Problems with accessing old time machine backup

[ElenaKrafft]

Hello everyone!

I am very new to the time machine option on mac and now facing an issue with it.
I have made a backup of my whole mac in June this year.
Two days I wanted to access a few files that in the meantime have been deleted. I connected my external drive (not an apple time capsule though) and was perfectly able to access any of the old files I needed. That day I was not able to finish everything so in the evening I disconnected the drive again.
Today I wanted to continue, however, now I cannot access any backup from June anymore. I simply can't click on it anymore. I realized that when I connected it two days ago it automatically started a new backup as I had the setting on "back up automatically". This new update now shows as "in progress" since I probably disconnected the device before the back up finished (not being aware that it had even started).
Is there any way I can still access the June version? When I go to time machine info tab, it tells me the last back up is actually from June, since the one of 2 days ago wasn't finished. Would it help to delete the in progress file?

What can I do?? I was so happy when I saw two days ago that I was able to access all the files, and then today all the hopes were destroyed again :'(

 

[Fishrrman]

(sigh)
Here's but one more example of why I don't use tm.

To wit:
Someone uses tm for months or years, thinking it's "backing up" their data.
And then... when they actually try to ACCESS the backup... they run into problems, as did the user above.

OP:
I can't help with the tm problems.

But I CAN help with advice for the future:
STOP USING time machine, and start using either SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner.
Either one of these will serve you well in "a moment of extreme need", which is where you are now.

 

[maflynn]

What can I do??

What you want to do is access the Time Machine backup through Finder and not the App. The data may still be there just under a different name.
Use Finder to Access FileVault Backups on a Time Machine

Here's how to open a FileVault Backup:

1. Open a Finder window on the Mac by clicking the Finder icon on the dock or by using the keyboard shortcut Command + N.
2. Click the drive you use for Time Machine backups in the left panel of the Finder window.
   
   
3. Open the Backups.backupdb folder and then the folder that has the name of your computer. Within the latter is a list of folders with dates and times.
   
   
4. Open the folder that corresponds to the backup date for the file you want to restore.
   
   
5. You are presented with another folder named after your computer. Open this. Within this folder is a representation of your entire Mac at the time the backup was taken.
   
   
6. Use the Finder to browse to your user account home folder, usually along this path: ComputerName > Users > username. Inside is a file named username.sparsebundle. This is the copy of your FileVault-protected user account.
   
   
7. Double-click the username.sparsebundle file.
   
   
8. Supply the user account password to mount and decrypt the image file.
   
   
9. Use the browser to navigate the FileVault image as if it were any other folder on your Mac. Locate the files or folders you want to restore, and drag them to the desktop or another location.

When you've finished copying the files you want, be sure to log out or unmount the username.sparsebundle image.

STOP USING time machine, and start using either SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner.

While Super Duper and CCC are great products, that doesn't mean TM is bad. No matter what backup solution you use, its on the user to validate/confirm the backup. Additionally, its very likely that Time Machine did not fail the OP in this case. It just acted in a way he's not expecting.

Time Machine is a great solution for consumers who wouldn't normally backup and its all but automatic and provides a great way to ensure your data. Plus it can offer versioning, something that doesn't really exist out of the box for SuperDuper or CCC. You can get those to work that way, but Apple has the process hands down and so much easier.

I've used both in the past, CCC for long term full cloning of my drive, and TM for versioning and incremental backups (yes I know CCC offers incremental backups). This approach has saved my bacon numerous times, especially when I over write a file I didn't mean too.

 

[mw360]

It may sort itself out when the back-up is all caught up, or it may not. In such a situation I don't trust it to do the right thing. Turn off Time Machine, and browse into the back-up disk using Finder. There's a Backup disk image in there which you should be able to open, and in there you'll find all your backed-up data nearly organised in folders. Once you've found what you need and copied it out, you can probably let TM carry on with its back-up. Once it's finished it might start working normally again.