Time Machine won't restore a file

I am able to enter Time Machine and navigate (albeit very slowly) to find the file I want to restore.
I am able to select the file and click "restore." It seems to be dragging the file forward on the screen and then it returns me to the desktop, but the file is nowhere to be found.
OSX 10.9.1
Any ideas on how to get a restore to work?

The file should go to its original directory.. have you done a search?
Try restoring manually.. See Q15 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
There are a whole series of specific instructions for specific types of files.
But sometimes the only way to do it is a full restore to a USB drive as alternative location and then pick the file from there..
You can assume what was easy on previous version of OS will be much harder on Mavericks.. The TM changes have not been for the better.

Similar Messages

After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files. When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error. What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive??

After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files. When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error. What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive??

Janet.b wrote:
About 3 years old...pretty dated now I guess. Am thinking I may just need to have it upgraded by a Mac tech.
For what the Apple Store's charge you can buy almost buy a new computer.
Just for giggles I brought my old laptop in for a drive upgrade and asked, they wanted $600 for a drive that only cost $120 at the time and it was a slow 5,400 RPM drive. The new Mac's of a similar make were going for $1000.
I did the drive replacement myself, got a faster drive of better quality for $300 instead.
Then another time I asked for a RAM upgrade from 4GB to 8GB, they wanted to charge $400 + $35 for the labor.
The same RAM is on Crucial.com for $90 and all I need is a 00 micro phillips screwdriver.
So you see what's going on here.
I think what you should do, if your out of warranty/AppleCare, is to call up the local PC tech guy who also does Mac's and have them fix you right up.
They can offer more personalized care which you need. Clone your old drive to the new and everything.
With Apple they are overworked at the Genius Bar and just place roadblocks so you buy a new machine instead.
For instance, all new iMac's now have proprietary drive software installed on the hard drives for heat monitoring. So now the only choice a user has is to bring their iMac into a Apple Store for a very expensive drive upgrade, which a person then decides the money is better spent buying a new machine.

Time Machine won't restore a critical backup - disk space not sufficient error

Using Time Machine Restore Backup says my Macintosh HD has 55 GB available. I need to restore a 50GB Time Machine Backup from an external disk to the Macintosh HD device as the transfer destination of the restore copy it it gives me a message 'This Disk does not have enough space to restore your system'. In fact trying to restore all my many time backups over the past months give the same error even though the backup size is less then my Macintosh HD destination.
So I used the Time Machine software to delete many of my documents in the backup that I want to restore, now it is 30 GB through the Time machine finder, but restoring still gives me the same error. However, time machine made a new backup of my system today of 30 GB but when I go through the backup process using this, there is no error about there not being enough space.
It seems although the finder in Time Machine recognises that file is just 30 GB, in the restore process it doesn't recognise that file has been reduced to 30GB

If you're trying to add a large amount of data all at once, and you get an alert of insufficient space, then from the menu bar, select
 ▹ System Preferences... ▹ Time Machine
If the padlock icon is closed, click it to unlock the settings and authenticate. Turn Time Machine OFF, then back ON and close the preference pane. Restart the computer. Test.

Time machine won't restore back to lion

Mountain Lion is causing me big problems. My external firewire 800 hard drives will not stay mounted and my fans are running at full speed after waking from sleep. Restarting fixes these problems until it sleeps again. Sometimes it takes several restarts.
So I am trying to revert back to Lion the day before I foolishly upgraded to ML and Time Machine will not allow me to restore any of my old backup prior to ML. How can I get rid of ML without loosing data and taking up tons of my time?

Time Machine will not allow you to go back to a previous OS version, unless you are running that version. So if you are running Mountain Lion, it will only restore to ML back ups.
Others have done what you want to, if you have a OS X LION install disc/usb. You will have to manually copy over data as you should always back up your system regardless.
Source; Derek Currie https://discussions.apple.com/message/19105493#19105493
"Time Machine does not provide bootable backups. Therefore, this is not the solution.
If you bought Lion, you should be able to re-download it from the Mac App Store. (Sadly, Apple pulled the ability to actually buy Lion off the store). You should be booted to another volume other than the one you will be installing to. You may have to disable the installation on the disk you wish to move back to Lion. I'm not certain, but suspect that trashing the ML System folder would do the job. The Installer will probably notice the missing OS and allow the Lion install. If not, then you'd have to go to the root directory of that volume, make invisible files visible and trash the 'Kernel' files and try again to install Lion.
Ideally you can use the Time Machine backup to restore just about everything else. But you may find everything works fine after the install.
I beta tested 10.8 Mountain Lion and know that it had a couple remaining bugs upon release. That's what updates are for. I expect there will be a rapid release of 10.8.1 update via the Mac App Store. It may well be worth hanging in there with 10.8. It is most definitely an IMPROVEMENT over Lion, whose Finder bugs I absolutely hate. (But that problem may soon be solved with the 10.7.5 update coming soon).
If you look around the net you'll find there are instructions for creating a bootable Lion installer DVD or USB thumb drive as long as you have the Lion Installer on a hard drive. Here are a couple with illustrations:
http://osxdaily.com/2011/06/21/mac-os-x-lion-clean-install-explained/
http://mashable.com/2011/07/20/lion-clean-install-guide/"

Time Machine will not restore backup files.

trying to restore a backup to a new internal hard drive and time machine sees the external hard drive with the backup but no folders. tried a couple of different external hard drives and even installed new OS on the new internal drive. the original OS and the new are both Maverick and after three days of swaping drives and installing fresh installs of maverick and talking to tech support, i'm convinced the issue is in Maverick. anyone have a suggest without buying a third party package like Carbon Copy?

I got something simular. I restored the whole TM backup and the mail messages from august '08 till 15 jan '09 didn't import. I can see them clearly sitting in Time machine but the restore button won't lit up. And I cannot go back in time cause it only ofers me the today option. What to do?
Sakshin.

Time machine won't restore to my new MacBook Pro

Early 2011 15" MacBook Pro is now needing its fourth new keyboard/logic board in one year.
So I bought a new 15" MacBook expecting to easily migrate to it. Migration Assistant did well moving the applications over but failed with my Documents.
I concluded that I would restore my documents using Time Machine backups.
Except that Time Machine won't allow me to see the documents that need to be restored. I did the "Inherit older backups" thing, and there IS a pink time line showing the older machine backups - I just can't access them.
Any thoughts on how to resolve this?

Since you have both machines connected why don't you use Migration Assistant to transfer your Home folder? Or you can simply drag your documents from the old computer's connected hard drive.
I hope you realize that Migration Assistant will not transfer your Home folder if you have a new Home folder with the same name. Instead it will create a whole new Home folder with a different name. Have you checked to see if you have two user folders located in your /Users/ folder?

Does a time machine backup also restore system files?

In my case, I've deleted a lot of system files including desktop wallpapers and stuff, because I split my drive into two partitions, and started running very low on space on my primary partition. Now, I want to go back to two partitions, but I am unable to. Hence I have to format my Mac to do so. What my question is is this. If I use Time Machine after formatting to restore a backup, does that also include system files, like wallpapers and etc., or only user files? What about my keychain, browser data like cookies and other user data from my applications? Does all of that come back too? If it does, then I think that the other system files might come back too, right? I specifically remember deleting files from the Application Support folder. Also, every time after finishing a backup, my disk takes hours for encrypting the backup. Is that normal?
PS : I use Mavericks.

Malcolm J. Rayfield wrote:
Well, I did not maintain backups before I deleted the files. What then?
Download and reinstall Mavericks from the App Store. It won't delete any user files.
Correction
It should not delete any user files.
The OP should backup before starting this, in case of error.

Time Machine won't restore: don't have permission

I am trying to restore a project folder containing website files. It was backed up originally when I was using Leopard and then again after the Snow Leopard upgrade. I need access to the pre-snow leopard files, which are visible in time machine. When I click "restore", however, time machine creates a blank folder and gives me the message: "the operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access [name of file]."
Nothing has changed besides the operating system. The computer and the backup disk are as they have always been. The computer has only one user, so it's not a user conflict. I've reset permissions and restarted. I have tried restoring to several different locations, including the file's original position and the desktop, as well as replacing and keeping both.

Cheryl, How was that Snow Leopard installation performed?
a. Did you simply install SL over Leopard, thus preserving your user data?
b. Did you install SL and create a new user account
c. Did you erase the Macs' HD, install SL, and then Migrate your legacy user account from a Time Machine backup?
Depending on how you perform the upgrade will determine whether you can get at your old data or not. Was there a point after the SL installation that you recall Time Machine popping up a message that the existing backups originated somewhere else but offering you the opportunity to resume current backups to the same set? If so, your legacy user account may ow be inaccessible?
I and others have discovered that once an account has been migrated, both Time Machine and Migration Assistant won't let you recover further data from the old backup set (I intend on filing a Bug Report on this by the way).
However, there is a way around this.
CTRL-Click the Time Machine icon in the Dock and select "Browse Other Time Machine Disks…".
Select your Time Machine backup drive and the 'star field' interface will launch. This approach will allow you to navigate back to the user folder or item you wish to Restore. You will likely be prompted for the username and password of the old account, but you will be able to move the data.
Once the Restore is complete You should be able to now go into this restored folder and change the permissions of the folder or item you are trying to access.
Highlight the file/folder and select Get Info from the File menu.
Click the tiny gold lock icon at the bottom. You will be asked for your current admin username and password. Now click the tiny "+" button on the left. In the resulting window select your current user account and click "Select".
This should have added your current username to the list under Sharing & Permission. Under "Privilege" change "Read only" to "Read & Write". Now, if the item you are dealing with is a folder, then click the tiny Gear icon at the bottom and select "Apply to enclosed items...".
You will be warned that you can't undo this but click OK anyways. When finished close Get Info and you should now have full access to the item in question.
(Make sure that, if it is iLife data you are moving (iPhoto, iTunes, etc), that you have run Software Update and updated your applications. Otherwise, any attempt to import the old data may result in alerts telling that it was created with a newer version.)
Let us know if this resolves your issue. Cheers!

HT201250 Why won't Time Machine won't restore my iphoto library [says there is not enough room on my hard drive.] Any ideas?

I've got 20,000 plus photos on my HD [yes, I know, way tooo many]. I'm trying to clean up by storing them on an external HD, but for several months I've not been able to export iphoto [even geniuses can't figure out why]. So as a work around, I'm trying to export events and albums to external. However, I realized that I didn't export in the original format making the files too small. Now, I just want to restore my iphoto library to the date before I started this process and when I try to restore from Time Machine, it comes up with an error message that I don't have enough room on my HD. Any ideas out there? [The reason I want to restore is because I started to delete some of the iphoto files from my HD to clean it up and I want to get back to the original format for export].

In the simplest sense, archiving a file means making a copy that you never change and never discard. You already know how to do that.
iPhoto has built-in archival features, in the sense that it saves all versions of an image that you've modified. As long as you have adequate backups, you don't necessarily have any reason to archive an iPhoto library. If you want to delete images from the working library but still have access to them in case you change your mind, then you do need to archive those images. I don't have a specific suggestion as to how you should do that. You might post a question in the iPhoto forum.

Time Machine won't allow inProgress file (or any other backup) to be deleted

iMac early 2009 OS X 10.9.5
CCC reported an error with a file (bad sector?) but before I attempted to replace it I found I was unable to re-boot iMac. I have successfully restored from Time Machine but TM will not now undertake further back ups and the external USB drive holding TM can neither be completely verified nor repaired. Interestningly I have been able to restore even though I can't write new back ups to TM.
I have extracted most of my documents etc and as SMART Utility reports my hard drive as failing (6 re-allocated sectors and 1 event), I thought I'd try an re-format the iMac drive before I decide whether to replace the iMac hard drive or the iMac itself. I didn't realise that restoring from a TM back up didn't resolve a bad sector issue and that I need to re-format the iMac drive to sort it. But I'd like to have a more reliable back up before attempting this (and before even re-installing the OS) in case there are issues. I tried moving the TM drive so I could re-format that drive first and get it properly functioning, but it moves some files for a day and then various file transfer/access errors prevent completion of the copy. I thought maybe the InProgress file might be the issue but I can't delete it so can't check.
So:
1/ Why do various web pages and Pondini suggest I can simply delete the inProgress file whereas my system says I cannot delete it? What am I missing? What steps do I need to take to achieve this outside of Terminal which is not recommended?
2/ Can I make a new TM back up from scratch on another external drive and , if I have bad sectors yet to be cured, will this be useful?

!/ Right click doesn't produce a delete option in the menu and when I simply drag it to the trash I get a yellow triangle window which says, 'The Item ".....InProgress" can't be moved to the Trash because it can't be deleted.'
2/ I have a TM back up. My iPhoto & iTunes are on a separate external and this is backed up with TM. Both are separately backed up with CCC. Oh and I occasionally drag and copy important files to another drive.
Thus far I have not lost data but what may well be a failing hard drive is making life difficult. Daily kernel panic re-boots, TM can restore but not make new back ups nor be verified or repaired etc etc

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

Time Machine Won't read new files

Today I purchased a bigger a hard drive. I put it in and everything was good. When I tried to restore my system through time machine (which was from a external hard drive) it only read backup files from July 29 to July 21.
Why can't I open the last saved backup and restore it, which was yesterday 8/07/2013. I moved a lot of files and deleted stuff since 07/29 and I want that system, not the 7/29/2013 backup.
Any ideas what I need to do? What is the point of time machine if I can't restore my last system settings?
Thanks for reading.

Most likely, some folders were inadvertently excluded from your backups, and as a result you can't restore your data in Recovery, Setup Assistant, or Migration Assistant.
Starting from a fresh installation of OS X, set up a new administrator account and log in. Follow the instructions on this page to associate your existing backups with the new installation.
You should now be able to enter Time Machine and restore your user data from a snapshot.* I suggest you do this in two stages. Quit all applications except the Finder before you begin.
Restore all the visible items at the top level of your home folder.
Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. Enter Time Machine and restore all items in the Library folder. Log out and log back in as soon as the restore is complete.
Any other invisible folders or files at the top level of your home folder that you want to preserve will have to be restored separately. For most users, that isn't necessary.
You'll have to reinstall all third-party applications from scratch, or restore them from another kind of backup, if you have one.
*If you don't see any snapshots in Time Machine, exit the time-travel view and then hold down the option key while selecting
Browse Other Backup Disks...
from the Time Machine menu, which has an icon that looks like a clock running backwards. Select the backups of your computer by its previous name. If you don't have the Time Machine menu, open the Time Machine preference pane in System Preferences and check the box marked
Show Time Machine in menu bar

Time machine doesn't restore all files

Recently I did a complete format and restore in Mavericks. Prior to moving to Mavericks I did a complete backup in Mountain Lion. After restoring from Time Machine many files were missing for Adobe CS4. When I look at the backup disc with Finder I see all the tiles that I need are listed but when I open Time Machine only a third are retrieveable. Without the files that are missing Photoshop CS4 will not run. How can I get the remaining files?

OK, I;m back up and running. Found out that /Library/Applicaiton Support/Adobe was in two places. One was at the root level and another was in my account area. Each had similar files but the root one had the ones I was missing.

Time machine will not restore a file due to lacking permissions

Why is time machine saying that it cannot restore a file due to access persmissions when all I'm trying to do is restore a single file for my one and only user on the same computer that created the backup? Shouldn't that just work?
Does anyone know the reason for it or better yet, a solution to the problem?
Thanks
Daniel Martinsson

Do you have read & write access to that file now?
You should be aware that there's a good chance that some of your backups of that image file are corrupt. It's a large file that's constantly changing when in use, so the copies made during that time may be in an inconsistent state. You'll want to restore from a snapshot that was made when the VM was shut down. Ideally, you should exclude that file from Time Machine backups, and instead back up the contents from within the guest OS. A virtual disk image will fill up your TM backup destination quickly.

G Drive; Time machine won't download old files

Hello
I had my Macbook Pro in to get fixed around September last year. I had backed up all my files successfully on my G Drive Slim. When I received my Mac Book back it was all updated and when I went into Time Machine with my G Drive and tried to access all of my old files the times were in pink and dull. I was not able to click on anything or use migration to get them back. I would just like to get my music and pictures back. If anyone has any suggestions or could help me out that would be great!

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.

Time Machine won't restore a file

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