Transfer files selectively from Time Capsule backups to a new Mac

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Transfer files selectively from Time Capsule backups to a new Mac

Hello everybody!

I have a Time Machine backup on the Airport Time Capsule from my previous Mac. i've got a new Mac and want to transfer a few selective files from the Time capsule to the new machine. My questions are:

1. How can I selectively transfer files from Time Capsule to a new Mac?

2. How can I enter the previous backups when necessary?

Your help is appreciated. Thanks in anticipation.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.3)

Posted on May 30, 2014 10:04 PM

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Answer 1

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Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

May 30, 2014 10:07 PM in response to musfique

Use the Time Machine application (not preference pane.) Please visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.

Restore items backed up with Time Machine

If you use Time Machine to back up your Mac, you can easily bring back lost items or recover older versions of files.

You can use Time Machine within many apps. If the iCloud Documents & Data feature is turned on, you can recover older versions of iCloud documents as well as regular documents.

Open a window for the item you want to restore.
For example, if you accidentally deleted a file from your Documents folder, open the Documents folder. To recover an email message, open your inbox in Mail. To recover an iCloud document, open the document’s app, choose File > Open, then click iCloud to view the iCloud documents for that app.
If you’re missing an item from the desktop, you don’t need to open a window.
From the Time Machine menu in the menu bar, choose Enter Time Machine. A message may appear while your Mac connects to the backup disk.
Use the arrows and timeline to browse the snapshots and backups.
White tick marks represent snapshots stored on your internal drive (portable computers only). Pink tick marks represent backups stored on your backup disk. If a tick mark appears dimmed or grayed, there’s no backup available or the backup disk is not connected.
For more information about an item, double-click it.
The windows in Time Machine behave just like Finder windows, so you can open folders, click items in the sidebar, and use the search field in the upper-right corner of the window.
When you find the item you want to restore, select it, then click Restore. You can restore individual items, multiple items, folders, or your entire hard disk.
The restored item is returned to its original location. For example, if the item was found in the Documents folder, it is returned to the Documents folder.

Many apps let you use Time Machine within individual documents so you can examine and read the document’s past versions to find the version you want. For more information, see:

View and restore past versions of documents

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