Retrieving individual files from Time Machine

I’m replacing my wife’s 2012 MacBook Pro with a new MacBook Air using her Time Machine drive.

We used Migration Assistant but when it had finished and the computer restarted it opened in Mail and was completely frozen.

I took the Air and the Time Machine drive to our local Authorized Mac Repair people and they reinstalled the OS and tried 3 times to use the TM drive and each time the computer opened in Mail and froze.

The tech said he thinks it’s an outdated app that is causing the problem and to eliminate all old apps from the TM drive.

When I enter the TM drive through the Finder, there are no files to be found even though the 1 TB drive has only 141 GB of free space.

At this point I just want to transfer her important files like contacts and mail settings then manually transfer them to her AIR.

Help Please. Thanks

Posted on Apr 12, 2025 4:21 PM

Top-ranking reply

D.I. Johnson

Level 8

42,401 points

Posted on Apr 12, 2025 4:48 PM

Finder is not the way to view files on the TM drive. To manipulate a TM backup in this manner is to guaranteed corruption of the backup and compromise the recovery of your files.

This is the way:

Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support

Recover all your files from a Time Machine backup - Apple Support

There is no practical way to delete apps from the TM drive that I am aware of.

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Retrieving individual files from Time Machine

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