Upgraded to Mavericks, can't find files on time machine

I have an external hard drive where I backup my Macbook Pro. I recently upgraded to Mavericks and now I can't find old files on time machine. I am looking for a file around a certain date, but no matter what date I look at in time machine - the files and data seem to be the same. I hope someone has a solution to my problem!

Hi Miax1,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!
I understand that you are looking for a specific file in your Time Machine backup. It sounds like you are familiar with the interface but just cannot find the file. Just to make sure you are searching in the right area, I suggest reviewing the Restoring data from Time Machine backups section from the following article. Please let me know if you need further assistance.
Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
Restoring specific files or folders
Choose Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu. The restore interface appears. You can literally see your windows as they appeared "back in time."
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.
Note: Dates in pink indicate the data resides on your Time Machine backup device. Dates in white indicate the data resides on your Mac. In OS X Lion v10.7 and later, portable Macs include local snapshots.
You can also perform a Spotlight search from the Finder. Simply enter a search term in the Spotlight search field, and use the back arrow to have Time Machine search through your backups to find what you are looking for.
Before you restore a file, you can also use Quick Look to preview a file to make sure its the one you want. Highlight the file and press the Space Bar to bring up a quick look.
To restore, select the file/folder and click the "Restore" button. The file will automatically be copied to the desktop or appropriate folder. If the file you are restoring has another file in the same location with the same name, you will be prompted to choose which file to keep or keep both.
I hope this helps,
-Joe

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Can't Find File in Time Machine

Kind of a weird problem, usually I can figure this stuff out on my own.
Basically, I have an edited version of a video and I want to retrieve the original. I know I did the edit on that day and I know its date created. I have a weekly backup from that week and the week after. In the one for that week, neither the original nor the edit are present so I assume the end of that week was right before I moved the video onto my computer. The next backup has the editied version, but the original is nowhere to be found, so I'm assuming that I can't get at in any way, so basically my question is.
1. Does Time Machine back up the trash anywhere? The .trash file isn't in my ~/ so I'm assuming it doesn't, and the file might have been in the trash.
2. How does Time Machine compress the backups into weekly files? Is it possible that something that only existed on my hard drive for a very short period of time got "dropped" in the combining process? Or did I somehow manage to get it onto my computer and delete it between backups?

1. Does Time Machine back up the trash anywhere?
No, that's one of the things it skips automatically. See What's excluded from backups in #11 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
2. How does Time Machine compress the backups into weekly files?
It doesn't, exactly. It simply deletes the backups that have "expired." That leaves a "snapshot" of how your entire Mac looked at the time of each remaining backup.
Is it possible that something that only existed on my hard drive for a very short period of time got "dropped" in the combining process? Or did I somehow manage to get it onto my computer and delete it between backups?
Yes, it's quite possible. It depends on the timing and how often backups are run, but basically Time Machine keeps all backups for 24 hours, except the first of the day, which is kept for a month. After a month, it keeps one per week.

I have just started using Time Machine. I was thinking about deleting old E-Mails on my Mac to clean. Does Time Machine back up the E-Mails , if so how can I find them in Time Machine ??

I have just started using Time Machine. I was thinking about deleting old E-Mails on my Mac to clean. Does Time Machine back up the E-Mails , if so how can I find them in Time Machine ??

If you back up your mac before deleting your emails, Time Machine should back up your e-mails.
I never tried this so i'm not sure to find them in Time Machine. To browse in your backups simply click the Time Machine icon in your dock. In the right bar, you can select an backup. Than you can browse in finder, in your backkup.
EDIT: Just browsed and CT above was right. This topic might help you:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20154303#20154303

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I accidently deleted an important note on my iphone. Can I find it on Time Machine?

If you have Time Machine connected you should be able to.
VK replied to a similar question here ...
Start Mail and open the Notes mailbox. click on TM in the dock, scroll back in time in the Mail window, select the note you deleted and hit 'restore".

TS1211 I lost one calendar from my Mac Osx 10.5.8 system on G4 how can I find it from time machine backup?

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https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5176639

Can't restore files from Time machine backup?

I kinda successfully restored my files from Time Machine after a clean re-install of Snow Leopard (Time Machine thought they were new files, though, so backed up the 26 GB... waste of space), but now I'm trying to restore the files of the other user on the computer. In her pictures folder, I can't copy the iPhoto Library because I don't have permission to access it! The same problem occurred on my account too, but I was able to go to my Time Machine drive and manually change the permissions for the files I wanted, which doesn't work on her account.
I have made a Youtube video of the error:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1__PdyAetVg
Can anyone assist me in restoring the files? That's all I need help in. Thanks

wrongusername wrote:
But if I transfer everything with the Setup Assistant, won't I once again be experiencing the problems I had?
If the problems were caused by your data. But that's extremely unlikely. It may have been an app, or, much more likely from your description, something corrupted in the Leopard OS. That's one of the problems with upgrading a sick system without knowing what or where the causes are. It's a bit like a brain surgeon operating on himself: if he isn't in tip-top shape to start with, his condition is likely to change, and not for the better.
Most of us would have recommended first simply doing a +*Repair Disk+* on your internal HD; if that didn't help, installing the "combo" Leopard update; if that didn't work, doing an +Archive and Install+ and re-installing the "combo."
After a clean re-install of Snow Leopard, my Mac worked fine again (except for the TM trouble). So it probably had something to do with my old files.
Probably not. Much more likely OSX was somehow damaged. And you got a whole new one.
How come I could read the files on my external HD and yet not be able to copy the files?
Time Machine uses special "deny everybody everything" permissions on it's backups, among other things, in an attempt to keep us mere mortals from moving, changing, or deleting things and corrupting them.

Internet Recovery Can't Find Disk for Time Machine or Reinstalling Mavericks?

I have a MacBook Pro that's a little over a year old. It froze up today when I opened it up, so I held the power button down and restarted it. When it powered on again, there was just a flashing picture of a folder with a question mark on it. I restarted it again, but this time holding down command+r to put it into internet recovery mode.
Once it got to a menu, I decided to try and use time machine. It spent a few minutes trying to find a saved backup, but it seemed to just be spinning its wheels and getting nowhere. I'm only about 60% certain that I ever saved anything on time machine, but it still seems like it should have either given me my saved option or told me I hadn't saved anything, not just run seemingly endlessly.
After that, I went back and tried to just reinstall Mavericks, but it couldn't find a disk to reinstall it on.
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This is from the Apple Knowledge Base (below). Note that it automatically reverts to Internet Recovery when the hard disk "isn't available." I can't say for sure but it sounds like your hard drive may have failed in a way that it doesn't "show up" when the computer looks for it. Hopefully you do have a backup.
OS X Internet Recovery
Mac models introduced after public availability of OS X Lion include the ability to start up directly from an Internet-based version of the OS X Recovery system. OS X automatically uses this feature when the Recovery System on the hard disk isn't available (such as when your hard disk encounters an issue, or when your hard disk has been replaced or erased). OS X Internet Recovery lets you start your Mac directly from Apple's servers. Starting up from this system performs a quick test of your memory and hard drive to check for hardware issues.

Can't find files on Time Capsule

Early 2008 2.4 GHz iMac running 10.7.5
Time Capsule with 699 GB available (connected via Ethernet cable)
When I bought my Time Capsule I added all of my pre-Time Machine backups to it in a separate folder. This worked fine for several years. Time Machine backed everything up and if I need an older file I went into the folder I made of previous backups. Now, when I access Time Capsule I only see the Time Machine backups. The folder of previous backups isn't there. There's still tons of space on it so I can't imagine anything was overwritten. Also, the Time Capusle never shows up like other external hard drives or devices - only as a shared device. Not sure if that has something to do with it. I can't tell when this started. It's been a while so there were a couple of OS updates in there. At this point, I just want to get my really old files off of it and move them to another hard drive. Thanks in advance for your help.

Early 2008 2.4 GHz iMac running 10.7.5
Time Capsule with 699 GB available (connected via Ethernet cable)
When I bought my Time Capsule I added all of my pre-Time Machine backups to it in a separate folder. This worked fine for several years. Time Machine backed everything up and if I need an older file I went into the folder I made of previous backups. Now, when I access Time Capsule I only see the Time Machine backups. The folder of previous backups isn't there. There's still tons of space on it so I can't imagine anything was overwritten. Also, the Time Capusle never shows up like other external hard drives or devices - only as a shared device. Not sure if that has something to do with it. I can't tell when this started. It's been a while so there were a couple of OS updates in there. At this point, I just want to get my really old files off of it and move them to another hard drive. Thanks in advance for your help.

Can't access files though time machine

In Time Machine I can see that folders are there but when I try to restore them I get nothing. I might get an empty folder that says "xxx(original)" but nothing's in it. Or I get a message about lacking permission. Is there a practical way to get at files without going through the TM interface? I presume they're on the backup drive somewhere.

duncantho wrote:
Hmm, after digging into TM's files through the Finder I finally managed to recover everything. TM itself, at least in terms of restoration, remains a bit of a mystery though.
Everything you need to know about TM is here :
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

My History became cleared after a power-cut - can I find it in Time Machine ?

Normally, after a forced quit, Firefox restores all open websites. After a power-cut, this did NOT happen ... when I looked in History I found it completely empty (although I did not clear it).
I have Time Machine on my Mac ... but where do I look to restore the History ?

How have you searched in Time Machine?
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Regards
TD

Find files on Time Machine that weren't in the "Latest Backup"?

I restored my new Mac with the "Latest Backup" of Time Machine. I now understand that I will have to erase the whole backup harddrive in order to continue using Time Machine (I cannot get it to do incremental backups with my new computer from where I left off on the old one).
Since I deleted some files from my old computer after early backups, I presume they wouldn't be on my new computer because I backed up from the "Latest Backup", correct?
Is there any way that I can find out which files I have backed up someplace on my harddrive that are not on my computer now? That way I would be able to locate and transfer them all into a temporary folder on my computer, erase my external harddrive, do a fresh backup of everything on my computer, then I could delete that temporary folder once everything is done. That way I still won't have those files on my computer, but I will have them backed up.
Does this make sense?
Thanks a lot

Bergers wrote:
I restored my new Mac with the "Latest Backup" of Time Machine. I now understand that I will have to erase the whole backup harddrive in order to continue using Time Machine (I cannot get it to do incremental backups with my new computer from where I left off on the old one).
You may be able to get the new Mac to "inherit" the old one's backups manually. See #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
But the practice of deleting originals, assuming Time Machine will keep the backups indefinitely, is a major mistake. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #20.
Linc is correct about multiple backups -- it's always prudent. See #27 in the FAQ link for some suggestions.

Can I delete files whilst time machine is working? Or don't I have to?

Long story short...I have just had to start my time machine from scratch. Taking ages.
i have just noticed that it looks like I have less space available on my external hard drive, than I am trying to back up.
So what I am asking is... Can I work on the mac (MBP 10.9.3) and find some big files to delete, even whilst it is backing up... Even if perhaps it has already backed up those files (doesn't sound like a good idea!) ...Or what else can I possibly do?
I am really desperate as it seems my beloved Mac is taking its last breaths.... Two days ago i thought it had completely died after a couple of temperamental weeks, but it woke up this morning and I don't know how long it will last. so I need to do this now. I live no where near an apple store (a plane ride away) and not very technical ....so would be very grateful for any input and help. thank you.
I Have

I think you can try but I am not sure it will work.
You would be better getting rid of stuff on the USB drive you are backing up to..
Or stop the TM backup and get a USB drive with more space.. do not shut down the Mac.
I would grab a copy of superduper or carbon copy cloner and clone your disk.. TM is fragile at best.

Spotlight not finding files in time machine

I Have this problem where spolight is not finding the files present on my back-up drive using time machine. The files are there, I can find them manually but when searching for the using spotlight, 0 results show up. Does anyone have any exeprience with this?

The correct search method is to do a Smart Folder search and then enter Time Machine with that as the active window. Of course this searches separately in every backup. You can't, for instance (at least so far as I know), do a global search to tell you which backup a particular file is present in (wouldn't be all that clear what you were finding anyway since similarly named files or folders in different backups might have different contents).
Is this what you were doing?

Can't delete files in Time Machine

I have a time machine backup that was used to back up a borrowed computer. The computer has been returned and I want to delete the backups. I can get into time machine with the new computer and delete some of the backup. But some of the files just won't delete.
It asks me if I want to deleted them. I enter an administrator password. And it makes the sound to indicate it is finished, but the files (and the folder they are in) are still there.
These are files in the "System" and "Library" directories.

davidpsummers wrote:
I should clarify. The drive has more stuff than just that backup. I would have to find a place to put it all (non-trivial) and then wipe it.
That's likely what you need to do. It sounds like the previous deletions left some "abandoned" space you'll never get back otherwise, and there may be directory damage, too, which can compromise your backups.
Then partition the drive, so Time Machine has it's own, exclusive partition. See #3 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Or, your best bet may be to use a separate drive for Time Machine.

Can't find SystemConfiguration Folder (Time Machine Disk Error)

I'm attempting to repair my Time Machin backups using apples directions (below)
I follow the steps but cannot find the /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ folder.
Any ideas?
From the Finder's Go menu go to this location:
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/
Copy the file "NetworkInterfaces.plist" to the desktop (to make a precautionary backup).
Delete the file "NetworkInterfaces.plist". Enter administrator name and password if prompted.
Restart your Mac.
Once restarted, reconfigure your Network and Time Machine preference panes in System Preferences.
If the issue persists, contact an Apple Authorized Service Provider to have your Mac's network ports checked.

Can you privide a link to where you got those instructions?
Maybe something here will help - see A4.
Time Machine Troubleshooting

Upgraded to Mavericks, can't find files on time machine

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