Q: Time Machine not working with Yosemite

I hear you John. My Time Machine problems are fairly identical to yours. I'm able to restore the whole computer using time machine wt command r, but I have a huge problem finding individual files in time machine. It takes a little bit longer, searching for the file to restore, but I found that by just going into your backup drive, and specific date you can restore files. It kinda of makes the concept of Time Machine unusable, but it works!

Many thanks to all of you worried by this "bug"

Again I tried according your last advices

but infortunatly it does not work /

a window of the file I want to be restored open on the finder

Going in Timemachine

selecting the  file

trying without success to select a date !!

many many different attemps

and like many other Mac/TimeMachine/Yosemite users , waiting from Apple fixing this bug

I am unable to look in my older backups on my Time Machine. The older (more than 24 hours) appear as a lighter red bars - they are not accessible at all!

Can you navigate back in all folders or just documents?  I can go back in the documents folder but when I try downloads or pictures it will not.

Same situation (Recent Mini Yosemite )

prevous Folders or files can't be seen and selected to be restored

all red bars appear light ..grey .. not available

waiting for a definitive help from Apple !!

My Time Machine, sometimes operate, but usually does not. Sometimes items are in white for only a day, while they even operate sometimes when they are light gray, but only when you use the time arrows. Other times it is only accessible to November 13, the date in which I installed Yosemite. Using Time Machine never works exactly the same way for me. The files are their, but it's just accessing them, is often a headache. I am still able to search and bring back all files using the backup drive independent of Time Machine, but using the application does not work, how it is was designed, no.

You are awesome Boris!

Just a heads-up: I reported this as a bug a couple weeks ago. Sent a report into Apple's Bug Team a week ago. Yesterday received notification that my bug report was closed as it was a duplicate of an earlier bug report, so they are working on it. Hopefully they'll fix it soon.

BTW: greenmind: my experience agrees with yours, no continuity in Time Machine operation/failure-to-operate. Except implicating the Documents folder... it always is a problem. Again, after Entering Time Machine selecting my hard drive under Devices and navigating to my Home folder usually (almost always, in fact) results in complete availability of all folders and items as far back as Time Machine goes.

Now I find I cannot even go back in the documents folder most of the time.  Very erratic.

This one worked for me.  Sure looks like a bug.

TM has failed for me as well after Yosemite upgrade from Mavericks.  Could not access prior days of backups, so wiped the drive, and when I tried a clean backup it ran out of disk space which made no sense since it worked prior to Yosemite.  So I bought a 3TB HD from OWC to backup 1.8TB of data via TM, reformatted the disk via cmd-r procedure, started TM backup, and it just runs until it gobbles up all 3TB, never finishes the first backup, and yes I have set the machine to not sleep etc. as I found another bug where with my multiple monitors sleeping is the kiss of death.  Going to CCC and abandoning TM for now until Apple fixes this mess.  I am on a late model 2012 MacMini 8GB    RAM, 1TB internal, 3GB external on USB3 on Yosemite and am wishing I  never  upgraded.

I seem to be having the same problem with TM after the Yosemite update as everyone else here.

I made a video (with voiceover) that clearly shows the problem:

http://youtu.be/gO3Yux6zMik

I give further details in the follow thread:

Re: Can't browse some older backups via Time Machine interface

Thanks for this video, i have same issue, hope APPLE will fix this in 10.10.2

chris

That video describes almost exactly describes what I have been experiencing since my completely fresh install of Yosemite. In my Time Machine app, it goes back until the date, when I installed Yosemite. What I find so completely bizarre about this problem, is how it varies by user. Some have no problem, some can go back to the date in which they installed Yosemite, while you can only go back a day. Thank you for making the video. I wonder if apple even knows or completely understands the problem facing so many users. Could you please send that video to http://www.apple.com/feedback/imac.html

It appears that the reported variations in the "problem" are mainly due to users' use of Time Machine. 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.

I'm not saying it's not a problem that you cannot access all the backup folders residing on your Time Machine drive... it is, and hopefully Apple will fix it sooner rather than later. BUT, you can access individual items (up to and including entire folders) and Restore them via the method described. AND you can restore your entire computer should that need arise, albeit to the most recent backup (at least in my case).