Restore a backup from time machine

I made a clean install of Mountain Lion on the MB Pro of my wife from a bootable USB drive. All went well until I tried to retrieve data from her Time Machine backup that are stored on our Time Capsule HD. In setup, and later in migration assistant only the backup of my own MacBook Pro was found. Nevertheless the last backup of my wife's MB Pro, shortly before the clean install, finished succesfully. Also, I can see the sparsebundle in Finder and I can also mount it. I tried to repair the sparsebundle with no success. I have two questions. Firstly, what else can I try to make the backup available to Migration Assistant and secondly, is it possible to copy files and directories from the mounted sparsebundle as a last resort to retrieve the data that is visibly sitting there? Any help is most appreciated.
PS I copied the sparsebundle to an external USB disk in the hope that Migration Assistant would `see' it, again without success.

jan willem3 wrote:
Thanks, Pondini, for the quick reply. I will try out your suggestions. I intended to do a full restore from the backup system. However, as I did already perform a clean ML install, the backup is no longer recognized by Time Machine as belonging to that MB Pro. So, if I click the TM icon nothing happens.
Apple doesn't make it clear, but that's not how you do a full system restore. You start from your Recovery HD and use the option there, as detailed in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14. It doesn't matter what's on the OSX volume, since you're not running from it, and it will be erased before the backup is copied to it.
PS The repair I tried was based on the procedure explained onhttp://www.garth.org/archives/2011,08,27,169,fix-time-machine-sparsebundle-nas-b ased-backup-errors.html and the result of running fsck_hfs was that it could not be repaired.
Not a good sign. That may be why Migration Assistant didn't recognize it.
It's possible a 3rd-party heavy-duty disk repair app, such as DiskWarrior, can fix it, but DW is about $100, and there's no guarantee it can fix the damage.
The full system restore might work, depending on where the damage is, but it's a crapshoot. If you get far enough to see the list of backups, but restoring the most recent one fails, see #E8 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting
The attempt might have made a mess of the sparsebundle, but luckily I have a copy on an external hard disk. Is it possible to restore the backup from the external hard disk, despite the fact that the data are packed in a sparsebundle?
Yes, the full system restore, Setup Assistant and Migration Assistant can be used in that case. But most likely, the copy has the same damage as the original, so it's doubtful for that reason.
The Time Machine browser can also be used in that setup, if the backups aren't too badly damaged, but you must manually mount the sparse bundle first. In your case, you'll probably need to use the Browse Other Backup Disks option, per #17 in the FAQ. If the backups do appear that way, you can probably restore selected files and folders, unless you happen to hit the damaged spot(s). It's a bit of a crapshoot, too.

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Restore iTunes backup from Time Machine?

It all began when I noticed the YouTube app was missing on my 1st gen iPad (iOS 5.1.1). Couldn't figure out how to reload just the app, so I decided to restore the iPad. I did this last week, when I had the iPad replaced at the AppleStore, and had no problems restoring from backup.
This time, however, when the restore operation finished, only a handful of the several dozen apps had been restored (and YouTube was still missing). Now I'm thinking that the backup didn't properly complete before the restore operation was started, and this incomplete backup is now the default.
Is it possible to retrieve an older backup (yesterday) from Time Machine. Is that possible? Hate to think I've permanently lost all my data in all those apps.

It all began when I noticed the YouTube app was missing on my 1st gen iPad (iOS 5.1.1). Couldn't figure out how to reload just the app, so I decided to restore the iPad. I did this last week, when I had the iPad replaced at the AppleStore, and had no problems restoring from backup.
This time, however, when the restore operation finished, only a handful of the several dozen apps had been restored (and YouTube was still missing). Now I'm thinking that the backup didn't properly complete before the restore operation was started, and this incomplete backup is now the default.
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How to restore a backup from time machine in 10.6.8

I am running 10.6.8 on my MacPro (early 2008). I have 4 internal hard drives. The main boot drive has 10.6.8 and the secondary drive with a system has Lion. I cannot completely upgrade to Lion on my main drive until all my software is compatible.
My main boot drive started acting like it's in slow motion 2 days ago. No matter what I do (DiskWarrior, Disk Utility, zap PRAM, fix permissions) nothing seems to help. Every mouse click or movement gives me the dreaded spinnin wheel and it hangs for about 5 min and then does what it's supposed to do. I have logged into a new account w/ no special 3rd party apps or utilities and it still does the same thing. Hard drive diagnostics say my hard drive is ok. I have tried reinstalling the 10.6.8 combo update but that hangs after a few minutes of starting. I am stymied.
I thought about restoring a Time Machine backup from 1 day before this happened, but before I attempt a full disk backup, need to ask what to do so as not lose everything.
I assume I must boot up from another disk or hard drive, correct? Can I simply select all the system folders and apps folder or do you think I should do a complete restore?
Thanks.

tlocane wrote:
My main boot drive started acting like it's in slow motion 2 days ago. No matter what I do (DiskWarrior, Disk Utility, zap PRAM, fix permissions) nothing seems to help. Every mouse click or movement gives me the dreaded spinnin wheel and it hangs for about 5 min and then does what it's supposed to do. I have logged into a new account w/ no special 3rd party apps or utilities and it still does the same thing. Hard drive diagnostics say my hard drive is ok. I have tried reinstalling the 10.6.8 combo update but that hangs after a few minutes of starting. I am stymied.
Could be a failing drive, could be Lion when you boot doing something
Disconnect all other drives etc., except the 10.6.8 boot drive, lets flush everything.
hold Shift upon booting, this is Safe mode and fixes things, reboot
then SMC reset, PRAM reset
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/26871.html
Run all of OnyX checks, maintainance and cleaning then reboot at the end
http://www.titanium.free.fr/
If you have AppleJack already installed hold command S at startup of 10.6.8 and Applejack AUTO and press enter.
http://applejack.sourceforge.net/
This mega cocktail will do plenty to rebuild everything and may catch your issue.
If your still having problems I would try to isolate it, if it occurs only if your connected to the Internet, or after the machine has booted Lion etc.
Narrow it down. It might be failing sectors on the drive, this has been known to cause beachballs as the hardware is trying to read from failing sectors, once it gets the information it should be transfering it to a new better sector and mapping off the bad one.
You can expidite this process when you fresh install, by erasing the entire drive (or Free space only) with Zero function in Disk Utility before laying large amounts of data on the drive. (like a OS or partition)
Good Luck

My time machine backup was created on iMac with Mountain Lion and my new iMac has Mavericks installed, will I be able to restore a backup from time machine to new imac and all applications work ok

time machine backup to new iMac

Yes, however it's always wise to update your apps to ensure you have the most up-to-date version. Use Setup Assistant to migrate your data, apps and settings to the new iMac, simply follow the on-screen directions. If the new machine has already arrived and you have already run Setup Assistant, connect the TM backup to the new machine and run Migration Assistant (a cousin of Setup Assistant) and follow the on-screen directions. You can find Migration Assistant in Applications - Utilities - Migrations Assistant or you can use the keyboard shortcut of Command + Spacebar and type "Migration Assistant".

After restore backup from time machine, all thumbnails in photos are blank. How to fix ?

After restore backup from time machine, all thumbnails in photos are blank. How to fix ?
I'm using Yosemite 10.10.3 and Photos. i have tried repair database, but no success .

Try these for the first attempt:
First be sure to have a backup copy of the library if you already don't have one.
OT

Had to restore my iMac from Time Machine. After the restoration all programs are functioning except my Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium. When I start any program in the suite the error message, "Licensing for this product has stopped working." I rest

I had to restore my iMac from Time Machine. After the restoration all programs are functioning except my Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium. When I start any program in the suite the error message, "Licensing for this product has stopped working." I restarted the computer and tried again to run Photoshop and the same error message appeared. The message was followed by a message that stated that I needed to contact Adobe technical support and mention Error: 150.30. I need Adobe technical support to provide me a solution for my problem so I can continue using my Adobe products installed on my computer.

Unfortunately when Adobe products are restored from backup, especial CS4 and especially Mac, it breaks licensing.
There is a python script included in the license recovery kit that should work if you are familiar with Terminal.
If not, you must reinstall your CS4 suite. You don't need to delete your preferences, so it should be the same as before.
Error "Licensing has stopped working" | Mac OS
Gene

Why do I get "You don't have permission to perform this task" when I try to restore an application from Time Machine?

Why do I get"You do't have permmission to perform this task" when I try to restore an application from Time Machine backup on my Imac running Mavericks?

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for details.

Empty iTunes, then Restore Some Playlists from Time Machine?

My MacBook Pro is full, mainly because of the massive collection of music. Everything is backed up on Time Machine. I want to reduce my iTunes library by about 50% to regain some capacity. Can I delete my entire iTunes library off the MacBook, then reinstall only the playlists that I want from Time Machine? What's the best/safest way to do this?

+I just restored my MBP from Time Machine, everything went fine. But I feel my MBR start up much slower than before. So now I want to do a clean install Leopard.+
Wait on the erase and install. Launch Disk Utility which is in the Applications > Utilities folder and Verify your disk and repair permissions. If Verify shows any errors boot from the Leopard install DVD by holding the "c" key down until the spinning gear appears. Pick a language and choose Utilities > Disk and run Repair until no errors appear. Repair permissions.
If that doesn't work try resetting the PRAM which quite often fixes slow boot times.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
+Would like to ask you guys who experiences in Time Machine that after installing Leopard, I want to restore some applications from Time Machine such as MS office, Wow, Photoshop...Will they fully function if I restore from TM?+
I don't know about Wow but Photoshop and MS Office install too many files in too many places for it to be practical to restore them from Time Machine backups after doing an erase and install. You need to reinstall those from the original disks for those applications.

Restoring hard drive from Time Machine

I was having trouble starting up my computer, the gray screen with question mark was appearing over and over after other attempts to correct it I reinstalled the start up disk and then restored my files from Time Machine. Everything seemed fine for a day then my computer was freezing up again and grey screen with question mark appeared again. Is it time to go to the apple techs? Any help would be very much appreciated!
Thanks,
Cindy

Cindy 2 wrote:
I did as you suggested and my computer is running but Time machine will not back up. I tried to verify disk and got an error: filesytem verify or repair failed also incorrect number of extended attributes. Do I need to reformat it somehow?
This is for your internal HD, right?
If so, you need to repair the file system, as that can cause various other problems. Insert your Leopard Install disc and start up while holding down the "C" key. This will take a few moments. Select your language, then on the next screen select Utilities from the menubar, then +Disk Utility.+ Use that to +Repair Disk+ (not permissions) on your internal HD.
Most likely, all the errors will be repaired. If not, run it again. If they still don't repair, you've got a more serious problem.
Then reboot normally.
Do a +Repair Disk+ on your Time Machine disk (you can use the version of DU in your Applications/Utilities folder for this one) to be sure there isn't trouble there, too.
Then try a +Back Up Now.+ If it fails, download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget from: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/timemachinebuddy.html. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. Copy and post the messages here (be sure to get them all, as sometimes they overflow the small window).
My partition map scheme reads guid partition table, is this correct?
I don't know, since you still haven't specified what kind of Mac you have in your profile. But if your internal HD is GUID you must have an Intel Mac, and it's correct.

Restoring a folder from time machine.

I have updated to 10.7.4 and after having problems with "home" directory permissions, I reset the home directory permissions as per "http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4040". My filesaving problems seemed to be ok after that.
Time machine has since performed a backup but to test a problem I had before upgrading, I again tried to restore a folder from time machine. The folder was in ~library/applications support/"appname"/"folder"... I deleted the old folder first (after copying it of course).
The folder restore failed with this message:-
I checked the file on the time machine backups and it shows me as the owner in group "staff" which appears fine for Lion. The old file I had copied showed the same permissions.
I restored the copied library and tried to restore a single file after a similar procedure with the same error relating to the particular file.
It seems to be a permissions problem at a higher level but at this point I seek a few pointers.
Lion seems to have broken time machine and also introduced various permission problems. The referenced doc indeed addresses that but it should not even be an issue - if Apple techos know about it why does it even happen ??
A more major issue is that there must be millions out there relying on the once reliable (and the best backup system I have aver seen in 30 years of computing) time machine for backups - if that now fails, it is basically useless. Apple techos dont seem to actually test their updates anymore - this should never happen - work arounds or not.
Appreciate any help here. I dont want to wait until I REALLY need it.
Regards.

I don't use TM, so don't know if there's a simpler solution. The issue's whether or not you want to restore the folder or not. Only you can answer that.

I need to restore iphoto library from time machine, but have a question

I need to rebuild my library but already have 5 libraries which are taking too much space on my HD to finish a complete rebuild. Is it safe to move those 5 libraries to the trash and restore the one from time machine???
thanks in advance,
Kari

IF nothing goes wrong - hardware - software - human - then you will be fine
Personally my photos are important to me and I'd purchase an external harddrive and backup everything to it first - then do the deletes/rebuild etc
Then I would continue using the new EHD for a second backup using a clone package (Carbon Copy Cloner or SUperDuper)
LN

Help with restoring Address Book from Time Machine

Problem: I really, really need to retrieve someone's number. I know it'll be in an old version of my Address Book. I can see when I open time Machine that my address book is backed up, but no matter the date I go to, it says the Address Book was last modified in 2012! I know for a fact I've updated (and backed up) the Address Book many times since then.
Whenever I try to restore the Address Book, I do Time Machine > Applications > Address Book > 'restore'. But whenever I do this, the mac refuses to open the restored Address Book because it's 'required by mac OS X'.
I don't understand.
Please, how on earth do I dredge my Address Book from the depths of Time Machine?
Please help!
M

Hello mb9236,
Thank you for the details of the issue you are experiencing with restoring a contact from Time Machine.
It sounds like you are trying to restore the Address Book application. The Address Book application is just the application and does not include the content in Address Book.
Instead, you will want to open Address Book and then launch Time Machine and restore your contacts from there. Use the steps below to restore your contacts form a previous date (in step one instead of opening Mail or Finder, be sure you have Address Book open and in focus):
If you use Time Machine to back up your computer, you can easily bring back one or more items you’ve lost, or recover older versions of files you’ve changed.
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. If you want to recover an email message, open your inbox in Mail.
If you’re missing an item from the desktop, you don’t need to open a window.
Click the Time Machine icon in the Dock, or open the Time Machine menu in the menu bar and choose Enter Time Machine. If you back up to a Time Capsule or other network disk, a message briefly appears while Time Machine connects your computer to the backup disk.
Use the arrows or the timeline along the right side of your screen to browse through all the snapshots and backups Time Machine created. Gray tick marks on the timeline represent snapshots stored on your internal drive (portable computers only). Pink tick marks represent backups stored on your backup disk.
If you need more information about an item, double-click to preview 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, and 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. Time Machine may ask if you want to re-create one or more folders in order to return a restored item to its original location.
If an item you restore has the same name as another item on your computer, you’re asked if you want to keep the current item, the restored item, or both.
You can use Time Machine from within many applications. For example, you can open Address Book and then click the Time Machine icon in the Dock to recover contacts you may have accidentally deleted, or open iPhoto and then click the Time Machine icon in the Dock to view past versions of your iPhoto albums.
OS X Lion: Restore items backed up with Time Machine
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH4256
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

Restore some application from time machine problem.

Hi Everybody,
I just restored my MBP from Time Machine, everything went fine. But I feel my MBR start up much slower than before. So now I want to do a clean install Leopard.
I would like to ask you guys who experiences in Time Machine that after installing Leopard, I want to restore some applications from Time Machine such as MS office, Wow, Photoshop...Will they fully function if I restore from TM?
I acknowledge that some applications are like packages so after installing in Mac OS, they are actually located in different places in the system. Whereas others is like small application so we just copy and use. So if big applications as packages, I can not just copy from TM and put it in my new Leopard to use, can't I? If I can't, so is there any ways I can copy it back and use?
I am so confusing about this and I hope very much that somebody could help me out this problem, I would greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

+I just restored my MBP from Time Machine, everything went fine. But I feel my MBR start up much slower than before. So now I want to do a clean install Leopard.+
Wait on the erase and install. Launch Disk Utility which is in the Applications > Utilities folder and Verify your disk and repair permissions. If Verify shows any errors boot from the Leopard install DVD by holding the "c" key down until the spinning gear appears. Pick a language and choose Utilities > Disk and run Repair until no errors appear. Repair permissions.
If that doesn't work try resetting the PRAM which quite often fixes slow boot times.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
+Would like to ask you guys who experiences in Time Machine that after installing Leopard, I want to restore some applications from Time Machine such as MS office, Wow, Photoshop...Will they fully function if I restore from TM?+
I don't know about Wow but Photoshop and MS Office install too many files in too many places for it to be practical to restore them from Time Machine backups after doing an erase and install. You need to reinstall those from the original disks for those applications.

HT201250 Can I restore photo files from Time Machine without the use of an external drive? I'm trying to restore lost photo files and I see them listed in Time Machine (without use of an external drive), but when I try to restore I get a error code 36.

Can I restore photo files from Time Machine without the use of an external drive? While I was transferring photos back and forth from a thumb drive something went haywire and my IPhoto was wiped clean! When I click on Time Machine I see all the dated pages (without an external storage drive connected), go back to a date where all my photo files are there, click "restore", and I get the message: "The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in file cant be read or written (error code - 36)"

Thanks so much Terence. I tried some of the fixes from that page, but then discovered the suggestion to compress the Time Machine Back up of the original library and transfer it as a zip back to my computer as detailed here:
http://pondini.org/TM/E9.html
That worked like a charm. I really appreciate it.

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