Can't browse some older backups via Time Machine interface

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Level 1

67 points

Can't browse some older backups via Time Machine interface

Problem started after updating to Yosemite. I am running 10.10.1. I can find all my backups, going back to 2010 in fact, when browsing my external FW800 hard drive directly in the Finder. But if I click the menubar icon and choose "Enter Time Machine," I can see some recent backups for some folders, but I cannot access some older backups that I know are there on that same drive. The window title bars in the TM interface are totally grayed out for those older backups. But again, there are all on the same FW800 external HD, and I can search them just fine and extract the files just fine using the Finder.

Is the Time Machine interface totally broken in Yosemite?

Clearly there is nothing wrong with my external FW800 HD, otherwise I wouldn't be able to manually browse and extract files via the Finder. And yes, it makes regular TM backups every day too. It's only the "Enter Time Machine" UI that is partly broken. I say "partly" because some backups (very recent) display, but I cannot access all the backups. It's very strange.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thank you.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10), March 2009 DuoCore, 8GB RAM, 1TB HD

Posted on Dec 2, 2014 10:34 PM

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Answer 1

JDW1 Author

Level 1

67 points

Dec 3, 2014 9:39 PM in response to JDW1

My posts here lately have been getting ignored. Lots of "views" but nary a "reply" in sight.

Come on! Surely there must be at least one among you Apple geniuses out there who can offer something constructive on this topic?

(And yes, I know about http://pondini.org. But my exact case isn't listed there, and Pondini says not to email him directly, but rather post here in this forum.)

Looking forward to your kind replies.

Thank you.

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Answer 2

JDW1 Author

Level 1

67 points

Dec 5, 2014 12:38 AM in response to JDW1

:-(

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

685,215 points

Dec 5, 2014 4:30 PM in response to JDW1

To see all mounted volumes shift - command - c. Information learned from Linc Davis.

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Answer 4

JDW1 Author

Level 1

67 points

Dec 5, 2014 4:57 PM in response to Eric Root

Eric, thank you for your reply.

Your answer indicates that you did not completely understand what I wrote earlier, so I will clarify.

I have no issue mounting my TM backup Volume. Like I said in my opening post, I can click the TM menu bar icon and enter the TM interface (Star Wars UI without the Stars) and see recent backups just fine. I can even choose a file out of one of those recent backups (via the starless Star Wars interface) and restore it to my iMac's internal hard drive without problem. As such, your suggestion to "see all mounted Volumes" does not apply to my situation that I can see.

What I am saying is that after I enter the TM interface by clicking the TM icon in my menu bar, I cannot go back and see some older backups on that same Volume. I can go back to maybe 5 or 6 backups, but all the stacked windows (in the Star Wars interface) behind that are grayed out as if those earlier backups don't exist. But I know they exist. I have backups on that same volume going back to 2010. I know they are still there because if I exit the TM Star Wars interface and then dig down into that Volume via the Finder (not within the TM interface, but within the Finder by double-clicking my TM backup Volume), I can see the individual back ups and extract files that way.

So do you see what I'm saying? I am saying that, for reasons unbeknownst to me, the TM Star Wars interface (now starless in Yosemite) isn't giving me full access to all backups on my external FW800 TM backup Volume. And yet the backups are there because I can access them outside the TM Star Wars interface via the Finder.

Do you understand what I mean?

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Answer 5

dot.com

Level 4

2,455 points

Dec 5, 2014 5:35 PM in response to JDW1

I've come across situations where there are two UUID's for the same computer in the Time Machine backup volume - If you look at your Time Machine mounted volume you might see two different UUID's rather than just the one you used to have. I think Time Machine can only fetch files from the UUID for the current system (not the UUID that your old system had). In other words I wonder if the upgrade created another UUID that makes it difficult to make use of the files backed up with the old UUID.

Not sure how to fix this - just wanted to point out something to check out. Here is a link that talks about how to associate one UUID volume with a current TM backup UUID volume http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/66598/how-do-i-continue-to-use-time-mac hine-backups-after-switching-my-hard-disk

Good luck...

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Answer 6

JDW1 Author

Level 1

67 points

Dec 7, 2014 9:30 PM in response to dot.com

Thank you for your reply, dot.com.

Using Terminal, I typed the following:

diskutil info /Volumes/<my TM disk name here>

That yielded the following info:

Volume UUID: DF366A36-XXXX-34BE-AAAA-C41E0CD5QQQQ

Disk / Partition UUID: 6C3D026F-ZZZZ-466C-BBBB-EC5886E4WWWW

(I didn't know if it is insecure to post the UUIDs so I changed some of the numbers in the UUIDs above.)

As you can see there is 1 UUID for the Volume and another different UUID for the Partition. Is this what you were talking about?

While reading the StackExchange / AskDifferent page you linked for me, I see the following line of interest:

Time Machine uses a unique ID (UUID), which is specific to a volume (i.e. a partition of a disk), to associate the volume with its backup.

But as you can see, in my case, although I have 2 UUIDs associated with my TM external FW800 drive, only one of those is associated with the "Partition."

So at this point, I am still very confused as to what I need to do next. Any further thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

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Answer 7

JDW1 Author

Level 1

67 points

Dec 8, 2014 11:39 PM in response to JDW1

😢

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Answer 8

Eric Root

Level 10

685,215 points

Dec 9, 2014 4:39 PM in response to JDW1

The suggestion I offered in my earlier post should cause the older backups to load, although slowly. Works for me.

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Answer 9

JDW1 Author

Level 1

67 points

Dec 9, 2014 8:52 PM in response to Eric Root

Eric, I appreciate your advice, but for the life of me, I don't follow where you're leading.

You see, your suggestion is to use the keyboard shortcut Shift-CMD-C. It's the same as clicking the Go menu (in the Finder) and choosing "Computer." When used in the Finder, it causes the foremost Window to change its file display to the ROOT level, such that all Volumes display in that same Window.

It would appear that you want me to use Shift-CMD-C while in the TM Starless Star Wars UI. I've don't that, and all it does is take me to the root level, showing me all the volumes in the Window. If I then (still within the Starless Star Wars TM UI) click "Documents" in the left sidebar and dig down to the folder I wish to view an old backup of, all I can see (in most cases) is the current "Today (Now)" Window file list, with all the windows stacked behind having grayed out title bars.

Of course, if I do another Shift-CMD-C while within the Starless Star Wars TM UI, and if I then choose my TM backup drive and dig down into it, then YES, of course, I can manually find my backup. But as I said before, that is what I can do anyway from within the Finder! No need for the Starless Star Wars UI for that!

The entire purpose of the Starless Star Wars UI is CONVENIENCE. Using that UI, I can open a Window in the Finder, then click "Enter Time Machine" from the menubar icon, then be presented with that same Window and then be able to flow seamlessly back in time through all backups of that particular Window / Folder.

So again, like I said before, the TM UI is partly broken after the Yosemite update. I can still access all my backups from 2010 on the same external FW800 drive, either by digging around via the Finder, or via manually digging on the TM drive from within the TM UI. But I cannot use the TM UI normally, which is to say, to open a Window in the Finder, then open TM, and then be able to seamlessly view all backups for that folder.

Do you understand what I mean now?

Thanks.

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Answer 10

JDW1 Author

Level 1

67 points

Dec 10, 2014 6:02 PM in response to JDW1

😟 Still dead in the water.

In order to help you experts help me, I've made a VIDEO with voiceover:

http://youtu.be/gO3Yux6zMik

I eagerly look forward to your kind replies.

Thank you.

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Answer 11

MooseTag

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2014 6:25 PM in response to Eric Root

I just realized what Eric Root was trying to explain to JDW1. I have followed this because I have had the same issue as JDW1. When I looked at the Root Level in the Sidebar in TM it actually showed 3 devices, 2 of which was the name of my current HD and the name that I used prior to upgrading to Yosemite. The end result was that I could browse all of my older backups under the device name that was previously used and restore from older backups. Thanks Eric Root!

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Answer 12

JDW1 Author

Level 1

67 points

Dec 10, 2014 6:48 PM in response to MooseTag

MooseTag, I am happy if my video helped you solve your problem. But for the life of me, I do not see how your problem could be "the same issue" as mine seeing that my problem is not solved.

More specifically, please look at the 2:20 (halfway point) of my video:

http://youtu.be/gO3Yux6zMik

Note that I press Shift-CMD-C which displays TWO items ONLY (Macintosh HD and my 2TB TM Drive). You are talking about THREE devices. So your situation is clearly different than mine.

Once, again, I would appreciate everyone watching my video to understand exactly the problem I have. Hopefully that will help you help me solve it.

I'm really quite desperate at this point.

Thanks.

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Answer 13

JDW1 Author

Level 1

67 points

Dec 11, 2014 6:31 PM in response to JDW1

http://youtu.be/gO3Yux6zMik

😢

I certainly could use some help.

"Pretty please"?

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Answer 14

Dec 12, 2014 7:26 AM in response to JDW1

We need some clarification on what your requirements might be, since you state that you want to be able to open Time Machine and see backups that were made since you installed Yosemite.....AND....older backups on the drive that were made before you installed Yosemite.

When Yosemite is installed it is supposed to add all of the data included in the Yosemite operating system and combine that with your history of backups with other operating systems. For a number of reasons.....Yosemite does not always do this.....so what happens is that Yosemite starts a whole new "master" backup of your Mac at the time and then begins to add incremental backups since Yosemite has been installed.

When that happens, and you click Enter Time Machine from the menu bar at the top of the screen, you will only see the backups that have been made since Yosemite was installed. Other backups are grayed out on the Time Machine interface display and cannot be accessed......even though the backup data is present on the hard drive, and you can see the data or folders displayed using the Finder.

If you want Time Machine to display current backups.....AND....older backups when you click Enter Time Machine, your only option would be to try to reinstall Yosemite to see if the new installation will display current backups and older backups on the same Time Machine interface.

There is absolutely no assurance that this will be successful if you try it. Your call on that.

What might work......IF.....you can lower your requirements to have both new and old backups displayed on the same Time Machine interface.....and instead have current Yosemite backups displayed on one Time Machine interface and the older backups on another, or separate Time Machine interface.......is to try the Browse Other Time Machine Disks option.

You do not mention at all whether or not you have tried the Browse Other Time Machine Disks in this post or in your video. I assume that you tried this, since it is mentioned in Pondini's documentation and also other Apple Time Machine documentation, and it also did not work for some reason.

But, if you have not done this......and you can lower your display requirements......you might want to try.

1) From your normal Mac desktop, make sure that the "dock" , normally at the bottom of the screen, is displayed......and that the Time Machine icon is displayed there as well.

2) Control-Click.....or.....Right-Click the Time Machine icon to see if an option to Browse Other Time Machine Disks is displayed

3) Click on Browse Other Time Machine Disks

4) If an option to use another disk is displayed, click on the disk to highlight it, then click Use This Disk

What happens when you do this?

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Answer 15

Dec 12, 2014 7:47 AM in response to JDW1

(And yes, I know about http://pondini.org. But my exact case isn't listed there, and Pondini says not to email him directly, but rather post here in this forum.)

Pondini does reference a situation as yours. See clip below from that site.

http://pondini.org/TM/E2.html

Also, this supports what Bob Timmons sent you further downstream.

For a number of reasons.....Yosemite does not always do this.....so what happens is that Yosemite starts a whole new "master" backup of your Mac at the time and then begins to add incremental backups since Yosemite has been installed.

When that happens, and you click Enter Time Machine from the menu bar at the top of the screen, you will only see the backups that have been made since Yosemite was installed.

The suggestion that Eric Root sent you regarding shift_command+c is listed there, too.

Some backups are faded-out and not selectable

What you see in Time Machine depends partly on how you got there. If you start from, say, a Finder window showing a folder that was created recently, the backups before that date will be faded-out and you can't select them.

Click something else in the Finder's sidebar, such as your home folder or computer name; then you should be able to display the other backups.

If the Finder window doesn't have a sidebar, or what you need isn't listed there, quit Time Machine and show the sidebar (click the small lozenge at the upper right or select View > Show Sidebar from the menubar). If you want to change the contents of the sidebar, select Finder > Preferences > Sidebar from the menubar. Then re-enter Time Machine.

Or select your computer name in the sidebar, or press Shift+Cmd+C, then Enter Time Machine.

If you're having trouble understanding or navigating the display, see question #15A.

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