Time Machine back-up, only restores application, how do I open it to retrieve the contents?

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Time Machine back-up, only restores application, how do I open it to retrieve the contents?

I have iWeb 3.0.3 with a large web site on it that I maintain each month - www.wworkshop.net - This has been running on a G5 Power PC Mac with 10.5.8. The G5 has just given up the ghost, luckily - I had hoped - I have been backing up regularly with ‘The Time Machine’ onto a ‘My Passport for the Mac’. We also have in the family a G4 Power PC Mac PowerBook with 10.5.8 on it, together with an iMac running 10.6.8.

On attempting to reinstall iWeb from the back-up, first it is not recognized by the Time Machine on the G4, it is however on the iMac, and on restoring iWeb appears to be loaded, such that the new size of iWeb on the iMac corresponds with the original - about 500MB as compared with about 30MB for the application with out the web site attached. My problem is, that when I open the back up copy of iWeb on the iMac, the web site is not there, it only wants to start from scratch. I also have a second back up machine that also has (an older copy) of the web site on it, with in a copy of iWeb, that did restore onto the G4, but again, the size would indicate that it contains the web site, but it also only opens to start a new one.

Question.1: How do I get iWeb to cough up my web site, instead of trying to start a new one when I open it?

I always save to a desk top folder from iWeb when updating my web site, then from there load it up to the WWW.

Question.2: Is there any way of using the saved data in the folder to get it back into iWeb to recreate it in the application, or do I have to recreate the complete web site from scratch, all 2500+ photos and text?

Posted on Feb 22, 2015 11:56 PM

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Answer 1

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Ethmoid

Level 6

11,482 points

Feb 23, 2015 1:08 AM in response to sjduesey

When you backed up the website, you should have backed up iWeb the application, but you also needed to back up your domain.sites file - your website in iWeb is not automatically part of iWeb the application, so there is no website for iWeb to "Cough up" - it is the application only, so you need your domain file.

Your domain.sites file is located and stored under your User Library/Application Support/iWeb/domain.sites. This is located under your User Library and NOT your System Library and if you wanted your website back again as well as iWeb the application, then it is this file that you should have baked up.

No, there is no way to get your data back from saved published files on your desktop because iWeb does not and never has had an import facility, so it cannot open these files. The only way is your domain.sites file and if you do not have access to these, then you are looking at re-building your site from scratch.

iWeb is no longer a supported product and has not been sold or supported by Apple for over 2 years now.

If you need to re-build your website from scratch, then do so with an application that is actually being actively developed and supported such as EverWeb.

Other alternatives are RapidWeaver, Sandvox, Freeway Pro/Epress 7, WebAcappella 4 and Flux V.

Also, your OS and your Macs generally seem to be old and at some stage you should consider updating. You should consider purchasing an Intel Mac rather than the Power PC, because you can then update your OS to the latest - you still appear to be running Snow Leopard, which is old now and does not support all the latest technologies. Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks and now Yosemite have gone before, so you should consider upgrading to an Intel Mac and keeping at least one Mac fully up-to-date. If you don't do this, it just means that you cannot run the latest software on your Mac and some iPhones, if you use them are incompatible with earlier versions of iTunes.

Technology moves very fast these days and you need to ensure that you keep at least one Mac up-to-date, even if this means buying a new one - you can get re-furbished Macs at cheaper prices.

Unfortunately, as you did not back up the right things, then you'll have to re-build your site from scratch, but don't use iWeb - it is not a supported product and has not been for over 2 years. Get something newer.

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Answer 2

sjduesey Author

Level 1

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Feb 28, 2015 10:47 AM in response to Ethmoid

Thank you Ethmoid for your information and advice - I am not a geek and I am 80 years old and like old things, not all new things are better than old ones as I have just discovered, and if you are only half as old as I, you will have to admit. Now - the Time machine backed up everything, including the operating systems, from which I was able to extract the Domain for the web site, in fact I collected several for different months back ups, I update the site at the start of each month. Having learnt about the DOMAIN from several quarters, this is obviously the key to the web site. When iWeb bit the dust, I did try several others, including most of those on your list, and found them no match in the slightest, to iWeb, so I stick with it. I eventually got my web site up and running on my better half’s iMac 10.6.8, but could not get the Feb or March edition to stick only the Jan 2015. Having established that it would work on an Intel Mac - I had been told it would not - I decided to replace the G5 with a new MacMini. With great difficulty and with the assistance of a very talented geek in all things Mac, we have got is saved and running on 10.10.02, which is where the latest update was assembled and sent off from - www.wworkshop.net.

My 2002 23” Apple Cinema Display also works perfectly with the new McMn.

As for the old and the new, I am very impressed with the difference in size and power of the McMn to the G5, but as to the operating system, coming from 10.5.8 & 6.8 to 10.10 is a shock, my first impression is total rubbish - where have all those beautiful 3D colourful Icons gone. You fill a window with 15 photos, which I do every month, and select view/sort by/name and they are LOCKED to the window, you cannot make any adjustment. To unlock them you need THREE operations, at which point they are scattered far and wide - and this is an update????. For those young in years, the screen used to be a beautiful colour display that made you smile each morning you switched it on, and you used to be able to adjust the window arrangement with ‘view/sort by/name’ and then further adjust at will by hand - essential for someone using a Mac as a tool, rather than a Games & Social Networking accessory which is what the Mac has dropped down to - Come back Steve Jobs, the money men have screwed up your wonder machine again, and you are not here this time to save it this time around.

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Answer 3

Ethmoid

Level 6

11,482 points

Mar 1, 2015 12:34 AM in response to sjduesey

I'm glad you got the site up and running again, but when you said you had tried most of the alternatives on the list, this implies that you have not tried all of them?

If you want to try one out of anything, then try EverWeb. EverWeb is more than a patch on iWeb and can do all the things that iWeb could and more and some things it can do that iWeb could not, such as drop down menus, contact forms, support for PayPal and SEO all within the application and not having to add it post publishing as you had to in iWeb.

EverWeb was developed by Rage Software, the same company that produced iWebSEO and it is designed to look and feel like iWeb, so that the transition is not too great. The interface is very much like iWeb, but it does actually blow iWeb out of the water with what it can do straight out of the box and you never need to leave the application for third party workarounds.

If you have not tried EverWeb, then do go and try it, it is actually better than iWeb and there will come a time when iWeb will not work any more, although if you have the final version of iWeb - iWeb 09, then it does still work with Yosemite.

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