Recovering from Time Machine getting error

[MacInWin]

I think you have a real mess on your hands. In the image in post #18, please click on the "View" button at the top bar of the window and select "Show All Devices" and then screenshot it again. Based on what I can see, you did not do what I suggested in Post #13. What you have now is multiple Volumes, some duplicated. What is the "restore" volume? It looks like a new pair of APFS Volumes (restore and restore - data). I'm hoping you still have the original backup because if I'm right you are going to have to repeat all of the work, starting with repartitioning, erasing and reestablishing the internal drive.

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

Restore is somehow my new main drive. I still have my time machine back up from before all this went south. I am running Big Sur again. I started with Catalina and upgraded. What I am missing is the contents from my documents and my downloads and my account with Microsoft 365

 

[MacInWin]

Oh, you are missing much more than that! You are missing a ton of disk space that is in all of those duplicated volumes.

Here is the link again to Apple's directions: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

You say you are now back to Big Sur, but you have also said you want to go back to Catalina. If you want to stay with Big Sur, let us know before you do anything, but if you want to go back, follow the next paragraph.

Read that Apple article carefully, read the links in it carefully. Follow the directions EXACTLY as they are given. Read post 13 again and look at the image there. You will need to partition/erase/format the hardware to get rid of everything on the drive. That means everything. All of those duplicated Volumes are there because you aren't following the directions properly and are just creating more volumes in the messed up drive. To leave Big Sur you MUST get the drive back to totally empty and start from scratch. There are no shortcuts and no step can be left out.

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

Sorry for the confusion. I'd like to stay on Big Sur

 

[MacInWin]

OK, that makes it slightly easier to clean up. Which of the volumes you show in Post #18 is working for you? You said it seemed to be "restore." Is that where you are booted or booting from now? Is your data there when you open Finder and look in your home folder? Have you restored TM to that volume? If you are happy with the state of "restore" and just want the disk space back, open Disk Utility to the same image as in Post #18, click once on each of the other volumes and then click on the "-" button on the bar. I think you will be asked to confirm you want to remove the volume and then when you confirm that you want to do that, it will be removed from the drive, permanently, gone, unrecoverable. Repeat for all but "restore" and "restore - Data" as those are the ones you have checked out and are working for you. If you want to experiment to see if "Macintosh HD" is good (it also has Big Sur installed, listed as 10.15.7), you can reboot holding down the Option Key until you get a set of choices, one of which will be "restore" and another "Macintosh HD." Select Macintosh HD and if it succeeds in booting, look in your home folder to see if your files are there. if they are, and if you now want to keep Macintosh HD, you can do the select, click "-" step on the restore and restore - Data plus the others until all that is left is Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - Data. NOTE: You will need two volumes on the drive, one with a name and the other with the same name but "- Data" added. Finder merges the two to make one usable drive for you, but the "name" drive is the system volume and has high security (read only and encrypted) while the "Data" has the /Users area and is read/write to the various user accounts. But you need both.

BTW, if you like "restore" but want it go have another name, you can rename it after you clean up the drive. Just boot as before, and when the "restore" drive appears on the Desktop, right click to get the menu, select "Rename" and follow the directions. I think it takes an admin password to make the change, but that could be your own password if your account is an Admin account.