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Time Machine icon (green) missing

insimbi

insimbi

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 27, 2008
356
37
I have an external HDD for use with Time Machine. Normally it turns to the green Time Machine icon as I view it from my desktop. Lately (maybe since I upgraded to Mavericks) it's been left as the default orange USB icon:

orangetm.png


The only way I can get it to change is by going to Time Machine preferences, clicking Select Disk, and selecting it from the list again. It then changes to this:

greentm.png


It stays until I reboot, then switches back to the default orange icon. Is there a way to fix this?
 
If I boot with connected TM-HDD the icon is correct (Green), but when i unplug und Plugin the Disk again the icon is the wrong yellow One.
 
marko566 said:
If I boot with connected TM-HDD the icon is correct (Green), but when i unplug und Plugin the Disk again the icon is the wrong yellow One.
Click to expand...

Mine still doesn't show up correctly when it's connected and I reboot.
 
Its because it's not using it as the time machine backup disk. For some reason it sounds like its not saving your settings
 
insimbi said:
I have an external HDD for use with Time Machine. Normally it turns to the green Time Machine icon as I view it from my desktop. Lately (maybe since I upgraded to Mavericks) it's been left as the default orange USB icon:

Image

The only way I can get it to change is by going to Time Machine preferences, clicking Select Disk, and selecting it from the list again. It then changes to this:

Image

It stays until I reboot, then switches back to the default orange icon. Is there a way to fix this?
Click to expand...

You need to go into time machine and delete the old "Time Machine" used on previous OS and reselect the new Time Machine drive. Icon will change....
 
gr997s said:
You need to go into time machine and delete the old "Time Machine" used on previous OS and reselect the new Time Machine drive. Icon will change....
Click to expand...

Done that, and it does change. As soon as I reboot my iMac though, it shows as orange and never turns green again. Time Machine is backing up correctly as well, so I don't know what to think.
 
I back up with TM to an external HDD, and it always was the orange icon, both in ML and Mavericks. But I only plug mine in when I need to back up.
 
I have the same problem. If I re-select the drive, it will backup normally; if I don't, no backup occurs. Another thread suggested deleting old pre-Mavericks backups. Has anyone here tried that?
 
Time Machine icon (green) missing

I just installed time machine on two drives, thunderbolt and usb. I noticed this issue too and also just upgraded to Yosemite (Disappeared under Maverick), so it's not a Mavericks issue.
The TM icon disappears on the usb drive but not the Thunderbolt (maybe because Thunderbolt is listed first in TM). The simple fix for me was the following.
Open each drive with the Get Info.
Click the Green Icon on my Thunderbolt and under Finder/Edit/Copy.
Click the orange icon on my USB and under Finder/Edit/Paste

Now the USB drive has the Green Icon.
 
It tells you when it is actually backing up

I have the same thing happening. So when it turned orange I clicked on the icon on the top of the screen and it showed Time Machine was backing up. When it was finished backing up it turned green again. The next time it never turned green after backing up. Strange, and how do I know if it really backed up???FathomHD.png

FathomHD-.png
 
Last edited:
It tells you when it is actually backing up

The way I know is to enter into Time Machine Preferences (I would click the preference and have it display in my menu bar. If it is in the menu bar just right click it). In the window it will tell you the last backup date and time. I haven't seen any problems with back ups just with the icon losing the green TM icon. You can also go into Finder and see the times and folders of your back-ups.
 
I have found it?

I recently set up TM with a Seagate USB 3.0 External drive to my iMac. After set up the green Time Machine Icon showed on the drive icon but after I rebooted the icon disappeared and turned yellow.

To fix this I went into Get Info for the external drive and under the "Preview:" section it showed the TM icon, which I clicked and dragged to the top of Get Info and overlayed the yellow icon. All good now :)
 
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Fixed!

Beltor said:
To fix this I went into Get Info for the external drive and under the "Preview:" section it showed the TM icon, which I clicked and dragged to the top of Get Info and overlayed the yellow icon. All good now :)
Click to expand...

Thanks, Beltor! Your simple solution has worked for me. :)
 
Beltor said:
I have found it?

I recently set up TM with a Seagate USB 3.0 External drive to my iMac. After set up the green Time Machine Icon showed on the drive icon but after I rebooted the icon disappeared and turned yellow.

To fix this I went into Get Info for the external drive and under the "Preview:" section it showed the TM icon, which I clicked and dragged to the top of Get Info and overlayed the yellow icon. All good now :)
Click to expand...
 

I have the same problem after upgrading to El Capitan. I recommend that everyone with this problem go to Apple Feedback for OS X and make a bug report.

I had the same bug after upgrading from Mountain Lion to Mavericks (Apple's worst OS in years). I was never able to fix it, But When I upgraded to Yosemite, it fixed everything. Now, with my recent upgrade to El Capitan, all the Mavericks bugs are back.

I tried your fix, but under properties, i see no green TM icon. Cannot get a green icon at all. Tried deleting and then adding the drive in Time Machine preferences, no dice.
 
adamcarvell said:
i have this problem now in el capitan?.
Click to expand...

I have the same problem after upgrading to El Capitan. I recommend that everyone with this problem go to Apple Feedback for OS X and make a bug report.

I had the same bug after upgrading from Mountain Lion to Mavericks (Apple's worst OS in years). I was never able to fix it, But When I upgraded to Yosemite, it fixed everything. Now, with my recent upgrade to El Capitan, all the Mavericks bugs are back.
 
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