Entire restore of a user's Mail via Time Machine?

Hi people, before I try this, I was wondering if there would be any ill effects to restoring the entire ~/Library/Mail/V2 structure for a user, using Finder and Time Machine. I am wanting to avoid selectively restoring each of the hundred or so mailboxes the user has. Appreciate any help

Well, I've never had an issue of using time machine or it's functionality; it's only been a matter of becoming familiar with some of its "foibles" lol. It's advantage in this case is that no permissions need to be rebuilt, as, when you restore using time machine while logged in as the user concerned, it restores all those permissions. The only extra thing needed by restoring the entire ~/Library structure is that some of the structure there does not belong to the user, but in that case, time machine asks for an admin user/pass which of course was me so no probs there either.
Re CCC, wherever possible I try to use s/w inherent in the system before looking to 3rd party solutions.
Re rsync, yep, I use it all the time too. In my case, all our data is on the NAS and I also backup weekly to a second NAS which is then, for the rest of the week, sitting in a bag by the door (we being in a bushfire-prone area it's then easy to "grab-n-go"). When I was using Windows, the process was performed by RoboCopy with a cmd file script and when switching to the Mac, I ported the process to rsync with AppleScript

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I cannot access old e-mails via Time machine since installing Mountain Lion at the beginning of August.

I cannot access old e-mails via Time machine since installing Mountain Lion at the beginning of August. I can access those received and sent since the benning of August. I can access other documents prior to August.

Launch the Console 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 Console in the page that opens.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Try the action that you're having trouble with again. Post any messages that appear in the Console window – the text, please, not a screenshot.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Edit it out by search-and-replace in a text editor before posting.

Just got new macbook pro (13inch) and restored all data from old mac via time machine. Now whenAudio drop out for 3-4 secs every 10 - 15 secs!! What is going on and what can I do?

Just got brand new macbook pro (13inch) and restored all data from old mac via time machine. Now when I p/back a track in logic I get audio drop out for 3-4 secs every 10 - 15 secs!! What is going on and what can I do? Its the same version of logic and all other functions seem fine!

First of all, why did you say yes to Nero Back up before researching what it does with files already on the HDD? When I install Nero, the Back Up is the first thing I disable, it is a nagging pain, there are much better backup programs available. There are several file recovery programs out there to recover deleted files, that is, if that is what happened. Also, if you haven't overwritten the files, so you should be able to find them.

Blank E-mail after Time Machine Restore

I recently restored a full user account from a Time Machine backup on a Time Capsule. This was a migration from an older Mac (10.4) to a newer Mac (10.6.4). All folders were backed up using the Time Machine backup.
When checking the migration of the Mail program's imap account and local folders, everything seems to be perfectly fine except for the fact that there are now approximately 800 blank messages (no sender, subject, body etc) in the Imap inbox.
Checking with a web client reveals no errant messages. Additionally, the old Mac also shows no blank messages.
These messages are "sent" with a timestamp matching the time when the Mail app imports the messages. This and the fact that I cannot locate these messages on the server leads me to believe that they are an error in the import process.
All of the old messages appear, but these additional messages appear as well. They cannot be deleted (the imap server reports that there is a malformed list). When moved to a local folder, they appear to move, but after leaving and re-entering the inbox, they reappear.
I've rebuilt the envelope index, to no avail.
Any ideas?

Thanks for the feedback and star. When you force the reindexing, it is global within the Mail folder, and thus all IMAP and Exchange account folders should be removed, and not merely the one having an issue. Not sure if that is what you meant, but simply clarifying.
Ernie

Restoring sent email from IMAP account using Time Machine backup

I see others are having trouble with sent mail after Snow Leopard upgrades, but I think I have a different issue.
After my domain host's most recent 12-hour downtime, I shifted my domain's email hosting to Google. Everything's working fine sending and receiving, but now I'm missing a year's worth of sent email from that account. It's all backed up on Time Machine, but I'm looking for advice on how to restore the backed up sent mail from Time Machine while preserving the couple of weeks' worth of sent email that's in the Mail app's sent box for that account now.
Thanks!

Sorry for the lag time closing this question out. I eventually shut everything down, including the external hard drive, spun everything back up and tried again. (I had been on the correct, earlier backup file and not on the current day, which was why the grayed out restore button was so disconcerting.)
The second attempt worked, but it took two or three tries to retrieve all the sent emails. The first two outings only recovered about 10 days' worth despite having months of sent email selected and available to recover. The third time it grudgingly worked correctly.
The whole experience has left me very wary about Time Machine, frankly. I do thank everyone for their help. I'll post this note in the other forum and so there's a resolution to bot

How can I restore a single image from an aperture time machine backup, do I have to restore the entire library? that does not make sense

I hope there has been found a more efficiant solution for this, how can I restore a single image from an aperture time machine backup, I really hope I don't have to restore the entire library? that does not make sense
any suggestions?

Did you try browsing your backups in the Finder ? That is, do not go and "Enter Time Machine". Instead, navigate to your Time Machine backup via Finder and then manually go to the time period (by folder name) you are looking for ... when you find your Aperture library you can then "Show Package Contents" and find the Master you are looking for.

Freeze when restoring Mail from Time Machine backup

I had to have the logic board and solid state drive replaced on my Retina MabookPro and before I dropped it off at the Genius Bar I did a full Time Machine backup to an external drive. I have my fixed Mac back, and restored from that backup, but when I try and start Mail it says "Mail needs to import your messages" and then begins the progress bar for importing my messages. The problem is that it always freezes somewhere during the import, and now I am afraid I have lost all of my old mail.
First off, why does it need to re-import? Why can't it just work off the orignal Mail database backed up via Time Machine? And secondly, is there an advanced rebuild or other option that can hopefully recover my mail database? Anything else to try?
-Lewis

Quit Mail. Force quit if necessary.
Back up all data. That means you know you can restore the Mail database, no matter what happens.
Triple-click the text on the line below to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope Index
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C). In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder
from the menu bar. Paste into the box that opens (command-V), then press return.
A Finder window will open with a file selected. Move the selected file to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Other files in the folder may have names that begin with "Envelope Index". Move those files, if any, to the Trash.
Log out and log back in. Relaunch Mail. It should prompt you to re-import your messages. You may get a warning that the index is corrupt and that Mail has to quit. Click OK.
Test. If Mail now works as expected, you can delete the file you moved to the Desktop. Otherwise, post your results.

I had to restore my IMac back via Time Machine because Mavericks keeps crashing

I had to restore my IMac back via Time Machine because Mavericks keeps crashing on install, it gets down to less then one minute, and I get a white screen with the apple in the middle. Now I have version 10.8.5, but if I try to download again it states that I need version 10.7. Now How do I get 10.7, and dowload Mavericks?? Help

You shouldn't need 10.7. Something is messed up with the App Store.
3 things you can try.
1. - Sign out of the App Store (in the Store menu)
- Quit the App Store
- In Finder - Go>Go to folder... (or Apple-shift-G)
- Paste in the following "~/Library/Caches/ "
- It will take you to a folder. Delete com.apple.appstore
- Launch the App Store.
2. Try resetting the App Store.
Reset Learned from Old Toad
3. Spotlight – Re-index
You can also try creating another admin user and see if you can download it there.

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

How restore aol sent mac mail from time machine?

I am using mac mail and an imap connection to aol. I also have a time capsule and use time machine for backing up. Yesterday I stopped receiving incoming mail in mac mail and tried deleting the aol account in mac mail and then setting it up fresh. I was shocked to find that my 25,000 AOL sent emails did not restore! I was told by an apple genius bar rep several months ago that once mail was on my machine that the emails would NEVER be lost. Apparently this is not true. When I open mac mail and go into my time capsule using time machine, however, do not see the SENT mail icon under AOL--it goes away? When I try to restore the aol mail from the day before the incident the only thing that comes up is the one Sent Mail mssg that I sent AFTER the deleting and restoring of my AOL account in mac mail. The only relevant post I have found is the one below which was posted in 2008. Please let me know there is a way to get back my sent messages. I can't get them directly from the aol server because the server does not save messages that are sent from any client but AOL. Thanks.
http://raffyjohn.com/2008/01/29/restoring-apple-mail-and-your-emails-from-time-m achine/
Restoring Apple Mail and Your Emails from Time Machine
filed under: How-To tags: mail, timemachine Tuesday, January 29, 2008, 11:31 am
UPDATE (25 August 2010): Please note that this post is well over 2 years old and as Tim pointed out in the comments below, this method may not be the best solution for restoring emails. According to his restore efforts, changes where made to the timestamp from the date in which they were received to the date in which they were restored. I have not tested this myself.
The hard drive on my PowerBook completely died the other day, but I luckily had been running Time Machine backups since upgrading to Leopard. (I wasn’t all that ****** off seeing as I was eager for an excuse to replace my wimpy 40Gb hard drive with a new 160Gb drive). I fumbled a bit, looking for a specific Apple Mail restore tool. I knew where all my emails lived, but I thought that Apple would have a specific means for restoring apps like Mail. So I created this mini-tutorial on how to restore Apple Mail from Time Machine simply because I could not find this method elsewhere.
Supposedly, If you attach your Time Machine backup drive, open Apple Mail then launch the Time Machine application, you are presented with historical views of Apple Mail. This did not work for me, the historical views were just blank, so the steps below do not take this approach.
Restoring Your Emails from a Time Machine Backup
Warning: If you have already setup Apple Mail with your accounts and preferences, this will negate ALL your doings.
Note: This process will restore all your email accounts, preferences, passwords, smart mailboxes, etc.
The How-To
Before loading Time Machine, open the Finder and navigate to Home Folder (username) -> Library. In there will be a folder name “Mail”. Rename it to “Mail (default)” (Select the folder then hit the Return key to rename).
Mount your Time Machine Backup Drive (ahem, plug it in).
Control + Click the Time Machine Application and chose “Browse Other Time Machine disks…”. This, of course, brings up the historical view of your backups.
Go back to your most recent backup (2nd window back) and navigate to Home Folder (username) -> Library. Select the “Mail” folder and click the restore button (bottom right).
Once the restore is completed, open Apple Mail and you will be presented with an import wizard (below). Simply follow through the prompts and you will be good to go.
That’s it!UPDATE (20-January-2009): After step 4., also restore ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plistThanks Jon C.
If you have multiple mail accounts, you should also restore the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist file as well. This will ensure all of your account settings are imported. – Jon C.
Follow me on Twitter here.
40 Comments
Chucho
May 13th, 2008 at 11:11 amThanks it’s a great hint, you should post it in macosxhints.com
Westin
May 19th, 2008 at 3:28 amAwesome content and great instructions even for stupid people like me. Thank you so much for posting this. It worked like a charm and really is appreciated at 2:30 a.m. after hours of reinstalling junk.
Slippery Snake
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:15 amThis worked. However, I had three email accounts, and it only imported one. My Smart Mailboxes were not imported either.
Jon C
July 30th, 2008 at 2:50 pmIf you have multiple mail accounts, you should also restore the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist file as well. This will ensure all of your account settings are imported.
Joseph Hurtado
August 26th, 2008 at 11:23 amRaffy,This tip is worth it’s weight in gold! Thanks so much for posting such a well though out recipe for a Mail Rescue operation.Just put Jon’s advice on the article, that is also very valuable!Take care,Joseph Hurtado
from Toronto
Cory
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:25 amYou saved my life! Thanks!
Drew
January 19th, 2009 at 12:08 amCheers Great tip! Thank you very much for your time!
Lizart
May 23rd, 2012 at 2:00 pmStill working in May of 2012! Thanks so much!
source
May 29th, 2012 at 11:11 amIm getting a teeny problem. I cant get my reader to pick up your feed, Im using bing reader by the way.
Bruno Zysman
May 31st, 2012 at 4:56 pmThanks so much for this tips
I could get back my 170 000 mails in 5 hours thanks to this post, after having tried for few hours without success…Bruno

Don't try to restore the file; restore the Note. Go in Mail to the mailbox where the note belongs. Enter Time Machine from there and step back until you find the Note.

How can I restore my iTunes library via Time Machine after an erase/install and upgrade to Snow Leopard?

Actual problem:
I reinstalled all my programs that I need without a hitch. Meanwhile, I've been trying to recover the few files (mostly music) I actually store on my computer's hard drive as opposed to on my external HDs. I use one external HD for my graphic files and the other is strictly for Time Machine backups. I tried to recover my iTunes music, but I got a message that says: "The file: "iTunes Library.itl" cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes." I restored (I thought) my iTunes library Username/Music/iTunes." Additionally, I was going to upgrade to Mountain Lion, but I have seen that there were issues with Lion and iTunes libraries so I'm a little wary of this.
Excuse the long explanation, but I figure the problem may possibly be in the details of the weeks prior this problem:
I have recently been having issues with my iMac. I brought it in to see a Genius twice within the past month and they couldn't seem to find the problem. (It would restart Finder of it's own accord while I was using Adobe CS programs) I figured it was worth backing everything up via Time Machine and doing a complete erase/install/factory reset. I did so and had a problem again, and brought it in again, third time. The Genius did another diagnostics tests and found nothing and said my erase/install probably did the trick, but time will tell. I am, after the erase/rewrite and upgrade running Mac OS X 10.6.3 and previous to this was still running Tiger.

So, I didn't update iTunes and the rest of it after installing Snow Leopard. My stupidity, I figured that the OS was more up to date than the one I had previously so that all the programs that come with it probably were more current than the ones I was using. However, now that I have updated all my software, I am still getting the same message from iTunes that I was previously. I cannot open iTunes at all, same "The file: "iTunes Library.itl" cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes." message. I'm confused again. Checked a few other threads and whatnot and cannot seem to figure this out.

Recovering Mac HD via Time Machine Backup fails because "Restore system from backup" doesn't show in Utilities Menu of original install. DVD

Hi, after serious problems (troubleshooting didn't help) with my iMac G5 (PPC) running Mac OS X Leopard I've tried to recover my Mac HD via Time Machine (exactly as described by David Pogue on page 242 of the Leopard Missing Manual). However, "Restore system from backup" in the Utilities Menu of my original Leopard installation DVD failed to show up. What can I do?
Any assistance will be greatly appreciated -
Ballant

Hi Ballant,
I'm not very good with TM, nor a fan of it, but our resident king of TM, Pondini, has a vast array of very well done TM trouble shootings...
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

How to restore particular pictures in iphoto backed up via time machine

cant we open an app like iphoto via time machine for a particular date ??
like i want a pic that i deleted from iphoto , how can i do that without restoring full iphoto library???

As AnaMusic said, iPhoto library can't be opened via Time Machine to restore photos separately, so you will have to restore the whole iPhoto library.
1. If you don't want to lose changes made after your last backup, copy the iPhoto library, that it's on Pictures folder, to another folder.
2. Open Finder, select Pictures in the sidebar and open Time Machine.
3. Navigate through the backups, select the iPhoto library you want to restore and press Restore.
4. Double-click the iPhoto library to open it on iPhoto.
5. Drag the photos you want to transfer to your "existing" iPhoto library to the Desktop. You can select more than one pressing Command key.
6. Delete the "restored" iPhoto library on Pictures folder and copy the "existing" iPhoto library to Pictures folder again.
7. Open iPhoto and drag the photos on the Desktop to iPhoto, so the photos will be on the iPhoto library.
If you have any problem restoring the iPhoto library, see > http://pondini.org/TM/E9.html

After formatting my HD and eventually restore my system from a backup on Time Capsule, will I still have access to my old backups as normally used to do via Time Machine?

I have a Time Capsule (4th Gen) and my backups on it, I need to completely erase my hard drive. My question is: after formatting my MacBook HD and eventually restore my system (OS X 10.6.8) from a backup on Time Capsule, will I still have access to my old* backups as normally used to do via Time Machine?
*(-and to the newer backups- if I had not restored my system from the last backup).
THANKS

That's a good question. Technically, Time Machine should make a new backup but not erase any old backups. But if there isn't sufficient space on the backup drive, then I'm not sure if Time Machine will simply warn you or just go ahead and remove old backups to make room for the new ones.
In any case, the new backup should have a different backup folder on the backup drive. That's my understanding. You can learn more at pondini.org.

I need to restore my music via time machine but it will not as my mac mini says I don't have permission access iTunes. Any help would be great. Thanks

I need to restore my music via time machine but it will not as my mac mini says I don't have permission access iTunes. Any help would be great. Thanks

Have you looked at the previous discussions listed on the right side of this page under the heading "More Like This"?

Entire restore of a user's Mail via Time Machine?

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