Time Machine: Permission issues with old iMac's user folders

Question

jola2 Author

Level 1

4 points

Time Machine: Permission issues with old iMac's user folders

Time Machine question:

1 I have a Time Machine backup on an external drive that was backing up my previous iMac

2 I now have a new iMac, backing up to a different external drive

3 I can open the previous Time Machine on my 2017 MacBook Pro, and I can navigate to my user folder

4 however, all the Apple folders (such as Desktop, Documents, Pictures etc) are empty with the "no entry" sign, and Get Info tells me I have no access to them

5 in Get Info, I cannot change the permissions to allow this: it simply says it is "fetching" the account

6 non-Apple folders (eg those for third-party apps) are visible, accessible, and contain docs, sub-folders etc - it is the Apple folders that are deemed empty and inaccessible

7 Get Info on the Time Machine folder itself shows that it contains c 1.3 TB of data, which fits with what it had when backing up my old iMac

Can anyone advise me as to how to remedy this problem? Thanks in advance.

My 2017 MacBook Pro is running Ventura 13.7.8, which was also the OS on my old iMac.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 13.7

Posted on Jan 10, 2026 1:04 AM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

155,702 points

Jan 11, 2026 11:17 AM in response to jola2

Use Migration Assistant to transfer files from your Time Machine backup to your Mac.

Restore your Mac from a backup - Apple Support

Time Machine will require that information to be transferred to a separate user Account. There is no effective way to "merge" those Accounts.

The "right" way to migrate information to a new Mac is to use Migration Assistant when you first set up that new Mac. In other words following your Step 1 above, when setting up that new Mac, connect the older one's TM backup drive and transfer its information. You can still do that, but you will need to erase the new Mac first.

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Answer 2

jola2 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 11, 2026 11:27 AM in response to John Galt

That wasn't my problem.

I didn't want to migrate to my new Mac. I'm not trying to restore my Mac. I have a new Mac, properly set up.

I wanted to be able to access the previous Time Machine backups held on an external drive.

I've solved the problem myself, by creating a new user and accessing the old snapshots using the new user account.

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Answer 3

jola2 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 10, 2026 2:37 AM in response to jola2

I should add that I can see the folders of all the snapshots in the Time Machine backup.

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