accessing stickies stored in a time machine backup from another Mac

My MacBook Pro hard drive crashed (running Monterey). While it was replaced, I borrowed a new MacBook Pro for 2 weeks with a fresh install of Monterey. Before returning it, I made a time machine backup of my latest work to the same drive I'd used previously for my now-broken computer.


(There's very little I need from that latest backup (from the borrowed computer)—mostly just some notes recorded in Stickies. I wish I'd just emailed myself the info, but it didn't occur to me. I thought I'd just browse the backup files and find what I needed. But the username/Library folder appears to be empty on the backup disk (browsing in Finder, there's a "-" sign in a red circle over the folder icon), and when I enter Time Machine on my old (restored) computer, I can see all the backups with dates from both computers, but am unable to enter any of them. (When I click on them, nothing happens).


Is there any hope to recover that little bit of data?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Sep 8, 2023 1:10 PM

Reply
10 replies

Sep 9, 2023 2:44 PM in response to machepap

Hi machepap,


Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities! We would recommend the guidance below that can help:


Time Machine troubleshooting on Mac


•Make sure your backup disk is plugged in, turned on, and securely connected to your Mac. If your backup disk is on a network, make sure both the disk and your Mac are connected to the network. If the network is experiencing problems, your backup disk may not be available.

•Download and install all recent updates to macOS. If you have a Time Capsule, update it with the latest software and firmware. See Keep your Mac up to date and the Apple Support article Update the firmware on your AirPort base station.

•Backups that are created in macOS Monterey or later can be only be restored to a Mac running macOS Big Sur or later.


Hope this helps!

Have a great day.


Sep 11, 2023 1:10 PM in response to machepap

Understand that Stickies on Monterey doesn't use the Stickiesdatabase file in your local Library folder as it did prior to macOS Catalina. Now individual stickies are stored as RTFD packages containing the stickie files as Rich Text (.rtf).


That location:


/Users/yourname/Library/Containers/Stickies/Data/Library/Stickies


and indicative of their individual package folder names:



When you launch the Stickies application, it is these files that it reads and presents as individual stickies.

Sep 13, 2023 5:08 AM in response to machepap

If anyone comes looking at this thread, here's how I resolved the issue: I used Migration Assistant to create a second user account, installing the backup I couldn't access from my original user account. (I had to offload some content in my original user account into a backup disk, to create space for this). I then entered the new account and was able to retrieve the files I need, copy-pasting them into the original user's folder. I will now delete the user account I just created, and move the recovered files and the files I backed up into their proper places.

accessing stickies stored in a time machine backup from another Mac

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.