- Macbook Restore From Time Machine
- Restore From Time Machine Sierra
- Restore From Time Machine Mavericks
Since some of the more interesting features of Time Machine Server are gone, let's talk about doing even more than what was previously available in that interface by using the command line to access Time Machine. As with any other command, you should probably start by reading the man page. For Time Machine, that would Continue reading The ins and outs of using tmutil to backup, restore. Select Restore From Time Machine Backup and click Continue. After a search it should show you the Time Machine Backups directory as a volume that contains your backup. Select that (in my example 'Time Machine Backups') and click Continue. In the next screen you will see all the backups that you can restore from listed by time and date.
| Click here to return to the 'How to access Time Machine files from Linux' hint |
Thanks for the hint, it's really useful.
Has anyone managed to mount a sparsebundle on linux?
--Andrew
I'm getting 'Permission Denied' when trying to view the folder, or cd to it in the terminal. Maybe I'm having a dumb attack, but how do I get around this?
Actually, nevermind. I figured it out. For a number of the files in the Time Machine backup, you must be root to view them. That actually caused me some trouble, since I didn't remember setting a root password when installing Ubuntu. Here's what I did:
1) Log in with my regular ubuntu account
2) Open a terminal and type 'sudo sh' (with no quotes. this will create a shell session with you as the root user).
3) type 'passwd' (no quotes)
4) enter a new password for your root account
5) type 'exit' to go back to your normal terminal session
Now you should be able to log in as root at the ubuntu login screen (using your new password). You will be able to browse the once-blocked files and directories.
NOTE: If you copy any files from the Time Machine drive that you only have permission to view as root, you better make sure to use the CHMOD command in the terminal (while you're still logged in as root) to change the permissions. Otherwise, you'll do something like copy a file to your desktop, log back in to your regular user name, and then wonder why you're still getting 'Permission Denied'.
For those who aren't chmod-savvy you can type 'chmod a+rw FILENAME' without quotes in the terminal to change FILENAME to read and write access for all.
Thank you so much!!! I have been looking for this all over because my Mac crashed and now I am using my favorite OS..
I know this is an old tip but just wanted to add my $0.02. Hint does indeed work as described, but it's also important to note that..well my particular case was this:- I needed a file from a subfolder on my desktop.
- Followed the hint, found my desktop.
- Subfolder didn't exist
- Followed the hint, found my subfolder
- File was within
Also, most people using this hint are probably on Ubuntu or a related OS - there is no root password by design. You'll need to use to give the root account a password before you are able to use it. sudo is required to do much of anything with the Time Machine volume and using the root account will be helpful if you aim to deal with more than one or two files. Consider disabling it again when you are done - Ubuntu turns it off for a reason and it really isn't needed by 99% of users 99% of the time.
Also, most people using this hint are probably on Ubuntu or a related OS - there is no root password by design. You'll need to use
sudo passwd root
to give the root account a password before you are able to use it. sudo is required to do much of anything with the Time Machine volume and using the root account will be helpful if you aim to deal with more than one or two files. Consider disabling it again when you are done - Ubuntu turns it off for a reason and it really isn't needed by 99% of users 99% of the time.
You might be interested to know about sudo shell mode. `sudo -s` will get you a root shell.
Macbook Restore From Time Machine
Awesome script! Thank you very much. It worked perfectly except it keep repeatedly hanging on a corrupt file; I just had to hid Ctrl-C for it move on. Thanks again!
Restore From Time Machine Sierra
I also noticed your old version went into infinite loops when it encountered symbolic links and also that it didn't copy files with special characters (like /, {, and } ). Does your new script correct this? Ios 11 emulator for mac. Thanks Cricut design space beta mac.
the new version addresses the link problem. The characters are not treated as /, { or } are not valid characters for file names within Linux. Thanks for your interest :)
Yes, but OS X supports characters like /, {, and } in filenames; it just converts them to something like '/', '{},' etc. Your script didn't copy a filename that had a '/' in OS X.
Restore From Time Machine Mavericks
I just read the original post and thought, hey this would make a great candidate for a script, then thought someone else must have thought the same thing. True enough. Great script! Thanks! :-)
