OS X Mountain Lion :: Time Machine From Two Macs On To One Disk
Jun 20, 2014
We have two Macs. I use my Mac for work and Time Machine to keep a backup of my Mac every hour. Occasionally (every few months) I'll unplug the external hard-disk from my Mac and use Time Machine to backup my wife's Mac. Hence, two Macs, both using the same hard-drive to backup to. Recently there is only the space on the disk for Time Machine to keep backups of my Mac from the previous day.
Is there a way to delete backups of my wife's Mac to give my backups more space? Can I simply open the back up disk and delete a few of the backups of my wife's computer? or do I need to do something more complicated like partition the disk? or is there a way to tell Time Machine to keep more of my backups and less of my wife's?
I have port forwarded port 46 (TCP and UDP) to port 548 a Mac mini server running Mac OS X 10.6.8, and I have Time Machine backup disk on it set as a share point with Time Machine support enabled. On my Mac Pro running OS X 10.8.5, I am able to connect via AFP to my server with the address "afp://my-ip-address:46" and can read and write on the backup disk share point. I tested that, and it works. When I am on the same LAN as the server, I can use that disk for Time Machine and have been doing so for years. However, I cannot do a Time Machine backup to that share point over the WAN. When I open Time Machine preferences, I can select the share point as my backup disk, but once I start the backup, it says "Backup disk not available" and fails to start.
In case you're wondering, I forward port 46 to port 548 instead of port 548 to port 548 to minimize hacking attempts. Last time I used a default port, a computer in Taiwan started spamming SSH authentication failures.
I have a question which I am quite unsure. I am shopping for a HDD drive (Western Digital My Book 3 TB) and was told that it cannot be reformatted to be compatible with TIme Machine.
MacBook Pro mid-2012, 8GB RAM, 750GB hard drive, Mac OS X 10.8.5
One Time Capsule at home
One Time Capsule in vacation home
MBP backs up everything on internal hard drive to Time Capsule at home, where we live during summer and spring. When moving to vacation home in fall and winter, MBP backs up everything to Time Capsule in vacation home.
During the 6 months at each residence, the backups work great to the Time Capsule at that particular house. However, after some time (maybe a week?), Time Machine displays an error in Notification Center: "Time Machine can't complete backup to Home Time Capsule" (when in vacation home) or "Time Machine can't complete backup to Vacation Time Capsule" (when at home).
It's obvious that this occurs because Time Machine was set to back up to 2 Time Capsules and expects both of them to be reachable. Is there a way to suppress these Time Machine errors for the time that we're away from one of the Time Capsules?
I have successfully transferred my account information from my '09 OSX10.7 MacBook to a 2014 OSX10,10,1 Power Book. Will Time Machine on the new Laptop immediately recognize the back-up data on the External Drive used with Time Machine on the old Laptop? If not, are there instructions on how to get Time Machine to access this data automatically (vs Manual file selection)?
Info: MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)
To cure some problems I reinstalled the iMac install DVD, erasing the hard drive, then installed 10.8.5 and it's working. I then entered to the time machine to the date when I still was using 10.8.5 not the dreaded 10.9.4. But the restore button won't come on and respond. I did all this to get out of 10.9.4. Why won't the time machine restore?
Time will start a new complete backup every week or two. No long term back up.This is the message I get; "Time machine completed a verification of your backup on "GoFlexHome". To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you"
My iMac (2010) has been having tons of issues lately. More specifically, when I attempted to upgrade to Mavericks last week, it came back with S.M.A.R.T. errors after a scan, so it wouldn't allow me to update. So, in preparation for the HDD to crap out on me, I did frequent back-ups using Time Machine. Well, the day finally came and my iMac won't "turn on" anymore. When I turn it on, it sits at the Mac loading screen for several minutes and then just goes to a blank white screen.
If I buy a new iMac or a new macbook or whatever, will it be possible to use my Time Machine back-ups to restore everything on it or will it not allow me to because the operating systems are different? As mentioned, I attempted to make a restore on my friend's macbook that I purchased as a spare but when I tried, it came back saying "Different operating systems, cannot restore" or something to that degree. Is there a way around this? Do I have to somehow downgrade the OS on my new machine? I use iTunes for all my movies/music & Adobe Creative cloud so I can easily restore those on any machine but my desktop personal data, photos, etc are on the Time Machine restore.
I had a Mac from 2006. Bought a new one in 2011. I have a time machine back up from my old mac.. This HD was damaged in 2010 and recently repaired. I bought a new HD and used it with time machine on my new mac. I am looking for something on my old Time Machine... Specifically iTunes playlists.. They are very difficult to find by just searching through the back up folder.. What I want to do is, enter the old time machine on my old HD and export some of the iTunes playlists to my new HD. Then of course go back to my current time machine back up and continue using my computer... Can I do this? and Can I have both Time machine devices connected to the computer at the same time?
Info: MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
Awhile back I installed a wonderfully speedy SSD in my mid-2009 MBP. I used Time Machine to "restore" my stuff. I thought it odd that after that, song files would come up as "locked"...after awhile I realized that EVERY song file in the iTunes Library was now "locked". The FOLDERS are NOT locked, but all the mp3 files within each folder ARE locked.
I know, of course, that "command-i" and uncheck the locked box works on each individual file, but how do I do this on the entire library? Is that even possible? The tedium of opening every single folder and unlocking every file individually would be insane. Is there any way to select the iTunes Music folder and have all the files in all subfolders "unlocked" at once?
How to restore a file from the Time Share volume of one mac to a different mac.
I have 2 machines: macbook pro & mac air both both running latest mountian lion. Each keeps its own time share volume on a network server. The two have some sync'd shares, but in general, they are not fully sync'd.
the macbook pro is in the shop for repair for a few days and I'd like to fetch some of it's files from its time machine backup onto the macair. I'm a little reluctant to simply fire up Time Machine on the mac air and respecify it's storage volume to be the macbook pro's volume. I'm concerned about internal configuration changes Time Machine might make to the mac air, including making changes that might cause it to have to do a full (not differential) back up when I reconfigure the mac air's Time Machine to use it's own backup volume after I'm done getting files from the macbook pro backup volume.
In addition to simply getting access to some of the files of the mac in the shop, I want to get the mac calendar from that machine and use it on the mac air. I understand that this may be somewhat trickier.
My 2008 iMac bit the dust but I did consistently back up using Time Machine to an external drive. I plan on replacing it but need to get some files off the backup soon. Is it possible to connect my external backup drive to a friends iMac and copy just the files I need?
Mac Mini running 10.8.5. Time Machine will not back up brand new OWC MiniStack external HD. I've trashed TM prefs, reformatted the TM drive, verified that there are no exclusions, but it won't back up the external HD which contains only data files -- no system, no applications. TM does back up the internal HD.
I was using an external drive for Time Machine for the past year and a few months On Saturday a message came up that it failed. I tried initiating the Time Machine again but failed. I decided to get a new bigger external drive to use for Time Machine. When trying to eject the external drive I was using it gives me this message:
Would it be safe just to force eject or log out and then log back in again to eject it so I can use my new external drive?
It's an IMAP account, and someone accessed the email from an iPad - almost the entire inbox was emptied.
I have TM running and I have restored the INBOX.mbox file to the finder just in case. And here are the steps I have followed: Tried to restore all the emails into the inbox in question through TimeMachine in Mail.Tried to restore the entire INBOX through TimeMachine in Mail.Tried to restore email via importing the recovered folder.Tried to do a test import of 1 email through TimeMachine in Mail.
All failed.
The sent items are still OK and present, and the account is in active use, so if I could just restore the inbox emails that would be the best.
I understand that when they are restored they will need to upload to the server and populate there, but 2 hours should definitely be enough and there is no visible activity in my mail to indicate that is happening.
Info: Mac mini (Late 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3), 16gb RAM
I'm one of the unlucky owners of Macbook Retina 15" Mid 2012. I was very satisfied with this computer, everything was great, untill I installed OS X Mavericks. My computer started to have GPU Panics all the time under some "heavier" usage like watching long videos on YouTube. I googled this problem and then I saw that I wasn't the only one, many people had problems after upgrading to Mavericks. I also read that downgrading to Mountain Lion solves the problem, but after the Internet Recovery update, when you are restoring your mac, it restores as Mavericks. I read Apple instruction how to revert os x, but it requires Time Machine backup from Mountain Lion, I already downloaded ML Installer from AppStore but I don't know how to install it.
I can't copy a Time Machine backup file (Backups.backupb) from one external hard drive to another. Both hard drives are Seagate 1TB Backup Plus. The Backups.backupb file is about 275GB. When I try to drag and drop the Backups.backupb file from one drive to the other (which I've tried three times) it to begins copy but after about 3GBs are copied I get a message that says "The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -50)."
I formatted (erased) the new hard drive with Disk Utility as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Apple Support says I should format the new drive in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) "with a GUID partition," but I don't see the GUID partition as an option when I format the drive. Is this necessary, and if so, how do it do it? I'm using OS 10.8.6 on a 2012 MacBook Pro retna.
I also tried copying the backup files to another drive (a Maxtor HD) and got the same error message.
I have a 2TB Time Machine drive that has failed (directory errors). Disk Utility, Disk Warrior and Data Rescue 3 didn't work. DR3 showed the directory but can't restore it. Can I manually restore the backup folder (backups.backupdb) ?
Info: MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), 17 inch i7 Late 2011
For the past two weeks I've been having some major issues backing up my computer with Time Machine. It's become quite a process.
iMac 27", Mountain Lion
I am backing up to a brand new - well bought in February, '14 - 1TB external hard drive and there is NOTHING else in there except the TM backups.
For the past two weeks it's been failing the automatic backups. There is PLENTY of room on the drive.
The exact error message reads:"Time Machine ErrorUnable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folderLatest successful backup: [time and day entered here]"
To remedy this at first it was as easy as un-mounting the drive and then plugging it back in and it was fine.
Now I've got the disk utility open and constantly repairing the drive and this is only a temporary solution.
Below is a small sample of the report from the utility each one is dated.
How to fix this without having to purchase a new drive? In February the old external drive I had started to freak TM out and it just erased ALL my backups which I desperately needed due to the same error / failure. That drive had plenty of space as well but I lost all my stuff anyway.
I know the TM isn't for archiving and another question I have is, How can I transfer or even rename the backup folder that TM makes and move it to a 'free drive' to prevent overwriting? Right now I just keep buying new drives which is ridiculous.
I excluded for one TM backup a sparse bundle disk image that I have been backing up regularly. I then immediately removed the sparse bundle disk image from the TM exclusions list, and now TM wants to back up the entire sparse bundle disk image, which contains an iPhoto Library (80GB). It seems that TM does not "see" the previous disk image backups.
Info: iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), 21.5-inch, Late 2009
My time machine backup isnt working for the last few months. The backup is located on a QNAP TS-670.
I can look for the TM and the iMac see the TM, but if I start the backup, a popup comes up. "The image of the backup-volume "/Volume/TMBackup/Danielas iMac.sparsebundle" cant be accessed. (Error -1)
Maybe it is not the exact error message in english, but I hope you know what I mean. Im working on a german system.
I can access the TM-Share through the finder (share: afp://[...]).
Here is the log I've got from the terminal: Danielas-iMac:~ danielawendling$ tail -f /var/log/system.log |grep backupJun 6 14:43:36 Danielas-iMac.local com.apple.backupd[323]: Failed to eject volume /Volumes/TMBackup (FSVolumeRefNum: -105; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
This morning I thought I was deleting the keychain password to one account, when I accidentally deleted all of my keychain storage items. I followed the directions from the Support Community to restore the Keychain Folder using my Time Machine backup. I even restored the .plist files.
However, now when I open a site in Safari, only the user name is pre-populated, but not the password. When Safari asks me if I want to save the password in my Keychain, an error message pops up telling me "A keychain cannot be found to store password." I'm given the option to Cancel or Reset to Defaults. I'm not sure what to do. I'm even afraid to restart my Mac fearing I won't be able to log in or connect to my wifi network.
I also cannot get any of my emails through the Mail application. It keeps prompting me to enter my password, but then won't allow me to hit the Okay button b/c it's grayed-out.
Info: MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), 3rd gen. iPod; 2nd gen. Shuffle; 3rd gen. Nano
I am running Mountain Lion 10.8.5 on a MacBook Air. I have email messages saved to Mailboxes in Mail on my hard drive, and these messages are also backed up in Time Machine. How do I delete certain of these backed-up messages? If the files were accessible in the Finder, I know how to use the action menu (gear icon) to delete all backups of the chosen file. But I don't see any way to delete the email messages in Mail on T.M.
I ran an experiment with Time Machine. Last Monday I attached a freshly erased 2TB Time Machine external HD to a Mac Mini with 400GB of data on the internal 1TB HD with no exclusions. I left the Mac Mini off network -- no wifi, no ethernet -- and did not use it for one full week. Today the 2TB Time Machine HD has only 35GB of free space.
Why is Time Machine filling up the HD with incremental backups when the computer is not in use?
I have purchased a Bose Wave SoundTouch music system and am having major problems connecting to my Apple Time Machine WiFi facility. This WIFi works with various other domestic items. The problem appears to be associated with the Apple WiFi password. I have been using this password for several years before buying my Apple iMac without any problem. procedure for changing the WiFi password.
Since the harddrive of my IMac was full, I added an external harddrive to the system for my photos. I use another external harddrive for time machine back-ups (backing up both the IMac and external harddrive with my iPhoto libraries). Recently the EHD with my photo libraries crashed. I now want to restore it from time machine onto a new external harddrive, but am not quite sure how to do this.
Info: iMac (21.5-inch Late 2009), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
I just had to install a new hard drive to my mid 2010 imac. I restored with time machine. I cannot find the original OS disc. Upon restoring it appears there is a problem with the webkit framework as Safari, App store, and Skype all freeze upon clicking on them and after bouncing, they never open. Chrome is working. What do I do?
Info: iMac (27-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)
