Time machine backup not seen in recovery

[NorthantsPete]

So I thought I would test my backup/restore solution with TimeMachine as i soonw ant to migrate to SSD.

Im using Big Sur, but on recovery the recovery partition runs an internet recovery that offers Lion OSX.

I select time machine, the drive is always inserted, i can see it in disk utility, but it never finds a backup?

I can only imagine the time machine version is too new or it doesnt recognise the encryption... or the new OS formatted drive cant be used as its an old OSX recovery gui looking for something else?

What could i try? My thought would be go in, format the drive as exfat or journaled then offer it over to time machine and then it wil lsee it?

 

[satcomer]

I think it has do with encryption especially if usually a property key for the encryption! So try to uncrpt the drive and try again!

 

[NorthantsPete]

Thanks - I went the manual root int he end, i wont use time machine in future, it was more reliable just to copy everything back from a backup

 

[Fishrrman]

Backups created with either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper will ALWAYS be "seen" by the Mac...

 

[Brian33]

Im using Big Sur, but on recovery the recovery partition runs an internet recovery that offers Lion OSX.

I select time machine, the drive is always inserted, i can see it in disk utility, but it never finds a backup?

Ouch, that's a nasty surprise, indeed. The likely explanation is that Big Sur formatted the Time Machine backup drive as the new APFS filesystem, and Lion would not be able to make any sense out of that. Ugh.

I'm glad you got yourself sorted out.

I don't know why the recovery process booted Lion from Internet recovery? There are some special key combinations for different versions of recovery, according to https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-macos-recovery-on-an-intel-based-mac-mchl338cf9a8/mac. Maybe Option-Command-R would have worked:

Command-R: Start up from the built-in macOS Recovery System. Use this key combination to reinstall the latest macOS that was installed on your system, or to use the other apps in macOS Recovery.

Option-Command-R: Start up from macOS Recovery over the internet. Use this key combination to reinstall macOS and upgrade to the latest version of macOS that’s compatible with your Mac.

Option-Shift-Command-R: Start up from macOS Recovery over the internet. Use this key combination to reinstall the version of macOS that came with your Mac or the closest version that’s still available.

What could i try? My thought would be go in, format the drive as exfat or journaled then offer it over to time machine and then it wil lsee it?

Just FYI, this wouldn't have worked -- when you give a fresh drive to TM on any recent version of macOS (I think since Big Sur?), TM will always format it as APFS (case sensitive).

Again, glad you're up and running.