Delete large file from Time Machine backup drive?

I recently selected to exclude my Aperture.library file from Time Machine, but only after it had done about 8 backups already... the file doesn't exist in the latest folder on my TM hard drive but it is there in previous ones.
how can i delete this file from my TM backups and regain 40gb? (it won't let you delete it in finder)

Ewen,
Let me make my self more clear.
Because of the Apple KB article regarding Aperture and Time Macine, that's exactly why i chose to EXCLUDE my aperture.library file from time machine.
Please don't read any negative tone in this, i'm just trying to explain myself.
But hind sight is 20/20, so i was looking for a way to delete the old previous version of the aperture.library that was sitting on my backup time machine drive (useless taking up space)
I apologize for not searching out that KB article, but i didn't think i'd have to do that. I assumed Apple would know how to have Aperture play nice with Time Machine....
Any way all is good. we're all educated now

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The section titled "Restoring data from Time Machine backups" in the following may help: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427

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Ewen,
Let me make my self more clear.
Because of the Apple KB article regarding Aperture and Time Macine, that's exactly why i chose to EXCLUDE my aperture.library file from time machine.
Please don't read any negative tone in this, i'm just trying to explain myself.
But hind sight is 20/20, so i was looking for a way to delete the old previous version of the aperture.library that was sitting on my backup time machine drive (useless taking up space)
I apologize for not searching out that KB article, but i didn't think i'd have to do that. I assumed Apple would know how to have Aperture play nice with Time Machine....
Any way all is good. we're all educated now

Can't restore files from Time machine backup?

I kinda successfully restored my files from Time Machine after a clean re-install of Snow Leopard (Time Machine thought they were new files, though, so backed up the 26 GB... waste of space), but now I'm trying to restore the files of the other user on the computer. In her pictures folder, I can't copy the iPhoto Library because I don't have permission to access it! The same problem occurred on my account too, but I was able to go to my Time Machine drive and manually change the permissions for the files I wanted, which doesn't work on her account.
I have made a Youtube video of the error:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1__PdyAetVg
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wrongusername wrote:
But if I transfer everything with the Setup Assistant, won't I once again be experiencing the problems I had?
If the problems were caused by your data. But that's extremely unlikely. It may have been an app, or, much more likely from your description, something corrupted in the Leopard OS. That's one of the problems with upgrading a sick system without knowing what or where the causes are. It's a bit like a brain surgeon operating on himself: if he isn't in tip-top shape to start with, his condition is likely to change, and not for the better.
Most of us would have recommended first simply doing a +*Repair Disk+* on your internal HD; if that didn't help, installing the "combo" Leopard update; if that didn't work, doing an +Archive and Install+ and re-installing the "combo."
After a clean re-install of Snow Leopard, my Mac worked fine again (except for the TM trouble). So it probably had something to do with my old files.
Probably not. Much more likely OSX was somehow damaged. And you got a whole new one.
How come I could read the files on my external HD and yet not be able to copy the files?
Time Machine uses special "deny everybody everything" permissions on it's backups, among other things, in an attempt to keep us mere mortals from moving, changing, or deleting things and corrupting them.

Problem moving/deleting files from time machine backup

I recently ran into some problems with my hardrive and had to get it replaced at the mac store.
Unfortunatly, i only ran a partial time machine backup on the hardrive before i lost it.
Fotrunatly though, it did manage to save some important stuff, but now for the next problem....
I have dragged my files from my external hardrive with the partial time machine backup onto my new desktop but it wont let me do stuff with them
this includes;
asking for my password whenever i want to delete one of them
saying "cannnot be modified" whenever i try to drag the files to a new location.
as you can imagine, this is a bit of a pain.
anyone have anything similair?
help would be great
thanks
Chris

That is not how you restore from a Time Machine backup.
Repairing the permissions of a home folder in Lion is a complicated procedure. I don’t know of a simpler one that always works.
Back up all data now. Before proceeding, you must be sure you can restore your system to its present state
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the page that opens.
Drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:
chmod -R -N ~
The command will take a noticeable amount of time to run. When a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) appears below what you entered, it’s done. You may see a few error messages about an “invalid argument” while the command is running. You can ignore those. If you get an error message with the words “Permission denied,” enter this:
sudo !!
You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up.
Next, boot from your recovery partition by holding down the key combination command-R at startup. Release the keys when you see a gray screen with a spinning dial.
When the recovery desktop appears, select Utilities ▹ Terminal from the menu bar.
In the Terminal window, enter “resetpassword” (without the quotes) and press return. A Reset Password window opens. You’re not going to reset the password.
Select your boot volume if not already selected.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.
Select  ▹ Restart from the menu bar.

How to restore a deleted iCloud note from time machine backup?

The short of it... one of my kids decided they didn't need certain notes, therefore deleted them!!!!
(my fault i did not have notes/synced/off on new device!),
but they are important and iCloud is synced across all devices and those notes are gone.
Wasn't sure if a device/ restore from back up would work - didn't.
Tried some of the Apple Communities/ going to lib/ turn off wifi/ move the 3 files to desktop/ move back to lib file, nothing.
Could I get some 'really specific' step by steps? seems others have had success, and maybe i'm in TM when I should be on my Mac or vice versa?! or in the wrong library?
My TM backups just does not let me get anywhere to restore those deleted notes.
Any help would be wonderful!
Thanks
Thinking Apple should have given us an iCloud safety net or at least allow TM/ iCloud to be userfriendly.

I used this to restore my deleted notes from Time Machine, hope this helps others
closed Notes,
turned WiFi off,
entered finder/go+option/ to 'get to library': /Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/
entered TM and selected the 3 files/ hit restore/ keep both (just to make sure, then I deleted the newer file, not the 'restored' file when this worked out)
opened notes and my deleted notes were back so I copied my notes into pages as a backup,
turned on WiFi and the notes disappeared!
replaced my restored notes by copy/pasting my backups into notes/iCloud....
notes/mac would not show across iCloud.... don't remeber this being an issue prior to Mavericks when 'all' notes were selected?
Apple needs to hear from us so they can fix glitches like this. TM was created for instances like this, hopefully this is just an oversite. Pass this along to Apple Feedback/iCloud/bug. If enough of us flag such issues, hopfully it's addressed on the next update.
Dear Apple, this should be much easier than it is. We should be able to open Notes, go into Time Machine, and restore anything regardless if it's on my Mac or on the cloud.

Pulling Files From Time Machine Backup?

I want to do clean install of Snow Leopard on my Macbook Pro because it's becoming overly cluttered with files that have been over the years first put on my Powerbook then my Macbook and then this computer. Currently everything is backed up to a hard drive with Time Machine. Would it be possible to do a clean install and then just pull the files I want from the Time Machine backup without just restoring the entire thing?

capnamazing wrote:
When I went to the Apple store they told me to run a fresh install and rather than use Migration Assistant (I'm assuming that is the same thing as Setup Assistant, correct?)
No. They have similar screens and "works" but are different. +Setup Assistant+ runs when a new Mac first starts up (or after installing OSX on an empty volume), and can transfer everything from another Mac or its backups "as is." It's used mostly to set up a new Mac exactly like an old one.
+Migration Assistant+ is an app in your Applications/Utilities folder, and runs only after at least one user account has been set up. It's used mostly to add a user account from one Mac to a different one that already has one or more. Depending on the circumstances, accounts transferred this way can lose their permissions to files on other volumes, such as backups.
Unfortunately, may folks, including some Apple folks, don't distinguish between the two, causing problems.
I went home to do this, plugged in my time machine backup to my MacBook Pro which has a fresh Snow Leopard OS X installed, and tried to drag and drop files from the time machine backup to my hard drive. It kept asking for my password when transferring, which is no big deal. But now when I move some of these files around or edit them on my hard drive, it keeps asking for the password again. Is there a way around that so I can just put the files and applications that I want onto my Mac without it requiring a password every time?
That's because the account you set up on the fresh install of OSX wasn't recognized as being the same one as on your backups. One user, even an Admin user, doesn't normally have access to a different user's files, and that's also enforced on backups.
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Trying to copy out files from Time Machine backup.

I'm really frustrated here any help greatly appreciated. Order of events:-
1. Basically I have been backing up my files through time machine on a external drive for my mac mini.
2. I formatted my mac mini and sold it to my friend.
3. I am having troubles copying files(iphoto library) from my timemachine backup on to my imac.
4. I don't need anything else except a few particular files, but everytime i try drag or copy it gives me the 'no privilege/permission error'.
It's really frustrating i've changed permissions and everything and still doesn't work. It will work if I go copy the individual files. But any folders doesn't work.
Any advice?
Many thanks in advance.

chadnchady wrote:
3. I am having troubles copying files(iphoto library) from my timemachine backup on to my imac.
That's correct. Time Machine backups retain the original ownership and permissions. So one user doesn't have access to another user's data. Usually, that's a good thing.
4. I don't need anything else except a few particular files, but everytime i try drag or copy it gives me the 'no privilege/permission error'.
Your best bet may be to use +Migration Assistant+ to migrate the user account and selected data. Then log on as that user and use/copy the data as desired. See the pink box in #19 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

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I have somehow deleted all previous Calendars and entries prior to the day I set up iCloud. They have gone from iCloud also. This occurred after I tried to remove duplicates. Calendar entries after setting up iCloud are more or less OK but everything before that day has gone (except for birthdays and a few other entries).
Can I recover them from a previous (Mavericks) time-machine backup and if so how please?
I have looked for calendar files on my external backup HD but can't see anything recognisable.
Other posts on this topic seem to refer to previous operating systems.

I used the process outlined here successfuly just now:
http://www.wilmut.webspace.virginmedia.com/notes/icloudtm.html
I am running Mavericks. Things I learned or to clarify/amplify what he says (at the URL I just listed):
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* Make sure you close Calendar before trying to restore.
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* I found that calendars I had created since losing my old ones were not overwritten or lost when I followed the above procedure.

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Is there a terminial hack or a third-party app to delete a backed up file from the finder and at the same time from time machine without having to enter time machine mode, and is there a shortcut to do so ?

Please post your code using code tags (click on CODE above the text area, when posting)
response.setContentType("application/octet-stream");Why octet-stream? Set the correct mime-type.
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I am not adverse to using migration assistant.
With your suggestion, among others I shall. However, I think it is better to load applications from my DVD's into the new Mac, then open and use the migration assistant. Don't you agree?
Otherwise, I think, the migration assistant on initial startup of the new Mac will migrate files that do not have apps already installed. Maybe that does not matte?? Does it will migrate over apps first? All shall come from my TM backup which I am concerned were from a Power PC G5, to now to run on an Intel based Mac, and I thought it best to load apps without any touch from the PPC.
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Hi,
My iMac has a beachball issue to the extent that now it not even starts up anymore, I don't even get to the desktop screen. I plan to reinstall the system from with the CD I got when I purchased the iMac 2 years ago, then update the operating system to the latest version, and then get my files and programs back from my latest time machine backup, which was completed c. 2 weeks ago.
1) Will this process generally work? I am running Mavericks 10.9, so the CD I want to install from will be an older version, but I then plan to upgrade to 10.9 before accessing the time machine files.
2) Post upgrading the op system to the latest version, when I then get the programs and files back from time machine, will that bring also back the beach ball issue, or given that everything will be saved and installed 'cleanly' it will be alright?
I am not a mac pro, so still learning, please forgive if I am not posting required info. Let me know what you need.
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1. Yes.
2. Depending on what is causing the beachball, restoring may or may not bring the problem back.
Spinning Beach Ball
Spinning Beach ball (2)
Spinning Beach ball (3)
Spinning Beach ball (4)

Help: cannot retrieve old files from Time Machine backup on new computer!

I backed up my old Macbook Pro for several months. I've got a new Macbook Pro and I succeeded to restore the last content of the old one using the migration assistant.
However, now I need some older files that I know are in the backup, but I can't restore them because you apparently can only do that with the computer from which you made the backups... a Time Machine backup is 'tied' to the sparsebundle using the MAC-address of the computer...
I don't have my old computer anymore, does this really mean that all the old file in the backup are lost for me? Or is there an other way?
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Wim

Wimek,
According to this KB article (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1760)
"When upgrading from one Leopard-based Mac to a new Leopard-based Mac, and you wish to use Time Machine backups from the previous Mac, make sure the computer name of the new Mac (in Sharing preferences) is the same as your previous Mac's computer name was when its Time Machine backups were made. Afterwards, if the previous Mac is still on your network, give it a different computer name."

Delete large file from Time Machine backup drive?

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