How do I restore a deleted file with time machine?

I have accidentally deleted a file that runs my very old HP laserjet. How can I recover the file on time machine? Any ideas? I'm running Lion.
Thanks.

If you need a little more guidance, see:
How do I view or restore selected items?

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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.

Restoring "iPhoto Library" file with Time Machine

My iPhono Library file (which is about 32GB in size) was corrupted by a system crash as I was uploaded new photos. As a result, I was unable to open iPhoto. I tried to restore the iPhoto Library file from the back-up I had from yesterday in Time Machine. For some reason, the restore gets about 3.5GB through and then give me a message that it can't perform the function because I don't have permission ot access the iPhoto Library file.
I need to get this file back up and running. The original file is gone now, as it was over written by the failed restore attempt. I have about 10 years worth of photos of my kids I need back! ANyone have any idea why I can't restore the iPhoto Library file from Time Machine?
Thanks!

You need to remove the new library file you created. Then locate the one you want restored from your TM backup using the Time Machine application. If you're not sure how a restore is done the select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine." One of the articles will outline the procedure for restoring individual files.
Also, see User Tips for Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.

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 do I restore 'Notes' data files from Time Machine?

My wife accidentally (more or less) deleted 7 of her Note notations because they were duplicated and she thought one should be eliminated. What happened is that when she deleted one, the system deleted both duplicates. After doing this for 7 times, she saw what was happening and stopped. We have both our iMacs backed up to a Time Machine and I have been searching these forums trying to find out the name of the data file for Notes so that I can restore it. The best I saw was Library/Containers/com.apple.notes but I could not find this file anywhere in Finder or even on the Macintosh HD. We did find out that if you delete something from Notes on your iMac, it also gets deleted in iCloud (I thought there was a backup in iCloud) iPhone, and iPad. One of these notes is irreplacable as it is a daily diary of an event in my wife's life. Can anyone please tell me where I can find the Notes data files so I can locate them on Time Machine and restore them? (Note: If I restore them from TM and they are not in iCloud will they be immediately deleted? Sorry that may be a dumb question but I've done a bit of technical work with PCs and MobileMe and iCloud seem useless. I'd just as soon plug my iPhone and iPad into my iMac to synch, you know. Thanks for any help. Gary

Here is what I have tried:
1. Finder>Go>(Option)Library>Address Book(highlighted)with files showing in right column. Opened Time Machine and Address Book folder is there. Tried to go back to several previous dates from several months ago. None will highlight in order for the Restore button to light up.
2. Finder>Mac HD (under Devices)>(Option)Library>Address Book (same as above). Again, cannot go anywhere back in time to highlight a date for Restore button to light up.
Note: I was able to use Time Machine to restore my Contacts with no problem. However, they are All Contacts only and did not restore my Groups. I do know how to make groups again and highlight and drag them back, but wanted to see if there was a way to restore the groups. I will post another question as to why my Time Machine won't let me restore the Address Book as well as the Contacts. Thank you for your time and patience.

How to I restore missing StickiesDatabase file from Time Machine?

I have looked all over for a solution to this. Basically, I am trying to restore a stickiesdatabase file from a Time Machine backup. I put in a new HD and am slowly pulling files over in pieces. The thing is, the backup that had the stickies I want to restore did not seem to back that file up. I navigated to user/library to find StickiesDatabase, and it is not there, even though I went into the terminal and unhid invisible folders and files (other greyed out invisibles showed up so I know it worked). But here's the weird thing, when looking on my current hard drive, I could find that file for my new, empty stickies just fine. Also, I went further to a Time Machine backup from a year ago, and I found the stickiesdatabase file in the library as well. It's like these last two backups I did that had the stickies I want did not include that file in the backup. Any thoughts? Am I doomed? Oh, and I am currently on Mavericks and the backup in question was also Mavericks. And I have a 2008 Macbook Pro if that info is helpful.

There is another, huge thread on TM backups on this forum and exactly this issue has come up. Sadly, no one has a perfect answer. I do not have a spare drive available to test this myself, but I would try something along these lines.
-- Ask TM to restore your full Library and the Masters, if Referenced. I believe that TM will give you the option to not overwriting your current Library, but be careful. However you do, stick this "Recovery Library" out somewhere. (Yes, this is gonna take some time, run it overnight.)
-- Open "Recovery" with Aperture and select the Project(s) that contain the images you want. Export these "Projects as New Library." (Don't export as either Versions or Masters.) I would select the box "Consolidate Masters" and I would probably discard the Previews. Stick this somewhere.
-- Now open "Original Library" and import the "Library" that you exported back into your Original Library as something like "Stupid Lost Project."
-- You should now have a Project full of adjusted, and adjustable images. (N.B. this is basically the technique I use with my laptop. I shoot, load into AP3 on the laptop, noodle, and then export/import into AP3 on the MacPro when I get home.)
-- Clean up. (Delete "Recovery", convert the recovered Project back to Referenced Masters, if you wish, etc.)
One good argument for never throwing those old USB drives away.
I have missed some of the details in the process, so be careful, but I believe that this will work until Apple lets us run Aperture inside Time Machine.
Best wishes.

How can I restore a deleted calendar from time machine

I accidentally deleted one of my calendars. How can I restore it from time machine?

I'm not sure why it didn't work. I deleted the old Calendar folder and then replaced it with a Time Machine version of the same folder from the previous day. Then I opened iCal and there was still nothing there.
The reason I just deleted Calendar folder and it's sub-folders and tried to start from scratch is because I could tell which sub-folder was for any one specific calendar since the sub-folder names were in some sort of code.

How do I back up my files with Time Machine?

I have read the "frequently asked questions" regarding setting up my TM, but none address my specific problems which all began when I could no longer launch iPhoto.
Issues:
1. iPhoto. When I launch it there is a gray screen with a spinning white windmill in the middle. I have let it launch for over a half hour and there was zero change. I have tried several things suggested on this site, but nothing seems to help. I read that I should first back up my iPhoto files before I created a new photo library.
2. When I open Time Machine and slide it to ON, my only option is to CREATE A TIME CAPSULE and I have no idea how to do that???
All I want to do was upload some pictures from my camera!
I am a very new Mac user and would appreciate any help with these issues.

First off, in order to answer your question about how to set up Time Machine, you'll need to follow these steps:
1) Get some sort of backup drive to back your stuff up onto. Preferably you'll want it to be mac formatted already, however it is possible to erase a PC formatted drive to work on the mac.
2) Plug the drive into your Mac, and it will ask if you want to use it as a time machine volume, choose yes. If this message doesn't come up, go to time machine and choose to select drive, then choose your backup hard drive.
You'll want to get a external drive that can store more information than your computer can store. Portable USB drives are the most convenient since they don't need extra cables and are light and small. I would recommend a 320GB or 500GB+ external hard drive.
Your first time machine backup will occur within about 2 minutes of agreeing to use the drive as a time machine volume.
As for your major issue, please make sure you've done the time machine backup before continuing on to the next steps.
iPhoto issue troubleshooting:
1) Hold down command, option and click on iPhoto to launch it. It should give you some options to rebuild the iPhoto library. Begin by trying a few of those before continuing on to more serious solutions.
2) Hold down option and click on iPhoto to launch it, then choose to create a new iPhoto library. See if iPhoto launches okay from there.
To recover your old photos, you'll want to go to your Pictures folder (in your home folder), find the iPhoto Library -- the old one you originally used, not the new one you just created. Right click (or hold control and click) on the iPhoto Library file and choose "Show Package contents". Inside the new folder you'll want to look for a folder called Masters. You can drag that folder onto iPhoto and it will begin importing all your old photos.
Alternatively, a software called iPhoto Library Manager has a repair option that you can try:
http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/

How do you delete file from time machine back up?

How do you delete file from time machine back up?

This from Apple KB Article If Time Machine is not in your Dock, you can enter Time Machine from the Menu Bar or System Preferences.
Deleting data from a Time Machine backup
To delete all backups of one or more items from a Time Machine backup, follow these steps:
Click the Time Machine icon on your Dock to enter the Time Machine restore interface.
Click on the item you would like to delete. Command-click to select multiple items.
Control-click (or right click) the highlighted item(s) and select "Delete All Backups of..." from the contextual menu, or select "Delete all backups of..." from the Action Item menu.
Authenticate with an administrator password when prompted.

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 to restore a single Photo with time machine in Aperture 3 / iphoto?

How to restore a single Photo with time machine in Aperture 3 / iphoto?

Its been awhile since I used iPhoto, but I have done it.
If I recall correctly this is how.
In iPhoto open event that you need to restore the photo to ( the event that originally contained it )
Then open TM it should show that same event and then go back in time until you find the missing shot
Highlight the one you need to restore and tell TM to restore it.
Good luck

Can i upgrade to 10.6 snow leopard then restore files with time machine?

I have an early 2006 iMac with 10.5.8, and I am having hard drive problems. I want to reformat my drive, then install 10.6. Can I do that, then restore my files with Time Machine? Will it restore applications?

Yes, you can use Migration Assistant or Setup Assistant. When you launch SL for the first time it will ask if you are migrating from another Mac, select yes and then indicate the TM drive. Connect the TM drive to the machien and let it migrate what you want (Settings, Apps, Data etc..). It's important to connect the TM drive via USB or Firwire, DO NOT select Wi-Fi.

Is it possible to delete files from time machine?

Is it possible to delete files from time machine? I had a drive crash, restored the files to a new drive, and now the old versions and the new versions of the files are both backed up, taking up a mountain of drive space. Do I just have to wait 'til the drive gets full and then tell it what to delete first?

Hi, I need help in a related problem. I have 500gb time capsule. I needed larger hard drive, so I now use TM to back up to a different 1tb hard drive. So I don't need the TC as a TM back up device. But I want to use the TC's hard drive as an extra external hard drive. I deleted the files that were on it. but it still shows it has a sparsebundle file with a size of over 400gb ( probably the size of the old backups). When I use disk utility to try to erase it, I am not offered the erase tab. This "disk" does show on the desk top as a mounted disk (I think) with only 53 gb free. How can I set this up so all the disk space is free and I can use it for storing files, not as a back up? Thanks

How do I restore Groups to Contacts from time machine?

How do I restore groups to Contacts using time machine? I somehow managed to duplicate many groups and contacts in Contacts, so I deleted everything and tried to restore them using time machine backup from a few days before. It restored all my contacts, but none of my groups. If you select a group and click restore it will restore all the contacts in the group, but not the group itself. I had many groups with many contacts in each and would really prefer not to do this manually. I can see the groups in the time machine backup, but cannot figure out how to restore them. I know from researching online that with Address Books and previous operating systems you could go to ~Library/Applications Support/AddressBook and restore the whole file, but either this operating systems hides the necessary files or Contacts is set up differently than AddressBook was. I am using OS 10.9.5 and Contacts version 8.0 on a MacbookPro 13 inch mid 2010.

Here is what I have tried:
1. Finder>Go>(Option)Library>Address Book(highlighted)with files showing in right column. Opened Time Machine and Address Book folder is there. Tried to go back to several previous dates from several months ago. None will highlight in order for the Restore button to light up.
2. Finder>Mac HD (under Devices)>(Option)Library>Address Book (same as above). Again, cannot go anywhere back in time to highlight a date for Restore button to light up.
Note: I was able to use Time Machine to restore my Contacts with no problem. However, they are All Contacts only and did not restore my Groups. I do know how to make groups again and highlight and drag them back, but wanted to see if there was a way to restore the groups. I will post another question as to why my Time Machine won't let me restore the Address Book as well as the Contacts. Thank you for your time and patience.

How do I restore one contact from my Time Machine?

How do I restore one contact from my Time Machine?

From Time Machine Help:
Restore items backed up with Time Machine
If you use Time Machine to back up your Mac, you can easily bring back lost items or recover older versions of files.
You can use Time Machine within many apps. If the iCloud Documents & Data feature is turned on, you can recover older versions of iCloud documents as well as regular documents.
Open a window for the item you want to restore.For example, if you accidentally deleted a file from your Documents folder, open the Documents folder. To recover an email message, open your inbox in Mail. To recover an iCloud document, open the document’s app, choose File > Open, then click iCloud to view the iCloud documents for that app.
If you’re missing an item from the desktop, you don’t need to open a window.
From the Time Machine menu in the menu bar, choose Enter Time Machine. A message may appear while your Mac connects to the backup disk.
Use the arrows and timeline to browse the snapshots and backups.White tick marks represent snapshots stored on your internal drive (portable computers only). Pink tick marks represent backups stored on your backup disk. If a tick mark appears dimmed or grayed, there’s no backup available or the backup disk is not connected.
For more information about an item, double-click it.The windows in Time Machine behave just like Finder windows, so you can open folders, click items in the sidebar, and use the search field in the upper-right corner of the window.
When you find the item you want to restore, select it, then click Restore. You can restore individual items, multiple items, folders, or your entire hard disk.The restored item is returned to its original location. For example, if the item was found in the Documents folder, it is returned to the Documents folder.
Many apps let you use Time Machine within individual documents so you can examine and read the document’s past versions to find the version you want. For more information, see:
View and restore past versions of documents
RELATED TOPICSRecover items using Time Machine and Spotlight
Recover your entire system
Revert to a previous OS X version
Use multiple backup disks
Time Machine overview
Time Machine problems

How do I restore a deleted file with time machine?

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