Time Machine - Lost Data

Embarrassingly, I am seeking assistance to retrieve lost data which was originally backed up with the use of Time Machine on my external hard drive.
In an effort to clean my iMac (2008) to make it go faster, I backed up its entire contents with the use of Time Machine and proceeded to delete all of its content - I very likely went about this the wrong way.
Anyhow, I was able to access these back ups for weeks before I mistakenly clicked a button within a Time Machine pop up window asking if I wanted to start a new back up (I forget the exact wording), which I accepted. Since then, my series of backups have disappeared and I can no longer access the content that I need. Is the Time Machine capable of permanently deleting previous back ups? Thanks in advance!

Time Machine does delete old snapshots to make room for new ones, but it never deletes the last snapshot of any volume. There should still be at least one snapshot from before you erased the startup volume.
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.
If you need to restore from a backup of the hidden user Library folder, first select a snapshot, then press shift-command-G. A Go to Folder dialog will open. In it, you'll enter the path to the folder. The dialog will help you by automatically completing the parts of the path when you start to type them.
The path begins with slash character ("/"). Enter that. The rest of the parts will be separated by slashes.
The next part is the date and time of the current snapshot. Enter a "2", and the rest of the date should be filled in automatically. Press the right-arrow key to jump to the end of the path. Enter a slash to start the next part.
Next is the name of the volume (usually "Macintosh HD" unless you gave it a different name.) Start to type that, then jump to the end and enter a slash.
The next part is "Users", followed by a slash.
Next is your (short) user name, which is also the name of your home folder.
Finally, enter "Library", then press return. You should now be in the Library folder. From there you can get around as in the Finder.

Similar Messages

Is it possible to view/compare two Time Machine desktop dates at the same time?

I accidentally lost a file on my desktop, inadvertently dragging it onto my browser. I don't know what file I lost, and would like to retrieve it through my Time Machine. I don't want to replace all of the files on my desktop, but I would like to compare the files from two different dates (current date and last time saved) to discover the file I lost. If there's an easier way to make this discovery, I'm open for suggestions. Otherwise, I wonder if there's a way to see or compare my current files on desktop vs. my last save to Time Machine (without printing out a list).
Thanks in advance for your help!

Hey apple_peeler,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
It sounds like you want to find out what is now missing by comparing it with other backups. The Restoring data from Time Machine backups section explains how you can do that.
Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
You can use the timeline on the right side of the window to reach a certain point back in time. The timeline shows the times of all backups on your backup drive. If you don’t know exactly when you deleted or changed a file, you can use the back arrow to let Time Machine automatically travel through time to show you when that folder last changed.
Have a nice day,
Mario

Time Machine deleted data files

I just set up time machine with a back up hard drive. When I went to open "Quicken" the data file opened is almost two years old. I cannot locate the latest file anywhere on the computer or back up drive. Any ideas where it could be hiding?

stheyn wrote:
Thanks for the reply. Time Machine must have deleted the file.
No. It's possible that for some reason Time Machine didn't back it up, but it cannot delete a file from your system.
The last time I saw the file was 1 day before I turned on time machine
I never mess with the data file (Quicken automatically backs up the files - they are all missing since early 2009)
Quicken backs them up? Where? (Obviously I don't use it).
I have tried Spotlight and Finder to look for any newer Quicken type files, with no luck.
I really don't know what happened and the file is probably gone. But, I was hoping somebody has had this issue and found some solution.
Have you looked in the trash?
If you're really sure the file was there yesterday, and it's important, +*Stop using your internal drive immediately+* to stop further loss due to files being overwritten. The longer you use it, the more files will be overwritten and lost forever.
You need specialized +Data Recovery+ software, or a service that performs the function. It's not cheap, and there are no guarantees.
The app mentioned here most often is +Data Rescue 3,+ but I haven't used it myself, so can't recommend it over any of the others.
Some of these have a free "trial mode," that will tell you if there's anything to be recovered, and perhaps recover a single file. For more, you have to pay the $$.
You'll also need another drive to receive anything it can recover.
Look for apps or services under +Data Recovery+ via Google, VersionTracker.com, or MacUpdate.com.

Time Machine - lost incremental backup

The preferences panel for Time machine says it keeps
* hourly backups for the past 24 hours,
* daily backups for the past month,
* weekly backups until your disk is full.
I notice that the reduction of hourly backups to one backup for a day appears to keep the earliest (incremental) backup for that day and deletes the rest.
To test this, I created a small file on the desktop on 13th Oct 2008 at 18:30, let time machine back it up at 18:45 and I then moved the file from the desktop to the trash at 19:00.
I checked that the file existed in the time machine backup for 18:45.
As I suspected, Time machine has only kept one backup for 13 Oct timed 12:01 am. The file is not in the backup for the 13th or 14th Oct (it is now 15th Oct). The original file is still in my trash.
If this had been an important file that I had deleted accidentally, I would not be very happy.
For the record I am using a MacBook running OS 10.5.5 using a 500Gb Seagate FreeAgent drive connected via firewire.
Shouldn't Time Machine consolidate all the incremental backups for one day into the one backup that it keeps (and eventually consolidate the daily backups into the weekly one that it keeps) so that files are not 'lost' in this way?
Arthur L.

Welcome to Discussions.
[This|http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisemac/archives/2007/12/howleopardtim.html] explains it well:
"As Apple presents the Time Machine filesystem view, you can see your system approximately:
As it was at the top of each hour today
As it was each day for the past 30 days, starting yesterday
As it was each week, starting 31 days ago, going back as far as disk space permits
A distraught user might only be interested in the amount of data he may have lost:
If you accidentally deleted a file today, you lose up to an hour's work
If you deleted it between yesterday and 30 days ago, you lose up to a day's work
If you deleted it more than 30 days ago, you can lose up to one week's work, or all of it."
Hopefully the file you've lost took longer than an hour to create than the example you tried.
/p

Can I use Time Machine for data recovery?

Hi All,
This might seem a bit confusing at first, so please be patient - and thanks in advance.
I'll try to make this as simple as possible:
1) I had an external HDD that (i stupidly didn't back up) that I used to free up memory on my MB Pro. I knocked it off my desk and it's now unrecoverable - there is a 'might be able to get some data back. but it will cost up to $2000' option.
2) To free up said memory, I moved all the big stuff - photos, movies, documents, iTunes libray to this HDD.
3) Now, before I did this, I was already - and still am - using ANOTHER HDD for my Time Machine back ups.
4) Does anyone have any idea as to whether I could salvage the above mentioned data from an old TM snaphot (?) - assuming it hasn't been over written already?
5) And, if it's possible, can it be done without rolling back the MB to the appropiate date??

Hi Thomas,
Thanks for the quick response! But I didn't think I explained myself very well :s
I originally had everything on the MB internal HDD, and only had 1 HDD which was / is still, my TM HDD.
I then moved all the photos, music etc to the 2nd HDD, to free up memory on the MB HDD.
I dropped the 2nd HDD and it's beyond recovery.
What my thought is - given that originally all the data would have been backed up on the TM HDD, can I recover it from there? (If it hasn't been over written of course)
I'm unsure if the 2nd HDD was included in TM backups. It was usually connected to the MB when TM was running...

Time machine restore data from an earlier OS

I have Macbook Air that is now configured with Mountain Lion. I am trying to restore data from a time machine backup taken from the same machine when it was running Snow Leopard, prior to a complete factory reinstall. I choose the files that I want to restore and then restore them. It looks like the files are restoring, but upon completion I cannot find the restored files. I have selected the "Replace" and "Keep Both" options. The kicker is that the SSD on the MBA is showing the available space decrimenting, as if the files are copying.
Can anyone offer any reasons for what I am seeing, or tell me how I can get at the restored files, which are taking up space on the drive but do not appear to be visible anywhere.
Thanks.

Yup: See #E3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Time machine : restoring data partition

Greetings,
I am running 10.8.5 on my Macbook pro. I have two hard drives in it - SSD that runs OSX and apps and HDD with data, sound banks, music etc. I am using Time machine to backup both drives on regular basis. Now, I have problem with my HDD, it cannot be repaired by disc utility, which suggests me to format and restore the data. I hear grinding and clicking from HDD, so it is probably failing. When I insert new HDD and format it, how do I set Time machine to restore only that partition? I try to restore it, but it is automatically restoring it into folder "Volumes" on my SSD. How do I set Time machine to restore on new HDD?
I appreciate your input!

Please visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine. You will find several items relevant to your query.

Time Machine lost all old backups

I have an iMac 24" with a 750GB drive that only has about 200GB full. I have been using Time Machine to do backups onto a 400GB hard drive, and it has been working fine for a few weeks. Last week I copied 250GB of material onto my Mac's HD (as a backup of an external drive), but set that folder NOT to be backed up in TM (this worked fine). Then yesterday I renamed that folder... and Time Machine tried to include it in the next backup... and that backup failed, of course, since there is now more that 400GB of material to backup. Ooops... I have put that renamed folder onto the exclude list.
BUT, in the process of failing to backup, Time Machine appears to have deleted all of the previous backups from the 400GB Time Machine drive. The weeks of backups are gone. THAT was very disappointing. I thought Time Machine wasn't supposed to delete old backups without warning me (I have that option checked). Why did it do that??
(Happily, I have also been making backups manually onto other drives, and my main drive is still happy, so no files were lost... but I want to understand what happened before I trust my backups to Time Machine. I realize that I accidentally asked Time Machine to do an impossible thing by suddenly dropping that extra 250GB folder into its world, but why did it fail so ungracefully and delete all my old backups? This could be very bad if it happed to someone who was counting on Time Machine.)

This is TRULY a serious software design bug IMO and should be reported to Apple via their Feedback procedure. I also have seen this bug and I've reported it to Apple. You should also to add more weight to the bug report and to hopefully have Apple resolve this soon for all of us.
TM does fail to alert the user with a request that to free up backup space some older backups will need removing. Not only this but it silently removes the oldest backups trying to free up space only to find there's still insufficient space. This is clearly a very serious problem as you've discovered.

Time Machine Bad Date: Last Backup December 8 2008

This morning the message under the Time Machine icon in the top menu bar showed Last BackUp December 8 2008.
Entering Time Machine itself, I could see that the last backup was actually September 2 2010 5:02 pm
Since running a back up this morning it appears to have righted itself.
Anyone else having this issue?
I updated iTunes to version 10 yesterday afternoon. Can't see how that could be related, but who am I to say. Should also mention I am a MobileMe member.
I am wondering if this is more likely a software glitch in Time Machine or if it indicates that the Time Capsule itself is starting to fail.

Priscilla Greene wrote:
That's an interesting point. There have been 2 sparse bundles ever since my MacBookPro got a replacement logic board in 2008 which confused Time Machine into thinking it was a different computer.
However, the old sparse bundle is dated June 30 2008, which is months before the suspicious date I saw this morning (12/8/2008). It has always been dated like that.
You might as well delete it, via the Finder (that will likely take a while, so do it via Ethernet if possible). It's just taking up space, and limiting the space available to the new one.

Time Machine Lost Entourage Database

I was having issues using spotlight within Entourage to search my emails. I tried rebuilding the database...but that always failed. So I restored a database from a week ago via Time Machine. All was well, until I tried to fix some other issues. Using Disk Utility I was told my disk needed repairs. Using my boot disk I went in and repaired the disk and also repaired the permissions. After starting up from my hard drive I launched Entourage and it acted like I was a brand new user, asking for me to set up accounts (as in no database exists). I went to Time Machine to restore my database from Microsoft User Data...only to find now none exists. How can it be that a week ago back that I restored from yesterday no longer exists but best as I can tell all the other files do? What if anything can I do to restore all I need in Entourage (my 6 mail accounts, folders I've archived messages to and my calendar for the past 10 years). This was a very large (GB) database and it's nowhere to be found. HELP (and that's putting it mildly).

Ok-- you gotta be kidding me! After a little more research, I read somewhere that by "re-naming" the "Microsoft User Data" folder with all the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac files, it will erase the email Entourage email database? All I did was re-name it with a "Z" in front of it to push it down in my folders list. That can't possibly be true, can it? I can't restore, rebuild or "switch identities" to get my data back!!! Somebody help, if you can. Thanks. Worst case, is that I have a much older harddrive back up that I think I can restore my folders..... Ugh.

Time Machine lost connection after Lion update

Wanted to see if anyone lost the time machine connection after the latest 10.7.1 update released yesterday? My system couldnt find the drive for it and I had to re-set my time machine and then I could connect.

Some more info might help one of us with possible steps to resolve your problem. Is the external drive firewire, usb or network through airport, port-powered, etc?
What basic troubleshooting did you try?
Does it show up in System profiler? If it does there may not be too serious a problem.
While there are some who've had problems with the latest updates many of us have had no problems but we do empathise with those who have.
Neville

Time machine lost backups.

LAte last yea, I had to remove data from my MacBook to install new software. So I checked my time machine and ensured all my data was backed up before deleting anything. Sure enough it all looked good with backup as old as two years. Today, Imhave to recover a file from last year, opened up Time Machine and guess what? Oldest backup available is Feb 25, 2015.
Where did my backups go? Why did I spend all that money on a backup system if it doesn't keep my data?
PLease tell me there is a way to recover.......

You misunderstood how Time Machine works.. you must never delete files from your Mac that you expect to be held by Time Machine.. because at some future point the TM will realign the backup to the current state of the Mac.. you maybe upgraded or patched the OS.. and at that point a very large backup happened.. and that will tend to wipe old files.. once gone files are gone for good.
The files should have been copied to a location and stored.. even to the TC on a different folder would work.. but inside a backup they are not going to last.
Please read how TM works.
http://pondini.org/TM/Works.html
And what happens when you delete files on the Mac.
http://pondini.org/TM/20.html

Time machine lost all but one backup

I ran apple software update yesterday. Today Time Machine says disk is too full to run backup and shows only one backup. I used the finder to look and sure enough, only one backup is there.

I don't think there's any need to "re-establish" your TM drive.
In a stupid interface move, even if you check "Warn when old backups are deleted" in TM options, it doesn't always do that - it usually tells you after the fact, when it's too late to get rid of some big files, or certain backup dates, etc; whether you get the warning or not has to do with the size of the last backup, the space left, and whether TM thinks it can squeeze in another backup, but it seems to make that decision based on the size of your last backup; if the current backup is unexpectedly large, it just erases old backups without telling you.
You may be backing up space-hogging items that you don't really need to back up: the Trash for instance; the legendary giants Entourage and PC-emulators on an IntelMac; the Downloads folder (which gets piled up with stuff that you don't need to keep, or you have copies elsewhere, or it's a movie you already watched...); maybe you don't need a System backup, but just your User folder/Documents assiduously copied...
There's lots of ways to trim what's being backed up so you can use a smallish drive to back up the most important things from your main drive.

Time Machine Lost Backups... Without Losing them!

Hey you guys,
I don't know if any of you met this kind of strange behaviour (looked but didn't find...): Time Machine told me yesterday that the backup had failed. I was working rather heavily at the time, trashing folders and putting some order into the main HD. I then did a Backup now and everything went fine. My curiosity was aroused, so I went into Time Machine... and discovered that my backups prior to two days ago had disappeared.
I opened the Time Machine HD: everything was there. I checked, all the info is OK. I decided to sleep over it. Well, this morning everything is back to normal and Time Machine "recovered" what it didn't see the day before.
Understand, this is a new machine with almost new hard drives, checked regularly and apparently working fine.
Did somebody encounter this kind of problem? Is there something I should check, or modify, or whatever?
Thanks for your time, and have a good day.
RTP

RTP,
I then did a Backup now and everything went fine. My curiosity was aroused, so I went into Time Machine... and discovered that my backups prior to two days ago had disappeared.
Just curious, did you attempt to launch TM while that successful backup was still going on, or had it completely finish (TM menu clock icon had stopped spinning)?
As V.K. stated, sometings TM just hiccups on one attempt, but succeeds on the next. Just for inormational purposes, the following are some other reasons why previous backups may not appear in Time Machine:
*Previous Time Machine Backups Are No Longer Visible*
There are several reasons why this might be the case. Consider the following:
If Time Machine can successfully launch into its’ “time travel” interface then the software is seeing backups. It you only have two time travel windows to chose from, “Today (Now)” and a single window behind that, then Time Machine has only performed its initial full backup. You can verify this by looking at the time scale on the right. If no dates appear other than Now and the date of your first full backup then subsequent incremental backups have not been taking place.
If it has been MORE than an 1 ½ hours since the first full backup completed, then you need to determine why Time Machine has stopped backing up. It might simply be that the Time Machine Preference has been turned off.
If, on the other hand, you look at the time scale on the right and you see multiple dates going back to the time of the first full backup, but they are grayed-out, then Time Machine knows that incremental backups have been taking place. Nevertheless, only the front most window “Today (Now)” shows content. Take a look at the Sidebar of the Finder window. Among the various Devices, Shares, and Places, what is highlighted/selected? If it is the Time Machine backup disk itself that is highlighted, then click on some other location in the Sidebar to make the former backup windows appear.
You see, the Time Machine “time travel” interface displays the historical backup state of what ever location is highlighted in the Finders’ Sidebar. Since Time Machine does not back itself up, then there will be no historical backup windows visible.
Bear in mind as well, if you have added locations and items to the Time Machine “Exclude From Backup” list, then there will be no visible history of these items either if they too are highlighted or selected.
And of course, if you are looking at a file or folder that has only recently been created, then there will not be many, or any, backup copies of it depending on how long ago it was created.
*Anti-Virus Software*
If you have anti-virus software running try disabling, launch Time Machine again, and see if you can access previously backed up data. Sometimes such programs scanning processes can interfere with Time Machine.
*File Vault*
Did that user account happen to have File Vault active?
In another thread V.K. stated: "if you start TM from a filevaulted home directory all you'll see is present. you could browse your old backups of files outside your home directory but not anything in it."
*For Time Capsule / AirDisk users*
If you are backing up to a wireless device, and you have the Time Machine backup disk image (sparsebundle) mounted on your desktop while you are trying to access it via the Time Machine "time travel" interface, you may not be able to see any files from previous backups.
You see, if the backup disk image (sparsebundle) is already mounted on the desktop (a White drive icon) then Time Machine may conclude that the disk is “in use” and fail to mount it properly. Obviously, this is not a factor when backing up to a locally connected drive.
A I said, none of it may apply to your case, but it is nonetheless helpful to keep in mind.
Cheers!

Are previous Time Machine backup dates accessible?

Restoring to Snow Leopard OS, after fumbled Mavericks upgrade attempt. Unfortunately, Time Machine restored with the kinked Mavericks config. I thought I could go farther back (pre-Mavericks attempt) and restore from there, but now I can't see any of my prior TM dates to use. TM is treating the restoration as a "new computer" and shows only post-restoration backups. Can I get back to my prior TM backups?

Restoring to Snow Leopard OS, after fumbled Mavericks upgrade attempt. Unfortunately, Time Machine restored with the kinked Mavericks config. I thought I could go farther back (pre-Mavericks attempt) and restore from there, but now I can't see any of my prior TM dates to use. TM is treating the restoration as a "new computer" and shows only post-restoration backups. Can I get back to my prior TM backups?

Time Machine - Lost Data

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