Time Machine Backs are different while booting up and within OS

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punk


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Hello,
I am in a unique situation right now. I upgraded to MBP from MBA and I backedup my computer using Time machine on an external drive. I realize the Time machine was unable to restore Skype conversation so I wanted to go back and restore it through an alternative method. However, when I plug in my external drive while using OS, it doesn't shows my latest backup and only the backup from year back. However when I restart and enter Time machine, it does shows my backup from a week before.

I am curious on whats wrong here. My goal is to find main.db file from the week old backup.
 
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MacInWin

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Sorry, but your post has seriously confused me. You have two machines? One is MBP and the other is MBA? What versions OS on each one?

You backed up which one using TM? How is the backup drive attached?

What does, "However, when I plug in my external drive while using OS, it doesn't shows my latest backup and only the backup from year back." mean? What do you mean by "using OS?"

What does, "However when I restart and enter Time machine, it does shows my backup from a week before." mean? Which machine are you restarting?

Can you explain a bit more what you are doing?

Thanks!
 
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punk


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Sorry for the confusion. I should have clarified better. Thanks for instructions on good quality post. Here is it . I am currently on Sierra


- I had MBA and I backed it once using Time machine last year ( Feb 2016). Then I wanted to upgrade to MBP, so I made another backup using Time Machine on my MBA on Jan2 2017. Once I bought the MBP, I turned it on and pressed Control R and used time machine to restore everything and everything got restored as it was on my MBA on Jan2nd 2017 except Skype History. Now I read about a workaround on how to restore Skype History, I reconnected my external drive and while I am on MBP GUI, it only shows the backup from Feb 2016 and no Jan2 2017. My MBP shows Jan 3, so basically there is no record from Feb 2016 - Jan 2nd. I was confused what happened here, so I restarted my MBP and used Cntrl R to restore using Time machine and it gave me an option of restoring using Jan2 -2017 backup. So I am not sure why GUI doesn't show me Jan 2 2017 backup while terminal does and is there a way to recover that specific Skype folder from Jan 2 2017 backup.

Thanks
 
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MacInWin

Guest
Ah, better, thanks. I think the reason you cannot "see" the Jan 2 backup is that you did a backup with your new machine January 3rd, and Time Machine is very careful about not mixing backups and machines. Try this:

First, find the location of the "main.db" on the MBP, the version that is missing the Skype History, right click on it and then Get Info and note at the bottom of the window the "Sharing and Permissions" settings. You may need these settings later on. Don't change anything, just note what is there for the working but empty main.db. Close the Info window.

Open Finder, navigate to the TM drive and open a folder called "backups.backupdb." Inside that folder there are probably two more folders, one with the name you gave the MBA and the other with the name of the MBP. Open the MBA folder, then navigate to wherever the main.db file is supposed to be located. You should then be able to copy it and paste it to wherever it needs to be on the MBP. You probably will have to provide an admin password to make that move and to overwrite main.db that is already there. You may need to change the permissions of the new (old) main.db to match what you read earlier on the empty main.db to get everything to run properly.

All of this is assuming the TM Drive is attached directly to the MBP/MBA. Networked drives are totally different.
 
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punk


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MacInWin said:
Ah, better, thanks. I think the reason you cannot "see" the Jan 2 backup is that you did a backup with your new machine January 3rd, and Time Machine is very careful about not mixing backups and machines. Try this:

First, find the location of the "main.db" on the MBP, the version that is missing the Skype History, right click on it and then Get Info and note at the bottom of the window the "Sharing and Permissions" settings. You may need these settings later on. Don't change anything, just note what is there for the working but empty main.db. Close the Info window.

Open Finder, navigate to the TM drive and open a folder called "backups.backupdb." Inside that folder there are probably two more folders, one with the name you gave the MBA and the other with the name of the MBP. Open the MBA folder, then navigate to wherever the main.db file is supposed to be located. You should then be able to copy it and paste it to wherever it needs to be on the MBP. You probably will have to provide an admin password to make that move and to overwrite main.db that is already there. You may need to change the permissions of the new (old) main.db to match what you read earlier on the empty main.db to get everything to run properly.

All of this is assuming the TM Drive is attached directly to the MBP/MBA. Networked drives
are totally different.
Click to expand...

Thanks - I am unable to locate Skype in Application Support in the previous MBA TM backup. I also looked at the new backup and it's also missing Skype folder. Should I consider that it was never backed up ?
 
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MacInWin

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Doyon know where main.db is in the MBP? It should be in the same location in the MBA backup. It's unlikely it wasn't backed up, unless you specifically excluded it.

EDIT: What i didn't say was that inside the MBA folder will be a folder with each backup date. Pick the latest one. I guess you figured that out.
 
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punk


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Thanks - I realized the folders were hidden so used the terminal to unhide it.

Now I have found the folder, there are two files

main.corrupt 119 MB - Last updated June 8 2016
main.lock 0 byters - Last updated Jan 2 2017

Seems like Skype hasn't updated since June 8 2016 and even the file is corrupted
 
M

MacInWin

Guest
The folders should not have been hidden, and it should not have taken any terminal commands to view them. It will take admin authority to open, edit, move the files, but not to SEE them. Something is wrong with the way the backups have been done.

But that's water under the bridge. If Skype is corrupt, that is probably why it didn't restore. At this point I cannot think of anything else, unless you want to go to an earlier date and see if main.db is there. The main.lock file is a signal to the database manager software that the file is in use (locked) and therefore not to allow the system to delete it while it is in use. That probably indicates that Skype was running when the backup was taken, although it can also happen if the db is close improperly.
 

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