Big Sur CLAIMS to be able to look at other Time Machine volumes but doesn't (also: permissions)

[RealMonster]

So, scrolling around, it looks like there are lots of issues with Time Machine and Big Sur, particularly with older data. I didn't see this anywhere, though.

I'm migrating from a machine running El Capitan. I actually set the new Mac up fresh, and I'm going to pull over just what I need. (The old machine had a 1TB drive and this one only has 256GB, so I'm trying to ditch any old, useless cruft.)

If I option-click on the Time Machine icon, it says I can browse backups of other drives, and lists my backup on the backup drive. Great! So I click on it and I go into the Time Machine interface...and it's really just Time Machine for this brand new machine. It's not trying to access those old files at all.

I've worked around it by giving terminal full disk access and doing su root, so I'll be able to copy things, but this seems like an absurdly big hammer, and I'd really just like to be able to drag and drop these files. (I suspect it has something to do with user IDs, and my current user ID on the new machine doesn't match up with the UID on the old machine, so it thinks I don't have any permissions.)

Anyone have any advice on how to make it do what I want?

 

[rmn1644]

Same exact problem. How did they break Time Machine?

 

[randolorian]

I can’t remember the details, but I believe I worked around this by copying my home folder from TM as root onto my Mac’s drive. The copy process matched my new permissions. Then I pulled everything I needed out of the copied folder.

 

[rmn1644]

I decided to upgrade my old Mac to Big Sur and then do the backup. Pretty terrible user experience Apple, but as always, they only want us to go forward.

I was trying to do a "fresh" install and figured I could use the TM backup. In the end I'm still going to do a fresh install but seems like just using AirDrop is the way to go. Adios crud!

 

[9927036]

I decided to upgrade my old Mac to Big Sur and then do the backup. Pretty terrible user experience Apple, but as always, they only want us to go forward.

I was trying to do a "fresh" install and figured I could use the TM backup. In the end I'm still going to do a fresh install but seems like just using AirDrop is the way to go. Adios crud!

How are you using AirDrop to get the files from the old TM backup.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I decided to upgrade my old Mac to Big Sur and then do the backup. Pretty terrible user experience Apple, but as always, they only want us to go forward.

I was trying to do a "fresh" install and figured I could use the TM backup. In the end I'm still going to do a fresh install but seems like just using AirDrop is the way to go. Adios crud!

A fresh install is now separate from using Time Machine to restore files. If you want to restore personal files with Time Machine, you have to use Migration Assistant.