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.

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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.

Restore System Files From Time Machine

Hello,
Is it possible to to restore system files from Time Machine? I was trying to make the Imac a local host, and something is not working right. I just need to go back one day and over write some of the system files. Is this possible with TM?
Thanks JR

See Here > How do I restore my entire system?
From Here > http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
More Info Here > http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Why can't I restore a file from Time Machine?

I purchased a new Macbook Pro a month ago. I migrated all my stuff from my previous Macbook that was running Maverick. All went well. However, I was looking for a particular file. Apparently I had removed it from my old Mac at some point, but I found it in Time Machine. My backups are on an external hard drive. Again, I can see the file in Time Machine, but I can't seem to do anything with it.
To that end, I see two files: one has shows the file size, and the other (same name, file type, etc...) says "Calculating size"...forever.
Thoughts? Suggestions?

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the restore operation again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name or email address, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

I cant restore raw files from time machine. HELP!?

I have lost all my personal photos, but knew I had a backup through time mahine. however time machine won't allow me to restore any folders that contain RAW files. Please HELP!

Were these RAW files in an iPhoto Library or just a folder on the hard drive. For problem with Restoring from Time Machine see this website: Time Machine - Troubleshooting
OT

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.

Restoring ALL files from Time Machine

I replaced my hdd in my iMac and after installing my OS I used the Migration app to restore my files, settings and apps. That went pretty good until I went to look for something through Time Machine that was prior to my new install. Time machine would only go back to the date of my new install. All the other windows behind that date were black and not accessible. Did I do something wrong and is there a way I can fix it?

First make sure you have read & write access to the folder you're trying to restore to. You should be able to see its contents in the Finder, and to move files in and out of it.
This is an exception to the rule that you should never make any changes to backup data. I've tested this procedure in OS X 10.8 only. It should work with later versions, but I don't know whether it works in earlier versions. Use this procedure only for files that were backed up from your home folder, or a folder on another volume created by you, and would normally be writable by you. Do not touch backups of system or application files.
In the Finder (not in the time-travel view), navigate to the backup volume, then to the folder named "Backups.backupdb", and then to the snapshot you want to restore from. The snapshots are folders labeled with the date when they were created. Inside each of those folders is a file hierarchy like the one on the volume that was backed up. Descend through the hierarchy until you come to a folder named "Users," and inside that, a folder with your user name. The procedure will be different if you're trying to restore files on another volume.
Select the folder and open the Info dialog (command-I). Click the padlock icon in the lower right corner of the window and authenticate. In the Sharing & Permissions section, give your account Read & Write access. You may have to close the dialog and repeat this step in order for the change to show up. Then click the gear icon and select Apply to Enclosed Items from the popup menu.
Try the restore operation again, in the time-travel interface.

Restoring backup files from Time Machine without system preference/Library files

Hi all. I recently ran into some trouble with my MBP and had the Apple store do a erase/install for me. At the time when I got my laptop back, I was told it would be best if I transferred my files including applications the drag and drop way to avoid restoring library/system files that could've been the cause of the problem in the first place. I'm currently still at the setup assistant stage and I'm really unsure of what to do to be honest because I'm under the impression that my application settings would pretty much be gone if I did the drag and drop method.
I read that setup assistant transfers only files that you want but I also read something from user Pondini that the Library files are automatically restored even if I unchecked everything. Which is problematic since that's what I want to avoid in the first place. If possible can anyone recommend a better option for my dilemma? I've read in one of the forum boards that dragging and dropping files can also cause some problems with how applications will work and I really don't want to have to deal with that after the trouble I'm going through with this. Is there a way to just restore Applications and the user folder (desktop, documents, downloads, etc) without including the library system files and folders through setup assistant?
Or do I really have to deal with dragging and dropping files instead? Would you recommend doing the stars wars method of Time Machine and picking only the files I want? Would that be most advisable?
Also, it would be really helpful if anyone can explain to me what the "other files and folders" mean exactly. Thanks very much!

Well what happened was my laptop ran into 2 kernel panics within 2 days (I posted a question here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/25605663#25605663). Which sent ME into a panic. I couldn't trust myself to go any further so I went to the Apple store who then helped did an erase/install for me because they suspect it could be a software issue (maybe it was missing codes or something) and suggested that it would be best for me to drag/drop restore my stuff manually. I'm not very keen on a full system restore either because I know there are some system files which I'd rather not have sticking around (like com.rims which are super stubborn to get rid of) and which could even have been the source of my trouble right now.
I was reading through every single page of Pondini's articles and I'm couldn't find anything which said I could just restore the apps in my apps folder without transferring anything else (ie. the library folder in the macintosh hd folder) since i'm assuming anything from the library folder of the user would be obsolete if I choose not to restore those files using setup assistant. But I'm more reluctant about not using setup assistant for restoring my apps because I don't know how bad it will turn out. Not to mention I won't know if they would restore system root files that should've been long gone since I uninstalled them.

How do I restore selected pictures from Time Machine?

If I want to restore selected documents or music albums/tracks I open Time Machine look at the specific date and select the item and click on restore. But how do I do this with pictures? If I open Time Machine my pictures are nowhere to be found. At least I cannot locate them. If I right-click on IPhoto Library in the Finder in Time Machine nothing happens. At least not Originals as in the regular Finder (this is where pictures are stored in the regular Finder.

Hi Terence, I have the following problem:
-I have many digitalised old pictures that were given the date when they were actually scanned and given a name by the dude who did it
- so for instance my 1982 picture from Paris is titled 'album 4-picture 2000' and has the date July 2 2009, which does not make a lot of sense in a library
- so I batch changed all the digitalised pictures for date and title so now my picture has the correct title 'paris' and the correct date July 4 1982
- now, when I want to restore this particular picture from TM, as you explained me yesterday, I do get the picture but not the new title and date. It will now say again 'album 4-picture 2000' and will have the date July 2 2009
So I only have a problem with date and titles that I changed. TM restores it with the original date and title. And that does not make sense after you have put so much time in changing/correcting all these data. Thanks Adrian

Ho do i restore my files from time machine after a full system restore?

I have just had a full system restore on my MAC, thanks to the genious bar in Bondi, prior to doing this i backed everything on my external hard drive using time machine, i now want to put everything back on to my MAC, including emails, music, photos, movies and important docs etc. what is the best way to do this?
cheers Colin,

See Here > How do I restore my entire system?
From Here > http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
More Info Here > http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Restore iBooks files from time machine backup after clean install

I just did a clean install of Yosemite. I still have a Time Machine backup of my Mavericks install. iBooks in my new Yosemite install does not have all of my books and pdfs in it - just the ones I can download from the iBookstore.
Is there an easy way to access my Mavericks Time Machine backup to retrieve my old iBooks files?

When I go back to the backup it does not let me go back to the previous backupprobably because the last backup was Lion and I am on Mt. Lion now. don't what to do another backup if that is going to mess up the old one. I can access it though by just going to it. So i am putting that one on my desktop and I am going to rename it and see if I can open in Iphoto.

Can't restore files from Time machine backup?

I kinda successfully restored my files from Time Machine after a clean re-install of Snow Leopard (Time Machine thought they were new files, though, so backed up the 26 GB... waste of space), but now I'm trying to restore the files of the other user on the computer. In her pictures folder, I can't copy the iPhoto Library because I don't have permission to access it! The same problem occurred on my account too, but I was able to go to my Time Machine drive and manually change the permissions for the files I wanted, which doesn't work on her account.
I have made a Youtube video of the error:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1__PdyAetVg
Can anyone assist me in restoring the files? That's all I need help in. Thanks

wrongusername wrote:
But if I transfer everything with the Setup Assistant, won't I once again be experiencing the problems I had?
If the problems were caused by your data. But that's extremely unlikely. It may have been an app, or, much more likely from your description, something corrupted in the Leopard OS. That's one of the problems with upgrading a sick system without knowing what or where the causes are. It's a bit like a brain surgeon operating on himself: if he isn't in tip-top shape to start with, his condition is likely to change, and not for the better.
Most of us would have recommended first simply doing a +*Repair Disk+* on your internal HD; if that didn't help, installing the "combo" Leopard update; if that didn't work, doing an +Archive and Install+ and re-installing the "combo."
After a clean re-install of Snow Leopard, my Mac worked fine again (except for the TM trouble). So it probably had something to do with my old files.
Probably not. Much more likely OSX was somehow damaged. And you got a whole new one.
How come I could read the files on my external HD and yet not be able to copy the files?
Time Machine uses special "deny everybody everything" permissions on it's backups, among other things, in an attempt to keep us mere mortals from moving, changing, or deleting things and corrupting them.

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.

How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks

How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks. I know the data is there but seems unaccessable because I may have changed the Computer or Owner name. Is there any way to fix that now?

Hi Linc,
my back-up data is managed by Time Machine; the actual data is on a second internal Hard Drive with a capacity of 1TB - not partitioned. I am using Time Machine and have access to all data backed up since Mavericks Clean Install but not the data prior to this date.
When I open the 1TB drive in Finder I can see a folder "Backups.backupdb/Sigi's Mac Pro/ followed by many folders of backup dates going back to 2010-09-20-103441 and up to 2014-02-07-142414 all followed with folder Macintosh HD. February 7th 2014 was the date of the clean install.
These Backups are followed by backup date folder 2014-02-08-075554 with a subfolder of MacPro-320GB (this is the name I assigned to my Boot Drive during formatting; I suspect I should have assigned the same name as before ie. Macintosh HD) and 2014-02-11 with a subfolder Macintosh HD, these are the ones I get access to by way of Time Machine > Restore.
Weird thing is on Febr 11 when I relised my possible mistake and renamed the Bootdrive back to what it was initially ie. Macintosh HD despite this I have access to all backup data since the Clean Install in both folders MacPro-320GB as well as Macintosh HD but not to any data prior to the Clean Install.
Is there something that Time Machine knows and prevents access or is it simply a matter of renaming the subfolder 2014-02-08-07554/MacPro-320GB to ........./Macintosh HD?
I like to restore selectively and not everything - It was hard work reinstalling apps that were supposed to be the troublemakers (ref my discussion on Maverick problems) but I now need to get onto data specific to some of these apps as well as other data I may have missed. Long story? Yes and sorry.
Sigi

I can't restore 'library' with support files from Time Machine

backup - I can't restore 'library' with support files from Time Machine - Ask Different
Due to an accident, my entire applications folder with all the support files, including plists and caches got deleted.
I tried restoring by files from the most recent Time Machine backups but I cannot retrieve my applications with the support files.
I even tried it with migration assistant on a new image.
Is this impossible?
Must I start from scratch?
Details of the ‘accident’
I was using this app called ‘AppCleaner’ that also automatically deletes related support files which are normally left behind if one simply trashes an Application.
In the search view, I typed the app name and I selected all the apps in the results using Command + A. Unfortunately, this selected every single Application in the Applications Folder in the background and I trashed and deleted all files.
Anyway.
I tried to restore the applications and library from my Time Machine Back-ups but failed to do so because I didn’t have enough space to restore. (I have a 11inch Macbook Air 2012 64GB SSD
When I tried to restart in recovery mode, I had the same problem, I was disallowed the option to restore using my time capsule backups because my SSD didn’t have enough space for the backup.
I then tried to restore it to a totally different but new image on a 64GB USB3.0 Sandisk USB Stick, but the process stopped after hours of being stuck around 30.4 percent and the computer was unable to boot, leaving me with a persistent verbose message suggesting it couldn’t identify the os, kernel or anything.
I finally tried restoring the state using migration assistant on the very same SSD that had my files missing. This happened successfully and I have all my applications in the applications folder.
But now I have 13GB free (I had 2GB before) and all my application support files, saved states, preferences, caches and customizations are gone.
Basically, it feels like I just got a new macbook with my documents and itunes folder loaded on to it.
How can I get my apps back to the pre-deletion state or is this impossible? Do I have to start from scratch? I thought my Time Machine Backups would restore it to exactly the same state, am I wrong?
Screenshots:
Message was edited by: Arsenenger

Can you simply navigate to your Time Machine backup with the Finder? Treat it like an external hardrive and just look for your old Applications folder. /Applications/
Also, quite a few apps put config and support files in ~/Library/Application\ Support/
So you may be able to get the files from there as well.

Restoring selected files from Time Machine

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