User profile for user: solomani
solomani Author
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Time Machine/Migration Assistant says "No Volumes"

My machine recently needed its motherboard replaced as the GPU died on it. When the tech rebuilt the machine they wiped the drive - which is fine, as I have time machine backups. But when I try and restore backups now via Recovery or Migration Assistant I get a "no volumes found" for my iMac. The version of macOS is the same (Catalina). When I browse the Time Machine I can see the sparsebundle and it's 2.1 TB so there is definitely something there.


How can I get my files back? Thanks.

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 12, 2021 7:31 PM

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User profile for user: solomani
solomani Author
User level: Level 2
163 points

Posted on Feb 13, 2021 11:26 PM

I normally do my own restores. Costs extra for the tech to do it. I ended up fixing this by renaming backupbundle to sparsebundle and then Migration Assistant was able to see the backups. This is odd behavior but it worked.

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User profile for user: solomani
solomani Author
User level: Level 2
163 points

Feb 13, 2021 11:26 PM in response to rkaufmann87

I normally do my own restores. Costs extra for the tech to do it. I ended up fixing this by renaming backupbundle to sparsebundle and then Migration Assistant was able to see the backups. This is odd behavior but it worked.

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User profile for user: rkaufmann87
rkaufmann87
User level: Level 10
147,366 points

Feb 12, 2021 10:25 PM in response to solomani

Did you take the computer to an Apple Authorized Service Provider or some general computer shop? If you took it to an Apple Authorized Service Provider, ask them what version of Mac OS they installed on it. If you took it to a computer shop, well there was your first goof.

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User profile for user: solomani
solomani Author
User level: Level 2
163 points

Feb 13, 2021 1:19 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Apple authorized service provider, they installed the latest Catalina, which is correct since its a 2012 iMac. Before the wipe, it was also Catalina 10.15.7 so backups should be the same.


When it lists no volumes what does that mean exactly - version difference or something else? I've found after they moved from sparse to backup bundles restoration has become touchy.

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Time Machine/Migration Assistant says "No Volumes"

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