Search Time Machine for a file that existed and subsequently deleted within recent past

mrokloricred37 wrote:

Is it true that I cannot search TM for a file that was on the desktop from I believe 12/16/25-12/19/25, then it was deleted. I know the exact name of the file and that it was on the desktop.

I have to go into each individual TM backup and look for it?

No. Do not search the Time Machine backups with the Finder. That is a sure fire way to corrupt a backup set.

You must use the Time Machine application - not the Time Machine settings or Finder - to find and restore backed up files.

Here is Apple's guidance and video support on the subject:

How to restore files from a Time Machine backup | Apple Support

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

mrokloricred37 wrote:

I am sorry but it just doesn't seem to work. Per the video it says "enter time machine", mine says "browse time machine settings" which I chose.

It says to click the folder as to where you think it is which I did (desktop folder) and then entered the search item…NO luck.

Try this:

• Open the Desktop folder. One way to do this is to open your Home (user name) folder in list view and among the other folders listed (e.g. Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music ...) will be Desktop. Double click to open that Desktop folder.
• Now enter Time Machine from the menu item that looks like a small clock. It should show the currently open folder in Finder, namely the Desktop folder in the latest Time Machine backup set. Now step backwards in time along the right side to that range of dates 12/16/25-12/19/25 and see if the desired file is shown in Time Machine to restore from.

mrokloricred37 wrote:

I was able to do this but thought that especially in the case of a file that was trashed a while ago yet was on the desktop for a few days, I would be able to "simply" search for the file. After all, I may not remember when it was last backed up before it was trashed.

Maybe I am missing something, but I think for all the hoopla with TM, I think not being able to simply add a file name and have TM find it is IMHO prehistoric.

I won't make excuses for things you expected Time Machine to do in a more straightforward way. I don't think the search bar in the upper right side of the Time Machine window is searching through the various or many Time Machine backups, I think it is searching on your Mac (based on some quick experiments I did). However you can search through Time Machine backups by doing this:

• Make sure the Time Machine backup drive is mounted. Double click it to open it.
• Now in the search area in the upper right enter the name of the file you are looking for, or a part of its name. Before actually searching, select the Time Machine drive so only it is searched. When I did this, it found the original backup of a deleted file in a backup from 2022.
• Alternatively, with the Time Machine drive window open, select File => Find from the File menu in the upper left (or simply COMMAND-F). Then be sure to select the Time Machine drive as the search target and enter the criteria for looking for the file.
• Searching through all the Time Machine backups can take a while but when I tried this it always found the backed up files in various Time Machine backup sets.

I agree with you that this could be made more intuitive. However it is fairly straightforward and does work.

mrokloricred37 wrote:

I am sorry but it just doesn't seem to work. Per the video it says "enter time machine", mine says "browse time machine settings" which I chose.

It says to click the folder as to where you think it is which I did (desktop folder) and then entered the search item…NO luck.

You're in the right place. "Browse Time Machine" is the current command. It was "Enter..." previously. Older video, I guess.

I don't use the search function, myself, because I find it to be confusing.

I usually know where a missing file or folder is supposed to be so I simply navigate to that location before I 'Browse TM Backups...'. Then I do just that (browse) and scroll the timeline backwards until I'm at a point when I know the file existed. Then it's just a simple matter of selecting the file and clicking "Restore".

If the file name is "Quick Assist," did you specify in the search options to find files whose filename matches that?

By default the Search function usually searches within the files for content, but you can specify to find files by name (or by a character string that is in the filename).

I tried this as I described above and it did work so I am wondering if you may have some issue with your Spotlight data bases (called the Spotlight index). Does regular searching in the Finder (on your regular drive, not the Time Machine drive) work properly for you?

mrokloricred37 wrote:

BTW I can many files but not Quick Assist, which DOES exist on a TM backup. Checked spelling and spacing and caps. This is on the reformatted TM.

To find files on the backup (Time Machine), that drive has to be indexed, which can take a number of hours, many hours if there are multiple backups and their sizes are large. So the backup drive would need to be left connected to the computer for a while for this to complete and work. The background process that does this is called mds or some variation of mds.

I am trying to come up with reasons why your searching isn't working but mine is. I leave my backups connected basically all day so I know they have all been fully indexed. I can search for and find any backed up file from within the backup drives (I have two Time Machine backups, Time Machine alternates between them) using the Finder search function when that backup drive is specified as the location to search. One possible reason is that the file and content indexing of the backup drive has not completed, or that it is somehow corrupted. To address that, you can open Settings and go to Spotlight and then go to Privacy and put your backup drive in the Privacy box (which means, "do not search"). Then close Settings, restart the Mac, then go back to Settings and remove the backup drive from the Privacy box. This instructs the Mac to create a new index for that drive, which could take several hours or more depending on its size. On my older Mac (2019 MacBook Pro Intel 16") it takes 45 to 90 minutes to complete the indexing of the primary drive (which is using 400 GB out of 1 TB total space), the backup drives would take longer.

Another possibility -- do you have any third party external drive software or firmware installed? To manage your external drive, such software comes with almost all drives, e.g. Western Digital, LaCie, Samsung, SanDisk etc. It is always best NOT to use such tools as they can conflict with the MacOS when they overlap in function. Especially problematic (many reports in Apple Discussion about this) are the third party options to encrypt or password protect the external drive. Also, any third party "security" or anti-virus, anti-malware etc. tools can interfere.

Since you were able to manually locate and restore your file, maybe there is no issue but you should have full functionality on your Mac under Sequoia. If this is still bothering you, you could download Etrecheck and post its diagnostic report here using the additional text below, following this guideline posted here by the very knowledgable Old Toad (Etrecheck was developed by Etresoft, another experienced participant in Apple Discussions):

How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community

Follow these steps:

1 - go to the folder where the file you want to restore was stored.

2 - go to the Time Machine menu in the Menu bar and select:

3 - go back in time until the file appears in the location you chose.

4 - select the file and click on the Restore button.

Time Machine isn’t a searchable archive in the way you expect, and that’s not an error, it’s how macOS actually works. TM relies on Spotlight indexes, and those indexes are not guaranteed to exist or stay complete across historical snapshots, especially for files that were deleted and only existed briefly.

The search box you’re using is mostly querying the current Spotlight index, not walking every snapshot on disk, which is why you can manually see the file but search never finds it. Renaming the file, reformatting the TM drive, or knowing the exact filename doesn’t change that behavior. Finder search on a TM volume only works once that specific snapshot has been indexed, and many never are, particularly older or one-off backups.

That’s also why Apple quietly nudges people toward “navigate to the folder, then scroll back in time” instead of advertising global search.

It’s not prehistoric, it’s a design tradeoff, TM optimizes for restore-by-location, not forensic search. If you truly need filename-based recovery across time ranges, you’re outside what Time Machine was built for and into backup catalog or recovery-tool territory