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Time Machine backups - in an older backup, can I merely VIEW a file without having to restore from it? Or do I have to restore from the older backup, view the file in question, and then restore again from the most recent backup? Thanks.
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15
It is safest to first restore the file from the older backup, view it, and then restore again from the most recent backup.
You can also access the file using the finder directly, by browsing the folders on the backup drive, finding the older backup folder by date, and locating the older version of the file inside that folder. You can then view that file. The risk in doing it this way is that you inadvertently make a change to something on the backup drive, which may then corrupt your backup and make it unusable in the future. The reason this can happen is that while it LOOKS LIKE each folder has a complete backup of your drive(s), in reality only changed files are copied for each dated backup and special links are used to connect those changed files to the unchanged ones so that a complete copy of your disk can be assembled for each backup date. So any inadvertent change to one of these files may corrupt many of the dated backups that depend on it.
So I suggest that you first restore the older version of the file you want to see, and restore the latest version, always using the Time Machine interface to access backed up files. Don't access files directly or change anything on the backup drive directly if you can avoid that.
It is safest to first restore the file from the older backup, view it, and then restore again from the most recent backup.
You can also access the file using the finder directly, by browsing the folders on the backup drive, finding the older backup folder by date, and locating the older version of the file inside that folder. You can then view that file. The risk in doing it this way is that you inadvertently make a change to something on the backup drive, which may then corrupt your backup and make it unusable in the future. The reason this can happen is that while it LOOKS LIKE each folder has a complete backup of your drive(s), in reality only changed files are copied for each dated backup and special links are used to connect those changed files to the unchanged ones so that a complete copy of your disk can be assembled for each backup date. So any inadvertent change to one of these files may corrupt many of the dated backups that depend on it.
So I suggest that you first restore the older version of the file you want to see, and restore the latest version, always using the Time Machine interface to access backed up files. Don't access files directly or change anything on the backup drive directly if you can avoid that.
Time Machine backup
