Time Capsule Probing

So, if I’m understanding your response, ALL the backups that the Time Capsule was used for are unattainable since the Apple Computers, Apple iPads, iPhones, etc. that have their backups residing within the Time Capsule are history, everything within the TC, is GONE . . .

No, I did not say that.

I said that you needed to have the "old" Mac that created the backups to use Time Machine on that Mac to see the Time Machine backup files that the "old" Mac created.

I also said if you have another "newer" Mac, you can use Migration Assistant to transfer all of the data in the most recent backup of the "old" Mac over to the newer Mac. But, you probably don't want to do that unless you want a complete copy of your "old" Mac on your newer Mac. That's going to take up a lot of space for one thing. The other thing is that you will now have to manually delete files individually that you decide you don't want or need.

Unless there is really important information in the old backups on the Time Capsule that you absolutely must have, my advice would be to erase the disk on Time Capsule. Then, you could use it to back up any Macs that you have on the network to make extra backups. Don't use the Time Capsule as your only backup plan, since that product is probably 8-10+ years old. It won't go much longer.

To be more blunt......don't store anything on the Time Capsule that you cannot afford to lose.

If you have to see the files on the Time Capsule, you can pay a data restoration specialist to do the work for you, but it will be far more expensive than you might imagine......probably with no guarantees of success.

You are not going to like the answers.

I assume that you were using the Time Capsule to store backups of an older Mac using Time Machine.

In this case, you need to have the Mac that made the backups to use Time Machine to see any of the files stored in the old backups.

If you have a different Mac, you can probably use Migration Assistant to transfer a copy of the most recent Time Machine backup over to your Mac. You can't really view the files before you transfer them or "pick and choose" the files that you want to use. Once the entire backup file is transferred over to your Mac, you will have manually delete any files that you don't want or need.

The final supported option would be to work with a data restoration specialist.......EXPENSIVE.....to learn what may or may not be possible going that route.

My advice to most users......Hook up the Time Capsule and erase the Time Capsule disk. You can use it to make new backups of your Mac......as long as you have another backup disk as well. You would not want to use the Time Capsule as your only backup plan due to the age of the Time Capsule.