Restoring entire computer to prior Time using time

I have found lots of info on how to recover a specific file from the past, but what if i just want to revert my whole mbp to its state from yesterday 3pm? For example, if i hated what a software update did and i just want to go back in time ?

Butterflie14,
The term "delta" doesn't really apply to Time Machine backups. Each backup is a complete "snapshot" of the entire installation. In order to do this without copying over huge amounts of data, Time Machine uses "multi-linked" files in the various backups, all pointing to the same data. That is, with the exception of any new/changed files; these represent the only real data that is transferred during each backup. Only in this sense does "delta" apply.
Restoring from a backup, at least in the context of "going back to a previous state," is an all-or-nothing proposition. That doesn't mean it has to take a long time. First, the process of erasing a drive takes mere seconds. Second, a Time Machine "Restore" doesn't include a new installation of OS X from the installer disk (which would take a long time), but rather a restoration of the entire system from the backup. As such, it is dependent entirely on the speed of the drive and connecting bus (FW 400, 800, USB, etc.). In the case of my FW 800 drive, a complete "Restore" of a 50 GB system took about 30 minutes.
I agree, to take this step seems like a waste just to recover from some "pernicious" action of a particular application. If you were a bit more specific about what application we're talking about, and just what it did, perhaps I could offer better advice. You can restore anything that has been backed up by Time Machine, but may have been deleted from your internal disk in the meantime, but you cannot really "un-modify" OS X, if that is what has happened. To do so, you must perform a complete "Restore."
Scott

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I restored my computer to a time before an Itune update-need to keep songs

I restored my computer to a time befoe the last update to ITunes. Now I am unable to open ITunes at all. I am being asked to reinstall I-tunes when I click on the application, but I do not want to lose all my songs. I have all my songs on the i-pod. How can I restore the program without losing my songs?

Dear Katrina:
Greetings!
I backed up my files as you suggested. I tried to reinstall I-tunes from the disc, and it looked as if everything was installing correctly. I tried reinstalling it by putting in the disk and waiting for the prompts. I also tried through the control panel "add programs." I think the add program approach even asked me if I wanted old files to be deleted. I said yes with confidence since I have a back up. Nothing worked. When I click on I-tunes, I receive the message: "I-tunes cannot run because some of its required components is missing. Please reinstall I-tunes."
It seems that I am not even able to delete the program. Maybe I can manually delete the folders through "explore?" What do you think I should try next? At least, all my music is backed up, and other than not being able to operate I-tunes from my computer, the computer seems to be operating normal.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Christopher
IBM Netvista Windows XP

I work with a Mac & I had to restore my computer for my time machine back-up. When I attempt to open/edit a photo with either camera raw or photoshop I get the following error message: Error 150:30 , it also sys that licensing for the product has stopped

I work with a Mac & I had to restore my computer for my time machine back-up. When I attempt to open/edit a photo with either camera raw or photoshop I get the following error message: Error 150:30 , it also sys that licensing for the product has stopped working?

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

Restore entire system from a Time Capsule backup?

Can anyone help me restore my entire system (MacBook Pro, os x 10.5.8) from a set date in time using Time Machine. I use a Time Capsule wifi for back-ups. I have found lots of tutorials and how to's that say it can be done, but none which actually spell out how to do it step by step if you're not changing Macs or using a more modern operating system. I've been to two Apple stores with all of my equipment and the instructions from the Genius Bar haven't worked when I get home to start the back-up. One Apple store wiped my iPhone and restored and synched it to a store laptop when I had my own with me, so now those don't synch or recognize each other and I've lost all my iTunes settings. The second store said I needed to restore my Mac with a snapshot from my HD, which seems like the place I'm restoring to, not restoring from.
I want to first ensure TM is backing up to the Time Capsule and not to my Mac before I do a complete restore. The store seemed to indicate that TM was backing up to the Mac. Every Apple tutorial reads that the Time Machine recognizes it is connected to a Time Capsule and after initial setup "just takes care of itself," so this is a surprise to me and I want to triple-check my files and the snapshots in time are on an external Time Capsule. The settings in Time Capsule all look fine, but I can't tell if it's the actual back-up drive. When I go into TM I see the dates on the right hand side, but none are pink as some tutorials read they should be? Is that a new addition with later operating systems.
The problem started when I was trying to synch and charge my iPhone routinely. During the synch I received a software update window that read I should update the latest iWork software updates. So I clicked yes. Then a window popped up reading I needed to download the latest iPhone software updates, so I said yes. After two hours of downloading and installing my iPhone screen went black, read I needed to plug into iTunes, which it was. And when I unplugged and plugged it back in to the Mac and iTunes it read my only option was to Restore to factory settings. I immediately shut everything down and went to the Apple store and when I got back home iTunes doesn't open on the Mac. The phone is on a different system than the Mac. My iCal and Address book files are corrupted, missing information, some records are duplicated. And all of my photos in iPhoto are all dated with the same date from 9 months ago. The photos from recently are in the Library, but the date informaton is corrupt.
From what I'm reading I can restore the computer to what it looked like in a point in time when I know everything looked and synched correctly, a few days before the problem without losing too much data? Can anybody shed some light on this? Thanks so much.

smnolmagic wrote:
Can anyone help me restore my entire system (MacBook Pro, os x 10.5.8) from a set date in time using Time Machine.
See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14 for all the gory details.
The second store said I needed to restore my Mac with a snapshot from my HD, which seems like the place I'm restoring to, not restoring from.
There may be a misunderstanding there -- effective with Lion, Time Machine does make "Local snapshots" on the internal HD of laptop Macs, so they're available when your regular TM backups aren't. But you can't do a full restore from them.
And since you're still on Leopard, the only way to have backups on your internal HD would be if you'd created a separate partition on it and directed TM to back up there, instead of to your Time Capsule.
Since Lion has been out for about 18 months, the AppleStore folks may have forgotten (or never known) the differences from Leopard and Snow Leopard.
I want to first ensure TM is backing up to the Time Capsule and not to my Mac before I do a complete restore.
Use the Time Machine Browser (the "Star Wars" display) to see your backups. You might want to review the Time Machine Tutorial, and perhaps browse Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
When I go into TM I see the dates on the right hand side, but none are pink as some tutorials read they should be? Is that a new addition with later operating systems.
Yes, that's a change effective with Lion. The "Local Snapshots" are shown in white, backups on an external HD, Time Capsule, etc., in pink. But on Leopard, all you'll see is white. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #15A for details.
From what I'm reading I can restore the computer to what it looked like in a point in time when I know everything looked and synched correctly, a few days before the problem without losing too much data?
Yes, per #14 in the FAQ as above. Once that's done, you can then selectively restore more-current items from subsequent backups, if you want.
However, note that, on Leopard, doing a full system restore makes your internal HD look like it's an entirely different disk to OSX and Time Machine. Once you're running on the restored version, you'll need the procedure in #E3 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting to see the backups from the "old" disk.
Also, when you do the next backup, it will be a full one -- everything you just put back on the disk will be backed-up in full. That will take a long time and probably a lot of space on the TM drive.

Restore entire Address Book from Time Machine?

Mac Mid 2011, OSX Lion 10.7.5, Time Machine
After enabling iCloud my address book got "replaced" with an outdated version. Time machine allows me to update individual records but I want to
replace the entire Address Book. Can this be done and if so then how? Thank you.
Dan from New York

I SOLVED this problem:
1. Selected ALL entries from my current (outdated) address book, then deleted them.
2. Selected ALL entries from a good version in Time Machine, then restored.
3. Address book updated.
Piece of cake..I made this issue more complicated than it needed to be...all is well.

Late 2013 iMac 27". Used boot camp and installed windows 7 pro. While in Windows 7, in my pc the mac os does not show. Is there anyway to fix this outside of restoring entire computer and trying again. Thank you from a mac newbie

Hello. I bought a new iMac 27" with the following specs:
3.5GHz Intel Core i7 Quad-Core (Haswell)
32GB of 1600MHz DDR3 RAM
3TB Fusion Drive
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M Graphics (4GB)
27" LED-Backlit IPS Display
2560 x 1440 Native Resolution
802.11ac/a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
Thunderbolt, USB 3.0, SDXC Card Reader
720p FaceTime HD Camera, Dual Mics
Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (64-bit)
After installing all Mac update, used Bootcamp to create a Windows 7 drive. Everything went fine to a point. While in my Mac OS i can see the windows partition just fine and see/edit documents. However, when in the Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, I cannot see the mac os in my computer at all.
Can someone please help this mac owner newbie? This process worked fine on my mac mini and i have no troubles. It is just on my new iMac that it wont work/show the highlighted paragraph above
Any ideas and/or help would be greatly appreciated.

I understand that much. On my MAC Mini, if you look above at original post, I CAN see both OS while in the Windows 7 partition or the MAC OS. This is NOT the case on my iMac. Again, when in the MAC OS I can see the windows partion and move information between the two that way. When in the WINDOWS partition, the only one that shows is the Windows OS from my computer or network. The only way you can tell its even a MAC is the bootcamp icon in the bottom right corner of toolbar. Both have same version of MAC OS so both should work same way.. When i double click on my computer, it should show both the Windows drive AND the MAC (as does my mini and another iMac 21.5 that i have). This iMac does not do that - only shows windows.

Instructions to restore entire computer to yesterdays state

Is there a tutorial or manual which gives you step by step instructions to restore a Time Machine backed up computer to an older state?
I have looked at all the Time Machine instructions I can find but none are specific enough for me to proceed with confidence.
I have installed a problematic program in my machine and would like to return to when things were working.

Bill,
Step-by-step instructions: Recovering your entire system.
Other topics which may be helpful can be found in: Time Machine.
;~)

Restore full macbook pro from time machine backup stored on Synology DiskStation DS411

Hi,
I backed up my macbook pro (running Mac OS x 10.8) with time machine on a Synology DiskStation DS411.
I never had any problem to backup my entire computer (~330gb) with Time Machine, others colleagues do so.
Recently my hard drive failed and I had it replaced. I want to restore the full computer from this DiskStation. When I turn on the computer with the new drive, It proposes me to restore the data from a disk but can't find it even though I am plugged on the netwrok.
I tried to copy and paste the entire folder on an external hard drive with a windows 7 machine, then plugged the hard drive to the macbookpro but it could still not see the hard drive.
I don't really know what to do anymore. Can anyone help?
Thanks.
J

Backing up to a third-party NAS with Time Machine is risky, and unacceptably risky if it's your only backup. This is an example of what can happen.
If your only backup is on the NAS, contact the vendor for support.
If you want network backup with Time Machine, use as the destination either an Apple Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to another Mac or a mini-tower (802.11ac) AirPort base station. Only the 802.11ac base station supports Time Machine, not any previous model.

Updated to Mavericks, MY ENTIRE COMPUTER IS ERASED!

How can I restore my computer from my time capsule?
When booting OSX for the first time, it if I wanted to restore from:
1-another mac
2-time capsule
3-a windows computer
I selected none, as I thought being the same computer I wouldn't lose anything.
How can I get back to this question to restore my information?

Problem Solved! I called Apple's 1-800 number, as I was scared I have lost everything. Mavericks created a new user. Therefore, I logged off. I logged back into my account and everything was there.
I just deleted the new user account that was created.

HT201250 I use Time Machine to back up my entire computer with my external hard drive. I am getting a brand new iMac this month and was wondering what is the process of using this back up to restore my new computer exactly how my old computer was?

I use Time Machine to back up my entire computer with my external hard drive. I am getting a brand new iMac this month and was wondering what is the process of using this back up to restore my new computer exactly how my old computer was? I want to make sure I will still have various important files on my new computer, like my songs in iTunes, my photos in iPhoto, etc, etc. Thanks so much in advance!

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
When you turn on the new iMac for the first time, Setup Assistant will ask you to restore a backup, so connect the external disk and follow steps to restore all your files to your new iMac. Your new Mac will have the same settings and programs as your old computer.
In other cases, I would recommend to restore the whole backup without using Migration Assistant or Setup Assistant, but a Late 2012 iMac uses a special OS X build, so the OS X version that you're using on your old Mac won't work on the new one. For more information, see > http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

Backup entire computer using Time Machine

I was wondering whether anyone might be able to help. I am sending my Mac in to have a couple of hardware issues looked at and need to make sure that I have everything backed up before I do this.
I use Time Machine and an external hard drive to backup usually, but wanted to double check that I can restore my entire computer (3rd party apps and all) to how it was before should the HD get wiped during the repair. Is there another piece of software that anyone can recommend? I am looking for something that with one click I will be able to restore the entire computer to how it was pre-wipe.
Many thanks. Look forward to any helpful answers!

izzyzb wrote:
wanted to double check that I can restore my entire computer (3rd party apps and all) to how it was before should the HD get wiped during the repair.
As Matt says, Time Machine will do that easily (it's not quite one-click, but it's simple). See #14 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Is there another piece of software that anyone can recommend?
Yes. If you have another external HD, by all means make a "bootable clone" of your internal HD, just in case there's a problem with your TM backups or HD (all hardware fails, sooner or later, and no backup app is perfect.)
You can use the Restore tab of Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder), or 3rd-party apps such as [CarbonCopyCloner|http://www.bombich.com> (donationware); or [SuperDuper|http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html] (a free version, but you need the paid one (about $30) to do updates instead of full replacements, or scheduling).
It's rare, but does happen on occasion that a backup drive will fail during a restore, and everything is lost.

Long story short....I restored my computer to an earlier point using time machine and now all of the previous back-ups are gone. My question has to do with itunes...is it possible to restore my itunes library to the most recent backup because the restore

Long story short....I restored my computer to an earlier point using time machine and now all of the previous back-ups are gone. My question has to do with itunes...is it possible to restore my itunes library to the most recent backup because the restore that I did was in march and the latest backup was in may....the reason being is that there were app that i had downloaded that are in my most recent back-up, that were not in the backup I restored to. Is it possible to just restore one application ie)itunes?

See this post.
tt2

I have Time Machine that I used to back up my old computer. It was running snow leopard. My MacBook died, so I got a new one which is running Lion. how can I restore the data from the time capsule to my new Mac?

I have Time Machine that I used to back up my old computer. It was running snow leopard. My MacBook died, so I got a new one which is running Lion. how can I restore the data from the time capsule to my new Mac?

In technical support, sometimes you have to make educated guesses. I'm sorry that you were offended.
iTunes does prompt when it is going to erase a device, and the message is clear.
She said in her message that she was able to successfully sync the old ipad. This indicated to me that itunes wiping the data was not an issue, because either it had been setup at the apple store (in which case it doesn't actually wipe the ipad despite saying it will*) (*based on a single case I saw), or because the itunes media folder was migrated.
Furthermore, my solution was to tell her how to backup her ipad (by either doing it manually, or as a last resort, by deleting the corrupt backup -- that she couldn't access anyway.)
I got that last part of the instructions from the "Taking Control of your iphone" book which I found samples of when I did a google search for "corrupted backup itunes".
She marked this as a solution, so it worked for her.

I performed a time machine backup without plugging my labtop into a power source. My computer died and all the settings were changed, ie the clock and date were changed back to 2001. So I tried to restore my computer using a previous time machine backup.

I performed a time machine backup without plugging my labtop into a power source. My computer died and all the settings were changed, ie the clock and date were changed back to 2001. So I tried to restore my computer using a previous time machine backup. (which I now know was wrong). However, when time machine tried to restore it said there was not enough room to do a backup. It seems that it did a half backup because some essential files such as system profiler are now missing. Can I undo this restore...? What can I do to fix this

You need to do a full system restore, per Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14.
If that sends a message, please note the exact wording.

Can I use time capsule for tranfering entire computer.

I have a new macbook that Apple messed up on and I am having to send back. I will be getting the ne 17'macbook instead. I am hoping that if I use time capsule and time machine I will be able to put all applications and data from the macbook, send back the macbook to apple for my refund and then, when the 17' macbook pro comes in I can restore onto that computer and have all my applications put onto the new computer just as if I had the two computer and plugged them into each other to copy onto the new computer. Can I do this with Time Capsule? Will it make a clone of my hard drive so all application are transferred? Thanks for the helps

I am hoping that if I use time capsule and time machine I will be able to put all applications and data from the macbook, send back the macbook to apple for my refund and then, when the 17' macbook pro comes in I can restore onto that computer and have all my applications put onto the new computer just as if I had the two computer and plugged them into each other to copy onto the new computer.
No, Time Machine will NOT clone your existing MacBook's hard drive regardless of the destination drive that you use. You will need another utility like SuperDuper to do this.
Can I do this with Time Capsule? Will it make a clone of my hard drive so all application are transferred?
You can use the Time Capsule (TC) as the destination drive for cloning software. In this case, the TC will perform like any other network drive.

Restoring entire computer to prior Time using time

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