Time Machine after migration

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Level 1

7 points

Time Machine after migration

I have a Mac M1 and I have just did a clean install of Monterey, it wen smoothly. However, when I tried to setup the Time Machine to retrieve the backups from the old install, the computer can see the disk but it cannot "see" the Backup file that is there. If I enter Time Machine, it does not show me anything other than today. I believe it may be due to some involuntary name change, but I can't say for sure. Can someone point me the way to do the adjustments to recover the backups I had there?

Thanks in advance.

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Jan 4, 2022 11:10 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Old Toad

Level 10

215,202 points

Jan 4, 2022 11:26 AM in response to Moxphere

Try this: hold down the Option key and go to the TM menu and select "Browse Other Backup Disks…" Them select the same disk and see if it will let you access the files.

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Answer 2

Moxphere Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 10, 2022 12:18 AM in response to BlueberryLover

One option is to recover your files from the old Time Machine backup by copying the required data with Finder. You can then start a new Time Machine backup which includes the older data.

Thanks again, @Pie Lover. The last question: when you say to copy the required data, you mean the snapshots or files that are inside them? Can I simply have the old snapshots alone in a folder on my machine and backup everything?

Thanks again!

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Answer 3

Jan 6, 2022 4:17 PM in response to Moxphere

Can you mount the old Time Machine backup volume? If so, you may be able to manually copy the data using Finder.

- Pie Lover

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Answer 4

lllaass

Level 10

210,513 points

Jan 6, 2022 12:46 PM in response to Moxphere

If you have only one backup disk (or volume), clicking "Browse Other Backup Disks…" would not show any OTHER disk because you do not have any other backup disks.

If you go to Finder and select the backup disk and click on it what does that show?

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Answer 5

Jan 9, 2022 1:17 PM in response to Moxphere

One option is to recover your files from the old Time Machine backup by copying the required data with Finder. You can then start a new Time Machine backup which includes the older data.

If I recall correctly, I switched to APFS formatted backups once they became available in Big Sur. Since that time, I haven't experienced any of the Time Machine problems that have been reported.

- Pie Lover

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Answer 6

Moxphere Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 11, 2022 2:05 AM in response to BlueberryLover

@OldToad, @PieLover, I made it.

Using the Terminal trick suggested a few replies ago ("Do the following Google search and see if any of the hits help: How to inherit a time machine drive after the fact"), the computer had definitely inherited the old backup. I tried to simply start a new backup and he went into a process to check the differences and started to do another snapshot. Now I can access all the previous snapshots of the old machine. Thanks a lot to everyone!

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Answer 7

Old Toad

Level 10

215,202 points

Jan 8, 2022 2:53 PM in response to Moxphere

Do the following Google search and see if any of the hits help: How to inherit a time machine drive after the fact

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Answer 8

lllaass

Level 10

210,513 points

Jan 8, 2022 12:35 PM in response to Moxphere

Just what did you do? Did you try to mount the old TM drive in Disk Utility?

Does it show in Finder? I assume not.

Moxphere wrote:

No BlueberryLover, I get a message:

"The disk image couldn't be opened. The operation couldn’t be completed. Resource temporarily unavailable". Does it mean the file is corrupted?

Thanks in advance!

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Answer 9

Moxphere Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 8, 2022 12:36 PM in response to Old Toad

@Old Toad, I managed to make the disk available when browsing other backup disks(clicking the option key). I selected the disk and it has accepted, but it still does not show me the old snapshots. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

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Answer 10

lllaass

Level 10

210,513 points

Jan 8, 2022 3:09 PM in response to Old Toad

This:

If your new Mac inherits your backup history - Apple Support

says:

You’re asked to specify whether you want a new Mac to inherit a backup if you do any of the following:

Use Migration Assistant to transfer your settings from an old Mac to a new one.
Use Migration Assistant to transfer your settings from a Time Machine backup of an old Mac to a new one.

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Answer 11

Moxphere Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 9, 2022 9:06 AM in response to lllaass

Where evolving here. If I enter Time Machine and I try to see the main hard disk (Macintosh HD) I can see all the snapshots that I can even access these shots. However, if I simply enter time machine using the icon on the menu bar, it shows me nothing.

I tried to do the Terminal command suggested in the Google-found article, but I get the following message:

The image "[MACHINE NAME].sparsebundle" can't be inherited because another image "[MACHINE NAME].sparsebundle" belonging to this computer already exists in the same directory.

The snapshots are ok (I verified them) and the system can see it, but not directly in the Time Machine commands.Any other ideas?

Huge thanks in advance.

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