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User profile for user: I_am_frustrated
I_am_frustrated Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Photo recovery with Time Machine

I am running Ventura 13.1 and Photos 8.0. I want to be able to recover photos from my Time Machine Backup. I open Photos application and click on the Time Machine icon in the upper right menu bar of my Mac and select browse backups. The Photos application does not stay in the foreground showing the various backups but rather the Time Machine backups display the desktop with the various drives and document locations listed on the sidebar panel. I can not find any way to show the various photo backups.

iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 13.1

Posted on Jan 22, 2023 6:13 AM

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,589 points

Posted on Jan 22, 2023 9:41 AM

As Richard wrote - here is a link to the page in the user guide explaining how to restore a Photos Library from the Time Machine backup: Restore a library from Time Machine in Photos on Mac

To restore older photos it helps to make occasionally a copy of your Photos Library, in addition to the Time Machine backup. It will be quicker to just open your archived copy, if you just need to find a single image or video.


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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,589 points

Jan 22, 2023 9:41 AM in response to I_am_frustrated

As Richard wrote - here is a link to the page in the user guide explaining how to restore a Photos Library from the Time Machine backup: Restore a library from Time Machine in Photos on Mac

To restore older photos it helps to make occasionally a copy of your Photos Library, in addition to the Time Machine backup. It will be quicker to just open your archived copy, if you just need to find a single image or video.


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User profile for user: Richard.Taylor
Richard.Taylor
User level: Level 6
10,818 points

Jan 22, 2023 9:20 AM in response to I_am_frustrated

You can't run Time Machine backups from within Photos. Photos keeps its pictures in a Photos Library, usually titled "Photos Library.photoslibrary" located in your Pictures folder. That's the thing you need to restore, and then you can use the Photos app to access the pictures in it.


I would quit Photos and then open the Pictures folder in Finder. Then run Time Machine-- you should still see the pictures folder with your Photos Library in it. But now you can go back in time and find the Photos Library with the date you want to restore. You can choose to use the restored file to replace the current one, or you can make a copy with a slightly different name.


When that's done (it could take a few minutes depending on the size of the library), open Photos by option-clicking the Photos icon-- it will give a choice of your old or new library.


Good luck, and check with us if you have trouble.

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Photo recovery with Time Machine

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