How do I delete a corrupt file in Time Machine backup in Mojave?

I’m trying to reinstall my system from a Time Machine backup, but the restore fails with “An error occurred while restoring from the backup.” From looking at the log, there seems to be one file that’s causing the trouble. How can I get into the Time Machine backup and delete this file, in hope that the restoration can proceed?


And: is there a way to search the backup for other corrupt files? I’m getting really sick of this “Install macOS Mojave / Restore from Time Machine backup / wait 4 hours for it to proceed and then crash 3/4 of the way through / install macOS Mojave / Restore from Time Machine backup...” loop that I’m in. If there are a bunch of these corruptions, and I need to find them one by one, well, there’s the rest of 2018 gone.


Alternatively: does Migration Assistant somehow avoid these issues?

iMac, macOS Mojave (10.14), 2017 27" iMac

Posted on Sep 30, 2018 12:16 AM

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Sep 30, 2018 1:18 AM in response to Lost in Asia

Never mind: deleting from Time Machine seems easy enough. Enter Time Machine through System Preferences; find the file; right-click; and delete all backups of that file.


I’m still curious if there’s any way to find all the corrupt / problematic files in a Time Machine backup, rather than restoring from a backup again and again, each time discovering a new problematic file.


Anyway, now that that’s done, I’m trying Migration Assistant from a Time Machine backup, and I hope that’ll work for me when Restoring from a backup did not.

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How do I delete a corrupt file in Time Machine backup in Mojave?

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