Time Machine backups greyed out

This is not the time or way to learn UNIX. 😟

Among other things, there are very few protections against making a mistake -- in certain circumstances, misplacing a space or comma can wreak havoc with your data and/or OSX.

I know a little about it, but avoid it as much as possible.

I apologize for giving you that link. Please disable the root user and return to normal operation.

Do you now have everything copied, except the contents of the Library folder? If so, please continue the copying as before, but when you get a problem with a sub-folder (like Application Support), just copy the contents.

An alternative (if you haven't deleted anything from the original home folder yet) is to delete the new user account and home folder, and take your Mac to an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider. They may be able to do it for you at no or a minimal charge.

It looks like I am going to format hardisk and install lion on clean disk. After that how can I restore my iTunes and iPhoto libraries ? Can I copy those libraries to an external disk and move them back to its place after installing Lion ?

Or can you share me a link about how to copy home folder contents of home folder of one account to another with unix commands ?

tolgao wrote:

It looks like I am going to format hardisk and install lion on clean disk. After that how can I restore my iTunes and iPhoto libraries ? Can I copy those libraries to an external disk and move them back to its place after installing Lion ?

Yup. 🙂

See: Moving your iTunes Music folder

and: Moving your iPhoto '11 Library

After copying, be sure you can see and use the copied versions before you erase the disk.

(You could probably restore them from Time Machine, but you might have permissions problems that way, depending on how the new user account(s) are set up vs. the old ones.)

I have not format my hardisk yet. I am still uncomfortable to go that route. Because how am I going to restore my all of my Applications and related files/folders I installed before ? Is there anyway to do that ? You told me that I can restore from Time Machine backups but I might have premissions problems. I thought that when I had bought my TimeCapsule I did not have to worry about restoring my system after clean install. But in my case, if those backups were corrupted, I might have the same problem after restore. Is there anyway, I can move(export) everything to an external drive then move back(import) all those data back to my internal hardisk. So that I will have the exact same data before formatting my hardisk ? or Do I lose data no matter what I do ?

Anyway, I copied most of data from my old account to new account and now most of the applications work on my new account like Mail, iTunes, iPhoto, iCal Calendars, Safari. But I could not copy most of my <home folder>/Library contents. Is it important ? For example, I could not copy /Library/Keychain it gives error: "System.keychain in use", also it does not allow me to copy AddressBook folder content similar to same message given before. But it is weird that content of Address Book there.

Also strange thing happened. In some folders and Macintosh HD, when I select Get info, and go down to Sharing & Permissions, I saw a user name ("wheel") which I never created before. I was worried that if someone is trying to hack my MacBook Pro. I immediately removed user name "wheel" from Sharing & Permissions. What do you think about this issue ?

tolgao wrote:

I saw a user name ("wheel") which I never created before. I was worried that if someone is trying to hack my MacBook Pro. I immediately removed user name "wheel" from Sharing & Permissions.

The ID of "wheel" is closely related to the "root" user. Do not remove any more of those user names from the files on your Mac.

Rather than continuing to flail about and possibly causing more damage, it might be better if you took your Mac to a technician who can put it right.

tolgao wrote:

. . .

Because how am I going to restore my all of my Applications and related files/folders I installed before ? Is there anyway to do that ?

If you reinstall Lion, that will include the default Apple apps (the ones that came with Lion). If you don't restore or copy others, you'll have to reinstall/redownload them.

You could probably restore them from your backups (although there may be problems with "complex" apps -- the ones that came with their own installers, as they also put other files in other places, and won't work properly without them).

Or, you can run Migration Assistant and transfer just your apps from the backups (un-checking the user accounts).

I thought that when I had bought my TimeCapsule I did not have to worry about restoring my system after clean install.

Yes, you can do a full system restore, but that puts everything back just the way it was at the time of the backup.

But I could not copy most of my <home folder>/Library contents. Is it important ? For example, I could not copy /Library/Keychain it gives error: "System.keychain in use",

You'll probably have to re-enter the passwords kept there, in the new account.

also it does not allow me to copy AddressBook folder content similar to same message given before. But it is weird that content of Address Book there.

Either copy the contents of the folder, or use the AddressBook application to export the old ones (AddressBook > File > Export > Contacts Archive) to a file, then log on as the new user and import them from that file.

I saw a user name ("wheel") which I never created before. I was worried that if someone is trying to hack my MacBook Pro. I immediately removed user name "wheel" from Sharing & Permissions. What do you think about this issue ?

As William says, leave those alone. If you continue copying, once you're done, reset the permissions on the new home folder to the defaults, per Resetting Password and/or User Permissions.

As noted before, if you have other folders in your <home folder>/Library you can't copy, copy just the contents.

It sounds like you've got most everything copied, so your best bet may be to continue. Just don't delete anything until you're sure it's copied and working properly.

Otherwise, as both William and I have suggested, you may want to get some hands-on help.

Pondini

I have a Time Machine problem and I've noticed you posted a solution to it on an archived post but I have a question about it and don't know how to ask you - can you please comment on my post

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4120457

then I can ask you the question?

thanks

Pondini,

Thanks alot for all your help and your patience. I am mostly done. I decided to stay with my new account. I will also keep my old account until I feel fully comfortable with my new account. By the way, I also disabled root account. I thought that with root account: I can have two finder windows, one for the old account and one for the new account, and I can simply transfer(copy) old account home folder to new account home folder. But I realize that I can't do that without terminal unix commands which I don't know about it. Also your documents on your web-site were quite helpful. Especially, Question 28. article was quite helpful to locate files and folders. Thanks again.

Regards,

Tolga

Great! 🙂

Glad it's sorted out, and sorry it was such a hassle. Someday, maybe, Apple will figure out what goes wrong, and either fix it or provide a better workaround.

Pondini wrote:

As noted before, if you have other folders in your <home folder>/Library you can't copy, copy just the contents.

I am confused about this statement. I copy all contents of a folder(I can't copy) to under Library folder ? In that case, how the system knows which folder and contents belong to which application ?

If you can't copy a whole folder (including contents), copy just the contents of the folder in question to the /Shared folder using the old account; then copy the contents to the corresponding folder in the new home folder.

Pondini wrote:

As William says, leave those alone. If you continue copying, once you're done, reset the permissions on the new home folder to the defaults, per Resetting Password and/or User Permissions.

When I copied <home folder>/library to shared folder in my user account and after switched back to new account you see the some of the folders in shared folder has red color Stop Sign on them, and I don't have permission to see the contents of those folders. So that I will copy their contents to new account home folder library. You can see the pic below:

http://d.pr/i/Rr1o

Will Resetting User Permissions correct this problem ? When should I reset permissions ? In Resetting Permissions screen, Do I need to enter User Name and Password for new account on Resetting Permissions screen ?

tolgao wrote:

. . .

When I copied <home folder>/library to shared folder in my user account

When you see that, copy the contents of those folders separately.

Some (perhaps many) of those folders won't have any contents, or any contents specific to your user account; don't worry about them.

Will Resetting User Permissions correct this problem ?

Yup. 🙂

When should I reset permissions ?

When you're pretty sure you got everything copied. You can do it again, if necessary.

In Resetting Permissions screen, Do I need to enter User Name and Password for new account on Resetting Permissions screen ?

Yup.

User Permissions Reset did not solve this problem. I reset permissions of both old and new account.

When I log in to new account, Shared Folder still does not give me permission to see the contents of some folders. Do you have any idea why this happens ?

My Shared Folder path is: /Users/Shared

Is this correct ?

or Is /Shared Folder correct ?

I misunderstood a bit -- don't try to fix the /Shared folder.

If you can't see the contents of a folder, copy the contents from the old user account to /Shared, then as the new user, from /Shared to the new account.