How can I retrieve a lost file in Time Machine?

Hi,
I'm using a Western Digital Elements 1TB external hard drive to back up my MacBook Pro.
One day, I noticed that one of my fiels were missing, so I went in to the time machine looked for it (roughly the time period when I created it),
but it wasn't there.
Is it possible to loose files in time machine?
Is there any way to retrieve them?
Please help.
Thanks

Note: the User's Library is hidden by default. It's also hidden in Time Machine. You have to be in the User's Library in order to restore items from Time Machine.
Under Go in the Menu bar hold down the Option key and select Library.
Scroll down to the 'stickiesdatabase'
If you don't see the file, open Stickies and create a new test sticky. This will create the 'stickiesdatabase'  file.
Once you see the file, select the file.
Enter Time Machine.
You should enter in your User's Library showing the file.
Go back in time to when your actual file existed with your data.
Select Restore.

Similar Messages

  • How can you restore your backup files from time machine?

    Hi how can you restore your backup files on your mac book pro from time machine? i lost all my pic and files on my phone and then restored it from the last back up which was when i lost all my files i dont know what i did? someone please help!
    Thank You
    Jon

    YOu might get more info if you post in the MAC forum.

  • How can I delete undesirable backup files from time machine?

    Can anyone give me details of how to delete undesirable backup files from Time Machine,
    I'm trying to remove mackeeper which has been running since 2011
    And I'm stuck at the first hurdle......
    Thanks

    The problem I have is that i dont have an option to delete backups of this file on the options menu, and when I click delit or try to drag it to the trash I get a box saying " This operation can't be completed because backup items can't be modified"
    Iam really tempted to just delete mackeeper from HD library and Applications but it is stressed that I need to do the TM deletes first?
    Am stuck please help

  • HT201342 how can I retrieve my old files on important  and documents?informations

    How can I retrieve my old files on important documents and informations?

    Contacts and calendars are designed to be synced with a supported application on the computer or a cloud service like iCloud, Google, or Exchange.
    Has the device been used as designed?  If so, simply re-sync them.
    Did you actually allow the device to finish restoring after installing the update?

  • How can I retrieve pictures, lost from my iphone during a backup?

    How can I retrieve pictures, lost from my iphone during a backup?

    The photos could have gone a couple of different places ...but it is unlikely that they are lost forever.  It kind of depends how your Backup was done.  With many Computer-based iTunes connections, your Computer Photo App will actually open first when you connect your iPhone and the photo transfer will happen between the iPhone and the App.  Assuming that isn't what happened in your case, but you did Backup on iTunes, you could reconnect to iTunes and then click on your iPhone button on the Computer screen ...typically the iTunes Summary screen will show up ...but you can tab-through the various iTunes Screens and find the Photo page.  You could check your options and see if you have a Manual Sync setting regarding iTunes to iPhoone ...this would mean you have to select the Photos you want to download to the iPhone during the Sync. 

  • How can I retrieve a lost password from my computer necessary to install Adobe flash player

    How can I retrieve a lost password from my computer necessary to install Adobe flash player

    Forgot Your Account Password
    For Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks
        Boot to the Recovery HD:
    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
         When the menubar appears select Terminal from the Utilities menu.
         Enter resetpassword at the prompt and press RETURN. Follow
         instructions in the dialog window that will appear.
         Or see:
           Reset a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Password
           OS X Mountain Lion- Reset a login password,
           OS X Mavericks- Solve password problems,
           OS X Lion- Apple ID can be used to reset your user account password.
    For Snow Leopard and earlier with installer DVD
         Mac OS X 10.6- If you forget your administrator password,
         OS X- Changing or resetting an account password (Snow Leopard and earlier).
    For Snow Leopard and earlier without installer DVD
        How to reset your Mac OS X password without an installer disc | MacYourself
        Reset OS X Password Without an OS X CD — Tech News and Analysis
        How To Create A New Administrator Account - Hack Mac

  • How can i retrieve the lost bookmarks on my ipad ?

    How can i retrieve the lost bookmarks from my ipad ?

    See if this gets them back.
    Quit Safari completely and reboot the iPad. Go to the home screen first by tapping the home button. Double tap the home button and the recents tray will appear with all of your recent apps displayed at the bottom. Tap and hold down on any app icon until it begins to wiggle. Tap the minus  sign in the upper left corner of the app that you want to close. Tap the home button or anywhere above the task bar.
    Reboot the iPad by holding down on the sleep and home buttons at the same time for about 10-15 seconds until the Apple Logo appears - ignore the red slider if it appears on the screen - let go of the buttons. Let the iPad start up.

  • I lost everything in my iphoto library how can i restore the entire library with time machine?

    i lost everything in my iphoto library how can i restore the entire library with time machine? help!!!!

    Open the folder that contained the library and then enter Time Machine.  Select the most recent date that contains the library and then restore.

  • I am trying to download lion with the thumb drive how do i back up my files is time machine good enough or must i transfer everything to my hard drive

    I am trying to download lion with the thumb drive how do i back up my files is time machine good enough or must i transfer everything to my hard drive

    A erase of the drive or boot partition is not always necessary.
    Flashing question mark at boot could be a easy fix, sometimes it's the firmware that simply forgot what bootable volume to boot from.
    Try holding the Option key down while booting the machine, a choice of bootable options appears, select your OS X and boot up.
    When you get in, head to System Preferences > Startup disk and set it again new. This will tell the firmware what to boot from. Test it to see.
    Now if you don't have a selection of bootable options, it could be that the drive is dead, or OS X is erased or corrupted so it can't boot.
    You'll have to run through this list of fixes to see what's going on, if you need a hardware fix or what, I've also included links if you can't fix it and need to recover your data etc.
    (If it's not remmebering your boot selection then also run through the list to reset things.)
    Step by Step to fix your Mac

  • How can I restore Parental Control Settings from Time Machine Backup?

    I was trying to adjust one of the parental controlled accounts for my child.  I disabled parental controls, rebooted, and re-enabled it.  Now all the settings that I had setup before are gone.  How can I restore Parental Control Settings from Time Machine Backup?

    Hi ...
    I've found a solution to my problem.
    Time Machine locates extenal HDD backups differently depending if they were done via a network or via a USB/FireWire/Thunderbolt connection.
    My initial backup was done via a direct Thunderbolt connection. I ran into the above issue b/c the second time when I tried looking for the backup file the HDD was conencted to my iMac and I was accessing it via a network conenction.
    I simply connected the drive directly to my MacBook pro and ... voila. I was able to see the backup, select the iPhoto library and begin the restore.
    Hope this helps.
    BTW - I found this out by reading the 'blue box' selection on this page: http://pondini.org/TM/E2.html
    (Thanks goes to Pondini!)

  • How can I remove an external HDD from Time Machine

    I want to remove an external HDD from Time Machine but it is not shown in the list, how can I do this please?

    Open Time Machine preferences, click on the Options button. At the bottom of the exclusion list click on the Add [-] button, select the drive in the File dialog, click on the Exclude button. Understand that this configuration will only remain as long as the drive remains mounted.

  • I install LION on my mac pro 2008 and it's alway's pop with " there was a problem connecting to the server " Time Capsule" .How can i remove this popup. My Time machine is working fine and also rename it. But the popup keeps on coming with the old name.

    I installed LION on my mac pro 2008 and it's alway's pop with " there was a problem connecting to the server " Time Capsule" .How can i remove this popup. My Time machine is working fine and also rename it with less than 7 karakters. But the popup keeps on coming with the old name.

    I have a BT Infinity router plugged into the Time Capsule, not sure where the radio settings are?
    They are able to use the network settings of the TC i.e. they can connect to the internet via the wifi through the TC but when they try and connect to the AirPort Disk this is where it is not allowing a connection.
    I don;t have the drive shared out at all at the moment, is this necessary?  How do I do this if so?
    I have attached the screen shots of all the settings.
    Thanks again for your help.

  • My hard drive died.  How can I start my computer with my Time Machine external drive?

    My hard drive died.  How can I start my computer with my Time Machine external drive?

    Pondini wrote:
    If you're on 10.7.2, yes, you can boot from the TM drive.
    Beep, beep, beep....
    Hold ON! Getting a call on the red phone.
    "Yes...yes.... ok!"
    It's confirmed, H.e.l.l. has finally frozen over!  TM drives are now bootable!
    Still it's not a real bootable clone, can't run the computer off the external drive for long in only Recovery mode, still requires the boot drive to be replaced if it not functional, and with TM backing up every hour, isn't going to offer much software protection as the TM drive is just as likely to be as messed up as the internal boot drive.
    For a iMac it still requires the computer to be taken in to Apple for a drive replacement, as ONLY Apple can do it due to proprietary connections and firmware on the iMac hard drives.
    But it is bootable!
    The backup time factor can be controlled using TimeMachine Editor, from every hour to just when the user thinks it's necessary.
    Apple lurches slightly forward!  Hurray!
    Question is, can one restore from earlier stable TM's or just the last one? In this bootable fashion?

  • How can I see another mac backup on time machine?

    how can I see another mac backup on time machine?

    Bob thanks, but that didn't solve my problem, I went to question 17 and went into the Browse my Time Machine and it also didn't find or recognize the other Mac.  I know it's in there because when I open the other Mac and Enter the Time Machine, I can see it through that Mac, and I have the same problem there, where I can't see my Mac.
    In short, when I back up a Mac (doesn't matter which one) I can verify its backup as long as I use that Mac, but I cannont verfiy the backup on that Mac using another Mac and vice versa.
    Also, I never used to have to do anything to see both on the same Mac.  So I don't know what changed. 
    There must be another way.
    Thanks

  • I deleted a pop email account from mail.  How can I recover those sent messages without Time Machine?

    I deleted a pop email account from mail.  How can I recover those sent messages without Time Machine?

    Thomas,
    "Note that you were warned that this would happen and approved it.  When you delete an e-mail account in Mail, you are shown a message like the following:"
    You didn't read my problem - I said I deleted a POP email account.  I always read the messages that pop up and in Mail when you delete a POP account - IT DOESN'T TELL YOU NUTHIN!  It just deletes it - which *** for me.  Fortunately, I had an iPhone and on that device I had about a 1000 messages that I could recover but on all my POP accounts I download them from the server onto my Mac so they were only on Mail (the really old ones that I wanted to keep.)  I had to move them into another directory one by one basically because when I would move 50 some of them would move and some wouldn't and I never did figure out that problem.  Basically the ones that would not move are the ones that were associated with my domain changes with GoDaddy, and there were a lot of those.  Have no idea as to why only those were resistant to moving but I can get all that data from GoDaddy anyway.
    This thread is now moot seeing as how I've recovered everything I can and am going to just move on - and back up more often.  ;-)
    Apple and Mail need to rewrite that program to include a WARNING MESSAGE when deleting an Account in Mail that says ALL YOUR MESSAGES ARE GOING TO DISAPPEAR NEVER TO RETURN IF YOU DELETE THIS ACCOUNT, SO YOU DANG WELL BETTER HAVE A BACK UP IF YOU WANT TO KEEP ANYTHING BEFORE PRESSING THAT MINUS SYMBOL!  ;-)

Maybe you are looking for