Restoring Clipboard items with Time Machine?

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Restoring Clipboard items with Time Machine?

Is there a way to use Time Machine to restore text previously stored on the system Clipboard? I cut-and-pasted to an email that then got lost and was hoping there might be some way to restore the information.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Jan 29, 2009 11:15 PM

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Answer 1

VA2020

Level 4

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Jan 30, 2009 12:39 AM in response to FlyFish88

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

The problem with what you want is that between the time you cut and lost the email, Time Machine would have had to have performed a backup. What about restoring the actual document you cut from? Again, that document must have existed and been backed up by Time Machine prior to you deleting/losing that document as well.

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Answer 2

FlyFish88 Author

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Jan 30, 2009 8:32 AM in response to VA2020

Unfortunately, I cut from a transient Chat window and pasted to an email draft that accidentally got discarded instead of saved. In between, however, I know that Time Machine ran a backup. The problem has been trying to access Clipboard within TM--it doesn't seem to be possible, and I don't have high hopes, but I thought it worth asking if anyone knows of a way...

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Answer 3

V.K.

Level 9

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Jan 30, 2009 8:43 AM in response to FlyFish88

I've never heard of anything like this possible with TM. I'm quite positive it's not.

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Answer 4

VA2020

Level 4

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Jan 30, 2009 9:58 AM in response to FlyFish88

If you are using iChat, you still have one hope. Your iChat messages are saved... unless you've changed the default setting. Open iChat -> Preferences -> Messages. Is the +Automatically save chat transcripts to:+ ticked? If so, open Finder -> Documents -> iChats and look for that transcript.

Good luck.

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Answer 5

nerowolfe

Level 6

13,090 points

Jan 30, 2009 10:07 AM in response to FlyFish88

FlyFish88 wrote:
Is there a way to use Time Machine to restore text previously stored on the system Clipboard? I cut-and-pasted to an email that then got lost and was hoping there might be some way to restore the information.

AFAIK, the clipboard uses RAM, not HD, and TM only backs up HD.
However, if you make it a habit to always paste the clipboard contents to an appropriate file, then TM will save it. You could create a special directory for just such a purpose.

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Answer 6

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Jan 30, 2009 10:42 AM in response to nerowolfe

saving the clipboard by hand all the time is a major pain and isn't a viable solution IMO. some 3rd party programs will keep track of recent clipboards. I use an application launcher called Butler and it keeps track of the last 7 clipboards you've used.

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Answer 7

FlyFish88 Author

Level 1

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Jan 30, 2009 1:36 PM in response to FlyFish88

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll be more careful next time....

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