Lost Time Machine backups after Sierra upgrade

[Tacticus]

After upgrading my MBP to High Sierra I am unable to restore any backups from my Time Machine (it's on an external hard drive). When I select any of the dates on the timeline no response as if there aren't any backups. I know there were backups though because I have restored old files when on the previous OS. I read that Sierra has a new Apple file system but surely I should be able to restore TM backups from the previous OS ?

Does anybody know if I can retrieve these backups (or even specific files) or have they been deleted ?

Please help ! Thanks.

 

[madrich]

With any new OS X, the TM will not allow you view files under the old OS X. You could partition your drive and restore the old OS X and open the TM under that partition, or you could use the Migration Assistant under High Sierra to copy back old data under the old OS X.

Here's a helpful link: http://web.archive.org/web/20171009200926/http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

 

[Tacticus]

That sounds useful thanks, I will take a look. So you think my data is still there but just cannot be viewed via the new OSX ?

 

[MSastre]

This is another example of why it is always a good idea to have a bootable clone of your system drive (using CCC or SuperDuper) in addition to (or instead of) a TM backup before making any OS changes, especially with the file system changes HS makes. Much easier and better to do a clean install, re-download the apps you use, then migrate the files you still want.

 

[madrich]

That sounds useful thanks, I will take a look. So you think my data is still there but just cannot be viewed via the new OSX ?

Right. All your data should still be there.

 

[Tacticus]

Ok guys an update ..... as you predicted my files still exist on my external hard drive on the backup directory so the problem was the TM App couldn't see them. So good news and thanks for your help. Do you think it is safe for me to continue using the same external hard drive to backup my now upgraded MBP (i.e. High Sierra) ? Just a bit worried in case it wipes out my backup directories, maybe I should buy a new EHD for Sierra backups.

 

[sylvie.petit]

After upgrading my MBP to High Sierra I am unable to restore any backups from my Time Machine (it's on an external hard drive). When I select any of the dates on the timeline no response as if there aren't any backups. I know there were backups though because I have restored old files when on the previous OS. I read that Sierra has a new Apple file system but surely I should be able to restore TM backups from the previous OS ?

Does anybody know if I can retrieve these backups (or even specific files) or have they been deleted ?

Please help ! Thanks.

If you are on High Sierra right now with APFS then I think you can't restore your Time backup since APFS doesn't support HFS. Is this the case? Let me know.

 

[Tacticus]

Yes that is the case although my backup files still exist in the backup.backupdb directory so I can manually retrieve specific files if needed.