Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions

15.  How do I view or restore selected items?

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Most data (including apps) is seen or restored via the Finder, but there’s special handling for these Apple applications:  Contacts/Address Book, Mail, and iPhoto.   Review the Finder section first, as the displays and procedures are similar; then see the yellow, blue and pink boxes below for details. 


If you're having trouble understanding or navigating the display, including finding the ~/Library folder (the Library folder inside your home folder), see question #15A.



Viewing and Restoring via the Finder:


Before restoring anything, be sure to quit any app that uses the data you want to restore. 


There's a demonstration of two ways to find and restore in the Time Machine Tutorial. 


Or, open a Finder window to the appropriate place (a particular folder, your home folder, your internal HD, your Computer, etc.), and Enter Time Machine by clicking the Time Machine icon in your Dock, or select Enter Time Machine from the TM icon in your menubar.  The first display is titled Today (Now) at the bottom, and shows the current contents of the folder, drive, or whole system that was selected in the Finder window when you started.


Note that what you see once you're in Time Machine depends on how your Finder window appeared before you clicked the Time Machine icon.  If you were on your Desktop, you'll see a Finder window showing only your desktop;  if on your home folder, when you get into Time Machine, that's what you'll see.  Once there, you cannot add a sidebar for other selections, or the toolbar (you may need the "gear" or "action" icon if you’re on Leopard) by clicking the lozenge in the upper right.  If you need these, select them before entering Time Machine.


 

Viewing and Restoring Individual Pictures via iPhoto:

If you're on Snow Leopard 10.6.x or earlier, or Lion 10.7.x or later with iPhoto '08:


  1. •Start with the iPhoto application, then click the Time Machine icon in your Dock, or click the TM icon in your menubar and select Enter Time Machine, or select File > Browse Backups from the menubar.


  1. •Navigate to the desired backup as usual. Select the photo(s) you want to restore , and click the Restore button, or to restore everything, click Restore All.



  1. •Note that you cannot restore iPhotos to an alternate location via this method, unless the disk they were saved from is no longer connected.  See the Note above the yellow box.


If you're having trouble understanding or navigating the display, see question #15A.

 

Viewing and Restoring via Contacts/Address Book:


If you're using iCloud, the procedure below will not "stick:"  since the cloud contains the "master" copy, as soon as you connect to it, anything you restored from your backups will be replaced with the contents from the cloud.  For a workaround, see  this discussion thread.


  1. •Start with the Contacts/Address Book application, then click the Time Machine icon in your Dock, or click the TM icon in your menubar and select Enter Time Machine.


  1. •Navigate to the desired backup in the usual fashion, or use the search box, select whatever you want to restore, and click the Restore button.




  1. •Note that you cannot restore Contact data to an alternate location via this method, unless the disk it was saved from is no longer connected.  See the Note above.


If you're having trouble understanding or navigating the display, see question #15A.

 

Viewing and Restoring via Apple Mail:


You can restore entire mailboxes or individual messages, including Notes via Apple Mail. 

(See question #28  for ToDo items).

  1. •Start with the Mail application, then click the Time Machine icon in your Dock, or click the TM icon in your menubar and select Enter Time Machine.

  2. •Navigate to the desired backup as above, select the messages you want to restore, and click the Restore button.

  3. •Note: if you're on Mountain Lion (OSX 10.8.x), the "tick marks" for backups made on earlier versions of OSX (10.7.x and before) will be shaded-out and you can't select them.  This is a long-standing bug we hope Apple will fix.  Until then, there are a couple of rather tedious workarounds in item #E11 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

  4. •Also note that although the search box is shown in the toolbar, it does not work.




  1. •Time Machine will make a new folder named Time Machine in the On My Mac section, containing a Recovered Messages mailbox.  This avoids duplicating messages in the selected mailbox;  you can move or delete individual messages wherever you wish.


  1. •If you restore
    additional mailboxes or messages, Time Machine will make a separate Recovered Messages-1 mailbox for them.


  1. •Note that you cannot restore Mail data to an alternate location via this method, unless the disk it was saved from is no longer connected.  See the Note above the yellow box.


If you move recovered messages to mailboxes that exist on the server for an IMAP account, the server may delete any that don't exist on the server.


If you're having trouble understanding or navigating the display, see question #15A.

 

Note the timeline ... this account didn’t exist (so of course wasn’t backed-up), at the time of the backups shown faded out, above the arrow, instead of white or pink, so you can't select those backups (sorry, it’s a bit hard to see in the sample here;  see question #15A for details).


Search for the item you want, by entering search terms in the search box at the upper-right corner of the Finder window.  Use the arrows and/or Time Line on the right to browse through the backups:  the search will be performed in each window you select.


Or navigate to the backup you want to restore from via the "cascade" of Finder windows, or the forward/backward arrows, or the TimeLine. 


If you don't know where to look for what you want, see question #28.


Once you find what you want, select it, click Restore in the lower right, and Time Machine will put the selected item in the same place it was saved from (if possible;  see below).




If you want to restore to a different location, select the item(s),
but instead of the Restore button, control-click (right-click) the item (on Leopard, click the "gear" icon in the toolbar).  That will produce a "contextual" menu something like this (the contents vary depending on what's selected, and whether you're on a backup, a Local snapshot, or the Today (Now) window:


Select the "Restore <item> to ..." option. 


You’ll then see a window to choose the desired location.  See Question #16 for details.


If you’re restoring an entire data-only volume, select all the top-level folders. 

 
If you select an item from inside a folder that no longer exists, you’ll see this prompt:


Note:  if you’re restoring from a disk or partition that’s no longer connected to your Mac, DO NOT choose Recreate Enclosing Folders, as Time Machine will restore it to the normally-hidden /Volumes folder at the top level of your internal hard drive.

 
If there’s already a file/folder of the same name in the same place, Time Machine will give you a prompt for you to select what you want to do.


If you select Keep Both, Time Machine will append "(original)" to the name of the item currently on your system.  The restored item will have just the name.  Each will retain their Created and Modified dates.

 
If you get this rather cryptic message, it means there are files/folders with the same name in the same place, but there's a conflict with the case-sensitivity of the backups.  See Troubleshooting item #E7.
 

Viewing and Restoring Pictures from iPhoto:

To restore your entire iPhoto Library, use the Finder as above.  The iPhoto Library is in your Pictures folder by default;  if you've moved it, locate it and restore it.

To restore individual pictures depends on what version of OSX and iPhoto you have:

    (If you're not sure what version of OSX you have, click here.)

If you're on Snow Leopard 10.6.x or earlier, or Lion 10.7.x or later with iPhoto '08, you can view and restore individual pictures from your backups.  See the gray box below.

On Lion 10.7.x or later, with iPhoto '09 or later, you cannot view or restore individual pictures from your iPhoto backups.  So you have two choices:

  1. •Restore the entire iPhoto Library to its original location, via the Finder, as above.  That will replace the existing one entirely.

  2. •If you want some individual photos, without replacing the existing version, use this workaround:

  3. 1.Restore it as above, but to an "alternate location," such as your desktop, by selecting and control-clicking (right-clicking) it, then choosing the Restore <name:> to.. option, as detailed under the second screen print at the top of this page, or see question #16.

  4. 2.Open the restored library

  5. by holding the Alt/Option

  6. key while  opening iPhoto. 

  7. You'll get this prompt:

  8.                                          

  9. Select the restored library

  10. in the prompt (note the

  11. "path" shows at the bottom)

  12. and click Choose.

  13.                       

  14.    

  15.                                               

  16. 3.Locate the photo(s) you want, select them, then select File > Export from the menubar.  Export them to the Desktop.

  17. 4.Quit iPhoto.

  18. 5.Open iPhoto again, but this time select the permanent version.

  19. 6.Select File > Import to Library... from the menubar and import the individual pictures from the desktop.