Old Time Machine Backups not accessible with new Mac

Hello chrism_31,

Thanks for posting in the Apple Support Communities. I understand that you’re unable to restore from your Time Machine backup, and that the option is grayed out. I’d love to assist, and recommend that you follow each step in the below support article: 

If you can't back up or restore your Mac using Time Machine

You can also inherit the previous backup history. Check out the article below:

If your new Mac inherits your backup history

If you’re still having trouble, contact Apple Support for further assistance:

Get Support

I hope this information is useful. Kind regards.

Did you "Inherit Backup" when you moved over to Mojave?

If your new Mac inherits your backup history - Apple Support

Time Machine - Troubleshooting B5. Would you like to inherit ...

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/335128/difficulty-to-inherit-time-machine-backups-on-new-macbook-pro

I had the same type issue recently with my time machine, with the grey-red timeline. It was not the result of upgrading OS though. I ran first aid, in disk utility from the application folder. It took quite some time as I have a large external HD. When finished I was able to access my old backups. Hope this helps you.

Neil

Hello;

It looks like the name will be changed for your time machine backups. If that is the case you will have to go to Time machine Preferences and select the disk (now with a new name) . Terminal commands are beyond my scope. I have upgraded the OSX software many times from Snow Leopard onwards and have never had an issue with ™ not working correctly from the get go. Two or three times I have had to run first aid on the external drive as indicated in my previous message.

Good Luck

Neil

We do know older HFS+ TM files are no longer available in apfs— the container now has two volumes: System and Data—you can see how this would be a problem. Updated TM to Catalina will not be able to be read by older macOS.

"There are good reasons for creating a new backup set for Catalina anyway. As all system files are replaced, most other files change paths, and Catalina has a complete new layout on two APFS volumes, the first backup after upgrading is likely to approach the size of a full backup anyway. Giving it a clean start also means that your existing backups shouldn’t be converted to the new format, allowing you access to them if you needed to revert to Mojave, for instance."

This may or may not be your issue, however

You can read more:

https://eclecticlight.co/2019/11/11/time-machine-and-backing-up-in-catalina/

And what options if you hold the option key and click your TM icon in the upper right?

Does browse other allow you to see other backups?