Applies only if your Time Machine is stored on a remote system, such as a Time Capsule, another Mac or some SMB server.
If you restore a different computer from you Backup, during the restore, the Time Machine volume becomes read-only (luckily enough). However, turning write access back on may fail.
This issue is difficult to debug.
First, attach the disk image and run a file system check:
admin@MyMac ~@ hdiutil attach -nomount /Volumes/Time\ Machine/MyMac_00112233.sparsebundle
Take note of the disk number, e.g. disk1, as we need it in the next command:
admin@MyMac ~@ fsck_hfs -f /dev/disk1
If this is successful, you may now mount the image to check if that helped, but in my case it had not helped at all.
Here's the comparison with a fresh (empty) disk image created by Time Machine after I had removed the original out of the way. The original is Backup of MyMac and the fresh one is Backup of MyMac 1:
admin@MyMac ~$ ls -le /Volumes/Backup\ of\ MyMac* /Volumes/Backup of MyMac: total 0 drwxr-xr-x+ 3 root staff 102 Mar 10 14:09 Backups.backupdb 0: group:everyone deny add_file,delete,add_subdirectory,delete_child,writeattr,writeextattr,chown /Volumes/Backup of MyMac 1: total 0 drwxr-xr-x+ 3 root staff 102 Mar 15 15:16 Backups.backupdb 0: group:everyone deny add_file,delete,add_subdirectory,delete_child,writeattr,writeextattr,chown admin@MyMac ~$ mount |grep /Volumes/Backup /dev/disk1s2 on /Volumes/Backup of MyMac (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, mounted by admin) /dev/disk2s2 on /Volumes/Backup of MyMac 1 (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, mounted by admin) admin@MyMac ~$ diskutil list [...] /dev/disk1 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: Apple_partition_scheme *698.3 Gi disk1 1: Apple_partition_map 31.5 Ki disk1s1 2: Apple_HFSX Backup of MyMac 698.3 Gi disk1s2 /dev/disk2 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: Apple_partition_scheme *698.3 Gi disk2 1: Apple_partition_map 31.5 Ki disk2s1 2: Apple_HFSX Backup of MyMac 698.3 Gi disk2s2 admin@MyMac ~$ diskutil info /dev/disk1 Device Identifier: disk1 Device Node: /dev/disk1 Part Of Whole: disk1 Device / Media Name: Apple sparse bundle disk image Media Volume Name: Mount Point: Partition Type: Apple_partition_scheme Bootable: Not bootable Media Type: Generic Protocol: Disk Image SMART Status: Not Supported Total Size: 698.3 Gi (749812383744 B) (1464477312 512-byte blocks) Free Space: 0.0 B (0 B) (0 512-byte blocks) Read Only: No Ejectable: Yes Whole: Yes Internal: No OS 9 Drivers: No Low Level Format: Not Supported admin@MyMac ~$ diskutil info /dev/disk2 Device Identifier: disk2 Device Node: /dev/disk2 Part Of Whole: disk2 Device / Media Name: Apple sparse bundle disk image Media Volume Name: Mount Point: Partition Type: Apple_partition_scheme Bootable: Not bootable Media Type: Generic Protocol: Disk Image SMART Status: Not Supported Total Size: 698.3 Gi (749812383744 B) (1464477312 512-byte blocks) Free Space: 0.0 B (0 B) (0 512-byte blocks) Read Only: No Ejectable: Yes Whole: Yes Internal: No OS 9 Drivers: No Low Level Format: Not Supported
So there obviously is zero difference, but still one is writable while the other is not. What worked in my case is to chown the directory in /Volumes to my username:
admin@MyMac ~$ sudo chown admin /Volumes/Backup\ of\ MyMac admin@MyMac ~$ ls -le /Volumes/Backup\ of\ MyMac* /Volumes/Backup of MyMac: total 0 drwxr-xr-x+ 3 root staff 102 Mar 10 14:09 Backups.backupdb 0: group:everyone deny add_file,delete,add_subdirectory,delete_child,writeattr,writeextattr,chown /Volumes/Backup of MyMac 1: total 0 drwxr-xr-x+ 3 root staff 102 Mar 15 15:16 Backups.backupdb 0: group:everyone deny add_file,delete,add_subdirectory,delete_child,writeattr,writeextattr,chown
Again, nothing has changed, but from now on, the volume is writable
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