Restoring User Library folder from Time Machine

I have tried finding my User Library folder in Time Machine, but no luck.
I have managed to find the User/Library folder in normal view and have dragged it into the Sidebar.
It is now visable! Great.
But when I enter Time Machine and go back in time, it goes gray and you connot see it or it will not go back in time.
In other words I am unable to access my backed up files: Address Book, iCal, Mail, Keychains etc.
Any suggestion much appreciated!

DWNCC wrote:
It's a long story. My Mac Apps were crashing frequently as I have an older version MacBook Pro, using it with 10.7.3. It just didn't like it one bit.
Unfortunately, there are many people here in Apple Support Communities who claim there is something fundamentally wrong with Lion and are advising everyone to go back to older versions of the operating system. That is very bad advice. If Lion is misbehaving, there is some problem that needs to be corrected.
It is not a good idea to try to restore your user account piecemeal like this.
If you have erased everything, then at least you don't have to worry about damaging anything. Try this:
1) Run System Preferences > Users & Groups and click the "+" button to create a new account. Change account type from "Standard" to "Administrator". Give it a short name like "admin".
2) Log out of your current user and Log in to the new admin user.
3) Delete any old users you had.
4) Run Migration Assistant and migrate your old users from Time Machine

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How to restore a library folder from Time Machine BU

I had a problem synching my iPhone & MBP with iCloud and lost my iCal data. I have a Time Mach B/U but as you know, Mavericks hides all one's libraries. The iCal files are in a library folder. How do I get Mavericks to reveal my Libaries in the TM BU?

If you synchronize any of your calendars with a server such as iCloud, disable that synchronization. Quit Calendar.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Calendars
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)
from the contextual menu.* A Finder window should open with a folder selected. Enter Time Machine and restore that folder from the snapshot you want.
Relaunch Calendar and test. Your calendars should be as they were when the snapshot was taken. If you don't sync with a server, stop here. If you do sync some of the calendars with a server, select each one in turn and then select
File ▹ Export ▹ Export…
from the menu bar. You'll get ICS files with the filename extension ".ics". Re-enable sync. Usually, all the calendars you just restored will be deleted. That's not a problem. Create a new calendar on the server for each one you exported and want to sync:
File ▹ New Calendar
Then import the calendar from the corresponding ICS file by double-clicking it. Follow the prompts to import the new events to the calendar you just created. For calendars that you don't want to sync, just import them again. They'll appear in the calendar list under On My Mac.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

I desperately need to access my User Library folder in Time Machine (Lion so = not visible).

Hi. I installed Lion a few months ago and got a new external drive to back up Time Machine.
Nobody told me the User Library would be made hidden in the new OS. I have been backing up regularly in the belief that all my work, settings and so on was safe.
Yesterday my iMac (27" 2.8 Ghz Core it with 4 gib memory) suddenly went mad. Message saying finder had quit whilst trying to restore windows. Desktop was flashing, no icons clickable, no external disks readable. Could access some progs and terminal, but nothing else. Could not get into the history folder to trash various plists and so on as the folder is hidden and the alt Go wouldn't work. The Finder just wouldn't do anything.
I have sorted it out BUT I have lost my address book entries, my browser booksmarks, my desktop shortcuts and my iCal entries. I need to access my User Library on my Time Machine. Is there a way?
I cannot believe I have been religiously backing up my stuff but Apple has made it so I can't access my backup of one of the most important folders on my Time Machine???
Is there anyway of getting into this from Terminal or something? I will never be able to get back all the bookmarks and stuff I've been researching for years. I have it backed up on two different hard drives, both of which have 'invisible' library folders. I have make the folder visible now, for future backups, but it's after the horse has bolted. I am furious, and just feel like bursting into tears because of all the time it's going to take me to get all my work back. I can't tell you how stupid this was, Apple.
If someone could help I'd be really grateful. I've got older backups but they are so old they won't get back my recent stuff.
Thanks.

select Finder
hole option key and select Go in the menu
Select Library
Enter Time Machine
You should be seeing all the versions of you Library folder.

Cannot restore iphoto library correctly from time machine backup

Hi all,
Yesterday I had to reinstall my mac with no particular reason. Suddenly the startup screen with the "circle" went on indefinitely for 10+ minutes before shutting down the system. Yes, the power cord was plugged in. No, I didn't manage to start it in safe mode...
I thought it wouldn't be a big deal since I regularly back up my mac on an external drive by Time Machine. So I reinstalled and restored the system.
I could log in fine, but here's the catch:
1) only 3 iPhoto events out of 30 are restored
2) for all other events I seem to have the thumbnails but not the original or modified files
3) trying to browse into the Pictures folder shows that:
- the iPhoto library file does not appear with the usual icon
- if I examine the package, for all events that don't show up in iPhoto, the event hierarchy (e.g. 2008/eventxyz) exists but the folders are empty in both the "Original" and "Modified" hierarchies
- same if I click on the same file in ANY of the 4 backups I have on the time machine disk
By the way TM restored the system to MacOSX 10.5.2 even if I'm sure I had a later version. In fact, I can't open iTunes either because it says the library has been created with a later version of iTunes. But what really worries me is that I can't even find the .JPG original files.
Can somebody please help? I relied on Time Machine and there's 6 years of memories there...
Thank you

I have the same symptom, but as the result of an external hard drive failure. My Time Machine backups from June 2009 - August 2009 contain the iPhoto library. When I restore the iPhoto library (pick any random backup date) I can see the thumbnails or a blank dashed outline of the old photos. When I click on the thumbnail I can get the metadata (photo location, photo date, etc...) but the photos are gone. When I am in iPhoto the lower left corner of the interface shows the library size is 42Gb, but the restored library package is only about 3Gb. My guess is the difference in file size is equal to the size of the original (and modified) files that didnt get backed up. None of my iPhoto library packages in Time Machine are larger than 3Gb.
I brought my backup drive to the folks at the Genius Bar. They were perplexed. They suggested I bring in my Mac Mini so they could look at the console. I took a look at the console at home and searched for "Time Machine" and found nothing out of the ordinary.
Not sure why Time Machine would appear to run so smoothly yet selectively not back up my original photos. I can restore everything else from my Time Machine backup to my new external drive just fine.

Restore one bookmark folder from Time Machine

Hello
I would like to know if it is possible to restore one folder of bookmarks using Time Machine. At some point, the urls of all the bookmarks in one of my bookmark folders in Safari appear to have been deleted. The descriptions of the bookmarks are there, but the icons next to the bookmarks are just empty boxes, and when I try to navigate to the bookmarks, nothing happens. I only have this problem with one folder -- all others are working normally. From the Apple Discussions I can see how to restore all bookmarks, but this would delete all the changes I have made to all bookmark folders since the date of the bookmarks.plist file I would use to restore. The bookmarks in this file do not appear to be organized into folders, and I cannot tell what they are pointing to just from their filenames. I believe that I tried to sort the bookmarks in this folder by name, by dragging onto the desktop, sorting, and redragging back to Safari.
Any help would be most appreciated.

As V.K. says, you can't do that . . . not exactly, anyway.
What you can do, is restore the file to an alternate location, such as your desktop (once you locate the file in TM, click the "gear" icon in the Finder window's toolbar and select +Restore <item> to..,+ then you'll get a prompt for a destination.)
Then choose Safari > File > Import Bookmarks and select the restored file. That will restore them to a separate folder, shown in the bookmark sidebar as +Imported mm/dd/yy.+
Then you can move a folder or individual bookmarks to the current bookmarks bar folder.

How to copy iphoto library folder from Time machine to new hard drive

How do I copy my iphoto library and music library from my time capsule to my new hard drive?
I have a Macbook pro - 2.53 GHz - 4 GB memory. I just replaced my hard drive to 500 GB and upgraded to OX 10.9.4. I created a new user account and login password for the new hard drive. I copied my documents folder to external drive before the old hard drive failed, but I was not able to copy over my iphoto library or imusic library. My old hard drive was regularly backed up on my time capsule (1TB).
I used migration assistant to transfer my user account to the new hard drive (1 of 3 on the time capsule). The data transferred successfully, but at login the login name does not match the user folder. Nor do any of my passwords allow me to login to the transferred username/account. When I login to the account that I set up on new hard drive I can see the userfolder migrated in but the folders do not allow entry.
What can I do now at least to get my photos on the time capsule onto my current hard drive? Can I go into my time capsule like an external hard drive and simply copy over my iphoto library from the last back up of the old hard drive?

You probably tried to move a user account from your TC to your computer that was already active on the computer.. this is one of the no no's that pondini lists.
See how to migrate. http://pondini.org/OSX/MigrateLion.html
There is a huge amount of info there about transferring files.. that you must not have a user account of the same name as the one you migrate.. and how to transfer files between migrated accounts.
He also has specific info on moving itunes and iphoto stuff here.
Q15 http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
You might need to fix up permissions or reset the password for the account.
There is details here..
How to reset admin password iMac
I have had to do that myself.. once you reset the password you will be able to login to the account.

Can't access library folder on Time Machine Backup

I'll try to explain this as clearly as possible...
1) I have wiped my hard drive and completed a clean install of Mavericks. I did this due to persistant problems with disc permissions that I could not eliminate.
2) I did not want to take a chance on introducing problems with migrating a profile from my Time Machine backup so instead of using Migration Assistant, I used Finder to browse the Time Machine backup I made prior to reformatting my drive to simply copy all my necessary data files back onto the drive in my newly created profile.
3) I've reinstalled the majority of programs I use and everything is looking good (no disk permission problems when I've checked using Disk Utility).
4) Mail is working just find with all my accounts having been restored using my Apple ID.
Here's the problem....
I forgot that some of my mail had been stored on my local hard drive. I beleive this mail should be in my user/library/mail folder of my time machine backup. However, I cannot access my User/Library folder in Time Machine. I've tried opening my current (new) User/Library folder in Finder and then selecting "Browse Other Backup Discs" from the Time Machine icon and, although this opens the Time Machine backups, I cannot do any time travel...in other words, although there are many stacks of folders shown in the backup, I cannot move into the past from the present.
Any suggestions on how I can get this Mail folder out of the Time Machine user/library? I know there is some stuff there that I'm going to have to get to.
Thanks!

It woked to get me into my current User/Library of my "new" profile but I cannot move back in time into the actual backups despite the timeline increments on the right side of the screen in Time Machine showing they're are backups for the past several months. I'm stuck on this moment so to speak.
Got to hit the sack...head is swimming. Thanks for the suggestions Barney. Let me know if you think of any others.

I need to access one folder in user library folder from my time machine backup......but it won't show a library folder

I need to access one folder in user library folder from my time machine backup......but the backup disk won't show show a library folder.
Pressing option-go only directs me to the current library folder in my hard drive. I have opened up the saved disk image and need to copy one folder and put it into my current library. Trying to restore using time capsule won't let me into the user library either......
thanks in advance for any help
christos

The Saved Application State folder is where Lion stores all the information required for its resume feature to function as it does. As you are looking for a specific saved game folder it will not be in the Saved Application State folder. This folder was not present in Snow Leopard so wouldn't be present on your backup previous to the Lion install.
The game saves you're looking for will most likely be located in the Application Support or Preferences folder.
Hope this helps
J.C

If i restore a user folder from time machine. is it just restoring all files associated with the user or programs also?

If i restore a user folder from time machine, is it just restoring the files associated with the user or programs as well? Im asking because Apple Store just reset my system and said to restore files i needed and not to do a full restore. to try and determine if it was a software issue causing the problems.

Just the user's folder. Nothing else. See Pondini's TM FAQs, for details.

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.

HT1553 I restored my hard drive from time machine. Why is iPhoto not displaying images properly?

I restored my hard drive from time machine after power blinks corrupted the file system so badly that disk utility could not repair it. Since then, iPhoto has not displayed images correctly. Events are there, and blank squares are shown, but that's all. I rebuilt small and all thumbnails and permissions -- I think the top three or four options in the iPhoto rebuild utility, which took five hours to do but which seems not to have changed anything. The iPhoto library is still more than 100GB, so the photos are there. I didn't choose rebuild from backed up --- whatever the final option on the rebuild menu offers -- because that seems to be appropriate only when a backup is interrupted. Could certainly do it, though. How do I get iphoto behaving again? I have full time machine backups saved automatically and another fairly recent copy on a separate hard drive stored remotely. Thanks for whatever help anyone can provide. I've looked at existing questions and solutions without success so far.

What version of iPhoto and system are your running? Since you've tried rebuilding with iPhoto give this a try:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
If you have an external HD you might want to have the rebuilt copy created on it unless you have well more than 100 GB available on your boot drive.
OT

Retrieving Chrome Library data from Time Machine?

How can I Retrieve Chrome Library data from Time Machine? It seems no Library data has been backed up. Any ideas why not and How I can get the hidden library to be backed up in the future and have access to it in Time Machine?

We might help you better if you possibly knew what you were talking about. OS X only hides the user's /Home/Library/ folder. Only the Chrome developers know where they would be hiding a Chrome library, if there is such an animal.
If you want to find the /Home/Library/ folder:
Exposing the /Home/Library/ Folder
Pick one of the following methods:
A. This method will make the folder visible permanently. Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder and paste the following at the command prompt:
chflags nohidden ~/Library
Press RETURN.
B. Click on the Desktop, press the OPTION (⌥) button, select Library from the Finder's Go menu.
C. Select Go To Folder from the Finder's Go menu. Paste the following in the path field:
~/Library
Press the Go button.

How do I restore smtp mail setting from time machine?

Earlier today I was fooling around with my smtp mail settings and managed to mess them up.
How do I restore smtp mail setting from time machine?
I'm using Lion 10.7.4
Messages and incoming mail works fine. It's just the smtp mail setting that's the problem.
Any help greatly appreciated.

The mail rules are stored in your ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~mail/Data.MailData folder, in a plist called SyncedRules.plist.
If you're signed into iCloud D&D, that's where you'll find it.
If you're *not* signed into iCloud, then you probably have a folder called something like ~/Library/Mobile Documents.####### where the # signs are actual numbers. Digging into that folder, you'll fild the SyncedRules.plist file.
Thing is, I don't know how Mail uses rules without iCloud; if there's a "local" rules location. There probably is, but someone else who's not using iCloud may have to help you there...

Restoring "iPhoto Library" file with Time Machine

My iPhono Library file (which is about 32GB in size) was corrupted by a system crash as I was uploaded new photos. As a result, I was unable to open iPhoto. I tried to restore the iPhoto Library file from the back-up I had from yesterday in Time Machine. For some reason, the restore gets about 3.5GB through and then give me a message that it can't perform the function because I don't have permission ot access the iPhoto Library file.
I need to get this file back up and running. The original file is gone now, as it was over written by the failed restore attempt. I have about 10 years worth of photos of my kids I need back! ANyone have any idea why I can't restore the iPhoto Library file from Time Machine?
Thanks!

You need to remove the new library file you created. Then locate the one you want restored from your TM backup using the Time Machine application. If you're not sure how a restore is done the select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine." One of the articles will outline the procedure for restoring individual files.
Also, see User Tips for Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.

How do I restore a second volume from Time Machine?

I lost an external hard drive due to failure. Luckily, I found out that for some reason Time Machine had backed up the drive's volume along with my startup internal drive.
Now I just want to restore that lost drive's volume folder from Time Machine to a NEW external drive. However, I imagine that if I merely click "Restore" from Time Machine app it will attempt to put this volume (which is 100GB) onto my internal drive.
Is there a way to direct the location of the restore of that volume folder to my new external drive? Or can I just go into my Time Machine Backup drive and drag and drop the volume contents from the Time Machine volume onto it?

I was able to access my external disk through the status bar of the finder in Time Machine: double click on the Macintoshand select the drive. I have not restored yet (no sufficient room) but it should be ok.

Restoring User Library folder from Time Machine

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