Find email on time machine from a different Mac

My old Macbook (Leopard) did a grey screen & is now an ex-Macbook. It was regularly backed up via time machine to an external drive.
Plugged into my Mac (Mavericks) I can access the TM ok & read some of the files in finder but, I'm probably missing something simple here as I can't find my old emails (no longer on server etc) I read through older posts, & have tried "browse other back up disks" with mail as the active app but it just sticks on the "Now" page & doesn't scroll back. I just need one email folder & the rest I can live without. Thanks in advance.

Although you can restore messages from a Time Machine snapshot within the Mail application, it generally won't work with messages that were saved by an obsolete version of Mail. In that case, you have to use an alternative method.
Enter Time Machine and scroll back to the snapshot you want. Select the mail account folders you want and then select Restore ... to... from the action menu (gear icon) in the toolbar of the snapshot window. Restore the folders to the Desktop, not to their original location.
From the Mail menu bar, select
File ▹ Import Mailboxes...
Choose Apple Mail as the format and import from the mailboxes in the folders you restored to the Desktop. The imported messages will appear in a new mailbox. Move the ones you want to keep wherever you like and delete the rest. Then delete the folders on the Desktop.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

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How do I view Time Machine from a different Mac?

Using Pondini's excellent tutorial, I navigated to the Time Machine backups from an earlier Mac (on the same "Time Machine" partition of an external HDD.)
First, I was at the level of Macintosh HD/Users, and I could see my earlier Mac's users, but they had the usual red 'No Entry' circle against most of the Home folders so I couldn't see what was in them.
Next, I quit TM and went to the folder I actually wanted (Mail Downloads) in Finder and tried again. This time, though I had option-clicked for other TM backups, it showed me the folder for my current Mac's backup (there's only been one or two so far). When I used the TM timeline slider to go back to that same folder on my other Mac, TM refused to budge. It stayed on my current Mac's window.
Basically, because of the permissions issue, I cannot view the data on my older Mac's TM backup using my current Mac, even though in theory I can option-click and get the window showing the earlier TM, and then select it and go into TM. I should point out that on the other Mac, I had a different account name and password - would this be the reason?

Pondini wrote:
There may be a way to get access to the backups, but it will take some finagling.
It sounds like you got a new Mac, right? And set it up from the old one, or its backups, and didn't use Setup Assistant when it first started up, but created that new user account first, then used MIgration Assistant. If so, the pink box does explain exactly why you're in a pickle.
Post back with details of how you got where you are, how many accounts are where, whether you've done new backups, etc.
It's a bit more complicated than that. I had a new Mac which I set up in the usual way (via a previous Time Machine). Then I let the new Mac go out of my possession for far longer than I'd intended, and meanwhile used an older Mac, where I made many changes to things like iTunes, iPhoto, documents, games, videos, etc. For reasons of space - a HD half the size - and knowing I'd get my new Mac back again, I slimmed down that older Mac with fewer Users, trimming out a lot of older stuff, and a different main account.
When I got the new Mac back, I obviously couldn't use TM to update it due to my 'slimming down' operation on the older Mac (I'd have updated many things but also lost a lot too). In the event, iTunes was updated with little difficulty, iPhoto was updated over the network, likewise all my documents and stuff. The main problem was getting my emails and downloads updated which wasn't at all straightforward. That's where TM backups on the recent (older) Mac came in - I'd use TM to fetch over the bits and pieces that were still missing on my less recent (but newer) Mac.
On my old Mac I've been using for months, I only had 3 users, one of them Shared. On my new Mac I have 7 Users, but it was only my main (admin) account that mattered. I've actually found that I can access my old/recent Mac on the network using File Sharing rather than TM and have got what I want that way. Now I want to get the old Mac off my desk and get some space back. Once it's in a cupboard, I don't want to have to heave it out again in case I find I've forgotten an essential item. That's why I wanted to make sure I could access it via TM.
The main account on my old Mac will be either 501 or 502. On my new Mac, those numbers belong to 1) what was once my main account on a G5 which I had to abandon due to logic board problems, and 2) a deleted account that doesn't exist anymore.

HT201250 Can I use Time Machine on two different Macs to back up to one external drive?

Can I use Time Machine on two different Macs to back up to one external drive?
I have one 1T Western Digital backup drive that works well with Time Machine and my MacBook Pro. I now want to back up my wife's MacBook Air using Time Machine on her Mac and want to know if I can use the same WD external drive or if I need to get a 2nd back up drive? If I can use one external drive for the two Macs do I need to do something special on the drive or will Time Machine do it automatically?

Yes. You will need to configure Time Machine preferences on each computer to backup to the same drive. Note that you cannot connect the backup drive to both machines at the same time.

How do I retrieve data from time machine from an old mac (which was running 10.5) on my new iMac running mavericks?

How do I retrieve data from time machine from an old mac (which was running 10.5) on my new iMac running mavericks?

See B 5/6.
Time Machine Troubleshooting

Restoring time machine on a different mac

I'm trying to help a friend. Hi macbookpro died. He can't afford a new one right now, but has an old g4 cube. So now he wants to move the data from the dead laptop to the old g4. Fortunately he ran Time Machine backups to an external firewire drive. So I thought it would be easy enough for me to restore this data for him in a format the g4 could read, but so far no luck.
My first thought was to use migration assistant to copy the accounts from his time machine backup to my mac. But when I select to use Time machine backup or another attached disk, it does not see his time machine backups!
So then I thought, I'll just use the OS install disks to restore his backup to an extra disk I had hanging around. When I do this it lists his disk as containing a Time Machine backup, but when I select it it tells me that no osx system backups found.
So now I'm not sure what to do. Perhaps he does not have a proper time machine backup (although apparently when he plugged the disk into his laptop he just selected the default which is to use it for a time machine backup.
There is a directory on the disk called Backups.backupdb which appears to contain his backups, but most of the stuff there is just links.
He also used this disk to backup files from his g4 (simple drag and drop),
could this somehow effect the time machine backups?
Any idea how to get the data out of his time machine backup - or confirm weather or not it is actually there?
I'm no familiar with time machine - I usually run 10.4, just installed 10.5 on a spare disk to try and help him out.
Thanks

dknightd wrote:
I'm trying to help a friend. Hi macbookpro died. He can't afford a new one right now, but has an old g4 cube. So now he wants to move the data from the dead laptop to the old g4. Fortunately he ran Time Machine backups to an external firewire drive. So I thought it would be easy enough for me to restore this data for him in a format the g4 could read, but so far no luck.
My first thought was to use migration assistant to copy the accounts from his time machine backup to my mac. But when I select to use Time machine backup or another attached disk, it does not see his time machine backups!
So then I thought, I'll just use the OS install disks to restore his backup to an extra disk I had hanging around. When I do this it lists his disk as containing a Time Machine backup, but when I select it it tells me that no osx system backups found.
It sounds like he may have excluded system files from backups.
don't use Full system restore to restore backups from one computer to a different one, especially if one computer is intel and another one a PPC. that will not work.
So now I'm not sure what to do. Perhaps he does not have a proper time machine backup (although apparently when he plugged the disk into his laptop he just selected the default which is to use it for a time machine backup.
There is a directory on the disk called Backups.backupdb which appears to contain his backups, but most of the stuff there is just links.
links? do you mean they look like alaises? that means that you are looking at it from a Tiger machine. You shouldn't. whatever migration option you are using you should migrate to a leopard one.
He also used this disk to backup files from his g4 (simple drag and drop),
could this somehow effect the time machine backups?
no, that shouldn't matter.
Any idea how to get the data out of his time machine backup - or confirm weather or not it is actually there?
as I mentioned you should look at the drive from a leopard machine. try this control-click on Time Machine in the dock and select "browse other TM disks". see if it lets you brows that TM disk.
I'm no familiar with time machine - I usually run 10.4, just installed 10.5 on a spare disk to try and help him out.
Thanks

How to retrieve email and contacts data from time machine from a different computer

My iMac hard disc has died and though I have everything backed up on Time Machine I am finding it difficult to access my Contacts (not on iCloud) and emails from my laptop.
I understand that they are to be found on the Time Machine backup in library/applicationsupport/addressbook and /Library/Mail/V2, but these files appear to be hidden.
From my reading it has been suggested that I use the utility Terminal, but I don’t know where to start with this – any guidance would be most welcome

Please visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.

Is it possible to back up an external hard drive to Time Machine from two different computers without creating two different records?

I have an external hard drive that I do my work on. I use it on my office MacPro and on my MacBook Pro. I have Time Machine setup on both computers to back up the external hard drive to a remote backup drive, but when it backs it up, the backup goes into either the MacPro record of it, or the MacBook Pro record. The effect of this is that if I'm at my laptop and I need to access an earlier version of a file that existed when I was working on my MacPro, I can't access it.
Is it at all possible to create a universal record (or Sparse Disk Image Bundle to use Apple lingo) for my external hard drive?

Hi BDAqua,
Thanks for your help as always, sorry I never thanked you earlier, finally got some time to attend this.
I'm in the mail folder in the library of my user name. Just to make sure I get all my mail boxes I'm going to archive simply the whole 'Mail' folder after going in to the library of my unsername.
I notice you mentioned about importing there .... I've seen the .emix files you mention .... i have 30,000+ of them.
What I find helpful in mail is that if I type a client's second name, in this case 'Lopez' I can pull up all the mails relating to him in an instant, around 450. Obviously it would be impossible to pick through 30K .emix files to find the right ones .... so could I easily import them in to my Mail on my new computer?
Could I select the whole lot of them, then drag and drop them in to my new Mail on the new computer, and then use the search function on Mail? ... the normal desktop search function doesn't seem to look through the emix files, or emails for that matter.
Also, just as an extra precaution, could I make a smart folder in Mail with the name of said client for example for, then archive that folder separately?
TY
Message was edited by: Scottishengineer

Browsing Time Capsule from a DIFFERENT mac

My primary mac is in the shop. I have a time capsule backup of that mac
I borrowed an IMac and need to get some files from the usual mac off of the Time Capsule. I do NOT want to back up the IMac on the Time Capsule...I only want to find selected files off of the Time Capsule with it.
Is this possible? I can see the TC from the IMac, but can only see a ".sparsebundle" file. When I choose "browse other Time Machine disks" from the Time Machine icon, it doesn't see my time capsule
thank you very much in advance for your help

thank you so much for the response
I had been able to get as far as you instructed, and I can see both my time capsule and the sparsebundle file within it.
what I don't understand is how to utilize that sparsebundle file in order to find the specific files I'm looking for within it
is it simply a matter of double-clicking on the sparsebundle file to "mount" it like a disk? Is there any risk of me doing damage to the backup on the TC?
thanks again for your help

Restore from time machine backup to different mac

The logic board is fried on my apparently backed-up, out of warranty MacBook Pro (MBP), which was running Lion. I don't have enough time to figure out the steps and get it done. I need some help here.
Option 1:
I am weighing and thinking (and weighing and thinking..) should I turn an underutilized iMac at home (running Snow Leopard) into the recipient of the files and programs of the MBP? This would mean restoring from that backup over wi-fi to the iMac. This solution has distinct challenges I believe, but I am not familiar with what they are. What do I need to do to accomplish this option? How many pre-requisites and steps would I need to take?
Option 2:
Buy a new MBP (big bill) or MacBook Air (MBA, cheaper), and attempt the use of Setup Assistant to bring the apps and data over to the new MBP or MBA. Supposed to work easily.

Hi Steven,
The question is, which option would you most LIKE to do. Both options require the same step and will hav the same outcome. Replacing your MacBook Pro with a new one would surely be the best experience, but migrating to an existing iMac would be just as simple.
Either way, as you know, you would use Migration Assitant to transfer the data to the new recipient. You mentioned using WiFi, but if you have that backup on an external USB drive, that may be much faster.
I can't think of any problems this would pose, except maybe the loss of settings that arent compatible with the OS of the backup. if you choose option 1, it may make it easier to upgrade the iMac to Lion that way it receives that backup more seemlessly.
I hope my suggestions help! Let me know if you have any more questions

How to backup from Time Machine of a different computer

I want to restore my emails from time machine from a different computer?

Look at the Pondini web site and it should be able to address all of your Time Machine questions.
http://pondini.org/OSX/Setup.html
Ciao.

Where can I find old emails in Time Machine?

Just need to find an older email in time machine. Where can I find it? i.e in which folder etc.
Thanks heaps.
Gerard

Bring the Mail browser window forward, then enter Time Machine. Scroll back in the time-travel view to the most recent snapshot containing the messages you want to restore. Select the messages, then click Restore. The messages will be restored to a new mailbox. From there you can move them wherever you like.

I accidentally erased a sticky from my Dashboard? I don't know how to find them in Time Machine.

I accidentally erased a sticky from my Dashboard? I don't know how to find them in Time Machine. Any ideas how to recover it?

When you have a Write window open press F9 to turn on the Contact Sidebar. Select the contact or contacts to send to. Hold the control key while clicking contacts to select more than one. Then use one of the Add To buttons at the bottom.
This looks like the first message you have posted here. You will get an email to the address you used when registering.
You can click on your username to go to your profile/activity page. I suggest that you bookmark that so you can find your posts and answers easily.

How do I retrieve files from a backup hard drive (was backed up using Time Machine) on a different computer

how do I retrieve files from a backup hard drive (was backed up using Time Machine) on a different computer?

Please visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.

Viewing email within Time Machine - no subject line to identify, how do I find a specific email?

I am running OS X Yosemite, Thunderbird 31.2.0. I am looking for a deleted email using Time Machine. The emails are not identifiable by subject, by date, etc. but have some sort of code.
How can I search by a subject or date?

I'm not sure Time Machine will be useful.
Look in your profile for Trash in the relevant account. Open that with your text editor. If the message has been deleted from Trash, it will still be there if Trash hasn't yet been compacted.

I used the Migration Assistant to move data from my Time Machine to my new Mac.   Most data has been moved successfully but none of my iPhoto pictures have been moved.   Looking at my Time Machine now I find that the earliest back-up is dated after the Mi

I used the Migration Assistant to move data from my Time Machine to my new Mac.   Most data seems to have been transferred successfully but none of my iPhoto pictures have been transferred.
My Time Machine now shows the earliest available Back-up to be after the Migration Date.   My iPhoto pictures seem to have either been lost in the migration process or are locked in my Time Machine prior to the earliest back-up date now accessible.
Any advice on recovering my old iPhoto pictures would be greatly appreciated.

First go to iPhoto Preferences, look in both General and Advanced tabs to make sure that things are set to import from camera into iPhoto.
Then if that doesn't help, connect the camera and open Image Capture in your Applications > Utilities folder and see if you can use Image Capture to reset the import path from the camera to iPhoto.
Image Capture: Free import tool on Mac OS X - Macgasm
Message was edited by: den.thed
Sorry John, I didn't see your post when I clicked the reply button. Dennis

Find email on time machine from a different Mac

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