MacFormat UK – September 2019

Time Machine APPLE SKILLS

macformat.com @macformat SEPTEMBER 2019 | MACFORMAT | 39

HOW TO Restore files in Time Machine >

HOW TO Migrate backups to a new drive >

1

Find the date

Click on the Time Machine menu bar

item and choose Enter Time Machine.

When it launches, use the arrows or

the slider at the right of the screen to

navigate to the date you’re looking for.

Then navigate to the file or folder.

2

Restore file or folder

Once you’ve found the file or folder

you want to recover, click Restore to put

it back in the same location. Or, click on

the gear icon in the Finder toolbar and

choose ‘Restore to’ then navigate to

where you want to put the file.

3

Restore Mac

To restore your Mac from Time

Machine, restart while holding ç+R.

When you see macOS Utilities, choose

‘Restore from Time Machine backup’.

Click Continue until you see a list of

backups. Choose one and click Continue.

1

Format the drive

Plug in the new drive and erase it in

Disk Utilities, formatting it as Mac OS

Extended (Journaled) GUID. Select the

new drive and press ç+I. In Sharing &

Permissions, deselect ‘Ignore ownership

on this volume’ if it’s selected.

2

Copy backups

To briefly turn off Time Machine, go

to System Preferences > Time Machine

and uncheck Backup Automatically. Now

copy the folder ‘Backups.backupdb’ from

the old drive to the new one. Type in an

admin name and password.

3

Old and new

Go back to System Preferences >

Time Machine. Cick Select Disk, choose

the new one then tap Use Disk. You can

now turn Time Machine back on and

subsequent backups will be saved with

the old ones on the new disk.

Smart searches

When you enter Time Machine and navigate to the date you’re looking for, the

Finder window behaves just like a regular Finder window. That means you can

use it to search for files. One neat trick is to create a Smart Search and save

it, making sure the ‘Add To Sidebar’ box is checked. Now, when you use Time

Machine, the Smart Folder with the search results will be accessible in the Finder

sidebar. The results will update according to what was on your Mac on that date

and you’ll be able to select files in the folder as you would any other file.

Use the Finder window to access search results