Moving/Copying Time Machine folders from inside Backups.backupdb files

I have seen others ask the same question, but they are never given the correct answer.

The answers always given is moving the Backups.backupdb folder to another drive.

That is not what we want to know.

We want to know how to copy folders from INSIDE the Backups.backupdbf folder INTO the Backups.backupdb folder on another drive or partition.

copy folder /Volumes/TOSHIBA-1TB/Backups.backupdb/iMac/2018-12-17-185849

into folder /Volumes/TOSHIBA-3TB/Backups.backupdb/iMac/

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 17, 2020 8:58 AM

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1 reply

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,828 points

Apr 17, 2020 11:49 AM in response to random47

Probably because that would just corrupt the backup you copied into.

All of those backups don't actually contain any files. They are hard links to the original copies or changed versions.

Copying will copy the file (not the link), but Time Machine will have no idea that new folder exists.

But, it might be successful.

Let us know if it works. Hope you have another backup.

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Moving/Copying Time Machine folders from inside Backups.backupdb files