Time Machine- Can I restore to a different Mac?

Hi,
I had two macs. A Macbook Pro and an iMac. Recently my iMac was destroyed in a flood, and I am not going to replace it.
Both of my mac's backed up to the same Time Capsule and the iMac was my main storage place for my aperture library...
I don't care about anything else on that computer, but I need to get into that aperture library...
Help!
Can I restore it from the back up of my iMac? Is there a way to browse files from my Macbook Pro? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, you can restore to a different location from a different Mac.. look at the info pondini gave here.
Q14-17 http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

Similar Messages

How do I use time machine backup to restore onto a different computer

I am trying to troubleshoot the best way to back up my Mac. I have been a mac user since 20009 and always used a time machine. The two times I have needed it for backup, my computer did not read the portion the backup was. You could tell under disk utility the space was used. Just before the need of backup, it was backing up. So, I am wondering if I need to use a different method. I lost all of my Christmas 2015 movies. My computer did some weird thing with passwords and it needs some resetting I had to do with the support team on the phone. The support person could not figure out how to access the back up on time capsule. I noticed the password resetting made my computer name different by putting a 3 behind the name I assigned it.
One thought that has crossed my mind is can you use the time machine backup and open it up on a completely different computer? If so, I should have been able to someone access my information. I would like to know the answer and how do it so I know in case this ever happens again and so that I can rely on this expensive back up machine I have purchased two different times on two different computers and never been able to actually use.

Are you running Yosemite.. because it is the cause of loads of problems.
As to opening the TM backup from another computer.. yes you can.
Please read our TM expert Pondini.
Q14-17 on restore here.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
Particularly as you will see Q17 and it will reference the prior info you need.
I have gone through this with several people.. and I have a post showing a manual file location and restore.
Can't access old files on time capsule
But not from Yosemite.. it has its own bunch of bugs.. as mentioned. Good luck with those.
I also strongly recommend people use a secondary backup method.. there are excellent third party.. I use Carbon Copy Cloner.. it is reasonable price.. $40 based on standard rsync.. and will create either bootable clones to a local drive or sparsebundle on a time capsule etc.
The bootable clone is the ideal way to recover files. since it is based on a simple computer reboot and then access of files that are in exactly the same place as you left them.. TM backs up in a most complicated manner.
See how tm works here. The top couple of articles and how it is different to clones. As Pondini suggests.. using both is no bad thing.
http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
This is also useful for yosemite.. it is not working as TM used to.
Find files in Yosemite.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6681850?searchText=time%20machine%20yosemit e#27139370
While in Time Machine, press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible. Select the one you want and navigate to the files you want to restore.
I am not sure why your previous use of TM failed.. In the midst of all its problems it does still work ok.. as mostly people can recover stuff they do.. albeit it needs a lot more messing than is typical Apple.

Back up of Macbook Pro OSX 10.6.8 with Time Machine can i restore on a new Pro bought with Lion?

I'm Backing up my Pro with time capsule
I wont have access to any mac machine for the next moth where I will buy a new Pro hopefully this will come installed with Lion.
Can i Restore from this back up across the different platforms?

Apple has always provided an easy, automated way to do that, and there's no indication they won't with Lion.
See How do I set up a new Mac from my old Mac or its backups? The link to Using Setup Assistant on Lion won't be posted until Lion is released, but it will likely be similar to the one for Snow Leopard.

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

Mountain lion's Time machine can't restore iphoto,

I'd backup overall system via time machine to timecapsule, including iphoto, when I start up time machine to restore some files, as finder ,mail,calendar,they are fine without any problem, But when I launch iphoto then startup time machine, the window of time machine will switch to finder , I can't restore the picture from iPhoto,But I remeber in Snow Leopard, this is fine,Is ML bug?

Welcome to Apple Communities
Open Finder, select Pictures and go to Time Machine. Restore the iPhoto Library

Time Machine can't restore mails prior to ML

Today I found out that I'm not able to restore any emails prior to Mountain Lion via Mail.app and Time Machine. In Finder.app and Contacts.app my backups go back all the way to May 2011 and I don't have any problems restoring files from even the first backup. In Mail however, I can only restore emails that where recieved or composed on Mountain Lion (see green box in screenshot). Although the sidebar of the TM "Star Wars" view in Mail.app shows all my backups, I cannot access anything that was created under Lion (the red box in the screenshot).
Anybody experiencing this too? What could be the cause? Any possible fix?
And of course I already searched http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html but I couldn't find this kind of issue there.
Thanks for your help in advance and Regards,
Werner

Hello all,
I am happy to inform you that in the end I found a workaround:
1) Make sure you enable "show path bar" in the view menu of the finder.
2) Select the applications folder in the finder and then launch Time Machine
3) When you are in the Time Machine galaxy go to the search bar in the Finder and try to search for a random email you sent before your last back-up.
4) The tricky part is that the first time you type in some text it will not perform any search. Delete the text with the backspace and repeat the text. Now it will perform the search.
5) In the results you should now be able to find an email.
6) Now go to the path bar at the bottom of the finder and move along the path until you see the the Mail folder and select it.
7) Press the restore button in Time Machine and your Mail is recovered!
I don't know if the following had any influence, but maybe you should make the hidden home/library folder visible first. I already did this before I took the steps above.
It was a tip I found on the Macworld forum
Dan Frakes wrote:
"Change the hidden flag using Terminal
Launch Terminal from within your own account, type chflags nohidden ~/Library, and press Return. Your Library folder is now permanently visible. To make the folder invisible again, use the command chflags hidden ~/Library."
Good luck!

If I have an imac backup on Time machine can I restore to a laptop?

I'm having an older macbook pro fixed and it's getting a new HD.... I was wondering if I could use my external HD I normally use with my imac to "restore" all info I have on the imac to the laptop?

You should be able to use Migration Assistant on the MacBook Pro, and then, use the "Restore Time Machine or other disk" option to restore your iMac's Time Machine backup to the MBP.

Time Machine did not restore Microsoft Office for MAC Product Key

My Tdisk failed and was replaced under AppleCare. I then restored from my Time Machine Backup. I used the (Command R Power keys to initiate this). It completed without errors (eventually).
All Apps that I tried seemed to have been recovered successfully except when I attempted toload my MS Office for MAC Apps, I was asked for my product key.
Unfortunattely this was saved in an email on my system and I cannot retrieve it since I cannot open my MS Outlook.
Does anyone have a solution I might try?
Has anything similar happened to others?
I would appreciate any help you might be able to give.
Barry

There are a few apps that seem to record the identifier (UUID) of the disk they're installed on, as an anti-piracy measure.
I don't use that app, but as Thomas says, if you know (or can figure out) where & how the emails are stored, you may be able to use the TM browser to locate the backup copy of the email, and either use QuickLook on it, or restore it to an alternate location, such as your Desktop, and examine it there.
If you haven't done a new backup yet, Time Machine won't have "associated" the new disk with the old backups, so the backups of the old disk won't appear normally. If so, you'll need the procedure in #E3 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting to see them.

Time machine client backup restore to a new mac mini server?

I just bought a new Mac Mini server and its up and running. My question is can I restore the Time Machine backup from my MacBook Pro to the server drive? When I select restore it wants to erase the server drive, is that a good idea?

This is a bit of a guess... But I Imagine you would have to start with the workstation OS install DVD first, and go from there at the appropriate point. Any chance you have or could make a CCC backup instead? I am assuming you could boot a mini server from a backup of mini non-server. Then you could copy it over. This is probably worth a phone call to Apple TAC

Time machine fails to restore files to new mac

This is really frustrating. I've probably used TM 8-10 times to upgrade hard drives, upgrade macs, etc. It's always worked flawlessly.
Wednesday I received my new MB Pro (a maxed out late 2013 that MacMall has been clearing out at a great price). So in preparation for delivery I made sure my TM backup was current and ready to go. So connected the backup drive to the new MBP and fired it up. As usual, I selected the option to "restore from Time Machine." I selected the disk and back and let it run. The progress bar said it was going to be about 1-1/2 hrs so I went off to do other things.
When I returned the restore had finished and I was looking at exactly the login screen from my old MBP. I was ready to go, or so I thought. The first thing I noticed that the dock wasn't right - it wasn't mine, just the generic one you see on a new Mac. Checked my applications and it was soon apparent that none of my apps were listed - no Office, Parallels, or a dozen (or more) 3rd-party apps. Zip. Zero. Nada.
Checking more, my Documents folder was empty, along with my iTunes library.   So I launched Disk Utility and the firs thing I noticed was that there was only 10 GB on the new drive, yet the old drive (and the backup file) is over 630 GB!
I've never seen this before, and so far Apple support doesn't have any answers.

We've tried quite a bit - here's a summary.
Since I tried first with MA, we decided to wipe the HD and start over, using Setup Assistant.   I booted into Recovery, used Disk Utility to wipe the disk, then download and install a clean Yosemite. This time I used Setup Assistant when it rebooted, and selected the TM restore. The SA window where you select what to install showed about 500 GB, so I selected everything. SA ran for a little over an hour. When it finished and rebooted I had my user accounts and setting, but again no apps or files. Instead of 500 GB I had a little over 10 on the drive. Basically same as the first try with MA.
By now I'm into upper-tier Apple techs. Next I wiped the backup files and created a brand new one. I have an "emergency" admin account so this time we logged into that one and launched MA. This time we selected everything except this emergency account. Again, MA ran for over an hour, but as before, nothing transferred.
With my tech on remote access we browsed the folders of the backup and were satisfied everything was in the backup. At this point he advised me that - worst case - I could always drag-and-drop everything to the new drive though it would leave more cleanup than a restore.
I did notice something odd about the backup when I used SA & MA. When I got to the window to select the backup I had two items - one for about 450 GB and the other was smaller at about 100. Since the larger one had all the accounts I used that one. With the help of the tech I finally figured out this was probably caused by my small eDrive partition.
This time I updated TM prefs to make sure everything was excluded except the main partition. Wiped the backup drive and created a new one. When finished I plugged the drive into the new MBP and launched MA. This time I only saw one backup to select, so did that and selected everything to migrate. According to MA that should be about 500 GB.   MA ran for about an hour, but again nothing transferred except my account info.
Lastly (for now), I wiped the MBP drive, installed a fresh Yosemite, and this time used Setup Assistant to migrate. Selected all 500GB and it ran for a little over an hour.   Again, nothing transferred except accounts. In total, I had about 11 GB on the new drive instead of the expected 500+.
sorry for the long post.

Time Machine on Mavericks: restore file doesn't work

I've successfully located a file I need to restore from Time Machine backup by doing a Finder search for the filename (something.graffle, an OmniGraffle document), and when 0 items are found, I "Enter Time Machine..." and use the back arrow or click on a date some months ago. This process finds two copies of something.graffle, and I can select these and Copy them, or I can select them and click Restore. Neither, however, works. When I try Copy, then Cancel out of Time Machine, there is nothing to Paste. When I try Restore, the image of the item glides to the present-day folder and is present for a moment in the present-day Finder window after Time Machine closes, but it instantly disappears, and Find once again cannot find it.
My Time Machine backup is on an external disk connected by Firewire.
I found some other threads mentioning a bug with dual displays, so I already tried disconnecting my external displays--it didn't help. Seems to be a different problem.
Any ideas?

I solved this problem, which also appears on this thread: time machine can't restore files
The solution, for me, was to open the folder that I thought probably had the file. I knew it was probably in one of my two ~/Documents/OmniPresence folders, and in fact it was in a sub-sub-folder of OmniPresence, i.e. ~/Documents/OmniPresence/workfiles/stencils/something.graffle. This time doing the search produced 0 items, I entered Time Machine, went back to the earlier date where I'd seen it before but been unable to restore, and again Time Machine showed me two copies of the file. But this time, the files had their proper OmniGraffle document icons, and the context menus showed Restore options that hadn't been present earlier. I used Restore this file to… and successfully brought it into my presentday OmniPresence folder. From there I moved it into the workfiles/ subfolder where it belonged.
I hope this helps others.

I have reinstalled snow leopard 10.6.8 and want to restore my i photos from time machine. can not find iphoto libary in time machine, can"t not find home-pict. iphoto lib. in time machine

i have reinstalled snow leopard 10.6.8, and want to restore my i photos from time machine. Can not find i-photo libary in time machine, can't not find > home-pict. iphoto lib. in time machine. Please help.

On my HD it does not say ,restore, in yourname -pict. Iphoto lib.,
On the time machine, it , yourname etc, oes not show up at all.
Only right side of TM, your name etc. does not show.

After installing Mavericks my Business Mail folder disappeared and Time Machine can't seem to restore it with everything in it. How can I fix this?

Time Machine doesn't restore my Business Folder in Mail, which is empty after I installed Mavericks. It will restore just the folder but nothing in it. What am I doing wrong? Also, Time Machine doesn't go back more than about a year. I thought it would do better than that.

Michael - Thanks! I used my wife's iBook, and it did indeed allow me to restore it there.
Unfortunately, now when I plug my nano into my Cube, it is still telling me that some of the tunes don't copy onto my iPod (in fact, none of them do) because I don't have the current software, and to install the latest by going to apple.com, blah, blah, blah.
I DO indeed have the latest software and both iTunes and my Cube recognize the nano. I just can't get it to copy them onto it.
Does anyone have an idea as to what I can do to actually get MUSIC to play ut of this thing! I've had it for a week and a half, and something as simple as getting tunes to load onto it is proving to be the hardest process ever! Arggghhhh!
The only thing I could think of - and this was late last night, was tha looking at the specs of iTunes 5.0.1, is that it requires a 500MHz processor - and my Cube only has a 450 MHz PowerPC G4 processor - Can anyone tell me if this is the problem?

I have Photoshop Elements 10 on a new Mac, using Yosemite 10.1.1 - PE locks up every time I try to sign in. This software was restored to this computer from Time Machine after a theft of my old Mac. How can I fix this?

I have Photoshop Elements 10 on a new Mac, using Yosemite 10.1.1 - PE locks up every time I try to sign in. This software was restored to this computer from Time Machine after a theft of my old Mac. How can I fix this? It keeps telling me that there are missing files, too. If I upgrade to Elements 12 or beyond, will this fix the problem?

You can't sign in because there is nothing to sign in to. For PSE 10 the only sign in was to photoshop.com, which has been dead and gone for a year and half. Just skip the sign in. Reinstalling will not change this.
PSE 8, 9, 10 Can’t Sign In, Error 404 | Barbara's Sort-of-Tech Blog
PSE is locking up because it's looking interminably for the non-existent photoshop.com server.

HT201250 can I back up two different Macs using time machine to the same external hard drive?

I have a MacBook Pro and a Intel Power Mac Tower. The Power Mac is backed up to a 4 TB external hard drive using Time Machine. Can I also back up the MacBook Pro to the same 4TB hard drive using its time machine without altering any of the Power Macs backed up files on the 4TB hard drive?
Ed

Yes, as long as the backup drive is large enough.

Time Machine- Can I restore to a different Mac?

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