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User profile for user: Community User
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Time machine does not show Applications (its gray)

When I go "back" in Time Machine although my main Volume (I have a MacPro with several HDs) is supposed to be backed up entirely, the "Applications" become light gray and therefore not recoverable to a former stage.

In past versions of OSX , I remember I could get back an Application, for instance my MS Office 2011, if I needed past mails in Outlook which I had lost.

Now I cannot do it, since the Applications do not seem to be backed up by Time Machine although the whole main HD is of course intended to be backed up.

If I begin the traveling to the past with the Mac Volume in front of me on my desktop showing in the left side the "Applications", immediately those "Applications" folder becomes light gray and I fail entirely.

The only way I have found to be on the safe side is to clone periodically the entire main Volume with a cloning software into an external HD.

I do it every few days.

However it does not make sense that the so important Applications should not be backed up by Time Machine!!!

What do I do wrong?

Any help is highly welcome.

Thank you in advance!

Mac Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), I use the German language

Posted on Sep 21, 2013 10:27 AM

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14 replies
User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

Sep 21, 2013 11:51 AM in response to Eric Root

Thank you for your kind answer.

No. I have not excluded anything in the main Mac HD Volume (HD) where all the Applications are.

I only excluded other Volumes in other HDs.

Thank you again for trying to help me!

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

Sep 21, 2013 11:58 AM in response to Linc Davis

Thank you very much Linc Davis for your quick answer.

No. I never moved anything but always used one HD as my main Volume where the Users (me) and the Applications are together with the System and all the rest of thze System.

I only installed Virtual Machines elsewhere since my main Volume is a SSD with about 500 MB only but do not believe that VMs may affect anything in this problem.

It's like black magic. I see the main HD with the Applications before me and when I start Time Machine and get back no matter how little, the Applications get light gray and I cannot access them.

Thank you again for your very kind intention to help me!
I appreciate it very much!

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

Sep 21, 2013 12:25 PM in response to Eric Root

And one thing more.

If I try to start the Time Machine movement back with the Applications folder open showing all the programs, Time Machine does not react. It remains where I am and the arrows to move back and forth are inoperant.

I must close the Applications folder to move back in time. But then if I open my Mac Volume I do not find them.

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

Sep 21, 2013 12:52 PM in response to Linc Davis

I have just opened several backups in Time Machine and could not find the Applications in any of them.

So no wonder I cannot get back to any of them if they are not backed up at all.

But why?

I excluded only other volumes in other hard disks.

The main Mac Volume (a single SSD hard disk) was included entirely and only it, so why the Applications are excluded by themselves when Time Machine makes its backups?????

Any hint?

Thanks!!!

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

Sep 21, 2013 1:06 PM in response to Linc Davis

Even stranger!!!

I excluded from the main Mac Volume everything besides the User, the System, the Applications folder and an Alias for the Applications.

Then I made a Time Machine backup only of those parts of the main volume.

I opened that last Backup inside the Time Machine Volume (hard disk) and found inside the Applications Alias. When I click on that Alias I see all the Applications nicely listed.

However I do not know if they will react if I try to use any of them to recreate a previous state of it and am afraid to make experiments as long as I do not understand where the problem is.

Strange indeed!

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User profile for user: Linc Davis
Linc Davis
User level: Level 10
209,535 points

Sep 21, 2013 1:28 PM in response to Community User

Although the documentation doesn't mention it, experience shows that Time Machine will silently fail under some conditions if a local backup volume is partitioned in the obsolete Apple Partition Map format. External hard drives from some manufacturers, such as Western Digital, that are advertised as Mac-compatible may come with that type of partition scheme installed. Those drives must be repartitioned before they can be safely used as Time Machine backup destinations.

Launch the Disk Utility application and select the icon of the backup drive in the list on the left. Select the drive, not the volume icon(s) nested beneath it.

At the bottom of the window is some information about the drive, including the Partition Map Scheme. if the scheme is anything other than GUID Partition Table, you need to repartition the drive in that format. For instructions, search the built-in Disk Utility help for the term "partition."

Partitioning will remove all data from the drive, so you must first back up to another drive if you haven't already done so. Never erase your only backup. If there's anything other than backup data on the drive you're going to partition, it must also be backed up to another drive.

If the partition scheme on the backup drive is already GUID, or if you're not sure, don't change anything at this point. Post your findings.

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

Sep 21, 2013 3:48 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thank you for your good will but that posssibility does not help.

The Time Machine hard drive is clearly GUID format!

So that does not explain why Time Machine backups do not include the Applications folder of my main Mac volume.

I hope that the trick with the Alias of the Applications folder which does appear in the backup, helps me.

For the time being I will still make clones on external drives every couple of days since that includes and clones eveything. Also the Applications.


Thank you anyway.

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

Dec 8, 2013 9:29 AM in response to Community User

To all the people who intervened in this subject, thank you very much.

An Apple Senior Adviser gave me the solution to my Time Machine problem.

It is the same explanation found in the link of Pondini mentioned by Eric Root (under the topic Total Reset.) After deleting the indicated file in the Library, it worked perfectly well from then on.

Thank you very much to all of you.

I must say that Apple advisers are full of knowledge and that this forum is very useful for all Apple users.

Again THANKS!

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Time machine does not show Applications (its gray)

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