You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

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

reneweiss Author

Level 1

11 points

Trying to restore from TimeMachine - stuck on "loading backup"

I am trying to restore a 2018 13" MacBook Pro from 1 of my TimeMachine Backups I did for my "Workbook" (2018 15" MacBook which I just left yesterday at the apple store as it has the infamous keyboard issue).

In the migration assistant it is just stuck on "loading backup" (using a wired network connection!); just left it overnight, didn't make a difference (so I stopped after >9h)

The disappointing/worrying thing - I actually have 2 TimeMachine devices (1 TimeCapsule 2 TB and my QNap NAS) with 2 backups, none of which is working and giving the same bahavior.

TimeCapsule was restarted, as was the MacBook. The Backup was done using Mojave as is the version of the 13" Mac where I am trying to restore to (haven't updated as I still need some old software not supported by Catalina!)

Any ideas what I could try? (having 2 backups and none working is really disappointing and not what I was expecting :/). Copy the *.sparsebundle file to a big USB hard disk and attach directly? Does this work and is recognised as a TimeMachine source where I could restore from?

Posted on Dec 27, 2019 11:39 PM

Top-ranking reply

reneweiss Author

Level 1

11 points

Posted on Dec 31, 2019 5:26 AM

Found a "solution". Updated the 13" MacBook to 15.2, deleted all WIFIs, restarted (unplugged the power cable) the TimeCapsule and then started MigrationAssistant from within MacOS.

The "loading backup" phase only lasted 30min before I could proceed. First time restore didn't work (was aborted with some errors), but second time worked as expected. Everything was restored as it should be....

Hope this can help others with similar problems, but it still seems kinda shaky.... :/

View in context

Trying to restore from TimeMachine - stuck on "loading backup"

Similar questions