Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Entering Time Machine glitch?

You are right about reporting small bugs like this. This is the sort of thing that can be left unfixed for years. Logic X also has a lot of little things like this that will probably be overlooked if people don't report them frequently. Some people just end up living with it if they even notice.
 
Wow, I'm so glad that I found someone else with this problem! Yes, I can confirm this in Mavericks! It's very annoying indeed, and must be a bug, and not an intentional thing. It's very inconvenient to have to re-navigate back to the folder I want.
 
Someone told me to do this, and it actually worked. When viewing a folder and you want to browse its backups through Time Machine, click on the Time Machine icon in the menu bar, then hold the Option key and click "Browse other backup disks". Then choose your backup disk, and it will work. I think this is a workaround because I still believe that this is a bug, since it worked fine before Mavericks, but it actually works for now. Let me know if it works for you too!
 
I still can't produce KoolAid's bug, but after reporting my TM bug and responding to a request for a tmdiagnose output, I got a response that an engineer had determined that my bug report was a duplicate and that it was being closed. To be honest, that's the eventual response *every* time I've ever reported an iOS or OS X bug. But it still gives them another data point.
 
Gary King said:
Someone told me to do this, and it actually worked. When viewing a folder and you want to browse its backups through Time Machine, click on the Time Machine icon in the menu bar, then hold the Option key and click "Browse other backup disks". Then choose your backup disk, and it will work. I think this is a workaround because I still believe that this is a bug, since it worked fine before Mavericks, but it actually works for now. Let me know if it works for you too!
Click to expand...


Gary that does work. Now if I can only remember that.....
 
I confirm that TimeMachine on my system has issues nearly identical to what are being reported here. Wondered if it were just me or whether it was a real bug. It is mainly the UI issues for me - can't select a different folder other than the home folder; do a search and can't get out of it...etc.

I'm almost sure Apple knows about it by now....any dev ppl. want to submit a report and have it closed as a duplicate? ;) I'm dev, but tired of submitting bug reports that just get closed.
 
KoolAid-Drink said:
Okay! So I've taken the advice of xgman - here's what I did:

a) Remove the backup drive from TM preferences (this will NOT remove backups)
b) Go to [root hard drive]/Library/Preferences, DELETE com.apple.TimeMachine.plist, and empty the trash. Restart your computer.
c) After restarting, re-setup Time Machine (as well as any exclusions you formerly had).

This step takes care of the "redirecting" to the Home Folder, but there are still plenty of weird issues in the UI. The first time I entered TM (the starfield view), it smoothly resized the folder and entered just fine, but subsequent times, it wasn't smooth (abrupt resizing of windows), BUT stayed in the same folder.

There was also a very weird issue when going back in time, sometimes the window view completely disappeared and went black. When I clicked "Cancel" (or pressed Escape), it wouldn't respond until I clicked again/pressed ESC again. Just VERY, VERY buggy and rough around the edges. Never had a problem with this in ML, and this backup IS from ML. I'm not sure if the same behavior would remain with new, Mavericks-only backups, though.

I'll share a video of what happens now when I'm finally able to upload it on YouTube.
Click to expand...

So I followed your steps, and reset my Time Machine. I still have the old backups. So like you, the problem fixed itself for a few attempts, and now it's back to before. When I open Time Machine while I am viewing a folder on an external drive, I get moved to my /Users/gary folder. I guess this is happening to you too, so you haven't found a fix for this?
 
Nope, I've learned to live with it for now, it's obviously a number of UI bugs, hopefully Apple is aware of this and a fix is forthcoming in 10.9.1 or .9.2.

Gary King said:
So I followed your steps, and reset my Time Machine. I still have the old backups. So like you, the problem fixed itself for a few attempts, and now it's back to before. When I open Time Machine while I am viewing a folder on an external drive, I get moved to my /Users/gary folder. I guess this is happening to you too, so you haven't found a fix for this?
Click to expand...


----------

I understand you're tired of doing this and hitting a brick wall sometimes, but could you PLEASE report the TM UI bugs? Perhaps send them a link to the video as well that I posted upthread of the blackout UI... I really feel if this is reported "internally", there's a better chance this could be fixed ASAP. And, no, it's not just you for sure. It's a relief knowing it's pretty much everyone else.

ultraspiracle said:
I confirm that TimeMachine on my system has issues nearly identical to what are being reported here. Wondered if it were just me or whether it was a real bug. It is mainly the UI issues for me - can't select a different folder other than the home folder; do a search and can't get out of it...etc.

I'm almost sure Apple knows about it by now....any dev ppl. want to submit a report and have it closed as a duplicate? ;) I'm dev, but tired of submitting bug reports that just get closed.
Click to expand...
 
For now, the Workaround for the Home folder switching is, as was said above, click the TM menu bar icon and the press ALT and then choose "Browse Other backup Disks" to keep it from switching to the USER folder.
 
late to this thread.. but I've also seen the behaviour mentioned by the OP since upgrading to Mavericks. at first I thought I was imagining things...

need to try a few more cases to characterize it, but it seems to depend on which folder I'm in when I enter Time Machine.

first noticed it when entering TM from a shared folder (/Users/Shared) - the Finder goes back to my home directory just beforing entering Time Machine, which is definitely different than I remember it doing prior to 10.9

but starting from other folders within my home directory (like Documents) seem to work as expected, the Finder view stays where I was before entering Time Machine. very annoying
 
I owe jhfenton a beer (or coffee!) :)

I have had this issue ALL DAMN DAY and your bug sighting about TM and multiple displays is exactly what I've been having trouble with.

My finder window sits on display 2. I enter Time Machine but can't select any items (folders, icons, finder settings) at all. As soon as I moved the finder to display 1, I was able to access the folders.

Thank you, JHfenton!!!!!!

Reporting but to apple now.


jhfenton said:
It's not jumping folders on me, but I did find a problem.

1. Open a Finder window on Display 2.
2. Navigate to a random folder.
3. Enter Time Machine from the menu.
4. Time Machine opens on Display 1 in the random folder.
5. It is impossible to interact with the folder or any items in it. I can navigate backward and forward in time, but I can't select anything to restore.

If I have the Finder Window on Display 1 when I Enter Time Machine, it works fine.
Click to expand...
 
I also just reported those issues to Apple. Didn't realize it was free to submit bug reports, oops.

I understand that if you submit the bug, it may be filed as Duplicate, but the more bug reports Apple gets about this, the better chance we have of getting this fixed. So, take 5 minutes and send this report to Apple - link to this thread if you want.
 
b.c. said:
late to this thread.. but I've also seen the behaviour mentioned by the OP since upgrading to Mavericks. at first I thought I was imagining things...

need to try a few more cases to characterize it, but it seems to depend on which folder I'm in when I enter Time Machine.

first noticed it when entering TM from a shared folder (/Users/Shared) - the Finder goes back to my home directory just beforing entering Time Machine, which is definitely different than I remember it doing prior to 10.9

but starting from other folders within my home directory (like Documents) seem to work as expected, the Finder view stays where I was before entering Time Machine. very annoying
Click to expand...

I wish we knew whether this is intentional for some reason.
 
All-
Reading through this thread I don't think this tip may address everyone's issues. But for those experiencing TM jumping to the home directory and not letting you browse anywhere else when you have a dual display setup, go to System Preferences, Mission Control, and disable "Displays have separate spaces". Then logout and try again.

Time Machine and separate spaces are not living well together. Other behaviors, like the wrong screen blacking out, half a the time machine window being blacked out, folder browsing, etc. all seem to have something to do with this new "feature".

What is really annoying is that when I need to restore something from TM, I find myself having to change the setting, logout, run TM, change setting, logout... because I really like the "separate spaces" feature! Eliminates many of the "full screen" display conflicts that have plagued so many applications (like Sling via browser, Plex, etc.) in past OS versions.

Oh the irony, that is causes new problems for one of the OS's own functions. :-(
 
Can anyone confirm if the weird TM issues reported in this thread were fixed at all, or not, in 10.9.3?
 
Nope. Am discouraged to say that 10.9.3 fixed squat. Still the same old issues. All this despite an engineer over at bugreport.apple.com confirming a fix was in the works. They said this before 10.9.1!

Makes no sense at all.
 
not fixed.

I updated to 10.9.3, and I still see the same behaviour as I noted in my earlier post:

if I'm in the finder in certain folders, e.g. /Users/Shared and then enter Time Machine, that open finder window first changes to my home directory and then opens TM from there.

Also, if you exit TM from there, the open Finder window remains the home window, not the folder you started with (/Users/Shared)

p.s. I don't have a dual display setup, but just for fun I turned off the "Displays have separate spaces" setting in Mission Control and logged out, as suggested by @brian163. No difference, the problem still occurs.
 
Last edited:
A bit late, I know, but sadly, none of the issues reported above has been fixed as of 10.9.4, and this is coming from an user who doesn't have a dual display. Very baffling, for sure.

I am, however, happy to report that, so far, in the Yosemite betas/DP's, the problems listed above has seemed to vanish. When going from a folder outside the home folder in TM on Yosemite, the folder sticks. The animation is also back to normal (gentle 'resizing' of the window). The only bug that remains is the empty Finder windows when going back into time, not the windows animating with everything still in them, if that makes sense, but that's very minor.

Now, let's hope that 10.9.5 will finally get this fixed, and that Yosemite will also keep this properly repaired, like it is now. Hope, hope.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back