Time Machine Backups Disappearing

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Level 2

264 points

Time Machine Backups Disappearing

I am running an iMac 2.7 GHz with 12 GB memory and 2 TB Hard drive. I have a very large iPhoto library which has become corrupted. I entered Time Machine and grabbed the last backup and moved it forward. At that time, I could see backups extending into the past as usual. The file took 14 hours to be moved to the present and it had the same corruption problem, so I threw it away and returned to Time Machine to go further into the past - to my surprise all backups after late yesterday are grayed out / not accessable (no dates next to the timeline on right) - it looks like I just set up Time Machine yesterday instead of months ago. Since I never trust anything completely I did a manual backup a few weeks ago but I have done a lot of work on the library since then. Any way to re-gain access to those grayed out backups? BTW the Time Capsule disk is no where near full; not sure how this would have happened. Any help appreciated.

Posted on Nov 11, 2012 5:10 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 11, 2012 5:15 AM in response to Robert Stone

Hello:

Did you restore the file or just move it? If you dragged it from the TM disk, I think you might have damaged the links......

Barry

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Answer 2

Robert Stone Author

Level 2

264 points

Nov 11, 2012 5:50 AM in response to Barry Hemphill

I restored it; when it happened it looked like everything was working fine...since the original post I have let time machine sit open for a long time just in case it was a slow loading problem.

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Answer 3

Nov 11, 2012 6:01 AM in response to Robert Stone

Hi:

I have never seen anything like that happen, but I am no "expert."

It occurred to me that you might try running repair disk on your external drive. Candidly, I do not know whether that will help either, but it might be worth a try.

You might also look at these articles about Time Machine problems to see if any fit your circumstance:

https://discussions.apple.com/search.jspa?resultTypes=&dateRange=all&peopleEnabl ed=true&q=time+machine+backup+grayed+out&containerType=&container=&containerName =&username=&rankBy=relevance&numResults=15

Barry

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Answer 4

Robert Stone Author

Level 2

264 points

Nov 11, 2012 11:10 AM in response to Barry Hemphill

Thanks for the suggestions; you are more expert at this than I am! I followed the link and someone who had exactly the same issue a few posts down was directed to https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2057525?threadID=2057525, but unfortunately all the links on that page point to MobileMe (with resulting closed sign).

I'm beginning to be VERY glad I made a manual backup on October 2nd - losing 6 weeks of work on this (prob about 15 hrs) is bad but is better than years worth of work. I don't know whether it is even worth bothering re-setting up Time Machine if this is how it "works," I doubt I'll ever trust it again.

Does anyone know of an archive / mirror of the Time Machine troubleshooting stuff which is no longer available on MobileMe? The file on the backup is over 700 GB so I know the 480 GB iPhoto archive is in there; just no way to access it.

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