I have an old (2008) I mac that was connected to a Lotus time capsule. The I mac will not turn on anymore and we stopped using the Lotus time capsule several years ago. Now I would like to recover some old photos on the time capsule with a MacBook Air. I have the Lotus up and running. The Macbook Air is backing up to it...but I can't figure out how to access the Lotus to recover the old photos.
Any suggestions? Thanks
Time Capsule
Unfortunately, it is difficult and complicated to try to access backups that were made by one Mac with another different Mac. There are no guarantees. In some cases, it is not possible.
We'll try to help, but please keep your expectations quite low.
On the MacBook Air.......
Click on the Finder "smiley face" icon on the dock at the bottom of the screen
Look on the left panel of the next window that appears for the "Locations" heading. On older Macs, the heading might read "Devices"
Does the name of the Time Capsule appear here?
If yes, click on the name of the Time Capsule and another window will open to the right with the name of the Time Capsule hard drive......(which is normally "Data" by default unless you have renamed the hard drive on the Time Capsule)
Double-click on "Data".
If Data can open, it may take some time 15-20 minute or more before the next window will appear
The next window that appears will display separate "sparsebundle" files with the name of the Mac as part of the file name.
Do you see a "sparsebundle" file with the name of the old Mac?
Post back on your progress please........but DO NOT attempt to open the sparsebundle file at this time, as it is very easy to make a mistake, which can render the backups unusable. The things that we mention are NOT supported by Apple, so they will not be able to help in the event of problems.
If we are able to proceed, please understand that it will be at your own risk.
Unfortunately, it is difficult and complicated to try to access backups that were made by one Mac with another different Mac. There are no guarantees. In some cases, it is not possible.
We'll try to help, but please keep your expectations quite low.
On the MacBook Air.......
Click on the Finder "smiley face" icon on the dock at the bottom of the screen
Look on the left panel of the next window that appears for the "Locations" heading. On older Macs, the heading might read "Devices"
Does the name of the Time Capsule appear here?
If yes, click on the name of the Time Capsule and another window will open to the right with the name of the Time Capsule hard drive......(which is normally "Data" by default unless you have renamed the hard drive on the Time Capsule)
Double-click on "Data".
If Data can open, it may take some time 15-20 minute or more before the next window will appear
The next window that appears will display separate "sparsebundle" files with the name of the Mac as part of the file name.
Do you see a "sparsebundle" file with the name of the old Mac?
Post back on your progress please........but DO NOT attempt to open the sparsebundle file at this time, as it is very easy to make a mistake, which can render the backups unusable. The things that we mention are NOT supported by Apple, so they will not be able to help in the event of problems.
If we are able to proceed, please understand that it will be at your own risk.
I know of only one way to do this......add an external USB hard drive to your Mac and bring the photos over to that location.
Would be a good idea to work with the experts in the Photos Support area. Link is just below:
Bob, Thanks for your response. I am having some luck accessing my pics through the photos. I am using the import function when in photos. I can see the pics on the time machine. However, I dont have enough memory on my machine to import. How do bring them over icloud instead?
Thx
Time capsule recovery
