Retrieving e-mail created in Thunderbird from Time Machine

I wonder if anyone has come up with this issue and can offer help.
I need to retrieve an e-mail from Time Machine. These e-mails are stored in the User/Library/Thunderbird and I can get to them on the Finder with the Go menu in Finder whilst pressing the Option key. When I launch Enter Time Machine I can see the folder in the Today image, but when I go back to the date where I think the e-mail is, it drops me into the Library folder on the hard drive which is not where Mail is stored. I have tried various dates in the past but no joy. Does anyone know what is going on?
Time machine used to be very good. At one point you could retrieve an individual e-mail by simply opening the Mail client and running the time machine which would display the email client in TM as it normally appears on desktop. This app is now rubbish. What is the point in all these back ups if you cannot retrieve what you want once in a while.
Regards

Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder.
With that folder selected, enter Time Machine. If that doesn't work, select the hard drive, enter Time Machine, then go Users/your account and see if you can select the Library there.

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Problems opening ical/iphoto/mail etc after restoring from time machine

hello everybody, hope you can help me!!!
Problem...
I got a new HardDisk installed in my Macbook from 2006.
I made sure all the software was up to date an made a full backup on Time Machine before bringing it to the Mac Store.
Back home i plugged it in and put the Snow Leopard installation disk, choose installation, chose my preferred language, selected Utilities > Restore System from Backup... and after one hour my laptop restarted and seemed normal.
Seemed.
I cannot open:
Mail, Ical, software update, Itunes, Iphoto etc etc. GGGRRRR!!!
All my applications don't work?!?!!
It gives the yellow triangle with the exclamation mark saying:
".. can't be opened because there is a problem. Ask the developer for information with this version on Mac OS X, You might have to install the application again."
What do I do now??

Thank you for your answer!
It looks like that, because it mentions "this version of mac OS x".
The Time Machine backup was made half an hour before I took it to the shop so I guess it was up to date with 10.6.3 (yesterday they released 10.6.4 so that one
I don't have. My other mac backsup with that version allready)
No, I installed with the Snow Leopard disk (i asked the guy in the store, he told me NOT to use the old disks which are 10.4.8).
What I guess you tell me to do is empty my HD again, than install with the original disks and than upgrade till "today" and than try to recover my last TM backup?
Or any other solutions?

Can't Restore iCal and Thunderbird from Time Machine

I erased my hard drive and installed Leopard. I have been using Time Machine to backup to an external drive. I am having problems restoring certain things, like iCal and my email address list in Thunderbird. I get a message regarding "architecture". I had the install disc for Leopard, so I believe that is what I was using before. The iCal app, as well as other apps, have a "ban" symbol (circle with a diagonal line) on them. Does this mean I was using Tiger before, instead of Leopard? Help me please. I erased my hard drive because I upgraded to Snow Leopard, then couldn't open some important documents and don't have the money right now to upgrade the software those docs were in. Now I can't access other things I could before. Someone please help!

Hi
I actually have a similar problem. Upgraded to a clean Lion from Snow Leopard and then my thought was to use the migration assistant to move data from my Time Machine backup on my Time Capsule. I can see folders in Finder, but when I try to open files it says that I dont have the right permissions. It seems that I cant change permissions, I do not se my "user" in info, it shows "system" instead.
And if I open Time Machine in Lion and select my backup then I can see my older dates in the right hand list, but they are "greyed" out so I cant select them, I guess that this is due to permissions?
anyone who can help us?

How to restore mail accounts and settings from time machine

Long story short...the day that my applecare expired my hard drive went out in my 2009 mbp. So, I bought a new hard drive to upgrade from 250gb to 750gb. Problem was that when I installed it and went through everything...my new hard drive was too large than the computer was made to handle. I called Apple Care and they made an exception and talked with me - which revealed that the hd was too big. His suggestion was to try to intall the os from the disk and see if it will work. So, I popped in my Leopard Install disc...did all the updates...then snow leopard...then all the updates....then Lion...then all the updates. I ended up getting all of my main files that I wanted, along with my iTunes account (my iCal and Address book were synced to my cloud, so they popped up quickly). HOWEVER...I'm trying to get my work email account (along with the folders of old emails) back in mail. I can't seem to find the right file (I don't see a mail plist file in my preferences folder). Can anyone help please???

For posterity's sake, since i had this issue too, i thought i'd post my solution.
Locate and save a copy, locally on your computer, of a library.itl file that would contain the playlist you need. I'd suggest saving to your desktop. name it so you'll recognize it as the old library file.
Quit iTunes if open, and relaunch, holding down the Option key immediately after
when prompted, select "Choose Library"
Find the file you saved in step 1. this will launch iTunes with all the old playlists and such. Don't worry, it doesn't touch the actual songs themselves, so nothing is lost of from your current library.
Find the playlist(s) you want, right click on them and export. save them as .txt file (again, suggest desktop for ease)
Once all playlists you want to restore are saved, quit iTunes.
Launch iTunes, again pressing Option immediately after
Select "Choose Library" and select the Music -> iTunes -> iTunes Library.itl file. This will restore iTunes to the most current copy of your library
Select File -> Library -> Import Playlist and find the .txt file for your playlist on your desktop. et voila!

How restore aol sent mac mail from time machine?

I am using mac mail and an imap connection to aol. I also have a time capsule and use time machine for backing up. Yesterday I stopped receiving incoming mail in mac mail and tried deleting the aol account in mac mail and then setting it up fresh. I was shocked to find that my 25,000 AOL sent emails did not restore! I was told by an apple genius bar rep several months ago that once mail was on my machine that the emails would NEVER be lost. Apparently this is not true. When I open mac mail and go into my time capsule using time machine, however, do not see the SENT mail icon under AOL--it goes away? When I try to restore the aol mail from the day before the incident the only thing that comes up is the one Sent Mail mssg that I sent AFTER the deleting and restoring of my AOL account in mac mail. The only relevant post I have found is the one below which was posted in 2008. Please let me know there is a way to get back my sent messages. I can't get them directly from the aol server because the server does not save messages that are sent from any client but AOL. Thanks.
http://raffyjohn.com/2008/01/29/restoring-apple-mail-and-your-emails-from-time-m achine/
Restoring Apple Mail and Your Emails from Time Machine
filed under: How-To tags: mail, timemachine Tuesday, January 29, 2008, 11:31 am
UPDATE (25 August 2010): Please note that this post is well over 2 years old and as Tim pointed out in the comments below, this method may not be the best solution for restoring emails. According to his restore efforts, changes where made to the timestamp from the date in which they were received to the date in which they were restored. I have not tested this myself.
The hard drive on my PowerBook completely died the other day, but I luckily had been running Time Machine backups since upgrading to Leopard. (I wasn’t all that ****** off seeing as I was eager for an excuse to replace my wimpy 40Gb hard drive with a new 160Gb drive). I fumbled a bit, looking for a specific Apple Mail restore tool. I knew where all my emails lived, but I thought that Apple would have a specific means for restoring apps like Mail. So I created this mini-tutorial on how to restore Apple Mail from Time Machine simply because I could not find this method elsewhere.
Supposedly, If you attach your Time Machine backup drive, open Apple Mail then launch the Time Machine application, you are presented with historical views of Apple Mail. This did not work for me, the historical views were just blank, so the steps below do not take this approach.
Restoring Your Emails from a Time Machine Backup
Warning: If you have already setup Apple Mail with your accounts and preferences, this will negate ALL your doings.
Note: This process will restore all your email accounts, preferences, passwords, smart mailboxes, etc.
The How-To
Before loading Time Machine, open the Finder and navigate to Home Folder (username) -> Library. In there will be a folder name “Mail”. Rename it to “Mail (default)” (Select the folder then hit the Return key to rename).
Mount your Time Machine Backup Drive (ahem, plug it in).
Control + Click the Time Machine Application and chose “Browse Other Time Machine disks…”. This, of course, brings up the historical view of your backups.
Go back to your most recent backup (2nd window back) and navigate to Home Folder (username) -> Library. Select the “Mail” folder and click the restore button (bottom right).
Once the restore is completed, open Apple Mail and you will be presented with an import wizard (below). Simply follow through the prompts and you will be good to go.
That’s it!UPDATE (20-January-2009): After step 4., also restore ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plistThanks Jon C.
If you have multiple mail accounts, you should also restore the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist file as well. This will ensure all of your account settings are imported. – Jon C.
Follow me on Twitter here.
40 Comments
Chucho
May 13th, 2008 at 11:11 amThanks it’s a great hint, you should post it in macosxhints.com
Westin
May 19th, 2008 at 3:28 amAwesome content and great instructions even for stupid people like me. Thank you so much for posting this. It worked like a charm and really is appreciated at 2:30 a.m. after hours of reinstalling junk.
Slippery Snake
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:15 amThis worked. However, I had three email accounts, and it only imported one. My Smart Mailboxes were not imported either.
Jon C
July 30th, 2008 at 2:50 pmIf you have multiple mail accounts, you should also restore the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist file as well. This will ensure all of your account settings are imported.
Joseph Hurtado
August 26th, 2008 at 11:23 amRaffy,This tip is worth it’s weight in gold! Thanks so much for posting such a well though out recipe for a Mail Rescue operation.Just put Jon’s advice on the article, that is also very valuable!Take care,Joseph Hurtado
from Toronto
Cory
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:25 amYou saved my life! Thanks!
Drew
January 19th, 2009 at 12:08 amCheers Great tip! Thank you very much for your time!
Lizart
May 23rd, 2012 at 2:00 pmStill working in May of 2012! Thanks so much!
source
May 29th, 2012 at 11:11 amIm getting a teeny problem. I cant get my reader to pick up your feed, Im using bing reader by the way.
Bruno Zysman
May 31st, 2012 at 4:56 pmThanks so much for this tips
I could get back my 170 000 mails in 5 hours thanks to this post, after having tried for few hours without success…Bruno

Don't try to restore the file; restore the Note. Go in Mail to the mailbox where the note belongs. Enter Time Machine from there and step back until you find the Note.

Restoring Mail from Time Machine onto a different Macbook

My 2008 MBP died given the well known NVidia video card problem. Since Apple called my MBP an "antique" and any service or warranty due to the video card issue is expired, I'm left with a heavy paperweight.
I'm not in a position to buy a new MBP currently but I'd like to at least restore my Mail archives and folders from Time Machine onto my Mail on my 2011 MBA. Can I get some tips on the best way to do this?

You could restore your mails from TimeMachine back up with Migration Assistant.

Duplicate Admin accounts on restoring from Time Machine backup

I need help to remove duplicate accounts, created after restore from Time Machine Backup.
Here is the situation:
1. I was running SL on a Mac Pro with Time Machine backup. I had 5 User Accounts on the Login Window: Shared (Admin account), Dear Wife (DW, also Admin), Kid1 (managed), Kid2 (managed) and Guest (standard), and two 750 GB hard drives, HD1 and HD2.
2. Mac Pro would not boot past the Apple logo with spinning icon.
3. After talking to with Apple Support, it turned out that HD1 had crashed. I took it in to the Genius Bar, where they checked and confirmed HD1 crash and took it in for repair.
4. Apple replaced HD1 and reinstalled SL.
5. I picked up the Mac Pro. At home I reconnected TM and restarted.
6. Upon restart, I clicked on restore from TM backup and there was only 1 TM backup visible to select. After several hours of Transferring Information, about 700 GB was restored
7. Upon finishing restore, I saw the same Login Window as before crash, with the same 5 accounts - Shared, DW, Kid1, Kid2, Guest.
8. Issue: From the Login Window, logging into Shared and clicking on HD1>Users, I now see: Home Icon with Shared1, and four additional folders: Shared, DW, Kid1, Kid2
It seems I now have duplicate Shared accounts in the User folder - Shared1 with the Home icon, and a separate folder with name Shared.
I cannot "Move to Trash" Shared, since I get the message: “Shared” can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by Mac OS X.
When I go into System Prefs>Accounts: I see My Account: Shared, and Other Accounts: DW, Kid1, Kid2, Guest. After unlocking the accounts, and right clicking on Shared for Advanced Options, I see:
User: "Shared"
-- Account Name: shared
-- Home Directory:/Users/shared1
Question: How do I consolidate or get rid of the duplicate Shared/Shared1 account? I have 350 GB of video/pictures/music in each of these accounts, which is unnecessarily eating up the new HD1.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

I solved the duplicate account problem.
I had used Setup Assistant to restore from TM Backup and that gave me the duplicate accounts, i.e., method used was:
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/19.html
After carefully reading Pondini's FAQs, I instead used the Restore and install Method, i.e.,
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/14.html
No duplicate accounts anymore, problem solved.

Unable to exclude VMware disk image from Time Machine backup

In Time Machine Preferences, I elected to exclude home\Documents\Virtual Machines folder in my home directory. Whether I use the "+" button to add the exclusion or dragged it in from Finder, the exclusion list only shows [Virtual Machine]. Coming from a Windows world, I am concerned that I don't see the fully qualified path for the "Virtual Machine" folder name. Even the folder property doesn't show the full path information. Since I do not exclude Documents folder, it is included in all Time Machines backup. Unfortunately, so is my home\Documents\Virtual Machines folder.
Question #1: What am I missing?
This question is related to this next issue.
Question #2: If I have a folder called "Users Guide" in addition to the built-in "Documents folder in my home directory, and they each contain the sub-directory "Preliminary", how do I tell Time Machine I want to exclude the folder \User Guide\Preliminary from TM backup?

Thanks for the tip. Hovering does show the path. Now the mystery is a little worst than before, and I'm back to trying figure out how to exclude the home\Documents\Virtual Machines folder (where he VM disk images are stored) from Time Machine backups while it's allowed to backup home\Documents (as intended).
When I get back home tonight, I'm going to try excluding some other sub-folders (which I created) of [Documents] from Time Machine while I allow [Documents] to be backed up. I'll post the results, and hopefully can ask a smarter questions.

How to manually retrieve mail messages from time machine in Lion?

I just did a clean reinstall on Lion and want to import things from time machine piecemeal. As far as I know, in order to access the mail documents on the computer's hard drive, in the Finder I need to go to Go-->Go to Folder... and then type ~/Library. Then I have access to the "Mail" folder with the data. How can I access this folder that's on my external harddrive? I don't have the "Go" function and I don't know how to get there manually. My hidden files are shown.

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
The best way to restore mails is to use Time Machine.
1. Open System Preferences > Time Machine > Select Disk, select the external disk and see > http://pondini.org/TM/E3.html
2. Open Mail and open Time Machine. Navigate and restore the mails you want

Restore Archived Lion Mail from Time Machine

I deleted a mailbox, thinking I could add it back, and synch with the server. That worked fine, but I forgot that I had archived a whole bunch of mail on that account. Now I want to retrieve the old mail. I have a fresh Time Machine backup. How do I retrieve my archived mail from Time Machine for a deleted account?

If Time Machine was backing up before you deleted the account, you can try to enter Time Machine from
~/Library/Mail. See if the deleted account is in there.

Restore Apple mail from time machine

The configuration of account information accidentally deleted for Apple Mail 4.6. How to retrieve/update this information from Time Machine?

I'm not exactly sure what you are getting at so if my answer doesn't help you progress, I am sorry.
If you first go to Mail and then to that part of mail you wish to review. With the page on your screen, go to dock > Time machine (if that is where you hold it) wait a moment and when the screen activates put your cursor on the date line (to the right). Then scroll upwards to a point in time prior to when your problem appeared.
Clicking on restore should bring the screen to the front and the mail page at that time and date will be available to you.

Cannot restore Mail from time Machine - permission problems

I am running Lion 10.7.2 and mail 5.1 (all software updates applied)
I know there is a fair bit referencing similar problems but I cannot find my solution.
I inadvertantly deleted a mail account and simply wish to restore the account from my time machine backups.
Time machine has been reliable in the past and my put my faith in it. However this problem now introduces a fair bit of mistrust which should never happen with a backup system.
I navigate to ~/library/Mail/V2 and then open time machine and select a known good backup (I hope).
I highlight the time machine account folder I want to restore and select "restore".
Time machine starts the restore normally but very quickly comes up with this mesage -
"The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access “.mboxCache.plist”.
(I am logged on as admin)
I have repaired permission on my HD to no avail.
I assume that the message refers to the time machine file but any attempt at changing permisions on the time machine backups fails as "not permitted" (I would not be surprised at this anyway as I dont know how the time machine file system works).
I then copied my complete mail folder to another disk and deleted the original and tried to restore the complete mail folder from the time machine backup.
A similar permissions error message occurs but on a different file.
I am getting nowhere and am rapidly losing faith in time machine - I totally rely on it.
Can anyone help please.

I deleted the account using mail preferences, so following your advise:
I restored the pref file from the good known backup date.
I also used disk utility to repair the time machine backup volume which showed no problems.
First of all, restoring from time machine according to FAQ 15, the actual messages in the deleted account were indeed restored to the new mailbox that time machine created and could be viewed - that is fine and solves the problem of lost mail.
Almost solved - but what I was trying to do was :
I had two accounts which show under inbox and when you "get mail" the little whirling indicator shows activity which my wife (and I) liked. After I deleted the second (now unused account) there is no more indicator when "getting mail" and it is not obvious that anything is actually happening. Any mail received will show up under mail activity but if there is none we all just sit there with no feedback until it "beeps".
There was also the other issue of maybe wanting to get back all mail for the deleted account (which you solved).
I can of course recreate the account as a new one but I thought time machine would be able to restore the mail system back to where it was (as it should) - it seems it may not be able to which is not nice as in "what else will fail one day that I dont know about". To restore "as was" is why I tried to restore just the "missing" folder in ~/library/mail/v2 but keep running into these permission problems.
Time machine was the best backup system I have seen in over 30 years in computing but if it now "doesnt" under all circumstances it becomes useless and we will have to go back to manual or other backup systems. Surely Apple will fix it - a backup and restore system has to completely reliable or not at all.
I thank you for your help and, as I say, there is no real urgency as mail items can actually be recovered - it would be nice to be able to restore "as it was" however.

Recovering mail folder from TIME MACHINE

I've recovered a folder from Time Machine, but I can't seem to get it to go into my mail program.
I've just looked inside the folder, though, and some of the messages seem to be blank.
I have created a new folder and have tried to migrate over just ten of these messages. It won't even do that. I've started over again by deleting the folder and re-creating a new one. And I've restarted my computer. There's something really wrong here.
It may also have to do with a .mac synch. I get a flashed message that says "outgoing 3974 message" (which is how many I have, or thereabouts). But it doesn't process anything, just says that and goes away.
Any ideas here???

I've just looked into my library / preferences folder, and there does not appear to be a plist for Mail there. Isn't that odd? Where should that plist be located, and what would it mean if none is appearing? I've never heard of that one, is there a fix for such a problem (if it is the source of my problem?).

Retrieving library from Time Machine

For some reason, Itunes crashed and decided my library was damaged. It then created a new -empy- one.
I'm trying to retrieve my old one. First tried to rename ma latest "ancient Itunes library", but it didn't work, and this one is now nowhere to be found. I then tried to move the .xml file and "import" this new library, it worked but .... it was empty (of course, since it's been created after the new/empy library).
I have everything saved on Time Machine.
Does anyone know how to restore an "old" iTunes Music Library.xml file from Time Machine? Or anyway to restore my library from .... half an hour ago?
thanx a lot.

Thanx.
Still I could not find the ITunes database file. I browsed through the ITunes file in Music and in the ITunes file in Library.
What I finally did is that I reimported all music ITunes could find by itself after moving the ITunes folder from the music section on my desk. Most of my music was found (approx 2 Go are still missing, although they are in my music folder). But .... no playlist !
I discovered by the way that my Time Machine worked in a funny way (not the way it is supposed to) so it doesn't make it easy to find anything really, since I have to use spotlight and can't browse through the usual sections you would normally find in your finder.
Thanx anyway, I'm sure that's pretty sensible and useful.

How do you retrieve individual files from Time Machine?

If a file original is lost or becomes corrupted, is there anyway to retrieve that individual files from Time Machine? If so, how?

ElRay (Amazingly, not the 1st) wrote:
SharonZ wrote:
Time Machine finds that file, and not other files that meet the criteria. BUT...
That's not what TM was doing. My search criteria was "by filename", however when I try to go backwards in TM, that limit is lost and it appears to be returning every file in the rolled-up weekly archive. This is especially odd, because I have since determined that the file was actually corrupted before TM was running, so there should be only one version of the file in TM's archives.
No, it was a file sitting on my disk. Email was mentioned, because the fact that every email in every junk folder appears as a separate item to be restored, which is what triggers that little "too many files to show you at one time" issue.
So your name search returned lots of junk mail items. I shudder to think what the file name was that you were searching for! <g>
Also: you can tell Time Machine to ignore your junk mail if you've filtered the junk mail in Mail into a different folder/box.
I figured that one out. I had used Spotlight to find the junk mailboxes, but couldn't, only the messages "labeled" junk. I had to use 'find' in Terminal.app to actually find Mail's junk & spam folders.
Yeah, it's hard to find stuff when you don't know where it is <g>. In general, though, for these kinds of things, always think: "Library" which is where SO many pieces of programs are stored. Of course, there's lots of Library folders, so your first job is to decide: system or user level? Realizing more than one user account could have email setups, you can assume the path you need starts at the User level. So, you start at Home[UserName]/Library. Scanning that Library folder, you see a Mail folder (aha!). Checking out that folder, you might first suspect the Mailboxes subfolder, but you'll soon see that it has the mailboxes you've defined for sorting your mail; so, you continue to scan the Mail folder and you see a folder with your email address on it (or multiple folders, one for each of your emails). Open one of those and, ta da! You see something labeled junk.mbox.
You've already found your Junk mail, of course, but I'm suggesting this as a general approach, especially for other readers of this thread, who might not want to touch Terminal.
But, back to one of your initial problems: TM seemed to lose your search criteria. Do you think it was related to the high number of " hits"? Does it work for you otherwise, when you search for something less general?

Retrieving e-mail created in Thunderbird from Time Machine

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