Can iCloud documents in Mobile Documents folder be restored from a Time Machine backup?

Integration with iCloud seems much improved so far in Mountain Lion. Thanks, Apple! Just to be on the safe side, though: are documents stored in the ~/Library/Mobile Documents folder included in Time Machine backups, and fully restorable? This seemed a little uneven prior to Mountain Lion.
I just wanted to make sure that these documents are always backed up in case there is ever a problem with iCloud (or in case I simply make a mistake and an unintended change or deletion propogates across all my devices and I need to restore an earlier version).

Wow! It didn't occur to me that it would work this way, although of course it makes perfect sense—and it works. I just tried it.
It doesn't actually seem to work with older documents (I tried in Pages), and I'm not sure if that problem has to do with Mountain Lion, or previous versions of iWork apps, or both. But I tried it with a fresh document, deleted it restored it, and was able to use it. So finally it seems that iCloud works the way it should.
Thanks again.

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Can i restore from a time machine backup that is not the latest one?

I am trying to restore from a May 7th time machine backup. At that time my username was michaelhood. I had a system crash and when my computer was returned to me I inadvertently set it up under a different username, thinking I would do the restore later. Between May 13 and today, Time machine did backups under the name mhoo4494. Changing the name didn't let me access my May 7 backup, nor did creating a different user account. I have erased the hard drive and am reinstalling from the Install CD. I have set up a third user name. I now want to restore my data from the Time Machine May 7 backup. How do I do that? Migration assistant saw two users -- mhoo and mhoo4494 (michaelhood was not an option). I selected them both, but got no data for either -- no docs, no music, no pictures. This procedure should not be this hard~!!

Hi uclamikey90,
It is possible, using Migration Assistant, to restore the contents of your hard drive selectively. See this article -
Mac OS X v10.6: How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from a Time Machine backup - Apple Support
In particular -
To migrate data from a Time Machine backup
In Finder, press Command-Shift-U.
Double-click Migration Assistant.
Click "Continue" and enter an administrator name and password when prompted.
Select the "From a Time Machine backup or other disk" option, then click "Continue".
Select your Time Machine backup disk or Time Capsule (enter the user name and or password if prompted), then click "Continue".
Select the Time Machine backup you would like to restore (such the most current one you just made), then click "Continue".
Select Items to Migrate, then click "Continue". Note: The "Continue" button will be dimmed until the "Calculating…" stage is complete.
A user account sheet may appear if you have a user name on your Mac that is the same user name in your Time Machine backup. You will have to give the username in your Time Machine backup a new username to avoid conflicts. Note: This will create a new user account on your Mac to hold the data from the Time Machine backup. After migration, you can use the /Users/Shared folder to transfer data files the accounts.
Migration Assistant will begin the process of transferring the items you selected to migrate. When it is finished, click "Quit" to exit.
When you reach step 7, deselect items that you do not wish to migrate. Videos, photos and music are likely candidates for this as they take up a lot of disk space. You can later put items on an external hard drive.
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

HT201250 After restoring from a time machine backup using migration assistant I can't log in

Hi, I recently bought a Mac Pro and using a Mountain Lion boot disk I made installed a fresh ML install which went fine. During the final part of install it gives you the option of restoring user data etc etc from a time machine backup which I have from my MacBook Pro which again in principal went fine until I went to log in when I got the message 'An error has occurred unable to log into this account a this time'.
Looking on the web I thought at first it was a password issue so restarted with command-r and reset the password, however the same error still occurs. I don't think it is password issue as if you deliberately enter the wrong password it rejects it immediately where as with the correct password it hangs for about 15secs before throwing up the above error.
Can anyone offer any advice?
The only thing I can possibly think of is that on my MBP where the time machine backup is from my home folder is on a 2nd HDD that is not the boot disk and I only have a single HDD on my MacPro.......

You might try to access the desired Time Machine backup from "Browse Other Time Machine Disks" (click Time Machine icon in the Dock).
Also, you might find some help here.

Can not restore from all Time Machine backup locations

I've just set up Time Machine in Mountain Lion to rotate backups between a Time Capsule (existing) and a Synology NAS (new).
When I select "Enter Time Machine" only the backups created on the NAS are shown.
How can I make Time Machine show restore points from both devices, or at least select a Time Machine location to restore from?
Backups are rotating and operating between the two without any issues.

Pickled Hamster wrote:
How can I make Time Machine show restore points from both devices, or at least select a Time Machine location to restore from?
You have to use the Browse Other Backup Disks option, per Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #17.

HT4191 Can I restore my NOTES mailbox to MAIL from a Time Machine backup?

I am new to the world of discussion so please bear with me. In trying to resolve a syncing problem between the iMac and iPad, I seem to have somehow deleted all the Notes we had stored. Can I restore from a Time Machine backup?

In theory - yes. The backup should restore all of the iPad settings - including mail settings.
If you backup the iPad with regularity, you do not need to resort to Time Machine. The backups should still be on your Mac.
iTunes: About iOS backups
iOS: How to backup (and restore from a backup)
A very quick rundown on how to restore from a backup. But read the articles above.
Turn off auto sync first. Launch itunes and go to iTunes>Preferences>Devices. Check the box at the bottom - Prevent iPods, iPhones .... you will see what I mean. Click OK . Quit iTunes.
Connect the iPad to the Mac and launch iTunes.
Right Click on the iPad name on the left side under devices.
Select - Restore from backup
Then sync with iTunes.

Can I manually recover files from a Time Machine backup?

I'm just about to perform a fresh install of OS X Lion. I plan to re-install the apps I need from scratch so only need my files backed up (iTunes/Aperture library, documents folder etc). At the moment I have time machine backing up to an external USB disk.
Do I need to copy my Music/Pictures/Documents folders to another USB disk before doing a fresh install of Lion or can I just copy/paste them from my time machine backup disk (would save a lot of time)? I don't want to do a time machine recovery, recover preferences or apps etc - just manually recover my data.
Thanks.

JBF80 wrote:
I want to copy all of my files, but not settings or applications. I'm happy to copy/paste the Documents, Pictures and Music directories from the TM disk.
Well, that is what I said ("You can customize what to transfer")

I have replaced my old hard drive with a new SSD drive. Can I restore a complete Time Machine backup

I have replaced my old hard drive on a MacBook Pro midyear 2010 with a new SSD drive. I have a complete system backup of my old drive in an external hard drive using Time Machine.
Questions that I would like to get answered.
1) Can I connect my external hard drive to the macbook pro and use that to boot up my machine by pressing and holding down the Options key? Once booted up successfully, can I use Disk Utility to format the new SSD and then restore the complete time machine backup?
2) If that is not possible, can I use my old drive which I can connect using a USB adapter and use that to boot up by following the same strategy as listed in Step#1 above?
3) If neither options are possible, do I need to use a bootable USB drive for Mavericks OS X to boot up the machine,
I have Mavericks OS X ( 10.9.6) and I do not have a DVD of the OS.
Any help is appreciated.

Let me first document the steps that did not work and then I will document the steps that worked.
1) Replaced the hard drive with SSD.
2) Connected the original hard drive using a USB adapter to the MacBook to make it behave like an external device.
3) Powered on the machine and on hearing the chime pressed Command-R to start in recovery mode.
4) Chose the Disk Utility option to erase and format the SSD. The format chosen was Mac OS Extended Journaled.
5) Once the formatting was done, then clicked on the "Restore" tab in Disk Utility
6) In the Source field, dragged my original hard drive from the left pane and placed it in the field
7) On the destination field, choose the new SSD drive. Clicked on "Restore". Gave me a warning, accepted the warning and the restore was under way.
8) I had 236 GB to restore so took 3.5 hours before it was done.
9) Disconnected the external hard drive ( my original internal HDD), shut down the machine and powered on again.
10) Heard the chime and after that it was a white screen with no Apple logo.
Was visibly upset and started thinking what my next move will be. Then tried these steps
1) Again powered off the machine.
2) Connected my internal HDD once more as an external drive
3) Powered on and on hearing the chime, pressed Command-R as before
4) Once the OS X utilities screen popped up, this time chose Install OS X
5) Erased the contents of SSD once more and reformatted it using Mac OS Extended Journaled.
6) Installed OS X by following the prompts.
7) Once the OS was installed, I was presented with an option on how to transfer data to this new Mac
8) Chose the option to move the data from my original HDD.
9) Took another 3 hours to move the data.
10) Removed the original HDD once the transfer was complete, powered down the machine and started it once more.
11) Booted successfully and all my content is now accessible on the new SSD.
Moral of the story - It is the spirit that counts.

I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and i can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help

I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and I can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help? I can find the mail folder in my libraries, but the Restore Button is grayed out

OSX treats the reformatted drive as a different one; it's the same as replacing it, and the old one is no longer connected.
See #E3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting to see and restore from the "old" drive.
And, you may not want to restore via the Finder; see the blue box in #15 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

How can I restore my EQ settings from a Time Machine backup?

I recently reinstalled Mavericks, and restored my user account from a Time Machine backup. In doing so I appeared to have 'lost' my personal EQ settings in iTunes, of which I had perfected quite a few to suit various headphones and speakers I've found myself using over the years.
I have a pre-reinstallation copy of the com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist file (found in /Users/username/Library/Preferences) that I believe contains my EQ settings; opening it in Textedit I can see references to the EQ settings I created.
Having tried restoring this particular file from Time Machine and restarting and finding iTunes doesn't recognise the [old] custom com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist file, does anyone know a way I can re-import my old EQ settings, or do I have to try and manually create them again? (gah)
Thanks for any light you can shed on this!

Enter your Time Machine backup (via the TM icon in the menu bar) and find this file
/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist
and hit Restore.
It didn't reflect in iTunes immediately, but after a restart it appears to read the new (old) plist file. You should have your old EQ settings back.
Let me know if it worked for you...

Can you stop a transfer from a Time Machine backup?

I just bought a new mbpro and am doing a transfer from a time machine backup. Can I stop and restart it?

Yes, but the transfer is likely to be corrupted and should not be relied upon. I recommend erasing what was transferred.

I restored a Macbook Pro from a Time Machine backup and now none of my passwords are working (and I know they are the correct passwords). What can I do?

I restored a Macbook Pro from a Time Machine backup and now none of my passwords are working (and I know they are the correct passwords). What can I do?

First, make sure caps lock is not on.
Another reason why the password might not be recognized is that the keyboard layout (input source) has been switched without your realizing it. You can select one of the available layouts by choosing from the flag menu in the upper right corner, if it's showing, or cycle through them by pressing the key combination command-space or command-option-space. See also this support article.
If the user account is associated with an Apple ID, and you know the Apple ID password, then maybe the Apple ID can be used to reset your user account password. In OS X 10.10 and later, this option also works with FileVault, but only if you enabled it when you activated FileVault. It's not retroactive. Otherwise, see below.
Note: If you've activated FileVault, this procedure doesn't apply. Follow instead these instructions.
Start up in Recovery mode. When the OS X Utilities window appears, select
Utilities ▹ Terminal
from the menu bar at the top of the screen—not from any of the items in the OS X Utilities window.
In the window that opens, type this:
resetp
Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:
resetpassword
Press return. A Reset Password window opens. Close the Terminal window to get it out of the way.
Select the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected. You won't be able to do this if FileVault is active.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Follow the prompts to reset the password. It's safest to choose a password that includes only the characters a-z, A-Z, and 0-9.
Select
 ▹ Restart
from the menu bar.
You should now be able to log in with the new password, but the Keychain will be reset (empty.) If you've forgotten the Keychain password (which is ordinarily the same as the login password), there's no way to recover it.

Can i reinstall OS X Mountain Lion from scratch from a Time Machine Backup

Can i reinstall OS X Mountain Lion from scratch from a Time Machine Backup
Asking because i'm a new mac user having used windows since 3.11, wanting to know if the Time Machine bacup was enough or will i need to make a seperate OS install disk or usb drive ???
thanx in advance guys

Lizardcarter's instructions are correct, you can (and possibly should) consider a second external HD to create a bootable clone. Redundancy in backups is a very good thing because backup can fail too. A bootable clone is an external HD that has a mirror of your internal HD so if the internal HD does crash you can boot from the clone, something that cannot be done from TM. This means you will be down for minutes and can resume work until you have had the internal HD replaced. Never use an external HD for both TM and a bootable clone, each should have it's own EHD. The reason being is if the EHD crashes you have lost ALL of your backup and are dead, don't laugh it happens! To create a bootable clone get either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner (both about $30) and you're pretty set. Many people on these forums (including myself) use that strategy and yes I have had a backup fail.

Do I need startup discs to upgrade hardware on MacBook Pro or can I restore the hard drive from from a Time Machine backup?

do I need startup discs to upgrade hardware on MacBook Pro or can I restore the hard drive from from a Time Machine backup?

Ok, well go and grab a small 2.5" hard drive enclosure so you can put the new drive in & temporarily use it like an external hard drive.
Download Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper and make a bootable clone of your current HDD on the new HDD.
Once that's done you can test the clone by booting from it. To do this hold Optioni while booting to select the external (new) drive. If everything looks ok, you can go ahead and swap over the HDD's.
So much easier.

In migrating to a 21.3" iMac from a Time Machine backup, can I do this more than once?

In migrating to a 21.3" iMac from a Time Machine backup, can I do this more than once?

David,
My apologies....I was working on questions from a different thread and thought yours was part of that one. Your question is fine where it is....
Now....that being said, I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your question. I know you can exclude certain items from being backed up in Time Machine, which would save disk space on your external drive. But, you'd first have to calculate how much disk space you're using for the different things you want to back up vs. those you want to exclude.
I think it MIGHT be possible to do what you want, but (in my honest opinion) it's a recipe for a LOT of headaches should things not work out as you calculated. Better (again, in my opinion) to just pick up a larger external hard drive and transfer everything as Time Machine was designed.
Just my $0.02 worth.

Can I recover my Mountain Lion Server from my Time Machine Backup if there was no Recovery HD created moving from Lion?

Several years ago I upgraded my Mac Server from Snow Leopard the to Lion and then to Mountain Lion, where it is now. I believe I can fix a problem if I can rebuild my Mountain Lion Server from my Time Machine backup, however I just discoved that there is no Recovery HD on the drive. Is there still a way to use my Time Machine Backup to rebuild the server drive?
Any help will be appreciated.

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Can iCloud documents in Mobile Documents folder be restored from a Time Machine backup?

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