How can I access Time Machine Backups past yesterday?

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Level 1

15 points

How can I access Time Machine Backups past yesterday?

When I Enter Time Machine, I can only get to files from today and yesterday. I have 2 Macbook Pros and both are doing the same thing. This has been the same behavior all week (only getting to current and previous day in Time Machine). I can see the previous time machine dates dating back to 12/1/21, but when I click on a previous date, first it takes hours to come back and then it comes back with the date of yesterday. The arrow for previous dates is also grayed out and I cannot up arrow to any date earlier than yesterday. I backup to a Qnap NAS and sparsebundle on the NAS is close to 2TB. I can also see files dated as far back as 12/21, but I can't access them.

I'm running on Monterrey on one laptop and Ventura on the other.

Is there anyone who can help me access the old files. Specifically, I need to access a mail folder early December.

Thank you in advance,

Kim

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Jan 10, 2023 7:57 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

ke715 Author

Level 1

15 points

Jan 13, 2023 1:44 PM in response to ke715

Thank you all for the replies.

**Solution**

Here's what actually worked.

On the 2020 Macbook Pro running Ventura, I pressed 'Option' at the same time as Time Machine and did Verify Backups. This verified and fixed the backup where I could get to it from entering Time Machine. I can now access this backup in Time Machine accessing all dates prior to yesterday.

On the 2015 Macbook Pro running Monterey, the backup was 2.2 TB and Verify Backups failed with an error saying 'it cannot be reliably restored'. I then moved the sparsebundle to a USB directly connected drive. From there I verified, and was able to navigate to the snapshot of my libary>mail folder. I copied the V9 folder to my desktop and was able to import it to Mail, restoring all my emails from 12/9.

This is the location in case anyone else is looking specifically for mail files.

2022-12-09-174833.backup/Macintosh HD - Data/Users/xxxxx/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail

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Answer 2

Chris_V89

Community Specialist

Jan 12, 2023 2:23 PM in response to ke715

Hey there ke715,

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities.

If having issues with Time Machine performing slower than expected, and you're unable to access previously backed up data, check out the steps listed in the following resource that can help: Time Machine troubleshooting on Mac - Apple Support

If still running into issues after going through the steps above, do you see any alerts or messages when trying to access a previous Time Machine backup date?

Keep us updated on what you find.

Take care!

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Answer 3

Ptaxey

Level 6

8,064 points

Jan 12, 2023 2:52 PM in response to ke715

Well, it's not a convenient solution, but at least you would be able to check overall TRM behavior.

Create a new user account and then open Migration Assistant to restore the user and it's mail related files (contained into user account)

Restore your Mac from a backup - Apple Support

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Answer 4

etresoft

Level 9

50,746 points

Jan 12, 2023 2:41 PM in response to Chris_V89

It sounds like your Qnap NAS backup is dead. What you are probably seeing are local snapshots that are on your computer.

In any event, it would be very unlikely that you would be able to retrieve an e-mail. Email is stored using internal databases. Individual messages can't be recovered if they are lost.

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How can I access Time Machine Backups past yesterday?

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