Time Machine Moved all my files

The first time I used Time Machine, it moved all my itunes files and desktop files, reset wallpaper... it's like it reset my computer... any help?

Have you gone into TM to the first backup and checked the missing items are there? If yes have you tried to restore them? As much detail as you can provide would be helpful.
Joe

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  • Does the last updated backup in Time Machine have all my files for "standard" file copy? (i want to copy and paste files to another computer that doesn't have TM)

    My personal Macbook pro died, but I did have a Time Machine backup. I have a new iMac that I would like to use as a family computer. I would like to transfer some files to the new computer (and set-up a new Time Machine backup), but archive the remainder on a non-TM drive. I was planning to:
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    2. Copy (and then delete) the files I want to archive on another HD drive
    3. Wipe clean my current TM drive
    4. Set-up TM on my new computer
    Is this a good way to proceed?
    Is copying the last backup folder (vs. all backup folders) enough to move my files over?
    Any better approaches appreciated!

    I suggest you visit MicroCenter and go to there Apple section and ask one of there guys if they are still offering the 2 terabyte Backup For the iMac, Mine was only $100.00.
    So the iMac has Time machine plus the USB 2 Terabyte Backup for less than your $130.00

  • HT201250 My macbook pro crashed and I had to install a new hard drive. I restored from Time Machine backup all the files from my old hard drive onto my new one.

    Does it really back up the whole new drive or does it only back up what's been added? It seemed like it was doing the whole thing when I tried it. I stopped it. Don't want to use up all the space on my external. Is there something else I need to do or did I mess up by not doing the migrating thing? thanks!

    If you installed a new hard drive, it has nothing on it and yes TimeMachine is going to take forever to restore everything back.
    I guess you'll have to erase and start over again now.
    Too bad, you should have made bootable clones in addition to TimeMachine, they can restore in a hour or two depending upon content, they are also option key bootable.
    TimeMachine has to go through and calculate all the files it needs to bring forward, the files are strewn all over the drive. The read heads are moving all over the platters all the time from fast sectors to slow ones, not matching what's occuring on the internal drive.
    With a clone the files are defragmented and optimized, the drive reads one file, moves the heads a tiny bit and reads the next all the while transferring exactly to the internal drive, they are more in step with one another, thus it's much faster restoring from a clone than TM.
    Most commonly used backup methods

  • Time Machine locked all Excel files. Help?

    I have had Macs for many years but have not used Time Machine until yesterday. I turned on Time Machine for the first time and did a back-up last night. Today, I cannot open any Excel file on my computer as they all appear to be read-only.
    I am using a 27" iMac with Mac OS 10.8.2. I copied an Excel file to my 13" MacBook and it opened fine. I have since turned off Time Machine but still cannot open any Excel files on my 27" iMac.
    Can you help?

    I realize this is an older thread but I just ran into this issue with a restore from Time Machine backup on a clean install Mac OS X 10.9.
    It seems that the issue has nothing whatsoever to do with the file in question or the permissions or the ownership of that file and everything to do with hidden files. If Excel saved a temporary file then you will not be able to edit the file until you delete the temp file - which is hidden.
    So what you want to do is the following:
    Open a Terminal Session and paste in:          defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool YES
    The paste in:       killall Finder
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    Then past in:      defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool NO
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  • After 10.8.3 update, time machine rebackups all the files in the home

    Yesterday evening I have updated my MacBook Pro'11 from 10.8.2 to 10.8.3
    Next time machine backup works for the whole night and now I can see that it rebackups the whole home user folder. It shows all the files in my home directory have been changed somehow. As a result, a huge amount of backup history is dropped on the time machine backup drive.
    Is it okay? Why TM thinks my 350 GB of personal files have been changed after system update?

    Ok, I didn't go in and check every file on the iMac last night when it did a full backup so will take your word for it.  Doing this once with the new install seems reasonable to me, and with the large external drives I use is not a problem...well, except for the noise the drives make for such a long time will writing the backup
    I am just happy knowing there is a good base for rebuilding the internal drive if I need it.

  • Time Machine deleted all the files on my external HD

    I have started a new Time Machine backup on a larger external HD.
    Time Machine deleted the folders and files stored in that HD before starting the backup procedure.
    How can i recover the files i had on my HD?
    Thank you!

    This means that the drive was formatted incorrectly for use with TM and it had to reformat it. it warns you before doing so. your chances of recovering your data are not great as it may have been overwritten by TM backups. stop using the drive ASAP (turn TM off) and try data recovery software like Data Rescue II or Filesalvage.

  • I've used an external drive for time machine which has important files on it. After trying to back up my computer, it suddenly needed to be "repaired" by utilities. Now it's not being "seen" at all! How do I recover my important files off the drive?

    I've used an external drive for time machine which has important files on it. After trying to back up my computer, it suddenly needed to be "repaired" by utilities. Now it's not being "seen" at all! How do I recover my important files off the drive?

    If the external drive can be seen at all in Disk Utility, follow the instructions for repair here.

  • I was trying to back up my mac by using my external hard drive.  Without realizing it, time machine erased all my backups from my other computers.  Is there any way to recover these files?  I can't even get the external hard  drive to work on my pc.

    I was trying to use my external hard drive to back up my mac computer.  It had files on it from my pc computer.  Time machine erased all my existing files. (I thought it was only going to erase the duplicate files and rewrite them).  Is there anyway to recover these files from my external hard drive.  My mac has renamed the hard drive time maching and it will no longer show up on my pc.  What can I do?

    Yes, the Old Master file has a folder for each year where I find all photos from that specific year. I am attaching a screen shot of the file.
    In the meantime i have managed to download all photos (it did not download any video files though in mpg, avi, 3gp, m4v,mp4 and mov format) to a new iphoto library. Unfortunately the photos are quite mixed and often doubled up. I ma considering to purchase iphoto library which checks all duplicates in iphoto. this will save me a lot of time. What do you think?

  • Time Machine will not let me restore from backups after June, 2013.  I can see the files on the external hard drive but Time Machine skips all of them and goes back to June, 2013. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is?

    Time Machine will not let me restore from backups after June, 2013.  I can see the files on the external hard drive but Time Machine skips all of them and goes back to June, 2013. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is?

    rtilghman wrote:
    telling me to buy a new router is NOT a solution.
    And why not? Apple is selling these things like BigMacs. They can't make enough of them. You've been suffering since May because you refuse to get a decent router.
    Can you imagine if a company that makes a refrigerator told me that I needed to upgrade my electrical system to rectify a problem with their device? What kind of response IS that?!?!
    What if the problem with their device is that it requires a new-fangled "grounded" outlet and your circa 1890 house doesn't have grounded outlets. Would you refuse to purchase a $ 25 adapter on principle?

  • HT201250 How do I restore photos from Time Machine?  All of my photos have been imported within iPhoto and therefore are exported to Time Machine via an iPhoto file.  I can't figure out how to break individual photo files out of the iPhoto file.  Any idea

    How do I restore photos from Time Machine?  All of my photos have been imported within iPhoto and therefore are exported to Time Machine via an iPhoto file.  I can't figure out how to break individual photo files out of the iPhoto file.  Any ideas?

    You might post this query on the iPhoto forum and perhaps someone there can provide an answer.
    I tried this on my MBP and it seems that you have to restore the entire iPhoto Library.  What I did was put the current library in a separate folder on the desktop and then I restored the library from a prior date.  If you were to do that, you then could extract the desired photos and then delete the restored library.  Then place the current library back to the original location and import the desired photos.
    Not tidy but it seems it will work.
    Ciao.

  • Why does restoring a Hard Drive from Time Machine break all my software registration?

    I've just upgraded the hard drive in my MacBook Pro using a Time Machine backup. (In the past I've used Carbon Copy cloner to duplicate the drive before installing it, but this seemed like an easier option.) The restore from TM went fine... but now all my apps are acting as if I've just installed them for the first time. Mail and Dropbox went thru their first time startup screens, and are reimporting all my files/messages. Word and Photoshop are asking for the registration serial numbers. What a hassle!
    Does anyone know what Time Machine is doing, and why? Why aren't my apps fully restored? And is there any workaround?

    I imagine it is because of the way CCC does makes an exact clone of your drive.
    Time Machine restores the drive file-by-file and doesn't necessarily restore support files. Most apps know when they've been moved and ask for serial numbers.
    However, I have never restored a complete hard drive with Time Machine, so I don't know exactly what to expect.
    Pondini may have some info here: http://pondini.org/TM/14.html

  • I keep getting "startup disk full" message even when I already moved all my files/documents to an external hard disk

    Dear all,
    What should I do? I keep getting the "startup disk full" message even when I already moved all my files and documents to an external hard disk.
    Thanks a heap.

    For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article.
    Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
    iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
    Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
    According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of your data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
    If you're using Time Machine to back up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of files you've recently deleted. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself.
    See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
    You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
    Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
    Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
    ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
    Back up all data now.
    If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.
    Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
    Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
    sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
    Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
    ☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
    Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
    The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size with the largest at the top. It may take a few minutes for ODS to finish scanning your files.
    I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
    When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

  • 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.

  • Time Machine deleted ALL my backups

    I was using time machine for quite a while to backup my hard drive and then stopped it for a while. When I turned it back on today, it backed up my ENTIRE hard drive (50 GB) and deleted ALL the old files & time machine backups.
    The files and information on those old backups were extremely important. Is there any way of getting these back? Or am I SOL.
    Thanks in advance, I really appreciate any help.

    If TM completed what was most likely a new, full backup (which it will do after a long period without backups), then much (or most) of your old backups have already been overwritten.
    It is possible that you might be able to recover some data from the rest of the disk with a +Data Recovery+ app, such as Data Rescue II, or a 3rd-party service. Neither is cheap or certain.
    If you want to try that, stop using the disk immediately. To find such apps & services, look for +Data Recovery+ or +Disk recovery+ via Google, VersionTracker.com, or MacUpdate.com

  • I baught Seagate Backup plus 2T hard drive to use as my Backup time machine. But its not working when i connect to time machine its not coping files, it keep saying preparing files. Can someone help me please...

    i baught Seagate Backup plus 2T hard drive to use as my Backup time machine. But its not working. when i connect to time machine its not coping files, it keep saying preparing files. Can someone help me please...

    Please read this whole message before doing anything.
    This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
    The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.
    Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. You must hold down the shift key twice: once when you turn on the computer, and again when you log in.
    Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a Fusion Drive or a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
    Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.
    The login screen appears even if you usually login automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
    Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
    After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

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