If your Mac has FileVault turned on, you’ll be asked to unlock the disk.
Enter the administrator password you used when setting up Time Machine, then click Continue. If your disk is encrypted, a prompt will appear to unlock it.
To fully restore your macOS in recovery mode, including all the applicationsĪnd files. You’re installing a new hard drive or your Mac broke down on you, you may want This will restore the item and copy the file back to its original location. You can use the space bar to preview the file to make sure it’s the correct one. You can also see when the backup was made by looking at the timeline in the bottom-right corner. The farther back they are, the longer it has been since that save was made. You will see all your previous saves stacked on top of one another.
You accidentally deleted files or folders, here’s how to restore them with Time If you want to know how to back up your Mac with Time Machine, check out our guide here. Note: You can only restore files that have been backed up with Time Machine first. The Time Machine app is a built-in backup application on your computer that can recover individual files, restore your Mac to an earlier version, or set up a new Mac. You will need to delete the account the Apple Store folks set up for you if you don't want it anymore.If you have set Time Machine up on your Mac, you’ll never have to worry about losing your files again. This method does not delete the existing user account, but simply creates a new administrator account alongside it and allows you to use the Setup Assistant to restore from the backup.
Use the Setup Assistant to select a Time Machine backup to restore from. It will likely ask you to authenticate as an administrator. Navigate to /var/db by pressing Shift + ⌘ + G and typing in the path.įind the. You'll be able to log out of the account they set up and log into your own. This method will create a new user account alongside the one the Apple Store folks created for you. It should show you your old user account, which will have a drop down menu to select all the things you can restore. Select your Time Machine backup and click Next. Select the From a Time Machine backup or other disk option: Plug in your Time Machine backup drive, open Migration Assistant and select the From another Mac, PC, Time Machine backup, or other disk option: You can find it in /Applications/Utilities. This is the built in data transfer tool for Macs. How do I access the Time Machine backups made before the repair? Is there a way to query the Time Machine backups for the user account for which they were created? the one I was using prior to the hard drive problem).Īs a result, I can't seem to access any of the Time Machine backups I made prior to having the iMac repaired. Everything has been working fine, except that this new user account is not the same as the old one on the machine (i.e.
When I got home and powered the iMac up for the first time, I noticed that the Apple techs had already set up a new user account. I got the repaired iMac back three days later. The fix to the original problem: I took the machine to my nearest Apple store, where the diagnosis was to replace the hard drive. Source of original problem: 1 TB hard drive developed problems while the machine was still under AppleCare. I have been running Time Machine to back up all files. I can't figure out how to access my Time Machine backups since Apple replaced a defective hard drive.