How to restore single user profile from Time Machine network backup?

Question

Level 1

19 points

How to restore single user profile from Time Machine network backup?

I've got an employee that I want to move from one computer to another at my office. We've got a clean Time Machine backup on a network Synology device for his user account. I've got the "new" machine with a handful of user accounts on it already (which is how we like it - for example there's an IT Administrator account). I can't seem to figure out how to create/restore a single user account on the machine using the network Time Machine as the restore location.

If someone could explain how to do that, preferably using command line tools so there's no GUI ambiguity, that would be great! Both the source and destination machines are on latest-macOS Sierra.

Time Machine-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Apr 20, 2017 12:31 PM

Reply

Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

158,926 points

Apr 22, 2017 10:41 AM in response to dsuchter

We've got a clean Time Machine backup on a network Synology device ...

The reason for your problems is that you are not using a supported Time Machine configuration. It will never be reliable.

To learn how to use Time Machine please read Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support.

Reply

Answer 2

Apr 20, 2017 1:11 PM in response to dsuchter

Using TM, open TM on the new computer while in the Finder. Navigate to the network drive TM backup and navigate to the user account backup. If the network drive is mounted already, it should show in the Finder's sidebar. If not, choose the computer, Network, and then the network drive from there to mount it. Navigate to the User folder on the backup drive and highlight the backup account to restore and click on the gear icon at the top of the window. Choose "Restore To". A window will open and select the correct drive and the Users folder to restore to.

Another way is to open Migration Assistant located in the Utilities folder. You would choose to restore from TM, then the network drive & folder where the TM backup of the user account is located.

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 20, 2017 4:21 PM in response to dsuchter

In order to use the TM features of searching and restoring, you have to set it up and enable it. And then, connect to the backup created. It gets a bit complicated and involved. This is an old site, but contains valuable information on using TM. It hasn't been updated in a while, but most information still holds true.

http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html

Since you are not familiar with using TM, I would suggest you use Migration Assistant to transfer the account. It would be the easiest way. Be sure to back everything up first and have the password for the TM drive ready. Here is a couple of sites on using Migration Assistant. You can google the subject for other sites also.

Move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support

https://www.lifewire.com/os-x-yosemite-migration-assistant-transfer-data-2259933

You only need to transfer the user in question and preference files for that user.

Reply

Answer 4

dsuchter Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 20, 2017 1:59 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc

Using TM, open TM on the new computer while in the Finder.

Sorry for the n00b question, but can you explain this part a bit more? When I use Spotlight to launch Time Machine on the new computer I just get a warning that I haven't setup Time Machine yet (which makes sense - that's correct!)... I think I'm getting lost in the difference between the TM backup service and the TM client application...

Reply

Answer 5

dsuchter Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 20, 2017 4:27 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc

Glenn Leblanc wrote:

Since you are not familiar with using TM, I would suggest you use Migration Assistant to transfer the account.

Yup, I totally agree and that's what I'm trying. Remember that time I said, "how does one accomplish this stuff from the command line, so I can avoid wasting time with GUIs that may or may not hang indefinitely, so I can have better debugging info, etc"? Well... I've been trying the Migration Assistant and it's just hanging indefinitely at this point. Is there a command line version of that tool? I'm able to find the TM drive, I'm able to login, I'm able to detect the existing (encrypted) backup, I'm able to enter the password and get to "Loading backup..." and that just sits for hours with no discernible progress until the computer forcefully sleeps and that seems to break things. I even have hot corners set that theoretically set "never sleep my machine!" but when the MA starts it puts the computer in a funny state that doesn't seem to respect those. Basically I'm not sure how to get it to work.

Reply

Answer 6

Apr 20, 2017 5:02 PM in response to dsuchter

Sorry, but if it is possible to do so using the command line, someone else will need to help.

I would have thought MA would have worked well. I know with a network drive involved, it can take a while. It's been a long time since I used it.

You can try to manually navigate the backup TM drive and copy the user account manually and paste it to the new computer. Not sure if it may have permission issues or not, but I believe it should work OK.

Someone a bit more familiar with this may chime in to help.

Reply

Answer 7

dsuchter Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 21, 2017 3:14 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc

Unfortunately I'm completely stuck. MA locks every time (it never gets past "Loading..." and eventually the network drive magically just disappears from the screen then the computer is locked until I hard reboot it). I setup Time Machine and tried to decipher the details as best I could on pondini (great site, I've referenced it before), but I can't figure out how to get that to work either.

Any other ideas?

Reply