Restoring individual files

I am not upgrading Retrospect to version 8 to be SL compatible and I am not going to use SD, and instead will save and use Time Machine. Although its got a weak feature set compared to Retrospect the advantage is I dont have to pay the Tiger to Snow Leopard upgrade cost. So tell me can Time Machine restore individual files from a month ago or does it need to restore the entire system?
John

You might want to review these:
Time Machine Tutorial
How to back up and restore your files
Time Machine Features
Time Machine 101
and perhaps browse the Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.

Similar Messages

  • Time Machine Restore individual files after reformatting

    Is it possible to restore individual files to my G5 iMac after i reinstall/reformat OSX on it?......i dont want a full restore
    The time machine is currently backing up this G5 iMac

    Do you really need to erase and start over?
    It's rarely required on OSX, and rarely accomplishes much.
    If you're having performance problems, it's almost always better to address them directly. As Kiraly, a frequent poster here says, if your kitchen faucet is leaking, start by replacing the washer, not tearing out the entire kitchen!
    If you reinstall OSX and don't transfer your user accounts from your backups when it first starts up, via +Setup Assistant,+ (per #19 in but instead set up a user account "from scratch", that account may not be recognized as the one on your backups, so won't have permission to view or restore much, if anything, from them.
    Even if it is, see the pink box in #11 of [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), for a rough outline of what you'll be looking at doing.
    See #19 there for info on +Setup Assistant.+

  • Restoring individual files to a new MacBook

    Hello all,
    My GF has just got a new MacBook as her old one has died. She has a backup on my time Capsule, but we only want to restore individual files/photos to her new one. The new one will probably have a new user name etc.
    Is it possible to access this old backup from another source than the original?

    svenskdod wrote:
    Hello all,
    My GF has just got a new MacBook as her old one has died. She has a backup on my time Capsule, but we only want to restore individual files/photos to her new one. The new one will probably have a new user name etc.
    Is it possible to access this old backup from another source than the original?
    That's going to be a problem. The user she sets up on the new Mac won't be recognized as the same one on the backups of the old Mac, and one user, even an Admin user, doesn't have access to a different user's data.
    A better idea is to use +*Setup Assistant+* when the new Mac first starts up, to transfer what she wants. She can't pick and choose individual items, but she can omit some large groups, then later delete what she doesn't want. See [Setting up a new Mac from an old one or its backups|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Setup.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Snow Leopard > Installation and Setup+ forum).
    If she really wants a new user account name, instead of using +Setup Assistant,+ she could set up the same user name on the new Mac, then use +*Migration Assistant,*+ per [Using Migration Assistant|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Migrate.html]. The last window there will appear if an account on the backups is the same as the account she's using, and provide the opportunity to transfer it but give it a new name.

  • How do I restore individual files/folders from Time Machine to a PC?

    My Mac of six years have crashed and been sent to the apple hospital for surgery, but I had time machine backing up all my files. Yah! Now with the help of 'macdrive' I can see the files on my windows computer, but when I tried to restore any individual files or folders to the pc, nothing.
    I would click on the files from my external drive and a box comes up for 'where do you want to copy selected files?'. Right-clicking only provide the 'copy', 'copy to', and 'create a shortup' options. Whichever options I try, no copies/restored files is created.
    How do I restore the files (not the entire system, just pictures and documents) to a windows computer?
    Help please

    You need to be more specific what types of files are you trying to restore. It sounds like you just need to learn how to use TM which is pretty darn easy. Here is one good article and you can always use Apple's find out how video on TM.
    Time Machine FAQ

  • My Time Machine can only restore individual files or empty folders

    Having upgraded to Snow Leopard, I find that when trying to restore a folder of files from my Time Machine HD one of two things happen: either it copies the folder but not the files within it, or it says I don't have the permissions to copy the folder, and then copies the folder anyway - albeit without its contents. If I restore an individual file, I have no problems - but this is hardly going to provide the security promised by Time Machine if I need to restore a project of files saved in a nest of folders, or worse still restore an entire HD.
    I have repaired disk permissions on my Mac, I can't repair permissions on my TM drive (it is greyed out in Disc Utility) and so have erased my TM drive and done a new TM backup of my Mac under Snow Leopard hoping this would solve the problem...
    It hasn't! Any suggestions?
    I can however connect my G4 Powerbook running Leopard on my WiFi network to the TM drive, and restore folders to it as normal which suggests the issue is to do with the Snow Leopard upgrade...
    Jog!

    I solved my TM-Problem:
    The problem was based on incorrect permission and owner settings in my user folder.
    I created a new user and copied the files from the corrupt user folder to the new user folder and corrected the permissions and owner settings.
    More information here:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2963?viewlocale=en_US
    Seems that there is a more simple an efficient method:
    "Note: In Mac OS X 10.5 and later, while started up ("booted") from the Mac OS X 10.5 installation disc, a user's home directory permissions can be reset using the Reset Password utility."
    Message was edited by: brachi

  • How to restore individual files from a TM backup after a clean install?

    Hi to all,
    my teenage daughter's Mac Mini (running OSX 10.8) was cluttered with all sorts of stuff, even unwanted and inappropriate popup windows when using Safari, and more. So I made a final TM backup. Then I did a clean install of Mavericks.
    Now, I wanted to bring back individual files and folders from that TM backup, BUT...
    going to Migration Assistant, I realized that it would overwrite the clean install and bring back the clutter. This is no option.
    going to TM, I realized I wasn't able to select any of the snapshots from the timeline
    going to the external drive containing the TM backup with Finder, all folders within her "old" user.folder showed a small red stop-sign, which I learned is an issue with permissions. I wasn't able to restore manually.
    What to do now?
    I know I could restore the cluttered state and copy folders and files manually to an external drive, make another clean install of Mavericks, then copy manually from that external drive. This seems a lot of time and work to me.
    Is there an easier way?
    Thanks in advance,
    Michi

    See # 14 Here...
    http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

  • Restoring individual files from time machine.

    hi Apple store today reinstalled OS as system was not operating well. Was told I could restore emails, files etc from time machine.
    So far all I,ve been able to fnd is some jpg,
    How do i reinstate email iphoto and itunes individually
    if i just reinstal the whole image will end up with the same problem
    thanks in advance

    you can do it but it has to be done in two steps. first, make a TM backup. to speed things up just choose 'backup now" from the TM menu. next, do a full system restore by booting from the leopard install dvd. once the system is restored log out of your current account and log into another admin account. create one using system preferences->accounts. then go to the folder /users at the top level of the drive and restore the home directory of your main user from the most recent TM backup available. then log into your main account and all your recent data will be there.

  • Cant find the right forum for this but can i restore my hd from time mch to a year ago and then restore individual files such as logic lprojects that are on same time mchne backup from last week?

    cant find the right forum for this but as i am having problems booting my macbook pro, keep having to reser pram etc and now wont boot at all.....
    aill this theoretically work?
    a. Restore entire macpro hard drive from time machine to a time over a year ago before problems started
    b. Restore more recent individual files such as logic projects individually from same time machine backup
    c. install any programs manually again only couple of vsts
    please answer direct question as i have tried everything else and nonhardware problems just will no longer boot after months of reseting each time
    cheers

    oops.  typo:  "I went ahead and befored the restore."  should be... I went ahead and performed the restore.

  • Permissions error when trying restore of individual files/folders in Time Machine

    Hi,
    I am trying to restore an individual file or folder from my time machine backup in Snow Leopard and TM doesn't allow me to do so. The error message that I get is: "The folder "foldername" can't be opened because you don't have permissions to see its contents."
    I am running Snow Leopard and always backed up using TM, approx. once per month.
    Approx. one month ago, I did a full HD wipe and system reinstall from the scratch without migrating any files, using slightly new User Names etc. After the re-install, I ran TM twice on the newly installed configuration and using my same old external backup drive. I did not change the OS. It was SL before and I re-installed SL.
    So, I have quite a coherent set of incremental backups and I can also "see" all the folders in my backup volume's directory. Only, I can't access or restore anything that is on the "timeline" before the system re-install.
    I found out that it has something to do with the User Permissions, but I can't figure out how to fix it because when I try to use "Get Info" on the TM folder that I want to restore, the permissions are grayed out and I can't add myself to it.
    Help, I really need these old files and folders. After all, that was what I thought TM was good for.
    Thanks.

    You need to be more specific what types of files are you trying to restore. It sounds like you just need to learn how to use TM which is pretty darn easy. Here is one good article and you can always use Apple's find out how video on TM.
    Time Machine FAQ

  • I have done an icloud backup on my iPad mini. I now need to get back one of the iMovie videos that I backed up. How do I restore one individual file?

    I have done an icloud backup on my iPad mini. I now need to get back one of the iMovie videos that I backed up. How do I restore one individual file?

    You can't. When you restore from a backup it will restore everything in the backup. You might be able to find a third party app that will allow you to extract individual files from an iTunes backup, but not with an iCloud backup.

  • Individual File restore

    Morning Everyone,Is it possible to do an individual file or folder restore from TM?? Downgraded to leopard.SL has waaayy too many bugs in it. My TM has SL on it and Thats the last thing I want Back.I just need some files and such.just thought I`d Ask Thanks

    Hi, and welcome to the forums.
    Sure, you can restore individual items, but be careful you don't copy something that's handled differently in Snow Leopard, as it probably won't work right (if at all) in Leopard.
    The only one I know of off-hand is Apple Mail, but there may be others.
    If you're talking about "normal" documents and such, there shouldn't be a problem, as long as you have the same version of the program that made/last updated them.
    Try the Time Machine Tutorial for an example of how to restore selected items.
    Or, How to back up and restore your files

  • How to restore a file inside an encrypted sparsebundle file saved in time machine

    Hi,
    On Mac OS X 10.6.6, I use an encrypted sparsebundle file to save sensitive corporate files (not using the Filevault built-in feature), mounting it and using it as a folder.
    The sparse bundle is in my Documents folder which is part of my Time Machine backup.
    Unfortunately, timemachine doesn't actually see what's inside the sparsebundle file and can't restore only one of the files from it.
    I always have to restore the full sparsebundle, which is 34G as of now...
    Is there a way to let timemachine index and store the content of the encrypted sparsebundle, without compromising the confidentiality of course?
    What other completely different solution should I use otherwise?
    Thanks.

    mimizone wrote:
    everytime it says it can't be mounted the reason being "no mountable filesystem"
    the file size reported by the Finder is blank, which I am not sure is related.
    Not a good sign.  That's the message OSX sends when a disk image is corrupted.    Can you restore the whole thing, and still see the contents?
    It seems an external drive or partitioning the drive would be required, unless using sparsebundle files would do the same.
    A separate drive or partition, each with different passwords, would probably work.
    side question, it seems TM saved the entire modified files and not only the modified blocks. Does it behave the same for sparsebundles? it doesn't seem to copy my 34G file everytime.
    Do you have a "sparse disk image" or a "sparse bundle disk image"?   As I understand it, Time Machine saves the entire contents of a sparse disk image if anything's changed, but only the modified "bands" of a sparse bundle disk image (but only when they're not mounted). 
    If you use an encrypted HD or partition, it should work normally -- just saving the individual files that are changed, and allowing you to view and restore individual items.

  • Is it possible to recover a deleted folder and its contents as opposed to an individual file?

    When I turned on my computer today, a folder located on my desktop is no longer there.  Astounded I could have accidentally deleted it, the folder having been trashed is the only illogical logical possibility I can think of - and is a first for me in my 30 years of Mac use.  My father is in the process of dying and the folder contains all the information coming to me on the subject.  The last backup of this folder is about a week old and much has been added since for which I've no record.
    Not having a master document or table of contents listing what was in the folder leaving me unable to search for and recover individual files/documents by name, my question is this:  Is it possible to recover a "FOLDER", and its contents after that folder has been moved from the desktop to the trash, the trash emptied, and the computer having been shut down?
    If anyone has any ideas of how to recover anything about what items that folder contained, I'd really appreciate whatever thoughts you might have.
    Thanks in advance -
    The computer this folder is missing from is a early 2008 MacPro, running 10.7.5.

    I'm not sure what you can do beyond trying to restrict the types of files you search for. These apps normally have ways to select the file types or to add example files. That allows them to carve out only those types, but you still may end up with GB's of data, especially if the types are somewhat generic. I don't know of any tools that can undo changes to the disk catalog over time.
    I guess you could also search for specific text if you know that these files contained something that is 'almost unique'. Spotlight can do that, or grep, egrep are command line tools that may help ask if you want to go that route, they may help you gather lists to move files around to whittle them down.
    Sorry I can't think of a way around this it's a difficult task at a difficult time. Good luck with it, ask if you think we could help.
    I do wonder if Apples 'Versions' could help?
    OS X Lion: About Auto Save and Versions - Apple Support
    @Tony T1, do you know how to restore files from that system? I think it is part of Time Machine, but the copies are saved locally.
    It is not entirely clear how it works (at least from my memory of Lion) with regards to how you could get files back in this situation. The database should be at the base of the disk in a hidden folder ".DocumentRevisions-V100", but I don't think you can just pull files out of there. Personally I'd consider making a full disk backup before you attempt to restore files. Then you could try the 'Enter Time Machine' UI to see if it can browse back to the older Desktop.

  • Roll back an entire project, not individual files

    Hi,
    is there a way to restore an entire project to a certain date? I can do it for individual files but have not found a global function.
    Normally when reaching major milestones we create a copy of the entire project anyway. So this is only relevant for rolling back shorter periods of time.
    Robert

    You can from your source control system (if it supports it, what it should). With TFS I just get a specific version of the project from Team Explorer. And with VSS I did the same: Open up the client and get the project from there.
    Greet,
    Willam

  • Restoring selected files from Time Machine

    I have a total of 160Gb on my white MacBook.  I've hit the point now where the hard disk is almost full and causing me grief.  Although I can go through my hard disk and selective delete all of the music files, applications, photos, videos, etc that I no longer want to retain I was considering the following sequence of steps:
    performing a full back-up to Time Machine
    performing a full Mac OSX reinstallation
    after my OSX reinstall has completed, selectively restoring the files (mainly music and photos) that I want.
    I was hoping the strategy above might be faster than trawling through each directory and deleting the files that I don't want.
    I've read this post: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2126294 and the consensus recommended against executing this type of strategy.  However, I also note that the facts in this discussion thread related to a selective restoration of files after an upgrade of Operating Systems (Leopard to Snow Leopard).  I'm not doing that.  I'm on Leopard and will remain so.
    Are there any pitfalls or traps that I ought to be aware of before committing to a reinstallation?  The though of manually deleting the files I no longer need is a total D.R.A.G.

    Kevin le Bevin wrote:
    I have a total of 160Gb on my white MacBook.  I've hit the point now where the hard disk is almost full and causing me grief.  Although I can go through my hard disk and selective delete all of the music files, applications, photos, videos, etc that I no longer want to retain I was considering the following sequence of steps:
    performing a full back-up to Time Machine
    performing a full Mac OSX reinstallation
    after my OSX reinstall has completed, selectively restoring the files (mainly music and photos) that I want.
    That may work fairly well with most types of data -- data that's in separate files. 
    If your photos are in iPhoto, it will be very hard to find the ones you want, but you can use the procedure in the gray box at the bottom of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #15.
    Assuming your music is in iTunes, it may be difficult to find the ones you want.
    If you have 3rd-party apps, there's a problem.   You can restore individual "simple" apps (that were just dropped into your Applications folder), and if you work at it, the associated preferences files (in ~/Library/Preferences).  But "complex" apps, that came with their own installers, won't work properly, if at all, because they have other files (and perhaps "helper" apps) in other places.  Those will have to be reinstalled from the original discs.
    Or, use Migration Assistant to transfer all the apps (and exclude everything else).   See Using Migration Assistant on Snow Leopard or Leopard.

Maybe you are looking for