Time Machine not working with Yosemite

I mean how one uses the program. Explained many time, but if you enter Time Machine, select your computer under Devices, navigate in it to your Home folder where you will be able to access and restore most, if not all, items in any of the folders on your Mac, back to the very oldest still residing on your Time Machine drive.

Problematic is definitely the Documents folder. Sometimes I can access 100%, sometimes not, but canceling and reentering Time Machine usually works.

I very rarely do that because I very rarely have need of it. I am mainly using my Time Machine as a back up if I do something dumb like erase my computer.

Others here do what JDW1 does, others use Time Machine as a storage for emails so they don't have to keep them on their computer, there's so many ways to use it and each one results in that particular user giving a particular "broken" complaint.

I can see my TM backups and browse using the Starwars GUI, but as others have stated, all the previous time slices are ghosted. I can't access them. Doesn't matter if I drill down from MacHD or where ever.

I am able to browse manually and grab what I need TO SOME EXTENT. However now I am facing an issue where I need files located in ~/library (the one in the user folder) and Time Machine either did NOT backup those files or is not exposing them for me to see when I dig through the folders manually.

UGH.

John Gruver wrote:

JDW1, why are you attempting to access Time Machine backups in the Time Machine drive? Select your home drive under Devices (or use Shift-Command-C) and tunnel to the item you want, e.g., a Xcel of zombie activity, and then jump back to 12/12/2011 (or whatever) and Restore the document. As you point out in your video, if you want to access stuff directly from the Time Machine drive, do it on your desktop.

You appear to misunderstand the point of Time Machine's Starless StarWars UI entirely.

Why not just double-click the TM drive on the Desktop and dig into it manually? Why even use the TM UI at all (via the menubar icon and Enter Time Machine)? Here's why...

Let's say I am searching for a particular file that I deleted, but I don't remember EXACTLY WHEN I deleted it, but I do know the original folder it was in. With Time Machine's UI, it's rather easy to find it. I start by opening that Window in the Finder, then I click the menubar icon and choose Enter Time Machine. Prior to Yosemite, I would then be able to move back in time very quickly WITHIN THAT SAME FOLDER and find what I am looking for.

Now let's say I want to accomplish the same (i.e., manually looking for something) OUTSIDE the TM interface. I would then double-click the TM drive icon, then take a guess on which backup it might be in, look, not find it, then go back to the root level and repeat the process dozens of times. How wicked and awful that is!

So there is merit to finding backups via the method that Apple themselves designed -- ENTER TIME MACHINE. It's silly to go about it another way because that other was is much more difficult.

So now you see, or at least, you should see, why I and so many others here are trying desperately to get the TM interface to display ALL THE BACKUPS. The backups ARE THERE, folks. Why then does the TM interface not display them!?

Stop telling us, "You're holding it wrong!" and join us in getting Apple to fix this problem.

If I can browse old backups the MANUAL way (by double-clicking the TM drive icon in the Finder and digging down into it), then the TM Interface SHOULD be able to accomplish the same. That is the point.

Just found out that I also can't access my old Time Machine Backups except via the Macintosh HD. It's a pain searching for old files even though I need the data desperately. I hope it will be fixed with 10.10.2. Note to myself: Go easy on the updating next year...

Third beta of 10.10.2, and Apple doesn't ask to pay attention to TimeMachine issues. Just Wifi and Mail.

Added to the ilegible interface, Yosemite is the worst OS Apple has released since Lion.

I do find this to have become quite frustrating. At first when I brought up this issue Apple told me it was an issue with Western Digital and to contact them. The usual catch 22 as WD tells me its an issue on Apples end. Did everything both have said to do and still since October TM is still messed up. I have never had as many issues as I have been having since the upgrade to Yosemite.

I agree with your comments!

Hello

when using the star wars interface I can access and retrieve files by starting in the finder in my HOME folder. just wanted to put this out there to see if it works for others.

Michael

Exactly what I said, almost, only I wasn't starting out in the Home folder but going to it after selecting my machine under the Devices list. I have started in Home during trouble shooting and it is successful for me too.

BTW: by starting out in Home, you miss the opportunity of accessing System, Library, Applications, etc. If you enter Time Machine and then select your machine under Devices, you have access to everything on your Mac, not just the stuff in the Home folder.

I'm not misunderstanding anything. I'm using the Time Machine for what I need. I did agree with you that it is broken in Yosemite, but it's a pretty painless way to get what you're attempting by Devices/Home/(whatever)/folder (you know is where the item is) and then go back in time till you find the item. Et voilà!

Exact same thing here, I upgraded today everything seems to be working fine and I did a complete fresh backup on my external HD, and everything backed up great for me, the folders under devices seems to give you access to the sub folders that are under favorites in the backups, I had also done a test to delete an item in documents and I was able to restore the file from the back up, so time machine is backing up , just strange how you have to go under devices and into mac HD to get to your music , pictures , documents and movies backups folders in time machine, so yeah very odd behavior , apple would have to send an update to fix this though, still happy that everything on my mac is backed up though and can still be accessed, just through a different route,lol.

Exact same thing here, I upgraded today everything seems to be working fine and I did a complete fresh backup on my external HD, and everything backed up great for me, the folders under devices seems to give you access to the sub folders that are under favorites in the backups, I had also done a test to delete an item in documents and I was able to restore the file from the back up, so time machine is backing up , just strange how you have to go under devices and into mac HD to get to your music , pictures , documents and movies backups folders in time machine, so yeah very odd behavior , apple would have to send an update to fix this though, still happy that everything on my mac is backed up though and can still be accessed, just through a different route,lol.

Ok - i've just completed a full HD reformat and full backup (of the time machine disk) and here are my results:

- enters TM ok

- browed back one hour and the main finder window was empty

- after a few seconds my machine panicked and i fit the "something went wrong and your computer is being restarted..." - (kernel panick?).

- here i go i'm going to try again - will post again in a moment with results.

AND NOW:

- well it did not crash this time. But still the same problems -- i can get lucky and sometimes click from HOME and navigate manually to a folder but trying to access anything like via the sidebar or entering into a folder other than home is a no-go. This is still BROKEN.

Same problem with me

Works for me using your route.