How do we regain control over our Time Machine drive revisited

+I posted this question as two posts over in the+ *Intel-based iMac* +forum but I think I may have put it in the wrong place. Please forgive me if you've already read this over there. If someone tells me how to delete a post I will or perhaps a Moderator can/will do it for me.+
+O M Oz+
Recently our 2.66 Intel Core 2 Duo started into a cycle of rebooting itself during the startup sequence. Eventually we decided to Restore the disk from the Time Machine Backup which is kept on an external 1TB La Cie drive.
After the Restore was complete; Time Machine attempted to do a backup run but we got an error message saying the drive could not be accessed to write the backup. Only the very last backup could be seen from the Star Wars screen. The icon had changed to the generic usb drive icon with a padlock.
I attempted a Full Reset of Time Machine by deleting the Preferences as described in the Troubleshooting thread. Since then we have not been able to access the Time Machine drive at all with either Time Machine or Finder.
A check of Sharing and Permissions shows that all users are listed having custom access which seems to mean you cannot read or write the drive. Disk Utility reports the drive as seeming to be okay when run in either Verify or Repair modes.
I have also attempted to run the sudo command from Terminal with no success. I'm running out of ideas. I don't want to do a low level reformat of this drive yet because it IS a backup drive and I'm not clear on the status of the restored drive.
*Next Day after sleeping on it, I posted...*
I've been thinking it over carefully and think I might have done the damage myself.
Before things went pear shaped I needed to back up the 80GB Hard Drive for a laptop but was just a little short of space on the 1TB drive. In Finder I went into the backup.backup folder and deleted the oldest backup under Finder.
From what I NOW know of the data structures of Time Machine I suspect this would have also removed the backups of whatever it is that logs the various permissions. Am I right?
If I am right can I recover from this and still save the the older backups?
Old Mac Oz

I half expected you would be the first to reply, Pondini
Pondini wrote:
Old Mac Oz wrote:
. . . The icon had changed to the generic usb drive icon with a padlock . . .
. . . *we are not able to access* the Time Machine drive at all *with either Time Machine or Finder*. > >. . .From what I NOW know of the data structures of Time Machine I suspect this would have also removed the backups of whatever it is that logs the various permissions. Am I right?
Not exactly, but yes, that can damage your backups.
Try to repair them, per #A5 in the Troubleshooting Tip. If that succeeds, your backups are probably ok. If not, It's possible that +Disk Warrior+ can. It's expensive (about $100), and probably a good investment for the future, but there's no guarantee.
I have already tried that but Disk Utility reports that there is nothing wrong with the disk; clearly that is wrong. I cannot reset the permissions to let me (as the Administrator) even read the disk
If that succeeds, and the 80 GB backup from another Mac is still there, you can delete it via Time Machine. See #12 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
The 80GB backup was a simple Finder copy from the extracted Hard Disk onto my Time Machine disk, just simply regaining Finder access will allow me to rescue that
Also, everything you restored to your internal HD is considered as new, so it must be backed-up again. That will, of course, take a lot of space. It's possible that Time Machine deleted a large number of your old backups to make room. If it didn't, because it couldn't do the backup, it will when it can.
I understand that is what should happen.
So . . . try the repair. If that works, see if the old backups are still there, and also see how much space is available on your TM drive. If there's not enough room for a new full backup of your internal HD, plus 20% for workspace, TM will have to delete some old backups. If the disk isn't well over twice the size of the data it's backing-up, your best bet may be to erase the drive and let Time Machine start fresh.
I am coming to that conclusion. The drive is plenty big enough, it's a Terabyte backing up a 300GB disk. Activity Monitor and Finder using +Get Info+ both tell me the drive has 931.39GB available with about 907GB used, we just cannot access any of the data this usage represents due to the locked permissions.
Since I last posted I have also tried resetting PRAM and running sudo from Terminal as per #C5 in the Troubleshooting Tip to reset the permissions to no avail.
The Restore has not been a success so I am probably going to have to wipe the whole computer and rebuild the system, something I am understandably unwilling to do.
I asked here because the problem seems to be related to a recent Time Machine run and the drive I used. Am I asking my question in the correct forum?
Thanks for your input so far.
Old Man Oz

Similar Messages

How to us iPhone backup file from Time Machine drive to restore iPhone

Stupidly, I deleted my primary account on my iPhone that contained my contacts and calendar. I don't currently subscribe to MobileMe. I took advantage of the free service when I bought my phone, but decided not to subscribe as I synch my iPhone to my computer and back up my computer using a hard drive connected with Time Machine. Unfortunately, when I stopped using MobileMe, a synch to my iTunes wiped out all my contact data in my Address Book on my computer and my calendar. Therefore, all my most current information was on my iPhone.
I went to the Apple store and was told that the iTunes backup file may be used to restore the contacts and calendar information on my iPhone. I synched my iPhone to iTunes and then did the iPhone restore to factory settings. Only then did I realize that the older, correct backup file was not an available option in the dropdown.
So, I'm trying to figure out how to pull an older iPhone backup file and then use it to restore the iPhone. The only thing is that when I go to Time Machine and look at an older Library --> Application Support --> Mobile Sync --> Backup folder, there's a whole bunch of .mdbackup files in there.
How do I select what I need? How do I get the iTunes protocol to run the restore on my iPhone using those files?

Select the folder that contains the .mdbackup files and use Get Info for the folder to check the date the backup was updated. I would forget about trying to extract individual .mdbackup files and transfer the entire folder to the same location on your computer's hard drive - with iTunes quit before doing so.
After doing so, this backup should be available to select when restoring your iPhone from your iPhone's backup.
If this is successful restoring contact info and calendar events on your iPhone, if the Address Book and iCal on your Mac is empty - it does not contain any data, before syncing your iPhone direct with the Address Book and iCal on your Mac, enter one unique contact in the Address Book, and one calendar event in iCal on your Mac. Make these up if needed, which can be deleted later. This will provide a merge prompt when syncing this data, which you want to select.
Does Time Machine include a backup of your Address Book and iCal on your Mac? If so, it will be much easier and faster to restore the Address Book and iCal on your Mac from your Time Machine backup.

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 restore aol sent mac mail from time machine?

I am using mac mail and an imap connection to aol. I also have a time capsule and use time machine for backing up. Yesterday I stopped receiving incoming mail in mac mail and tried deleting the aol account in mac mail and then setting it up fresh. I was shocked to find that my 25,000 AOL sent emails did not restore! I was told by an apple genius bar rep several months ago that once mail was on my machine that the emails would NEVER be lost. Apparently this is not true. When I open mac mail and go into my time capsule using time machine, however, do not see the SENT mail icon under AOL--it goes away? When I try to restore the aol mail from the day before the incident the only thing that comes up is the one Sent Mail mssg that I sent AFTER the deleting and restoring of my AOL account in mac mail. The only relevant post I have found is the one below which was posted in 2008. Please let me know there is a way to get back my sent messages. I can't get them directly from the aol server because the server does not save messages that are sent from any client but AOL. Thanks.
http://raffyjohn.com/2008/01/29/restoring-apple-mail-and-your-emails-from-time-m achine/
Restoring Apple Mail and Your Emails from Time Machine
filed under: How-To tags: mail, timemachine Tuesday, January 29, 2008, 11:31 am
UPDATE (25 August 2010): Please note that this post is well over 2 years old and as Tim pointed out in the comments below, this method may not be the best solution for restoring emails. According to his restore efforts, changes where made to the timestamp from the date in which they were received to the date in which they were restored. I have not tested this myself.
The hard drive on my PowerBook completely died the other day, but I luckily had been running Time Machine backups since upgrading to Leopard. (I wasn’t all that ****** off seeing as I was eager for an excuse to replace my wimpy 40Gb hard drive with a new 160Gb drive). I fumbled a bit, looking for a specific Apple Mail restore tool. I knew where all my emails lived, but I thought that Apple would have a specific means for restoring apps like Mail. So I created this mini-tutorial on how to restore Apple Mail from Time Machine simply because I could not find this method elsewhere.
Supposedly, If you attach your Time Machine backup drive, open Apple Mail then launch the Time Machine application, you are presented with historical views of Apple Mail. This did not work for me, the historical views were just blank, so the steps below do not take this approach.
Restoring Your Emails from a Time Machine Backup
Warning: If you have already setup Apple Mail with your accounts and preferences, this will negate ALL your doings.
Note: This process will restore all your email accounts, preferences, passwords, smart mailboxes, etc.
The How-To
Before loading Time Machine, open the Finder and navigate to Home Folder (username) -> Library. In there will be a folder name “Mail”. Rename it to “Mail (default)” (Select the folder then hit the Return key to rename).
Mount your Time Machine Backup Drive (ahem, plug it in).
Control + Click the Time Machine Application and chose “Browse Other Time Machine disks…”. This, of course, brings up the historical view of your backups.
Go back to your most recent backup (2nd window back) and navigate to Home Folder (username) -> Library. Select the “Mail” folder and click the restore button (bottom right).
Once the restore is completed, open Apple Mail and you will be presented with an import wizard (below). Simply follow through the prompts and you will be good to go.
That’s it!UPDATE (20-January-2009): After step 4., also restore ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plistThanks Jon C.
If you have multiple mail accounts, you should also restore the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist file as well. This will ensure all of your account settings are imported. – Jon C.
Follow me on Twitter here.
40 Comments
Chucho
May 13th, 2008 at 11:11 amThanks it’s a great hint, you should post it in macosxhints.com
Westin
May 19th, 2008 at 3:28 amAwesome content and great instructions even for stupid people like me. Thank you so much for posting this. It worked like a charm and really is appreciated at 2:30 a.m. after hours of reinstalling junk.
Slippery Snake
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:15 amThis worked. However, I had three email accounts, and it only imported one. My Smart Mailboxes were not imported either.
Jon C
July 30th, 2008 at 2:50 pmIf you have multiple mail accounts, you should also restore the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist file as well. This will ensure all of your account settings are imported.
Joseph Hurtado
August 26th, 2008 at 11:23 amRaffy,This tip is worth it’s weight in gold! Thanks so much for posting such a well though out recipe for a Mail Rescue operation.Just put Jon’s advice on the article, that is also very valuable!Take care,Joseph Hurtado
from Toronto
Cory
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:25 amYou saved my life! Thanks!
Drew
January 19th, 2009 at 12:08 amCheers Great tip! Thank you very much for your time!
Lizart
May 23rd, 2012 at 2:00 pmStill working in May of 2012! Thanks so much!
source
May 29th, 2012 at 11:11 amIm getting a teeny problem. I cant get my reader to pick up your feed, Im using bing reader by the way.
Bruno Zysman
May 31st, 2012 at 4:56 pmThanks so much for this tips
I could get back my 170 000 mails in 5 hours thanks to this post, after having tried for few hours without success…Bruno

Don't try to restore the file; restore the Note. Go in Mail to the mailbox where the note belongs. Enter Time Machine from there and step back until you find the Note.

How do I make a hard drive "forget" that it was once a (no longer used) Time Machine drive?

I'm starting a new thread on this question in the hope that someone new will notice it.
I've started using a larger hard drive for my TM backups. I want to be able to use the previous drive for other things BUT I also want to keep the oldest TM backup, just in case. In order to do that I want to move all but one day's backup to the trash but of course get the "The operation can’t be completed because backup items can’t be modified." message. I also, of course, can't change the name of the backups.backupdb folder for the same reason. In older OSs it was possible to use a Terminal command to bypass all this but it would seem that it's no longer possible to do this in Mt. Lion.
Note that the old drive is NOT being used in Time Machine, so that's not the problem.
Does anyone know how to make Time Machine realize that the drive is now just a drive, not a Time Machine drive? Obviously I know I can just reformat it but then I'll lose ALL the files. I want to keep one day's worth, so reformatting is not the solution. I do know that I can copy everything over to another drive but I don't have another drive large enough to do that, so need to unflag the one set of files as TM backups and trash the others.
Any help gratefully accepted.

I think I understand your question, but I'm puzzled at what you are trying to accomplish.
Let's say you've been using TM for a year, now you start a new backup set on a different device.
What you seem to want to do is delete all the backups in the old backup set on the old except for the very first backup - ie. the oldest.
That would mean that you would retain the oldest backup from 1 year ago, and all the new backups from the start of the new set forward. Deleting all the past year's backups except for the very first plus the new backups going forward on the new device. Is that what you want?
The only way I know of doing this would be to manually delete in TM all the undesired backups -slow and tedious for sure,
On the other hand, you want to keep the last backup of on the old device then....
Assuming that you started the new back up set shortly after the last backup on the old device, then the first backup on the new and the last on the old are almost identical for all practical purposes.
If that's what you want I'm not sure it accomplishes anything useful.
Can you clarify what you want to achieve/do, so we can help you better.

How can I get all of my music off of my laptop and onto an external hard drive? I bought a new hard drive for it but it got turned into a Time Machine drive...

how can I get all of my music off of my laptop and onto an external hard drive? I bought a new hard drive for it but it got turned into a Time Machine drive... I want to have all of my music on the external hard drive, and NOT on my macbook pro. Thanks everyone

Hello lramospsych,
To move your iTunes media library to a different location, take a look at the article below to walk you through that process. Make sure that you have everything organized before you move everything over.
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
Regards,
-Norm G.

How do I import iPhoto images from time machine

Hi everyone!
Before buying a new iMac I backed up my old iMac on time machine. I used migration assistant but iPhoto doesn't seem to have come across. My question is how do I import photos from my time machine (which is synced with my old iMac and not this new one) into this new iMac?
I've attempted to open the library on the time machine with the alt key on opening iPhoto but it tells me that I can't do that!
Many thanks in advance!
Aleks

you do not import form Time Machine - you use TM to "ReStore" files
if you still have you old computer availab ethe best solution is to copy the iPhoto library over
Migration assistance does not handle the iPhoto library well sometimes - the best way is to drag the bad iphoto library from the pictures folder on the new system to the desktop, connect the two systems together (network, firewire target mode, etc) and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity from the old system to the pictures folder of the new system and launch iPhoto on the new system - it will open and convert the iPhoto library as necessary and you will be fine - once you test the iPhoto library you can delete the one on the desktop
LN

How Çan I Recover Files Without Using Time Machine?

Before Time Machine, you used to be able to recover files using, I think, one of the utilities.
Now if you search for "recover files" in Help, all the options involve using Time Machine with and without Spotlight.
I don't have a backup drive to use Time Machine yet but I would still like to try to recover an accidentally deleted folder.
How can I do that now without Time Machine?

Basics of File Recovery
If you simply put files in the Trash you can restore them by opening the Trash (left-click on the Trash icon) and drag the files from the Trash to your Desktop or other desired location. OS X also provides a short-cut to undo the last item moved to the Trash -press COMMAND-Z.
If you empty the Trash the files are gone. Recovery is possible but you must not allow any additional writes to the hard drive - shut it down. When you delete files you erase only the directory entries, not the files themselves. However, the space occupied by the files has been returned to the system as available for storage. Writing to the drive will then eventually overwrite the space once occupied by the deleted files in which case the files are lost permanently. Also if you save a file over an existing file of the same name, then the old file is overwritten and cannot be recovered.
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten with recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.
There has never been file recovery software in OS X. Recovering deleted files is not the same as restoring files from a backup. The best way to prevent losing a file is to maintain a backup. Obviously you aren't doing that, so you should consider adopting some kind of backup plan.
Basic Backup
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - 3.0 is a Universal Binary)
7. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
8. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
9. Data Backup (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although you can buy a complete FireWire drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

How do I back up iPhone to time machine?(I'm new)

How do I back up iPhone to time machine?(I'm new)

-Mayor- wrote:
How do I back up iPhone to time machine?(I'm new)
If you're new to this, I suggest you read the manual:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1565/en_US/iphone_user_guide.pdf

I have an external Time Machine drive that I want to reformat. I can't remember the password. How can I do this. Disk Utility won't let me. Thanks.

I have an iMac that had drive problems last winter. Took the iMac to the Apple Store and they reinstalled everything and now it works again. Only thing is that my external Time Machine drive is screwed up now. Its 1.5 TB.
I had the Time Machine drive partioned into two parts. One partion was for an emergency bootup using carbon copy cloner. That partion I can open and mounts on my desktop. The other partion was Time Machine. It once upon a time opened and mounted without a password.
It requests a password to unlock even though I never had it password protected before the iMac drive problems. And so now it won't mount the drive.
I can go to Disk Utilities and I can see Time Machine with both partions. The Carbon Copy partion is mounted. The Time Machine partion is not mounted. For this reason I can't select it and erase it.
What the heck am I supposed ot do now to erase it and start over. Any help would be appreciated. I really don't want to go and buy another drive.
Kevin

Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
{ diskutil list; echo; diskutil cs list; } | open -f -a TextEdit
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Post the contents of that window, if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.
If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.

How can i put music drive AND a time machine drive on wireless network?

Right now I have a MacBook with ONE external drive with my music and movies… and ANOTHERexternal drive for my backups.
I would LOVE to figure out how to hook both the music drive and the time machine drive to a wireless router so the only plug I have for my laptop is the power plug.
I already have a NetGear wireless router… but it only has ethernet ports out, no usb.
What would be the best/easiest way to network these two external hard drives?
tx!

Another option, where you can still utilize your existing drives, is to consider a dedicated NAS device that supports both Time Machine and iTunes functions. One such NAS device is the Synology DS415+. It would be far superior than what you have now. Albeit at an additional cost.

How to bring my files back from time machine

I just got a new hard drive as the old one broke down .. I installed the snow leopard and then the Lion as i was running before ....
How can i restore the computer from time machine back ups ? i have lots of data in time machine that needs to came back !

To be clear, the Time Machine drive has all your up-to-date data and has OS X Lion on it? Your iMac currently has a new drive with Snow Leopard on it? If so, yes Lion and all your data will end up back on the iMac.
The best instructions, with images to guide you, are Pondini's from point
b) To use an install disk in this link: http://pondini.org/TM/14.html

How to import email in Mail from Time Machine to Lion

My laptop, which had Leopard OS, was stolen. Fortunately, I have a Time Machine backup. I used that to install on my new laptop which has Lion (10.7.4). In Mail, my folders show up, but not the email in them. How do I get the email from Time Machine? (Current email is working. That is, email since I got the new laptop.)

Don't try to restore the file; restore the Note. Go in Mail to the mailbox where the note belongs. Enter Time Machine from there and step back until you find the Note.

How to Check System Preference Settings with Time Machine

I just found and fixed a problem caused by a bad System Preference/Universal Access
setting and would like to go back in my Time Machine backup to see where the
error was made. I may have been too quick to blame the 10.5.3 update on the
problem so wanted to look back in time.
The problem is i don't know how to check System Preferences using the Time Machine.
Any suggestion?

If you're looking for specific settings, the short answer is you cannot. You can open the .plist files and try to find the specific option you're looking for, though it might not be too easy to decipher some of the contents of the .plist file. For the most part they're just lists of attributes and settings. For instance, here's a very small chunk of my Finder .plist file:
<key>All Images.cannedSearch</key>
<dict>
     <key>SidebarWidth</key>
     <integer>162</integer>
     <key>ToolbarVisible</key>
     <true/>
     <key>ViewHeight</key>
     <integer>1116</integer>
     <key>ViewStyle</key>
     <string>icnv</string>
     <key>WindowBounds</key>
     <dict>
          <key>bottom</key>
          <integer>1200</integer>
          <key>left</key>
          <integer>56</integer>
          <key>right</key>
          <integer>1920</integer>
          <key>top</key>
          <integer>84</integer>
     </dict>
</dict>
<key>AnimateInfoPanes</key>
<true/>
<key>AnimateSnapToGrid</key>
<string>true</string>
<key>AnimateWindowZoom</key>
<true/>
Each "key" is followed by an attribute, so for instance the "SideBar Width" key is given the "Width" integer attribute of 162. However, some keys have multiple entries, such as the "WindowBounds" key having sub-keys of "bottom", "left", "right", and "top".
These values are finder preferences, though are not accessible via the finder's preference settings. However, buried deep in the Finder's .plist file are some of the user-editable settings:
<key>ShowHardDrivesOnDesktop</key>
<true/>
<key>ShowMountedServersOnDesktop</key>
<true/>
<key>SidebarSearchesSectionDisclosedState</key>
<false/>
If you can find the attribute you're looking for, then that may help you narrow down which version of a .plist file to restore, though not all of them are straightforward legible text. Some have bizarre strings of seemingly random characters that only the application can interpret.
Message was edited by: Topher Kessler

HT4527 My old mac book was backed up to a Time Machine drive. That Macbook is dead. I have a new Mac Mini. How do I get the iTunes library (not just the music files but all other data...playlists, ratings, etc) on the new Mac from my Time Machine?

My old Mac died. I had it backed up to a Time Machine external drive (fortunately). I have a new Mac. I want to get my entire iTunes library from the Time Machine drive to the new Mac. I want not only the music files but all the "library" metadata, playlists, song rankings, unique genre designations. How do I do this?

No backup is a huge mistake.
You can redownload some itunes purchases in some countries:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store ... - Apple - Support

How do we regain control over our Time Machine drive revisited

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