How to restore a single file form a time machine backup to another system?

i have changed from macbook to imac. don't like to use migration assistant.
however i forgot to backup the file: home directory/library/preferences/com.apple.mail.plis
is there a way to get this file out of the timemachine backup (which was done on the macbook and the macbook meanwhile has been deleted). the backup itself is on an external drive. help!

See User Tips for Time Machine for help. You can also select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine." One of the articles explains how to restore files from TM backups.

Similar Messages

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.

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.

How to restore iTunes Library from a recent time machine backup

I have to make room on my internal HD on my iMac. The HD is a 1TB and I have 391GB of music and video etc that are in my iTunes Library. So I decided to move it to a new 5TB external HD which I formatted with 2 partitions. One partition 2.5TB will be my new Time Machine Backups and the other 2.5TB for iTunes Library so I never have to worry about this again. Using the knowledge I gained (?) from a YouTube video I copied my iTunes folder over to the new partition on the new HD. However, there was no library .itl file. So I found an old one but found I am missing playlists and content from iTunes. So I was thinking maybe the easiest way was to do an iTunes restore from Time Machine.
I am hoping that someone can guide me through this as I have already botched things up and want to do it properly this time.
Thanks

One partition 2.5TB will be my new Time Machine Backups and the other 2.5TB for iTunes Library so I never have to worry about this again.
Your worry now is what will you do when the single hard drive containing both your library and its backup makes a screeching sound one day and is toast, or get stolen?
from a YouTube video
Uh-oh, those unspecific and sometimes incorrect YouTube videos. I dislike those things. I watched one once and some kid droned on in a barely audible monotone for about 5 minutes to show how to do something to which I could have typed instructions in two sentences.
Downloading (using iOS or computer) past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519

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"".

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 do I transfer files form a time machine backup disk to a time capsule disk to retain older backup data?

I have just purchased a Time capsule and wish to transfer old backups to the new system, but the disk image does not appear except during backups and even then will not allow backup files to be copied across from the old Backups.backupdb to the new one as was possible before.
Any ideas?

Backups are stored differently on a drive that is connected directly to a Mac compared to a network drive like the Time Capsule. Things can get real complicated depending on exactly what you are trying to do.
See Pondini's excellent document....Time Machine -- Troubleshooting for specific details about this subject:
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/18.html

How to restore the second volume from a time machine backup?

Hi guys and gals,
I have a October 2011 MBP running OSX lion (10.7.2), with 2 internal drives (the main drive is a 120gb SSD, the optic drive has been replaced with the original 750gb HDD that came in the computer). I use the SSD for all of my system files, with the HDD being used for my user account, which has my photo and video libraries on them.
I use time machine to backup onto a 2tb external drive. In the beggining i was not sure how time machine would handle backing up two volumes, but after doing the first few backups then checking inside the time machine folder on the EHDD I was pleased to find that it was in fact backing up both volumes.
Now we get to the problem I have. This morning I booted up my MBP, and it took a lot longer than it usually does, then when it finally booted it had a error saying that the user "chris" could not be found. My 750gb drive was not being seen from OSX. I ran disk utility and it was visible, but was not able to be mounted as it had an error. I did the verify permissions which came up OK, then did repair disk and it said that the disk had errors and to backup, format and re-install. As the last backup was done 2 days ago and I haven't done any important work on it since then, i didn't backup as I would prefer to restore to a point before the issue happened.
I formatted the drive and started a time machine restore, but TM will only allow me to restore the SSD. I cannot see anything anywhere that will allow me to restore the 750gb drive. If i use migration assistant to transfer the files over from the EHDD to the 750gb drive, it won't recognise my EHDD (even though i am looking at it on the desktop and can open it and open files on it). If i try to transfer the files with finder, it says that i dont have permission to do this.
I have spent the last hour looking for a possible solution or ways of doing what i need, but keep coming up blank.
Hope someone out there can help me
Cheers
-Chris

Chris W oz wrote:
when it comes up with the "preparing to copy message" it hits ~24000 files and doesn't go any further.
That sounds like some sort of directory problem. Try Repairing the backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
I tried importing individual folders to reduce the number of files it was transferring in one hit and it doesn't hang. THe problem is after doing my users folder my desktop has changed and there are a lot of things that are not how they should be.
I'm not sure what you mean.
Are you trying to restore to your user home folder while it's in use? That could be part of the problem, but usually you'll get a message about things being in use, locked, or protected.
are there hidden files in the users folder that i am not seeing?
Probably, but if you restore a folder, any hidden files should be restored, too. Mostly they're the .DS_Store files where the Finder stores the last position, size, etc., where it displayed the folder, so no big deal even if it's lost.
There are a few others at the top level of your home folder, but I think they'll be recreated as necessary.
If i transfer the whole users folder will they transfer over (even though i cannot see them)?? Is there a way to transfer those hidden files??
Why do you think there are hidden files that are causing a problem?

How to restore a deleted iCloud note from time machine backup?

The short of it... one of my kids decided they didn't need certain notes, therefore deleted them!!!!
(my fault i did not have notes/synced/off on new device!),
but they are important and iCloud is synced across all devices and those notes are gone.
Wasn't sure if a device/ restore from back up would work - didn't.
Tried some of the Apple Communities/ going to lib/ turn off wifi/ move the 3 files to desktop/ move back to lib file, nothing.
Could I get some 'really specific' step by steps? seems others have had success, and maybe i'm in TM when I should be on my Mac or vice versa?! or in the wrong library?
My TM backups just does not let me get anywhere to restore those deleted notes.
Any help would be wonderful!
Thanks
Thinking Apple should have given us an iCloud safety net or at least allow TM/ iCloud to be userfriendly.

I used this to restore my deleted notes from Time Machine, hope this helps others
closed Notes,
turned WiFi off,
entered finder/go+option/ to 'get to library': /Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/
entered TM and selected the 3 files/ hit restore/ keep both (just to make sure, then I deleted the newer file, not the 'restored' file when this worked out)
opened notes and my deleted notes were back so I copied my notes into pages as a backup,
turned on WiFi and the notes disappeared!
replaced my restored notes by copy/pasting my backups into notes/iCloud....
notes/mac would not show across iCloud.... don't remeber this being an issue prior to Mavericks when 'all' notes were selected?
Apple needs to hear from us so they can fix glitches like this. TM was created for instances like this, hopefully this is just an oversite. Pass this along to Apple Feedback/iCloud/bug. If enough of us flag such issues, hopfully it's addressed on the next update.
Dear Apple, this should be much easier than it is. We should be able to open Notes, go into Time Machine, and restore anything regardless if it's on my Mac or on the cloud.

How to restore itunes library from a faulty time machine backup?

Hello,
I just bought a new macbook pro 15inch. I have a time machine backup but I wanted to start fresh so I didn't use the migration assistant to transfer my info. The only thing I want is my iTunes library with the playlists, ratings, artwork etc. But here's the problem... The computer knows that my external hard drive (it's a 1 TB toshiba) has a time machine back up, but it won't access it the usual way. I choose "browse other time machine disks", enter the time machine, then choose the external drive from there, and then I access my stuff. I copied the whole iTunes folder, changed the iTunes media folder location in preferences. Now all my playlists are gone, 400 songs are missing artist info and the library duplicated itself so now I have 12000 songs.
Is there a way for me to have my exact same iTunes library from my other computer?
Any help is appreciated. Thank you

bilunpe wrote:
I copied the whole iTunes folder, changed the iTunes media folder location in preferences.
All you need to do is copy the entire iTunes folder to /Music/.
Then open iTunes.
This is all you need to do. Don't change any iTunes prefs.

How to recover the autocomplete data from a Time Machine backup?

How to recover the Safari 5.1.7 autocomplete data from a Time Machine backup on Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard)?
To solve other issues (Safari crashing sometimes when saving web pages), I selected:
Safari - Empty Cache
Safari - Reset Safari - Selected ALL - Reset
I could later on recover some Safari autofill data restoring
HD/Users/~/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
HD/Users/~/Library/Safari/Form Values
HD/Users/~/Library/Safari/History.plist
but other autocomplete data is missing, including the one when filling web form search fields in web pages, for instance, and also some username and password login data on some web sites.
How to restore all such data from the Time Machine Backup?
Thanks!

I also recovered:
HD//Users/~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain
What else should I recover?

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.

Installed new SSD. How do I get my files back from Time Machine?

Hi all, if you take the time to read my issue, thanks a lot. I appreciate any help you can offer, and sorry if anything is unclear...
The 1tb drive eventually failed on my 2009 27", quad core i7 imac. I had USB backup using time machine to an external 2 tb disk.
Repair guy took my mac to his shop, and installed a new samsung 1tb SSD.
He had trouble reinstalling from my time machine backup - so he's just installing Yosemite (I was using 10.8.x?) and giving it back to me with a fresh install of Yosemite.
When he tried to use time machine to restore my system to how it was, he started the process, and it said that it would take 13 hours, so he left it overnight.
When he returned, he found a white screen with a frozen mouse pointer. He did a hard reboot, and then could not access the drive at all - the system would not allow him to read the drive and he had to take the drive out, reformat from another mac, and then install Yosemite again.
Now he has suggested that I simply drag and drop all my folders from the USB time machine backup into my computer, and seems to think this will get things back to how they were. I'm not sure that it works like that though...I'd expect certain applications need to be installed, settings changed, permissions granted, passwords entered...that kind of thing.
Now I have a choice - whether to
A) reinstall my applications one at a time, and then copy the data from my backup drive.
B) manually drag and drop all the files from the most recent backup folder into the "computer" folder. (This was his suggestion)
C) attempt some kind of migration using the Migration assistant. (I believe this is what the guy tried- he started it off, it said "13 hours remaining) he left it running overnight, and came back to a static white screen with frozen mouse, he powered down, then when he switched it back on, the screen did not load any OS (not sure whether it had booted into some kind of BIOS, but he said it was so unresponsive that he had to remove the drive and reformat it from another computer).
D) Try some other application for intelligently restoring my apps and data from the Time Machine backup.
To be honest, my main concern is screwing things up badly! I'm veering towards reinstalling my apps, even if it means fixing up preference settings and typing in codes etc... I would rather take a slow and steady approach rather than a "risk having to take it back to the shop/take it apart" approach.
Also, is migration different from restoring from time-machine?
Perhaps you could advise me? Many thanks

Restart the computer and hold the Command & R keys.
Thanks - I didn't know how to do that!
I did that, and it went through the steps for restoring from the time machine backup. I didn't click on "restore" just yet... My concern is that when the guy in the shop tried that, it resulted in the serious failure that required the drive to be removed and formatted from another computer.
I'm wondering what might have caused that - is it possible that the external drive had a failure, or (more likely) that the drive caddy it sits in briefly lost power or something?
Also, can you tell me if simply drag-dropping the files from the time-machine backup would result in everything returning to its initial state? Or is that (as I suspect) a bad idea?
Right now I have a fresh Yosemite install which works. I'd rather have that, and slowly restore my files and apps manually than risk getting the same result as the guy in the shop. Do you think that restoring from the restore partition is worth trying again?

HT4927 How to restore photos in mountain lion from time machine ?

How to restore photos in mountain lion from time machine?

I have tried doing this but it dosen't work.
I opened time machine. I picked the file from the date needed.
I restored it (I told it to keep both).
Then when I double click on the file it opens a treminal window.
I have also tried opening iphoto while holding down the option key.
This file is not slectable.....
Any thought or ideas?

How can I restore my EQ settings from a Time Machine backup?

I recently reinstalled Mavericks, and restored my user account from a Time Machine backup. In doing so I appeared to have 'lost' my personal EQ settings in iTunes, of which I had perfected quite a few to suit various headphones and speakers I've found myself using over the years.
I have a pre-reinstallation copy of the com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist file (found in /Users/username/Library/Preferences) that I believe contains my EQ settings; opening it in Textedit I can see references to the EQ settings I created.
Having tried restoring this particular file from Time Machine and restarting and finding iTunes doesn't recognise the [old] custom com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist file, does anyone know a way I can re-import my old EQ settings, or do I have to try and manually create them again? (gah)
Thanks for any light you can shed on this!

Enter your Time Machine backup (via the TM icon in the menu bar) and find this file
/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist
and hit Restore.
It didn't reflect in iTunes immediately, but after a restart it appears to read the new (old) plist file. You should have your old EQ settings back.
Let me know if it worked for you...

How to restore a single file form a time machine backup to another system?

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