Cannot browse "other" TM backups under Mountain Lion

JScullin wrote:

. . .

Now under Mountain Lion, a fresh install, when I go to "browse other Time Machine disks" my "old" backup drive doesn't appear in the list but shows up fine in Finder and on the desktop. So I'm kinda stuck w/a clean install of a system and unable to copy files back over.

Yes, the Browse... option is completely broken on Mountain Lion. 😟

Your best bet is to either start over with the clean install, then use Setup Assistant to transfer your stuff; or do a full system restore from your Lion backups, then upgrade to Mountain Lion.

JScullin wrote:

. . .

I've since had Time Machine start making new backups on the same drive thinking it would "fix" whatever was causing the issue of not reading Lions backups and it hasn't. Instead, it started its new backup, and when you enter TM's starfield you can see the Mountain Lion backups but the Lion backups are pink, and acknowledged, but you can't click them.

That's because you erased the drive, and either didn't use Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant to put your data back, which leaves a "trail" of the change. Without that trail, Time Machine thinks the drive is a different one, so backed-it up entirely.

The old backups are treated as being from a different drive, that's no longer available. You should be able to see the backups via the procedure in #E3 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

You may be able to get it to treat the new backups as being from the "old" disk, so you don't need that workaround, per the instructions in #B6 of the same article. If you do that, be sure to use a recent backup from before you erased the drive.

JScullin wrote:

But this has never been the case before ever since TM was introduced. I've reliably used this method time & again before Mountain Lion.

On Leopard, anything that erased the disk caused a full backup.

Effective with Snow Leopard, a full system restore or use of Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant is supposed to leave a "trail" of the change, so TM will treat the erased drive as if it were the old one. On Snow Leopard, that often failed; it works better, but not always, on Lion and Mountain Lion.

But you should be able to see the backups of the "old" drive via the procedure in #E3 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

And, you should be able to fix it, per #B6.

The whole issue here is that the "Browse Other Time Machine Backups...." option is NOT working with Mountain Lion

That's correct. Apple knew that, at least as early as June 29, but released it anyway. 😟

Thanks Pondini. Was able to find my Lion backups with your info.

same problem for me but thanks for the work-a-round!

still and all, pretty clunky and not at all mac like!

comon Mac guys - when are you going to address this?

I'm experiencing the exact same problem as JScullin (@JScullin: I feel you bro). The solution offered in #E3 seems to say I need to do a new backup on the same disk (in this case, my time capsule) or over the old TM backup.

And I'm quite anxious about doing anything to alter (or worse) parts of the backup, as per #B6 — I've got tons of personal stuff there, pictures etc., and it would really hurt to lose it.

At this point is there anything to do but reinstall Lion, get the stuff, the update to mt lion again? Anyone know anything of Apple trying to resort this issue?

/cheers

10.8.2 has just been released, and the Browse Other Backup Disks option now works.

Use Software Update via the Apple menu, or see Installing the ''combo'' update and/or Reinstalling OSX.

Hey Pondini — Cheers for the reply. This tip is now outdated it seems, but here's what I did since posting last comment:

I set up Time Capsule as my TM backup disk, then turned off automatic backups. I then tried to enter TM and amazingly all my old backups from olduser was there and ready to be restored!

Crazy simple sometimes works.