Time Machine Permission Denied

Hi,

I am by no means a computer scientist or a software engineering, but based on your question, it is possible I found the answer.

As others have said, Time Machine backups are "read-only." So, the traditional advice to change your permissions on the backup folder may not work as long as you are working on the drive itself. Try copying the folder or folders you are trying to access on your Time Machine onto your new Mac, the one that has no access. You may have to enter your new computer's password to do that.

Once the Time Machine folder is on the new computer, it probably still has the access denied icon on the folder. Now right, or control, click the folder and click Get Info. At this point, under Sharing and Permissions, the folder probably still says, you have NO access. Sort of alarming. But, if you click the little lock, and unlock the menu with your password, the little plus sign should now be clickable. Press the little plus sign, and you should now be able to add your new computer administrator, and change the access rights.

Really hope that helped, and works.

dnadork wrote:

I used a new disk that I did not realize was formatted APFS to back up my work computer that was running Big Sur before I moved across the country.

Time Machine (TM) backups have "evolved" since it was first made available with OS X Leopard. With Apple recently introducing APFS formatting, it made some things a bit more difficult.

Most likely, your work computer's system drive was formatted in APFS. Since you used an external drive that is also formatted in APFS, TM saves backups differently than if those backups go to a drive, formatted in HFS+ (aka, OS X Extended Journaled). The biggest difference is that these backups can no longer easily be accessed with Macs running macOS prior to Big Sur.

Regardless, TM is designed to back up a device, and then, only be "readable" by that device for restoration purposes. It was not meant to be used by other devices to gain access to these backups. If I understand correctly, what you are trying to do, then this may not be possible without additional effort, if at all.

Then there is the permissions issue ...

Have you simply tried using Migration Assistant on one of your available Macs to migrate the data from this backup drive?

The reason you see drive icon is because that is what is now shown when TM is formatted to APFS with Big Sur or Monterey. The drive may be encrypted and if so will only be read if you have the user login PW which should be the PW that you use to log in to your Mac. TM is read only.