Cannot Go Back More Than 1 Day in Time Machine

[Michael the T]

Hello,

Recently I used the Get Info to make myself an Admin for the hard disk in its entirety. Giving me auto access to all other accounts, etc. Turned out that was not such a good idea.

Decided to undo all of this by going back in Time Machine until before I made this change. Time Machine has been running as my external backup drive for years and has 700+ GB of backups.

But when I went into Time Machine, it would only go back one day - probably back to the time I first made the bonehead Admin move. All the rest of my backups TM cannot seem to see anymore.

I tried restoring back that one day and it didn't change much, except now most of my Apple programs will not run! Safari and iTunes still work, most anything else, contacts, iBooks, iCal, etc. nada.

Any idea how I can get to all the rest of the backups on my Time Machine?

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help.

 

[Michael the T]

Duh Department.

Some useful info. This is a 27" Intel iMac, circa 2010 which has been running Yosemite for awhile. 3.6 GHz, 8 GB ram.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

Yes, that is a bad idea to globally set permissions via the Get Info dialog box. Since you have a recent backup, you can try the steps outlined at the following link:

How to fix home folder permissions in OS X | MacIssues

I suggest doing both Repair Permissions using Disk Utility AND Reset Home Directory Permissions an ACLs.

As always, proceed at your own risk and good luck.

C

 

[Michael the T]

Thank you. I will give it a try when I am home. Will let you know how it goes either way.

 

[Michael the T]

Okay, tried your suggestion but no love. Have the same two problems.

1. Most all of the programs on the Mac that comes from Apple will not work. Safari works, as does iTunes. Everything else from Maps to Calculator unexpectedly quits the moment I open them. This is a problem across all accounts, not just mine.

Most third party software works. Tinker tool does not.

2. My Time Machine drive still will not recognize any backups before I globally set permissions last tuesday. The external drive shows over 700 GB filled, so the earlier backups are still there. But the Mac can't find all the backups before I made the global change.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Sorry that didn't help.

The next step would be to reinstall Yosemite over the top of your current installation. Since you have a recent backup, you should be safe. The reinstall simply moves your current installation into a folder, reinstalls the OS, then migrates your apps and files into the new system, then deletes the old system. You would then need to run Software Update to get back to the current 10.10.2 version. Once the system is running normally again, you should be able to choose your external for Time Machine and the old backup should show up.

Just curious, the Sharing name of the Mac didn't change when you did the permissionschange did it? It may not see the backups if the name changed from say Michael's Mac to Michael's Mac (2) and such.

OS X Yosemite: Reinstall OS X

C

 

[Michael the T]

Okay doing what you suggested at least got all my programs working again. Yay!

Still no luck with Time Machine. Last tuesday is as far back as I can go. At this point I really don't think it matters through. I think I will reformat the drive and start all over again.

You mentioned the Sharing name of the Mac. That one is unfamiliar to me. Where does one find the Sharing name?

Overall though, excellent advice and most everything is back to normal. I cannot thank you enough!!!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Excellent! Glad most of it is sorted.

Sharing name is in Apple > System Preferences... > Sharing > Computer Name

I would wait on the reformat of the TM HD. Make sure all your files are there and accessible, then you can proceed. Better yet, if you happen to have a second HD, make a TM backup first, then redo the original TM HD.

C