Can't access library folder on Time Machine Backup

I'll try to explain this as clearly as possible...
1) I have wiped my hard drive and completed a clean install of Mavericks. I did this due to persistant problems with disc permissions that I could not eliminate.
2) I did not want to take a chance on introducing problems with migrating a profile from my Time Machine backup so instead of using Migration Assistant, I used Finder to browse the Time Machine backup I made prior to reformatting my drive to simply copy all my necessary data files back onto the drive in my newly created profile.
3) I've reinstalled the majority of programs I use and everything is looking good (no disk permission problems when I've checked using Disk Utility).
4) Mail is working just find with all my accounts having been restored using my Apple ID.
Here's the problem....
I forgot that some of my mail had been stored on my local hard drive. I beleive this mail should be in my user/library/mail folder of my time machine backup. However, I cannot access my User/Library folder in Time Machine. I've tried opening my current (new) User/Library folder in Finder and then selecting "Browse Other Backup Discs" from the Time Machine icon and, although this opens the Time Machine backups, I cannot do any time travel...in other words, although there are many stacks of folders shown in the backup, I cannot move into the past from the present.
Any suggestions on how I can get this Mail folder out of the Time Machine user/library? I know there is some stuff there that I'm going to have to get to.
Thanks!

It woked to get me into my current User/Library of my "new" profile but I cannot move back in time into the actual backups despite the timeline increments on the right side of the screen in Time Machine showing they're are backups for the past several months. I'm stuck on this moment so to speak.
Got to hit the sack...head is swimming. Thanks for the suggestions Barney. Let me know if you think of any others.

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How can I access ~/library on my time machine backup?

I recently re-installed OSX Lion and made sure i'd backed everything up before I did a clean install and did not want to transfer my old archive across. I need to access my user library on Time Machine so that I can restore my Transmit favourites and Little Snapper image database.
I've tried following the process here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3633972?start=0&tstart=0 but I get "The folder can't be found" (see screenshot) and now i'm at a complete as to what to do.
Any suggestions?

Last but not least, navigate the TM disk within the Finder, (do not enter TM).
When you are on the date you are looking for, navigate the directory structure until you reach the Users folder.
Open Terminal and type
cd
and a space, drag and drop your user name folder inside the Terminal window. That completes the cd command for you. Hit return.
You are now into your user folder inside the TM disk. Type
cd Library
open .
please note the dot after open. Last command opens a Finder window of the Library folder inside TM disk.
Now you are ready to get what you need.

~/Library folder in Time Machine backups

Dear readers,
I have run into a somewhat weird problem with the ~/Library folder in my Lion Time Machine Backups.
I have made the folder visible for my normal user through Terminal and I can see it sitting in my user just fine.
However, if I want to manually copy Mail and Mail Downloads from my Lion Time Machine backup I cannot seem to make the ~/Library folder visible in my TM Backup.
I have tried to directly link to the hidden folder, but this doesn't work either.
Anyone who has the solution to this one?
Help would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you.

Thank you for your fast reply;
Does this also work in Backups that have not been linked to a fresh install yet, ergo: The Time Machine disk is seen by Lion as a normal external HDD.
Say for example I wish to manually place files back due to a corrupted user, I will still not be able to see the /Library folder in my Time machine backup...

Restoring User Library folder from Time Machine

I have tried finding my User Library folder in Time Machine, but no luck.
I have managed to find the User/Library folder in normal view and have dragged it into the Sidebar.
It is now visable! Great.
But when I enter Time Machine and go back in time, it goes gray and you connot see it or it will not go back in time.
In other words I am unable to access my backed up files: Address Book, iCal, Mail, Keychains etc.
Any suggestion much appreciated!

DWNCC wrote:
It's a long story. My Mac Apps were crashing frequently as I have an older version MacBook Pro, using it with 10.7.3. It just didn't like it one bit.
Unfortunately, there are many people here in Apple Support Communities who claim there is something fundamentally wrong with Lion and are advising everyone to go back to older versions of the operating system. That is very bad advice. If Lion is misbehaving, there is some problem that needs to be corrected.
It is not a good idea to try to restore your user account piecemeal like this.
If you have erased everything, then at least you don't have to worry about damaging anything. Try this:
1) Run System Preferences > Users & Groups and click the "+" button to create a new account. Change account type from "Standard" to "Administrator". Give it a short name like "admin".
2) Log out of your current user and Log in to the new admin user.
3) Delete any old users you had.
4) Run Migration Assistant and migrate your old users from Time Machine

IPhoto won't open. Says CAUTIONThe iPhoto library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Reopen iPhoto with the Option key held down to choose another library.

I tries to verify that my photos were being backed up on Time Machine to an external harddrive, because I would like to delete my Camera Roll on my iPhone. I was not able to view any photos in my backed up photo library, after entering Time machine. Now, I can't even open iPhoto on my iMac with the pop up box warning me that the library is a Time machine backup....which it shouldn't be, because I'm openning iPhoto on my Mac...NOT the external HD.
What happened, and how do I access my photos?

It sounds like you went into the Time Machine hard drive, found a library and "dragged" it to your Pictures folder or wherever on your hard drive. That's not the way to do it.
Go to your Pictures folder and enter Time Machine via the TM menu in the menu bar:
Then follow the instructions in this screenshot:
OT

How can I restore my old iTunes Time Machine backup after upgrading to Mavericks?

I previously had Snow Leopard, and am wondering how I can simply restore ONLY my iTunes library from my Time Machine backup, last made only a few days ago when I had Snow Leopard. However, I seem to be unable to access anything backed up before I installed Mavericks. Any help would be great, because I'd hate to have to struggle to locate 160GB of music manually.
Many thanks!

Your choice really. Either way will work. Retaining the older backups gives you a way to restore older files. When I upgrade from 10.8 to 10.9, the backups continued without errors. Depending on what you upgraded from, in 10.8/9 you have the option to backup to 2 separate drives thus giving you some protection in case one drive fails. You can either copy the old backup to a new drive (Disk Utility/Restore seems to work best) or start a new one.

IPhoto Library is a Time Machine backup

As of yesterday I am unable to open iPhoto and get the message ‘The iPhoto Library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Relaunch iPhoto with <option> key held down to choose another library.’
This may have come about because I recently loaded some irreplaceable pictures on iPhoto and was trying to check that they had been backed up on my external (OneTouch 4) hard drive. I opened the hard drive and double-clicked on various files from the latest back-up. I wasn’t able to identify the photos for certain but assumed that they had been backed up OK. Anyway, I guess this procedure has given me the problem with iPhoto! I should also mention that, several months ago, I put a copy of the iPhoto application on my external hard drive thinking (no doubt wrongly) that it would enable me to view backed up photos. I have never used it but it is still there.
Doing a search for the latest photos shows that my photo library in general appears to be intact on my iMac (the path is -home folder-pictures-iPhoto library-originals-2010-event-individual photo) and each photo can be opened in Preview. But how do I get them back on iPhoto, please?

I have no idea -you tell us nothing except for the error
certainly selecting the correct library is critical - it is possible that that is your problem - it also is possible that something else is the problem - pointing to the correct library can not create any problems so do it
As to keeping all of your photos together - do nothing and iPhoto will do that - the only way anything else can happen is if you mess with the iPhoto library or create multiple libraries - iPhoto always uses the same library until you direct it to change
LN

Cannot restore iphoto library correctly from time machine backup

Hi all,
Yesterday I had to reinstall my mac with no particular reason. Suddenly the startup screen with the "circle" went on indefinitely for 10+ minutes before shutting down the system. Yes, the power cord was plugged in. No, I didn't manage to start it in safe mode...
I thought it wouldn't be a big deal since I regularly back up my mac on an external drive by Time Machine. So I reinstalled and restored the system.
I could log in fine, but here's the catch:
1) only 3 iPhoto events out of 30 are restored
2) for all other events I seem to have the thumbnails but not the original or modified files
3) trying to browse into the Pictures folder shows that:
- the iPhoto library file does not appear with the usual icon
- if I examine the package, for all events that don't show up in iPhoto, the event hierarchy (e.g. 2008/eventxyz) exists but the folders are empty in both the "Original" and "Modified" hierarchies
- same if I click on the same file in ANY of the 4 backups I have on the time machine disk
By the way TM restored the system to MacOSX 10.5.2 even if I'm sure I had a later version. In fact, I can't open iTunes either because it says the library has been created with a later version of iTunes. But what really worries me is that I can't even find the .JPG original files.
Can somebody please help? I relied on Time Machine and there's 6 years of memories there...
Thank you

I have the same symptom, but as the result of an external hard drive failure. My Time Machine backups from June 2009 - August 2009 contain the iPhoto library. When I restore the iPhoto library (pick any random backup date) I can see the thumbnails or a blank dashed outline of the old photos. When I click on the thumbnail I can get the metadata (photo location, photo date, etc...) but the photos are gone. When I am in iPhoto the lower left corner of the interface shows the library size is 42Gb, but the restored library package is only about 3Gb. My guess is the difference in file size is equal to the size of the original (and modified) files that didnt get backed up. None of my iPhoto library packages in Time Machine are larger than 3Gb.
I brought my backup drive to the folks at the Genius Bar. They were perplexed. They suggested I bring in my Mac Mini so they could look at the console. I took a look at the console at home and searched for "Time Machine" and found nothing out of the ordinary.
Not sure why Time Machine would appear to run so smoothly yet selectively not back up my original photos. I can restore everything else from my Time Machine backup to my new external drive just fine.

How do i import an iPhoto library from a time machine backup?

how do i import an iPhoto library from a time machine backup? I did a back up and i formatted my machine. How do i get iphoto to be the same?

This screenshot shows how to restore a library from Time Machine.
There is NO importing necessary. One should never import one library into another. Just restore it to your Pictures folder and launch iPhoto.
OT

Trouble with restoring an iPhoto library from a time machine backup.

I'm having trouble restoring my iPhoto library from a time machine backup.
I have created a new library in my pictures file.
When I try to restore the library the restore process is trying to copy it to an external drive that no longer exists - it failed and I had to have it recovered and all the recovery (including backups) data is now on a different external hard drive.
iPhoto had been using that old external drive location to start. iPhoto is now pointed to the newly created iPhoto library in my pictures file on my MacBook Air.
Is there a way to have the restoration process point to that new iPhoto library that is now empty and not to the old external drive?

You might try this with the restored library:
Starting over from scratch with new library
Start over with a new library and import the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from your original library as follows:
1. Open the library package like this.
2. Launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
3. Drag the subfolders of the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from the open iPhoto Library package into the open iPhoto window a few at a time.
This will create a new library with the same Events (but not necessarily the same Event names) as the original library but will not keep the metadata, albums, books slideshows and other projects.
Note: your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.

The iPhoto library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Reopen iPhoto with the Option key held down to choose another library.

I recently tried to look up my pictures on my time machine back up on an external hard drive. As soon as I try to open it I get the following message.
"The iPhoto library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Reopen iPhoto with the Option key held down to choose another library."
I have tried holding down the option key but still couldn't few the photos.
I want to know if there is anyway I can actually view these photos. I have over 85gbs of photos on the hard drive. I have tried googling and looking at pervious forums with the same problem but nothing is working.
Please help!

Select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu. Search for "Restore items backed up with Time Machine."

Can Yosemite read a snow leopard Time Machine backup

Can Yosemite read a snow leopard Time Machine backup. Once I installed Lion over SL and it was a disaster since I could not get any docs or photos back, so had to put SL back on my old iMac.
Will 10.10 give the same problem or is there a way to migrate the old 10.6.8 data to 10.10?
Thanks

Yes, you can do that. The only limitation is that you can't encrypt the backup volume.

Can I move all data from time machine backup to another external drive & work from it?

Hi all, the harddrive on my macbook died (2nd time in a year) & I had a new one put in that's much smaller than the old one. Can I move everything from my time machine backup onto a seperate external drive and work directly from that on my laptop/imac? At the mo. I don't think time machine will recognise my computer as it's a new drive etc. Thanks Jenny.

What exactly do you want to do?
Is it that you wish to extract an older version of some documents to edit, but leave the original intact?
You can Restore an older version from TM and choose not to replace the current one.
Or, do you wish to install the OS on your new drive, and migrate all the information from the TM backup to the new isntallation?
EDIT: Ok, re-reading your question, I think macjack probably has the right idea.
However, see Pondini's Time Machine FAQ # 16

I have created a new partition on the Mac HD for Lion as I would like to dual boot. Do I need to install Snow Leopard on that partition before installing Lion? If so, can I use one of my Time Machine backups to do this?

I have created a new partition on the Mac HD for Lion as I would like to dual boot. Do I need to install Snow Leopard on that partition before installing Lion? If so, can I use one of my Time Machine backups to do this?

zoominnana wrote:
Can I set up 2 different time capsule backups? one for the lion partition and one for the snow leopard partition?
No, you can't partition a Time Capsule's internal HD. Both partitions will back up to the same sparse bundle. keeping the backups for each partition separate.
Time Machine will not take the two OSX partitions as two different computers, but for best results, exclude the Snow Leopard drive from backups on the Lion partition, and exclude the Lion partition from backups on the Snow Leopard partition.
There may be some files on the Lion partition that Time Machine on Snow Leopard won't like, among other things. See #10 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions for details.

I desperately need to access my User Library folder in Time Machine (Lion so = not visible).

Hi. I installed Lion a few months ago and got a new external drive to back up Time Machine.
Nobody told me the User Library would be made hidden in the new OS. I have been backing up regularly in the belief that all my work, settings and so on was safe.
Yesterday my iMac (27" 2.8 Ghz Core it with 4 gib memory) suddenly went mad. Message saying finder had quit whilst trying to restore windows. Desktop was flashing, no icons clickable, no external disks readable. Could access some progs and terminal, but nothing else. Could not get into the history folder to trash various plists and so on as the folder is hidden and the alt Go wouldn't work. The Finder just wouldn't do anything.
I have sorted it out BUT I have lost my address book entries, my browser booksmarks, my desktop shortcuts and my iCal entries. I need to access my User Library on my Time Machine. Is there a way?
I cannot believe I have been religiously backing up my stuff but Apple has made it so I can't access my backup of one of the most important folders on my Time Machine???
Is there anyway of getting into this from Terminal or something? I will never be able to get back all the bookmarks and stuff I've been researching for years. I have it backed up on two different hard drives, both of which have 'invisible' library folders. I have make the folder visible now, for future backups, but it's after the horse has bolted. I am furious, and just feel like bursting into tears because of all the time it's going to take me to get all my work back. I can't tell you how stupid this was, Apple.
If someone could help I'd be really grateful. I've got older backups but they are so old they won't get back my recent stuff.
Thanks.

select Finder
hole option key and select Go in the menu
Select Library
Enter Time Machine
You should be seeing all the versions of you Library folder.

Can't access library folder on Time Machine Backup

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