How do I remove a File from the Time Machine backup?

How can I delete a very large folder (30 gb) that I do not need on my time machine backup? I was transferring the file from one computer to another and TM backed it up while it was on my Macbook Pro. Now I have this massive file on my external (time machine) hard drive that I do not need.

In Finder, open the folders until you can see the folder icon for the folder you want to delete.
Launch Time Machine. It should open a similar view of what you were looking at in Finder.
Select the folder, and click on the "Gear" icon at the top of the window and choose "Delete All Backups of "nameofyourfolder"".

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How to restore all Logic files from a Time Machine backup

Hello-
I recently had to clear all of the memory on my laptop, in order to free up some room. It was running very slow, and I had far too much clutter on there. I have a MacBook, and back everything up on Time Capsule, so I've spent the past couple of days individually retrieving all of the files that I want on my computer. I naively thought that I could click on the Logic Pro application from a previous backup, but failed to realize that I have to find the drivers and other components that make up the software. Where can I locate all of these files, and how would you recommend going about restoring all of my projects, drivers, etc.? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Smart mailboxes are not a storage location, they are just a kind of saved search. There's not really anything to restore if you can't restore the messages.
As to your difficulty restoring mail, see the [Time Machine FAQ|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1964018] and [Time Machine Troubleshooting|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2057525] guides. Also, try posting on the TM forums for better help.

How do I access my back up files from the time machine if my computer was stolen?

Hi, how do I access my back up files from the time machine if my mac book pro was stolen? I have a mac book air and mac too. But not sure how I can get back all the files from the stolen computer from my time capsule

On the Mac Book Air or other Mac that you have, use Migration Assistant to transfer files from the Time Machine backups of the Mac that was taken.
Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Migration Assistant

How can i remove secure files from the trash? I tried click away the secure notification in info, but still i cann't remove them. Is there a buttoncombination to use?

How can i remove secure files from the trash? I tried click away the secure notification in info, but still i cann't remove them. Is there a buttoncombination to use?

If you are unable to empty the trash, try holding the Option key while selecting Empty Trash.
Otherwise, some steps in the following link may help you.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1526

How to restore an Apple Mail draft file from a time machine backup

How do I restore a single Apple Mail draft file from a time machine backup?

Never mind. Just figured it out. I restored the single file, but after that I'm receiving dozens of old notifications of new Mail. Not sure why.

I accidentally deleted my media files from iTunes and Trash when I was trying to move the files to an external hard drive. Is there a way to restore the media files from a Time Machine backup or from iTunes Match? What are the steps to do this?

I accidentally deleted my media files from iTunes and Trash when I was trying to move the files to an external hard drive. Is there a way to restore the media files from a Time Machine backup or from iTunes Match? What are the steps to do this?

If you have been backing up on Timemachine.
All you need to do is enter time machine... Then the rest is obvious.
Find the iTunes folder and hit 'Restor'.
If not the only way to get all your iTunes music back is to enter iTunes Store.
On the right hand side you should see 'Purchased'.
Click 'purchased' and there you have it.

I need to drag a file from my time machine backup to a usb

I need to drag a file from my time machine backup to a usb

You can restore it to the original location as a copy, if you have a newer version there that you want to keep. So Restoring a file from TM won't over-write a newer file.

How do I remove files from my Time Machine Backup and then how to exclude external hard drives from Time Machine?

How can I remove external hard drives from the Time Machine and exclude them in the future?

For deleting backups from Time Machine: http://pondini.org/TM/12.html
For excluding things from backups: http://pondini.org/TM/10.html
For general Time Machine advice (all courtesy of Pondini): http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

How do I delete files from a Time Machine backup?

Hi,
I have a Time Machine backup that has a large group of image files on it. How can I delete this data from the TM backup so it is no longer taking up that space on the Time Machine backup drive? Just delete the files in Leopard and run Time Machine again...? I somehow don't think that will work...

hassiman wrote:
Hi,
I have a Time Machine backup that has a large group of image files on it. How can I delete this data from the TM backup so it is no longer taking up that space on the Time Machine backup drive? Just delete the files in Leopard and run Time Machine again...? I somehow don't think that will work...
It would be a disaster.
Only delete TM files from the TM interface. Run TM from the dock, select the file(s) you wish to remove and click the Action Gear. You have the option to delete that particular backup, or all instances of that backup. This is the only way to delete backup files.

Moving files from a Time Machine backup manually vs restoring from a Time Machine backup

I have read several articles saying that contemporary Macs and OSs are built such that they clean themselves up - defragmentation, general sweeping, etc. I was told by the Genius, however, that there are many little files that are left lying around after installs, uninstalls, file making, and file deletion that will gum up the works. He recommended that I set up my computer as though it's brand new and manually transfer files over from my Time Machine backup folder on my ExtHD.
Because I couldn't find a discussion of this specific topic online, I thought I'd bring it to the community myself. Is there an advantage to setting up the computer from scratch and manually moving the files (provided I use Migration Assistant for applications)?
For background: My Mac was running slowly, and after doing some research and talking to a "Genius", I thought it would be wise to reformat my HD and restore my system. Aside from sluggish performance, I was experiencing strange symptoms - like free disk space remaining the same even after deleting huge files, permissions errors, etc. I tried doing a permissions repair (a process I'd been told to do before when experiencing issues, even though I never knew what that really did), and read that I should verify my disk as well. Disk Utility told me that I had to reboot from the repair disk to perform the necessary repairs. The repair disk Disk Utility told me that my disk had some major issues and needed to be reformatted and restored.
HOURS LATER: I am back up and running now and Disk Utility is showing the appropriate amount of free disk space.

Let's start with some basics.
Check under the Apple in the Menu bar About this Mac > More Info
How much Memory do you have installed?
What size is our hard drive and how much free space?
You'll find the term Genius does not necessarily mean they are expert. Even on this forum, you'll find varying difference of opinions and levels of expertise.
I have read several articles saying that contemporary Macs and OSs are built such that they clean themselves up - defragmentation, general sweeping, etc.
This is true. Apps like MacKeeper, CleanMyMac, TuneUpMyMac, Washing Machine or anything like these apps might appear to be helpful, can do too more harm than good. As a result of the 'cleanup' it can leave your Mac non-functional Mac. The forums are full of users with computers that no longer work correctly after running these so call 'cleaners'
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4171
Your Mac runs maintenance in the background for you > Mac OS X: About background maintenance tasks
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2319
I was told by the Genius, however, that there are many little files that are left lying around after installs, uninstalls, file making, and file deletion that will gum up the works.
I'm going to disagree here. Get rid of the installer from downloads after installing. After removing an app, most of the little files do no harm and take up very little space. However some applications mostly crapware/cleaners will leave files that continue to run silently in the background takeing up resources.
Don't install stuff you don't really need. There is no magic bullet to clean up your messes.

Can I manually recover files from a Time Machine backup?

I'm just about to perform a fresh install of OS X Lion. I plan to re-install the apps I need from scratch so only need my files backed up (iTunes/Aperture library, documents folder etc). At the moment I have time machine backing up to an external USB disk.
Do I need to copy my Music/Pictures/Documents folders to another USB disk before doing a fresh install of Lion or can I just copy/paste them from my time machine backup disk (would save a lot of time)? I don't want to do a time machine recovery, recover preferences or apps etc - just manually recover my data.
Thanks.

JBF80 wrote:
I want to copy all of my files, but not settings or applications. I'm happy to copy/paste the Documents, Pictures and Music directories from the TM disk.
Well, that is what I said ("You can customize what to transfer")

Recovering single file from old Time Machine Backup

I see many questions/answers that almost address my issue, but not quite, so I'm starting a new post. If this has been answered somewhere and I missed it feel free to just refer me to the correct post!
I recently had to do a full System Restore from a Time Machine backup. The good news is that it worked beautifully and I'm using my iMac like nothing ever happened. When Time Machine tried to run (post restore), it said I didn't have enough space on my external drive. Okay, based on other posts here I see that it won't just continue from the old TM backups and it's starting "anew"...got it.
The old TM backups must still be on that drive because it shows 144GB USED and 100GB AVAIL of my 250GB external drive. Okay, again based on other posts I know that I could just wipe the drive clean and start fresh...BUT...
I restored to my TM backup of 8/24....now I realize that there are one or two files that I at some point stopped having TM backup and now I want to get them back (the whole point of TM, right?)...I figured since it's "holding" that space on my external drive, the old backups are intact and I just need a way to get to them to pull them back to my restored system, then start TM from scratch.
I can't get at the old TM backups. I've tried:
1) Using the "Browse other Time Machine Backups..." feature. It doesn't see the old TM backup...sees the drive, but nothing on it.
2) Browsing the drive in "Finder"...nothing shows up...just the attempted NEW backup.
3) Connecting the external drive to an entirely different Mac and trying to browse the disk in Finder OR use the Browse other Time Machine Backups...still nothing.
So I have a 250GB drive that shows 144GB used, but no way to even view what that is....am I out of luck? Or would something in DiskUtility or a 3rd party software (DiskWarrior) help in this situation?
Is there any way to go pull one or two files from my old TM backup?

Exactly Glenn....I did nothing to the hard drive after the "restore from Time Machine Backup"...
I've never used the Migration Assistant...have to look into that.
I didn't want to be argumentative since I was the relative newbie asking for help, but I HAVE to believe that if I didn't write over the files (i.e. reformat the drive), AND the Finder is recognizing that there are 144 GB USED, the files must be there, untouched....
The urgency isn't there for me anymore, I've already re-created the one doc I wanted to recover and the other file was my Windows XP virtual machine file...(I didn't want to have to re-install Windows from scratch - but I did)....so maybe this is a good time to "play" with that drive while I can afford to lose everything on it!

How to delete .inProgress file from the Time Machine?

So my back up-ed had failed and I deleted it, and I can't empty the trash and when I try to put it back it doesn't want to. Help me please! Because now all of my space is used so I can't back up anymore.
Thanks in advance!

You never delete a Time Machine backup by dragging it to the Trash. You are supposed to use the TM application to manage the backups. What you will need to do now is to simply erase the drive using Disk Utility.

How do I recover files from a Time Machine backup after a clean system reinstall?

I had a really funky problem with my Japanese input that is too weird (and irrelevant at this point) to go into here. The gist is that I took my 13-inch, Mid-2012 MacBook Air to the Apple Store in Osaka, and one of their geniuses told me he couldn't isolate the cause and that the only solution was to do a complete reinstall. Of course, I had backed up my whole disk to my Time Capsule before going to the store. The problem is, I cannot do a straight backup, because that will simply bring back the unsolvable problem.
I got the MacBook Air home and used the moving assistant utlity (sorry, I don't know the English name for it since my system's in Japanese) to resinstall all my applications. So far so good. The problem is, I have no idea how to get my files, photos, music, and movies from the Time Capsule into my new account. I didn't see any option for that when I ran the moving assistant utility, and I absolutely do not want to resinstall anything from the old Library Folder.
When I go into Time Machine mode, pinks lines on the right side of the screen indicate that Time Machine has all my old backups there, but when I try to navigate to them, I get only an empty black window. I assume that's because Time Machine does not recognize my old account and new account as the same account (and indeed there is no reason at this point that it should, since I don't know how to link them).
Any help would be very much appreciated.

While in Time Machine, press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible. Select the one you want and navigate to the files you want to restore.

How do I retrieve my Mail files from a Time Machine backup?

I reformatted my iMac hard rive because I was having all kinds of problems with speed and crashing. I did a Time Machine backup and then reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled Yosemite. I then reinstalled fresh apps and all my files. I just don't know where to find my email files on the backup. I don't even know where to find them on my current system. In older OS X systems, they were easily located under your user name. Where'd they go? Please help.

Open Finder then your user Library. You can get to your user Library from Finder/Go/Go To Folder and type ~/Library
Next, open the Mail folder; then click on the Time Machine icon in the Menu Bar and Enter Time Machine. This should open Time Machine to your ~/Library/Mail folder that you just opened. Now, you should be able to copy your V2 folder for what ever date that should have all your mailboxes.

How do I remove a File from the Time Machine backup?

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