How to manually retrieve mail messages from time machine in Lion?

I just did a clean reinstall on Lion and want to import things from time machine piecemeal. As far as I know, in order to access the mail documents on the computer's hard drive, in the Finder I need to go to Go-->Go to Folder... and then type ~/Library. Then I have access to the "Mail" folder with the data. How can I access this folder that's on my external harddrive? I don't have the "Go" function and I don't know how to get there manually. My hidden files are shown.

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
The best way to restore mails is to use Time Machine.
1. Open System Preferences > Time Machine > Select Disk, select the external disk and see > http://pondini.org/TM/E3.html
2. Open Mail and open Time Machine. Navigate and restore the mails you want

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How do I restore Mail data from Time Machine

Hi I am trying to retstore my "Mail" data from Time Machine...I have worked out how to find
Mail data on my computer , thanks to this community, but as it is a hidden file I cant work out how
to "see" it and restore it from TIme Machine.
Thanks

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4182934

How do you retrieve individual files from Time Machine?

If a file original is lost or becomes corrupted, is there anyway to retrieve that individual files from Time Machine? If so, how?

ElRay (Amazingly, not the 1st) wrote:
SharonZ wrote:
Time Machine finds that file, and not other files that meet the criteria. BUT...
That's not what TM was doing. My search criteria was "by filename", however when I try to go backwards in TM, that limit is lost and it appears to be returning every file in the rolled-up weekly archive. This is especially odd, because I have since determined that the file was actually corrupted before TM was running, so there should be only one version of the file in TM's archives.
No, it was a file sitting on my disk. Email was mentioned, because the fact that every email in every junk folder appears as a separate item to be restored, which is what triggers that little "too many files to show you at one time" issue.
So your name search returned lots of junk mail items. I shudder to think what the file name was that you were searching for! <g>
Also: you can tell Time Machine to ignore your junk mail if you've filtered the junk mail in Mail into a different folder/box.
I figured that one out. I had used Spotlight to find the junk mailboxes, but couldn't, only the messages "labeled" junk. I had to use 'find' in Terminal.app to actually find Mail's junk & spam folders.
Yeah, it's hard to find stuff when you don't know where it is <g>. In general, though, for these kinds of things, always think: "Library" which is where SO many pieces of programs are stored. Of course, there's lots of Library folders, so your first job is to decide: system or user level? Realizing more than one user account could have email setups, you can assume the path you need starts at the User level. So, you start at Home[UserName]/Library. Scanning that Library folder, you see a Mail folder (aha!). Checking out that folder, you might first suspect the Mailboxes subfolder, but you'll soon see that it has the mailboxes you've defined for sorting your mail; so, you continue to scan the Mail folder and you see a folder with your email address on it (or multiple folders, one for each of your emails). Open one of those and, ta da! You see something labeled junk.mbox.
You've already found your Junk mail, of course, but I'm suggesting this as a general approach, especially for other readers of this thread, who might not want to touch Terminal.
But, back to one of your initial problems: TM seemed to lose your search criteria. Do you think it was related to the high number of " hits"? Does it work for you otherwise, when you search for something less general?

How do I retrieve iphoto library from Time Machine when the Mac doesn't have enough memory

Is there a way to retrieve (or view) specific photos from iphoto library when it resides in Time Machine? The iphoto library file is much bigger than the free space available on the Mac; erasing unneeded files may not free up enough space if the library must be restored as one entire transfer. It would be easier if I could restore only pieces of it. Is there a way to do this?

Not from Time Machine which is backing up only a file, not its individual contents. Either you restore iPhoto Library or not.
Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Get an external hard drive on which to store some of your files after which you can
erase the data from your internal drive to free up space.
5. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
6. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
7. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

How to remove old backup files from time machine? Lion OSx

Hi everyone,
I am just wondering how to efficiently and safely remove the old backup files from time machine? I tried once with command, but it damaged my extra-disk... Does Lion OSx have fixed that?
Many thanks
Hong

Blue-
Time Machine will automatically delete back-ups as the need for space arises. If you want to delete a certain file (application, document, whatever) and have it gone for good you can do that as well.
The best place on the web for information about Time Machine is...
http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
...it covers everything!
Clinton

Recovering Mail messages from Time Machine drive

I recently deleted some important Mail messages do to my iPhone and iMac Mail sync via the Cloud. The messages are likely (for sure) on my Time Machine drive, but I don't know a simple way to find them. Right now enter Time Machine and can go User> Me> Library> Mail and the into the inbox of the related Mail account and then I am arbitrarily looking in subfolders with # labels, and seeing lists of xml (or whatever they are) files. The are in no order, and when I open them I find messages willy nilly from past dates.
Is there an easy way to actually find these messages, to search or read the messages in the Time Machine drive to recover specific ones. The method I describe above is simply not workable.
Thanks.

Note that you have to open the Time Machine app while you are using the Mail window. If not, a Finder window will pop up and it will not work. After opening the Time Machine app, you should see a screen like this one:
Then, use the arrows to navigate through your backups, and when you have found the mails you want to restore, select them with the Command key and press "Restore". Note that OS X is in Spanish in my computer, but you should see the text in English.

How can I retrieve a photo from Time Machine?

My husband needs pictures he had stored under his profile. I deleted everything due to space limits on the Macbook Air, but everything was backed up through Time Machine 1st. Now he needs those pictures and I cannot figure out how to find them and restore them to my computer. When I try, I get a message that says I don't have enough space to restore entire library. Please help. I just want to find the darn pictures that he needs and bring them back. I'm so confused and I want to go to sleep soon. Thanks!

Were his pictures in the iPhoto library?
If so, quit iPhoto, open the folder containing the iPhoto library, then open Time Machine.
If not, just open the folder where he had stored the photos, then open Time Machine.

Why I cannot assess deleted Apple mail messages in time machine after installing mountain lion from snow leopard.

Ever since I installed Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard, I cannot retrieve my deleted Apple mail messages from Time Machine. I could do it in the past using Snow Leopard. The effective date for the the non-retrival of deleted messages is the date I installed Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard. Any thoughts?

Keith Montreal wrote:
It was origionally a local folder for things like receipts from the Apple Store, etc
I'm still not sure what you mean . . . is it listed in the "On My Mac" section in Mail's sidebar, like these?
Mountain Lion appears to have given it an icon very much like an Archive box and put the "on My Mac" folder within that "Box" on both the back ups and the new Mail program - in fact it did it 6 times, which was the origional problem.
Can you post a screenshot?
I could restore inbox messages although they came in as a new mail box called Time Machine rather than into their origional mailboxes (there are 7 different addresses)
Yes, that's how Time Machine restores Mail messages, so it doesn't erase the current contents of an existing mailbox. You can then move them into the desired location.

Restore iPhone from Time Machine in Lion

I did a clean install of Lion with only restoring my user settings from Time Machine (Snow Leopard). Now I want to sync my iPhone, but it deletes everything.
So I want to sync it with a backup from Time Machine. I found the files in user/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
But this location doesn't exist at all in Lion! Even worse, user/Library doesn't exist!
So does anybody know how I can restore my iPhone from Time Machine in Lion? Many thanks in advance!

I just restored my desktop calendar by unhiding the library. Then opened another window and put Time Machine in the dock. That way when I started Time Machine the hidden folder stayed open. Then it was just a matter of going back far enough before iCloud deleted stuff. But lots of things were duplicated because they are on both calendars.

How do I restore smtp mail setting from time machine?

Earlier today I was fooling around with my smtp mail settings and managed to mess them up.
How do I restore smtp mail setting from time machine?
I'm using Lion 10.7.4
Messages and incoming mail works fine. It's just the smtp mail setting that's the problem.
Any help greatly appreciated.

The mail rules are stored in your ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~mail/Data.MailData folder, in a plist called SyncedRules.plist.
If you're signed into iCloud D&D, that's where you'll find it.
If you're *not* signed into iCloud, then you probably have a folder called something like ~/Library/Mobile Documents.####### where the # signs are actual numbers. Digging into that folder, you'll fild the SyncedRules.plist file.
Thing is, I don't know how Mail uses rules without iCloud; if there's a "local" rules location. There probably is, but someone else who's not using iCloud may have to help you there...

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 can I retrieve deleted messages from Skype?

How can I retrieve deleted messages from Skype? I tried going to Users then application support but the folder is empty, so I'm stuck I don't know what to do?

Try the Microsft Skype forums
You can also try a disk file recovery program like Disk Warrior.

How do I retrieve text messages from a iPhone 4S that doesn't work anymore?

How do I retrieve text messages from a iPhone 4S that doesn't work anymore?

If the phone isn't working, you can't. If you have a backup on your computer, you may be able to extract them from the backup using 3rd party software such as iPhone Backup Extractor (see http://www.iphonebackupextractor.com).

How do I restore printer preferences from time machine in Mountain Lion?

Yesterday I deleted all the printers and and after reinstalling the printer drivers from the printer disc, the printer cannot find the software, so how do retore the printer preferences from time machine?

The printer is a Samsung CLX-3180 series. I have downloaded the printer drivers from Apple:
Samsung Printer Drivers v2.5 for OS X
Then when I go into System preferences to Add the Samsung printer, I get the following message:
"Can't install the software for the Samsung CLX-3180 Series because it is not currently available from the Software Update server." Which I don't understand as i have downloaded the new drivers and the CLX-3180 is listed as a covered printer.

Is there a way to backup mail messages in Time Machine?

New MacBook Pro. New backup hard drive. When I use Time Machine to backup my new laptop I see that my mail messages are not being backed up. In 10.6.8 they were backed up in a folder labelled Library. Is there a way to backup all my mail messages through Time Machine? Sorry not a techie, so please keep it simple.

Bring the Mail browser window forward, then select Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu, which is represented by a clock icon in the menu bar. If you don't have that menu, select  ▹ System Preferences ▹ Time Machine ▹ Show Time Machine in menu bar.
Scroll back in the time-travel view to the most recent snapshot containing the messages you want to restore. Select the messages, then click Restore. The messages will be restored to a new mailbox. From there you can move them wherever you like.

How to manually retrieve mail messages from time machine in Lion?

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