Can't delete files backed up in Time Machine

I use Time Machine to back up my MacBook Pro to NAS on my home wifi. I have a large file in my downloads folder that I have moved elsewhere and I don't need backed up. When I enter Time Machine's 'Star Wars' window and select the file and choose to delete all instances of it from the drop-down from the 'cog' icon in the Time Machine Finder, then I OK the warning that I can't undo the delete. Then - nothing happens! The file remains there! My question is: how does one delete files from Time Machine?
I would be grateful for any suggestions.

... Can anyone recommend a brand of NAS, such as Synology, that works properly with TM backups?
The exhaustive list of devices supported by Time Machine amounts to the following:
AirPort Time Capsule's built-in hard disk (any model)
External USB hard disk drive connected to a Time Capsule (any model)
External USB hard disk drive connected to an AirPort Extreme (current model only)
A hard disk drive directly connected either to the source Mac, or a Mac on your local network.
That is all.
Use whatever backup device you want, but you should be aware that this site is full of reports of misery from hapless individuals who had been using third party NAS devices for Time Machine backups, only to find that they were incomplete, corrupted, or useless in the dire circumstances in which they were required. Apple won't care if you lose your data while using a Time Machine configuration specifically excluded from their technical support documents.

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Putting deleted files back on my time machine

The other day someone got on my computer and wanted to delete things. What they did was go into my time machine and deleted all my back ups from yesterday to 2009! Those folders are sitting in my trash right now but every time I try to move them back into time machine it tells me it can't do it. If I open some of the folders in the trash or even the ones I have copied on the desktop it still says that it cannot open items.
I have been on the phone with apple for over an hour and they are saying there's nothing they can do but to try this so here I am.

You may have just hidden the icon. Go to your icon screen and press your menu button, then select show all. This will bring up the hidden icons. If you find it in the hidden icons, simply highlight it and select unhide. If you can't find it after doing show all, then you will need to run the application loader to get it back on there. To run it, you need a windows pc with the BlackBerry Desktop Manager installed AND the device software for your particular model of BlackBerry (this is obtained through your wireless carrier's BlackBerry download site)

I want to transfer all my iPhoto, iTunes, contacts, etc. files from my MacBook, which I am selling to a MacBook Pro. What is the easiest and safest method of achieving this? Can the files backed up on Time Machine be transferred to the Pro?.

I want to transfer all my iPhoto, iTunes, contacts,documents, etc. files from my MacBook, which I am selling, to a MacBook Pro. What is the easiest and safest method of achieving this? Can the files backed up on Time Machine from the MacBook be transferred to the Pro in some way? I would like to capture the files as they appear on the MacBook, such as "Events" in iPhoto and the various song categories within iTunes without having to rename them all once saved on the Pro, which is the case with photos when I simply save them to thumb drive and import them to the Pro. Sny advice would be appreciated.
Best regards,
Rob.

Michael,
Thanks for all your assistance. There is no need for apologies, Migration Assistant did indeed create a second account for the MacBook data. It has just taken me some time to figure out how to access it. I now have all the MB data in one account and the MBP files in another, which suits me fine. In fact, it is an advantage in my case as it keeps the private and business aspects separated.
I will however try the fatcatsoftware to transfer all the iPhoto files to my iMac, where I keep my main photo library. and it will be of help to keep the events, etc in the transfer. As far as iTunes is concerned, I have HomeSharing on all my computers and this has obviated the need to worry about playlists being transferred successfully. However, HomeSharing did not appear to share the iPhone/iPod apps that were stored on the MB and although these have now come across with the new MacBook account on the MBP, I was wondering whether my iPhone and iPod will be recognised by the MBP and sync with it? Will I need to have the MB account open to achieve this or will the MBP recognise and sync with the iPhone/iPod automatically irrespective of which account is open?
Thanks for the tip on deauthorising my iTunes account from the MB before sellng. This I will do and I believe the best way to remove all of my data from the hard drive is to reinstall the MacOSX operating system software. Is this the right approach to securely delete everything?
Thanks again for sharing your expertise and your guidance through this exercise.
Best regards,
Rob.

HT1553 i am upgrading my 2008 macbook to an ssd drive and want to save my settings. how do i save then? I have my files backed up with time machine ,but dont want to restore all files ,as there might be some junk backed up too. Help will be appretiated

i am upgrading my 2008 macbook to an ssd drive and want to save my settings. how do i save then? I have my files backed up with time machine ,but dont want to restore all files ,as there might be some junk backed up too. Help will be appretiated

When you restore from a Time Machine back up you can pick and chose what is restored. It is not an all or nothing process. Nor do you have to do the partial restores all at the same time. If days after the first partial restore you find something else you want you can restore just that.

Deleted files in HD and Time machine

I use the time machine with my laptop. Recently I ran out of memory and my question is if I delete files (photos and videos) from its HD would I loose these files when Time machine backs up my laptop in the future??? Thank you.

anofelino wrote:
my question is if I delete files (photos and videos) from its HD would I loose these files when Time machine backs up my laptop in the future???
yes.
if you remove files from your HD, time machine ill eventually remove them from your backup drive.
instead, get an external HD and move the photos/videos there. you can have time machine backup the files on the external if it is connected directly to your Mac.
JGG

Are my File Vault encrypted files backed up with Time Machine still useful?

The background:
My iMac G5 crashed. It all started one and a half years ago when my screen popped and the frequent hard shutdowns pobably damaged my HDD (the one elegant solution Windows have is the Windows button: press + 'u' + return = proper shutdown). After that episode I bought an external drive and started a Time Machine backup routine. What I did not realize, was the issues surrounding the use of TM with a File Vault encrypted system. In 2007 when I bought my G5, I poked around, getting myself familiarized in Mac OS X and found this thing called File Vault. It looked like something useful and I started using it. Later I upgraded my OS and after my screen problem, decided to make use of Time Machine. The one problem with Mac OS X is the ease of use. It's so easy that Apple probably cannot foresee all the dumb things we users are going to do with it, including a warning to first time TM users who have their system already encrypted with FV. Now, after searching the forums, I see the problems and the warnings. If someone use TM and then decide to use FV, a warning pops up, but not the other way around! At least, I never saw it coming. If there is such a warning, I probably did not read it - as I say, it all happens so easy and work so well, it's easy to use a Mac without reading the instructions. Yes, I did some dumb things, but that's probably because I'm not so dumb; too relaxed, yes. At least, so it seems to me : )
My problem:
Two weeks ago, my G5 suddenly started giving problems. Out of the blue I couldn't open Adobe Bridge. At first I thought it was a software problem and tried re-installing Bridge and searched the Adobe forums for a solution. After a long struggle trying different solutions, I eventually booted with my install disk and with Disk Utility found that there is a problem with my internal HDD. Only then it dawned on me that my problem is far more serious than a software problem but by then it was too late. I couldn't repair the HDD with DU and got an instruction to restore my system with a backup. No problem! I hooked up my external HD and pressed the button. The restoration took over 12 hours to complete. That in itself showed my that I have a big problem, but I did not dare interrupt the process. In the end I got a window with a 'Restart System' button. All I got from that was a white screen with a spinning wheel and that's where I am now. Needless to say, my G5 is now getting repaired.
My solution:
I have to keep going so I used my savings to buy another Mac. I have my backups, so I'll just do a Migration and keep working. Or so I thought. When I tried it, it obviously failed because I sit with encrypted backups that would only restore to the original machine - which crashed! After reading about it on the forums, it dawned on me that it is, most probably, a futile exercise. My backups are, most probably, no backups at all, because I also did not realize that I had to 'log out' of my FV to get TM to properly backup my files! In never dawned on me that I should log out! I have one machine at home and have no particular reason to log out at all!
My question:
Am I wasting my time with the 'backups' I have? Should I wait for my G5 to get back from the shop and see if they are useful, of should I just move on and try to live the rest of my life without all the electronic data I lost?

Gorrelduik wrote:
But they missed one situation: if Time Machine is set up, but auto backups are turned OFF, there's no message. If you turn it back on, there's no message then, either.
. . . and that's exactly my MO! I still don't have auto backup turned on. If it's better to use auto backup I'll do it, but to my mind it's better not to have both my computer and my backup disk on all the time. What happens when there is a power failure or lightning strike and both are on and both get damaged? My MO is to make a manual backup once a day and then put the external HDD away.
That's one of the reasons not to rely on a single backup, no matter where it is or how it was made. All hardware fails, sooner or later, no backup app is perfect, and things like lightning, fire, flood, and theft happen, too.
With a desktop Mac (and a U.P.S. system that both the Mac and External HD are on), you can let TM do it's hourly backups (although that won't help a lot with the current incarnation of File Vault), then keep secondary backups on a separate HD, perhaps a portable one, with a different app. See #27 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for some suggestions.
I have thought of doing another weekly backup on a different external HD that I keep at the office, but I'm still procrastinating that one. Now that I think about it, does Time Machine cater for that: having two backup routines on two different HDD's?
You can do that, but you must tell Time Machine each time you want to "swap" drives. But each will be complete and independent.

How do i get files backed up in Time Machine onto a computer with 10.4?

So, i had to downgrade to 10.4 temporarily, will go back to 10.5 very soon, but right now, i have files that were deleted off of my computer, and backed up on time machine. I need a way of getting these files off of time Machine. I checked the time machine folder, the whole folder added up to 7gb, while some of the files i am looking for are 10gb.

You should be able to drag and drop them from the TM backup folder to your Tiger HD. You may have to enter the Admin name/pw combo.

How to access old files after wiping your computer and putting the files back on via time machine

I had recently wiped my computer because it was running to slow. After doing so i put my backup of my computer back on via time machine. However when i try to acces those files i cant find it in the finder. However it still takes up space on my computer and lists it as other now i cant deete any files to free up space on my computer please help!

Try using disk utility on the hard drive to repair the permissions.

How do I make sure files backed up by Time Machine don't get deleted?

About 2 months ago I backed up about 50GBs worth of family movie files with TM to a 1TB WD hard drive so that I could access them to watch without them clogging up my iMac hard drive. Once they were safely backed up I removed them from my computer after about 3 days. (I also backed them up to DVDs so luckily they are not gone for good). After 2 months I decided to access them to watch through TM only to find they were no longer there. I also went looking directly into the sparsebundle...no luck. I still have about 450GB left for back ups. My questions are this... is TM deleting files that have only been on my computer short term? If so, how long do I need to keep files on my computer to ensure that TM keeps them for good? I believe TM deletes a lot of weekly and monthly back ups after a month, but this seems to put a lot of 'short term stay' files in danger of being lost completely. Am I right in assuming this?

Hi Peter and a warm welcome to Discussions!
RedPeter505 wrote:
is TM deleting files that have only been on my computer short term?
TM is designed to delete files. Seems conterproductive for a backup application but then again TM is not designed to be an ordinary backup solution that you can rely upon it to keep your files until you as the user decides to delete backups because you find that they are unnecessary. Incidentally, note that the TM preferences tick box says "Warn when old backups are deleted" not "are about to be deleted". There may be warnings before deletion but in my experience one can't count on that.
I can't say why those files are no longer on your backup. Download the Time Machine widget and have a look if there's anything in the TM log for the relevant time the files disappeared. TM shouldn't delete when there's a lot of space left on the drive. However, unfortunately it does happen that TM loses track of what has been backed up and so begins a full backup to ensure all's backed up. In such a case and where the full backup is big, it may have deleted the oldest files to make space for the new backup. Ironic.
If so, how long do I need to keep files on my computer to ensure that TM keeps them for good? I believe TM deletes a lot of weekly and monthly back ups after a month, but this seems to put a lot of 'short term stay' files in danger of being lost completely. Am I right in assuming this?
You can't (afaik) ensure that TM will forever keep files that it has copied because of how TM is designed. If you want a proper/ordinary backup solution look elsewhere. Because of TM's design, I actually stopped using it and instead set up SuperDuper to run a daily backup of the drive where I save all my stuff. Sure, I won't have the extra security that TM offers by backing up every hour (thus minimising the amount of data that may be lost while working on a file) but I don't need that because I am very careful to save regularly.
/p

Deleting files from macbook after time machine back up

My macbook's hard drive is almost full so I bought an external hard drive. I used the time machine to back up my hard drive. My intention was to delete some files (photos, video and music) from my macbook to free up space but I read from the FAQs that I am not supposed to do that. How then can I free up space on my macbook's hard drive?
Thanks.

You can delete files from your hard drive to free up space, but within the month those files will also be removed from your TM backup. If you want to save the files you would delete, then you need to save them in some other free storage space, but do not use TM. TM's backups are dynamic and change with the changes on your hard drive. They are not a substitute for permanent storage space.
You might consider partitioning the backup drive and using one of the partitions for TM and the other for permanent storage. Be clear that you should allocate about twice the capacity of your hard drive to the TM partition.

How can I get specific files back from my Time Machine backup?

I wanted to make a fresh install on my MacBook Pro, in order to only have Java 8 instead of any older Java versions. So far so good. But now I want to get specific files/libraries from my external backup (USB):
One Parallels Virtual Machine
My old mail
My iPhoto Library
I don't need any settings for these, since I can easily configure them again.
I already used the Migration Assistent to restore all apps.
How can I get specific data back from the backup without restoring all stuff that I don't want anymore?
I'm now working on a new account on the fresh system, called 'Admin'. My old account was called 'Hans' (or 'hans') and I'd like to create such an account again for all my tasks.
Hans

How can I get specific data back from the backup without restoring all stuff that I don't want anymore?
I'm now working on a new account on the fresh system, called 'Admin'. My old account was called 'Hans' (or 'hans') and I'd like to create such an account again for all my tasks.
You will want to add the same User account(s) which hold the data you want to restore. So you will want to add a User account of 'Hans or hans'. Check your Time Machine back up drive to see how the User account is labeled (Hans or hans). Navigate to the Users folder and see how it's labeled.
You can then use your Time Machine back up drive and navigate to the User Home folder to copy its data over (e.g. contents from Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, etc.). Repeat for other Users.

Can I retrieve Mac files backed-up with Time Machine to a PC?

Hello,
I have been using Time Machine to back up my MacBook Pro to an external hard disc. Now my MacBook has broken and I'm in Ghana with no access to repairs in the foreseeable future. Can I retrieve the backed-up files from my Mac to a PC? If so, do I have to upload everyting on the external hard disc to the PC or is there a way to select inidividual files for retrieval? My fear is that everything will be erased once I connect the external disc to a computer it has not 'seen' before. Would be grateful for answers and advice. - Fiafromgullspång

There is no way to restore your TM backup to a PC.
You need to be able to run Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant to restore your TM Backup.
Back-in-Time or Backuploupe will give you access to your TM Backups but still require a Mac to run.

If I restore My Mac OSX Snow Leopard can I get all my files back from a time machine backup made on a portable hard drive?

I want to restore my MacBook Pro running Snow Lepoard, I made a time machine backup on a portable hard drive, can I get all the files back when resseting the OSX from the Hard Drive?

If you're using the Mac App Store version, there is initially no clean install option unless you're running the installer on a different drive or partition; your existing data will remain as is. If you're doing it from Lion's recovery partition or using the USB flash drive after erasing the internal drive, yes.
(64046)

I Can't Play .MP4 and .mkv Files Backed up in Time Machine

I backed up My Macbook to an external hard drive in my passport / Time Machine. I am attempting to play both .mp4 and mkv files in quicktime and vlc respectively. They worked when they were on my computer, but I they won't open now. I even tried to copy them to my computer and play them that way. When I click on info, it shows the file size, and it seems normal. I updated both Quicktime and vlc, and it still doesn't work. Please help.

You wrote in your first post:
I even tried to copy them to my computer and play them that way. When I click on info, it shows the file size, and it seems normal.
Then you wrote:
when it restored it, the file size was zero
Which of those statements is true?

How do I get access to files backed up with time machine on another computer?

Hi. I recently migrated to a new macbook air. got most of the data across, but not my iphoto library, which exists now only on an external harddrive onto which i backed it up using time machine.
I had to delete the iphoto library from my old computer before migration.
The harddrive doesnt work on my old computer anymore (says the disk is damaged. Im currently trying to repair it, but no luck so far, disk utility says it cannot repair it.)
I can get the harddrive to work on my new computer.However, the folder i want to access is inside a time machine backup folder (made on my old machine) and it is locked. I tried to unlock it using command+ i but that did not work.
How can i access such a locked folder?

maedi wrote:
I realize it is not good to get time-machine created files back by going through finder, but that seems like that is my only option.
Were you trying to access it via either Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant? If those don't work, you still may be able to use the "Star Wars" display to see and restore some data. It all depends on just what and where the damage is.
If you can get into the display, you may be able to restore the iPhoto Library; start with the most recent backup, and work back in time.
the problem now is the folder is locked with a big red no go sign, and command-i cannot change it (not even when i do it on the computer on which the file was created).
Correct; Time Machine protects it's backups with very restrictive ACLs, basically "nobody can do anything," so us mere mortals won't damage them.
If you use the same user account on the same Mac that did the backup, via the Finder, you should have read rights, and you may be able to copy from the backups.
if i succeed, am i going to see my iphoto library file in that folder?
Yes. Each of those date-stamped backup folders should contain a set of "hard links" to the backup copies of everything that was on your system at the time of that backup, no matter when each item was actually backed-up. If you can copy the most recent one successfully, that will get everything.
The iPhoto Library looks like a file; but it's actually a special kind of folder called a "package." If you can't copy it, right-click it and select Show Package Contents to see inside it, but don't copy individual items except as a last resort -- at best, you'll recover raw photos, with no organization or data, and probably no editing, either.

Can't delete files backed up in Time Machine

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