Time Machine Back up Allows Me Access to Some but Not All Backup Folders

I'm having problems accessing certain files from my external backup hard drive that uses Time Machine. But, it's a bit of a twist from other people who seem to have posted about this problem so I'm hoping someone can help me.

I have an IMac and I use an external drive to back up all users data with Time Machine. There are 3 users on my Imac. I use two of them and my girlfriend uses one. I'm the only admin on the computer. Here's the problem....

When I sign into my my main user account, I can't open any of the folders from my other user account. All of the folders have the red circle with the minus sign. The same is true if I open my girlfriend's user account folder. However, and this is important, if I log into my IMac using my other user account or my girlfriend's user account; I can open all folders from any backup. What's going on? It gets better, if I take my external hard drive to work, I can access any folder I want.

I have no idea what's going on. If you guys could help I would appreciate it.

I suspect that one of your accounts, and your girlfriend's account, are not admin accounts. That would mean they are restricted to ONLY the folders they create. Your other account is an Admin account, which gives greater access. At work, I suspect you are using a Windows machine, which ignores the ownership of files when it opens Mac drives.

MacInWin said:

I suspect that one of your accounts, and your girlfriend's account, are not admin accounts. That would mean they are restricted to ONLY the folders they create. Your other account is an Admin account, which gives greater access. At work, I suspect you are using a Windows machine, which ignores the ownership of files when it opens Mac drives.

Click to expand...

Thank you for getting back to me. Both of my accounts are admin accounts. One of them I can access everything, the other admin account, which is the account I use the most often, can't access any other folders except those for that particular account.

I use a MAC at work and I can access all folders from all accounts when I'm at work.

You might want to use your Mac's Get Info on your TM volume and check what it says in about "ignoring permissions" option. Otherwise I'd suspect its users permissions are really FUBAR!! Maybe give Disk Utility a chance to repair them or possibly something else is goofy.