Time Machine not showing latest/oldest backup

[ipedro]

I had an issue where Time Machine, connected to my Time Capsule wouldn't show the latest and oldest backup. It displayed "-- -- --" in both fields.

I already resolved the issue but thought I'd post it here for the benefit of anybody who encounters the problem and searches MacRumors for a solution.

1- Delete the preferences file for Time Machine (~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist)
2- Restart Mac
3- Go into System Preferences/Time Machine
4- Turn on Time Machine and select your Time Machine (or other external drive you were using for Time Machine)
5- Allow the system to backup (should be a small change)

Voilá.

 

[wazzle638]

Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for, and it works. The path should be /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist though, without the '~'.

 

[Cynicalone]

On mine the "~" is the Macintosh HD.

 

[sammich]

On mine the "~" is the Macintosh HD.

How'd you change it to that?

 

[allenjd]

I followed the steps and when the backup started it said it was going to backup 21 MB but when the progress bar reached the end both the amount of data backed up and data to be backed up kept going up. I stopped it once it got over a gigabyte figuring it was going to backup the whole drive.

So, I put the original preference file back in place and the dates came back and I got correct backups.

 

[beeeman]

works like a charm. Thank you very much.

 

[MacManiac76]

On mine the "~" is the Macintosh HD.

If that is the case I would try to fix it. By definition the ~ in the file path denotes the user's home folder. The true location of the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file is in the /Library/Preferences folder, without the ~.

 

[therealbruce]

works great - thanks