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

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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.

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.

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 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.

I backed up my iPhoto library to my EHD then deleted some photo in iPhoto on my iMac to make more HD space. I want to back up iPhoto again to my EHD again but do not want it to overwrite the whole library. How can I make sure it backs up the new photos

Ok so how can i just back up the newer photos to my iPhoto library on my EHD? If it overwrites the backed up library it will delete the older photos that I backed up and then deleted from my iMac HD.

Do you want to back up only your photos and not your current library? Then you will not get a backup of your albums, books, calendars, ..
A lot ofyour organizational work will not be backed up, if you only save the newer photos.
To find the new photos create a smart album:
From Photo's main menu bar: File > New > Smart album
and add a rule: Date is after .... ; enter the date of your last backup.
Then export the photos from this album to a folder on your backup drive.
File > Export > Original
But it would be much better simply to copy the iPhoto library to the external drive, after renaming the older library, so that it will not be overwritten.
Regards
Léonie
You might consider to let TimeMachine do the work and keep track of changed versions.
Use Time Machine to backup the library regularly, so you always can restore a current version aand can find older photos that have been deleted, and make occisiona snapshots of the whole library on a second backup drive.

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.

How can I make sure the engineer comes this time?

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Haha, the engineer turned up today, on the wednesday, which was the original date allocated!
Despite me rearranging for last saturday morning, (showing up on my "track my fault") then, following a non show, rearranging for next friday afternoon, (showing up on my "track my fault") the OR enginner phones me (on my mobile obviously) to tell me he is her at 12.20 on the wednesday.
Luckily I was at work and could get home in 20 mins, and the chap (really nice) said he would make a start. By the time I got home he told me he had fixed it - the connection was ?corroded (6 yr old house) on the BT side of the fence.
There is a total disconnect between the "track my fault" page with BT and Openreach
If my mobile had not been in signal range and I had not been able to get home to meet this really nice OR enginner, and had they not turned up on Friday with an afternoon lost from work I would not have been happy!
I have an installation date for BT Infinity in 2w time, on price alone, but hope i don't live to regret this
I would appreciate a reply as to why "rearrange my appointment" has no effect

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.

How to delete corrupted files backed up on Time Machine.

Hi,
I'm using Fusion to run Windows XP Home. This morning I tried to open it and was told the file was corrupted and couldn't be used. I had to force quit both Fusion and Windows XP. Luckily I could go back a few days and use TM machine to restore an earlier version of Windows XP and now it's working perfectly again. I'd like to delete the corrupted file but I'm afraid I might delete something critical and I don't to delete all backups. Any suggestions?
Thanks

Welcome to the Apple boards:
If you did it correctly, the bad file is overwritten by the "new" one from TM.
If not, you should be able to find it and temporarily drag it to your desktop.
If nothing bad happens after a day or so, then trash the desktop windows file.
If you are looking to delete the bad file from TM, open TM and find the bad file and select it. Then select delete You will be prompted to delete only that file or all previous backups. Select only the one you have chosen.
Be sure TM has backed up your new Windows system before deleting it and there is little you can lose.
I would also like to compliment you on using TM and using it properly.
Were everyone as conscientious as you, most of the issues on the board would resolve themselves.
Kudos.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

How to check on files backed up in Time Machine

I have recently converted to using Time Machine (vs. Chronosync) to backup files on my Macbook Pro. I'm still using Chronosyn for my iMac, but may change to TimeMachine as well for simplicity sake.
Can someone tell me how I can view that backup up files? The seem to be in some compressed format. In particular, I have my photography library in Lightroom, and want to be certain that all the data is stored preserving all the files and metadata as they are on my computer.

1) How Time Machine Works its Magic
2) Time Machine vs. Clones and Archives
3) How do I view or restore selected items?
4) How do I use the (not so intuitive) Time Machine display?
From Here > http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

How do I restore files backed up to time machine to a replacement storage drive? (NOT System disk)

I've seen plenty of articles about restoring the system disk (restoring the whole system) with Time Machine, but nothing about restoring a secondary disk that has crashed.
I've been doing backups of both the primary system disk and a secondary storage disk for 2 years. Yesterday, the secondary storage disk crashed. I have a replacement disk, now I need to restore the backup from Time Machine onto this new disk.
Can I just copy the files from the Time Machine disk to the new one, or do I need to do something more complicated? The instructions for restoring files from Time Machine all include selecting the drive/folder you want to restore, then entering Time Machine. But I can't do that if the original disk no longer exists.
I'm getting the replacement drive today, so I thought I would ask before I installed the drive. Any advice would be appreciated.
-ME
Mac Pro 5,1
OS X 10.6.8

If i had a direct answer, i'd posted it, but, since I don't use TM, I linked you to the TM bible. You know, the one that Apple failed to provide.
BTW, specific steps on what you did to solve the problem will help others.

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 retrieve a file from Trash using Time Machine in Mavericks?

Is it even possible to retrieve a file from Trash from a Time Machine backup? Does Time Machine even back up the Trash? I've been told a total restore from a Time Machine backup will put the past Trash back on the Mac, but what if I just want to restore an individual file?
Shortly after emptying my Trash on my Mac (10.9.4) for the first time in weeks, I realized I needed one of the files I'd just erased. Trying to retrieve with Time Machine was not fruitful, however, because I couldn't find the file on any of the past backups using the normal Enter Time Machine interface. However, I know it would have been in the Trash during all of the most recent backups.
So I researched how to find the backups of Trash with Time Machine, but I think all of the solutions I found on various online forums were pre-Mavericks and do not seem to work now. I've basically tried 2 things:
Show Trash in Finder using the Terminal command: open ~/.Trash
It shows the hidden Trash folder in Finder, located in Macintosh HD/Users/User. For easy access, I added the .Trash folder to the Finder Sidebar. But I can't get to it in the backups. The Trash shortcut in the Finder Sidebar is always grayed out in the old backups using the Time Machine app. And it does not show up in ~ when looking through the backups.backupdb folder on my external HD.
I also tried the Terminal command to show all hidden files in Finder: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
But while many hidden files do suddenly appear in Finder, curiously, the User's .Trash folder is not one. This is true for the Finder of the Mac, the backups.backupdb folder on the External HD, and Time Machine app.
Thanks.

How do I retrieve a file from my backup in Time Capsule?
It depends on the type of file that you are trying to retreive.
In general.....
Open Time Machine by clicking on the clock icon on the dock
Wait a few minutes for Time Machine to fully load
Use the timeline at the far right of the window to go back in time to a date when the file was still on your Mac
Click that date
Navigate using the Finder interface to locate the file that you want
Click on the file to highlight it
Click Restore at the lower right of the window to be brought back to the present
You have to retrieve other types of files differently. For details, see:
http://pondini.org/TM/28.html

HT5096 How to I do a computer back up using Time Machine and the app IDriveSync?

I just started using iDrive to do a computer back up on my 13" MacBook Pro, but I don't quite understand how the two programs interact and how to use them together.

You'd have to ask the people at iDrive. It's not an Apple product.
I'm not sure how many people you'd find here using that particular product, but you should find quite a few at their website.
iDrive looks like your standard online backup service with a few more bells and whistles. I don't imagine it interacts with Time Machine at all.

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

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