Time Machine: cannot access backups

Hi Eric,

Thanks for responding. I really don't like to tamper with any permissions to Time Machine as I know it's complex, but I actually before posting changed just the Everyone permissions to R&W on the backups.backupd folder and started a manual TM backup and it reverted back to Everyone: No Access.

So something is not right with TM permissions on this volume. Pondini? Linc Davis? Any advice?

Thanks all

Hi notcloudy,

I don't have to be signed in as System to access the Time Machine volume, or it's backups.backupd folder.

With my user account (which is admin) I should to be able to access previous Time Machine backups via 'Enter TimeMachine' GUI and I should also be able to traverse through the backups.backupd folder.

Any other advice appreciated.

Thanks

My issue is not resolved - (not sure how but the forum posted this as resolved)

Hi notcloudy,

The thing I find wrong about my Time Machine drive (which is an external HD) is somehow the System / root account on my Mac owns the drive. I don't ever user that account, not sure how 'System' became owner of the drive.

The current user account I'm logged into a called 'Administrator' and that user should become owner of the drive and the backups.backupd folder.

I have plugged in this Time Machine drive into other Macs and when I do, the drive owner changes to the user I am logged into on other Macs. And also the owner of the backups.backupd folder also changes to the user I am logged into on other Macs. I have several other TM external HD's that behave this same way with permissions when plugged into other systems, so I believe this is the norm..

BTW, this Time Machine drive of mine is a 4TB HD that I was not able to format using 10.6.8 Disk Utility, so I had to partition and format it (GUID,Mac OS extended journaled) on a system with Yosemite. Could this have caused this issue (I highly doubt it but I'm putting everything out here..)

So how can I set this drive owner permissions right, just completely erase hard drive and start Time Machine again all on this 10.6.8 system? (would hate to erase all my backup history...)

Hi Eric,

I already tried step A4 and unfortunately this did not resolve the permissions issue.

Thanks all

Hi all,

So it seems after some testing I found that a hard drive partitioned with disk utility on a higher OS then my 10.6.8 system, the permissions of the drive, its partitions and the backups.backupd folder will default to:

system:r&w

wheel:r&w

everyone:no access

when connected to my 10.6.8 system, and time machine would backup to the drive but backups were inaccessible.

But with partitions created on a drive* in disk utility on my 10.6.8 system, those partitions would be:

<current user>:r&w

staff:r&w

everyone:r

and the time machine backups.backupd folder and previous backups in the 'enter time machine' GUI were accessible.

*even if a drive was first partitioned on a higher OS, only new partitions added to the drive via 10.6.8 disk utility had their permissions right.

Perhaps this is just an issue with my 10.6.8 system, but if not, I hope this solution can be helpful to someone else in the same predicament.