that used to be owned by 501 user into your 502 owned /Users/david folder and some it will. I will bet the date of creation of /Users/* will show when you created these user folders (do a "ls -laUn /Users" to see the creation date of those folders and let us know the results).


If this is indeed the source of the problem, there might be a way to change ownership of things but not sure if this is possible with TM backups, or if this change might cause other problems. Does anyone else know if using "chown -R" type command on a TM backup tree is possible? I'm guessing that changing all files that were owned by 501 user to the 502 user would resolve the inability of TM to restore 501 files to the new 502 user now.


So, what I think you need to do is verify if this 501/502 issue is indeed your problem or not. You will need to look in your backup snapshots and see where this change took effect, so do something like this in each of the snapshots around the date of your new account creation change -- look at folder ownership of contents of the /Users folder (e.g. "ls -lan /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/MACHINENAME/DATE-TIME/SYSTEM-VOLUME-NAME/Users) and look for 501 and 502 items. Does this make sense? I'm guessing that you will see before a certain date you will only see 501 and after that date you will either see a 501 and 502 or just a 502.


Don't make any changes just do a some looking around and let us know what you find.


Good luck...

Sep 30, 2019 7:57 AM in response to dot.com

The screenshot is from the Mac with the issues.


I do run BackBlaze on my Mac. BackBlaze does not back up Time Machine disks. I looked what was in that hidden folder and from what I can tell it’s some kind of temporary scratch file/folder. Maybe BackBlaze uses available disk space for scratch work as needed? There was a reference to another external volume in an XML file, so I’ve guessing that’s what that folder is for.


The only other thing I can think of other than the deletion of the account that established this volume as a Time Machine volume, is I replaced the Mac hard drive around November. It was having issues and needed replaced. Is it possible the old Mac hard drive caused corruption issues?


I have a Drobo and a RAID 5 volume attached to this Mac so I do my best making sure it stays a Time Machine only volume.


I appreciate your time in answering my questions. At this point there seems to be so many more I think I’m better off just initializing it and starting over. I don’t knowingly need anything from it and if I do, fingers crossed, it’ll be in my BackBlaze account. Whatever actions we take I don’t feel comfortable trusting this drive if something should happen.


Any comments or suggestions before I do? If you think it’s worth perusing I will. I haven’t yet looked in to the 501/502 you mentioned. If you think it’s worth it I will.

Sep 30, 2019 8:46 AM in response to Dave Razorsek

Well, the TM backups are not currently useable until you find the problem and fix it - at least for older stuff (newer stuff seems to be OK in TM, correct?). So, if there isn't anything critical in the TM backups, I would agree the easiest solution is delete all the TM backups and then start them over. But keep in mind that creating another new user in the future will result in the same sort of problem. Learn from mistakes is always a good lesson in life ;-) But be certain there is nothing critical in the TM backups you're about to delete, as there is no undoing this if you later realize there is something critical contained there.


Keep in mind, that there was no "error" as far as TM was concerned - it backs up whatever it's asked to do, without regard to who owns what. It's only a problem when restoring files later on that ownership and permissions can become an issue. So realizing the ramifications of creating a new user beforehand is what we've all realized with your problem -- thanks for helping us learn that lesson.


Good luck...

Sep 30, 2019 8:53 AM in response to dot.com

I agree. I don't think it was anything Mac OS did. I'm sure I did something that I thought was right at the time but wasn't and didn't notice it until now. Thankfully I did before I needed to go back and "save" something.


Should I mark anything in here as "Solved my question"? I know you did a lot to help but I don't want mislead someone in to thinking there was a solution. I believe there is a difference between a 'solution' and a 'resolution'. 😉

Time Machine Backups Appear but are not Selectable

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.