Method | Recovering from a deleted Time Machine backup

Quick access to troubleshooting tips

This article covers the solutions on how to recover entire deleted Time Machine backup and how to restore lost/deleted files from Time Machine backup.

Please provide the English text that needs to be translated into Chinese.

Part 1: How to Recover Deleted Time Machine Backups

"I used to back up my files with Time Machine. But last night, I accidentally deleted some of the backups and now four years' worth of data is suddenly gone. Is it possible to recover deleted files from Time Machine? If so, how? It's really important! Please help!"

Regarding Time Machine backup

Time Machine is an in-built backup utility for macOS or Mac OS X, intended to back up and restore files on your Mac. You can enable it on your Mac, and it will automatically and regularly back up your personal data, partitions, or even the entire disk to an external drive, Time Capsule, or NAS devices that support Time Machine via SMB. Generally, an external drive is chosen as the backup destination. Therefore, the backup files saved on the Time Machine target drive are not 100% secure. Like many common hard drives or storage devices, the backup drive may also suffer from data disasters due to various reasons. You might accidentally delete one or more files, format the disk, or lose backup files after a virus attack, and so on. (Want to know how to backup Mac without Time Machine?)

So, what if your Time Machine backup gets accidentally deleted? This is a question posted by a user on the Apple forums regarding Time Machine backup recovery. Have you ever faced a similar situation and searched for ways to restore deleted Time Machine backups? If so, you've come to the right place, as we will focus on how to recover Time Machine backup files in various complex data loss scenarios.

The tools you need

To ensure the effective recovery of your Time Machine backup, you need a reliable data recovery software tool that can effectively restore deleted files from both Mac and Windows. We recommend giving the advanced data recovery software, tools Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, a try. This powerful and user-friendly tool not only helps you recover deleted or lost Time Machine backups but also enables you to:

- Recover files from Mac, external hard drive, USB, SD card, memory card, digital camera, and other devices compatible with Mac - Retrieve files lost due to accidental deletion, wrong formatting, system crash, OS reinstallation, and other tricky data loss scenarios - Get back lost photos, videos, audio files, Microsoft Office Word/Excel/PPT documents, Adobe files, and more...

Compared with other tools, data recovery software performs outstandingly in multiple aspects, including scanning speed, scanning depth, and data recovery success rate. Now, install it on your Mac and follow the instructions in the next part to immediately restore deleted Time Machine backups.

Steps to Recover Deleted Time Machine Backup

This utility serves a very useful purpose: it allows you to recover deleted Time Machine backups with a simple process:

Note: You can create a backup first by clicking on “Disk Backup” on the left. The software will recover the deleted files from the backup image. This prevents further damage to your disk and data, making it safer and more reliable.

Step 1: Scan the deleted files

Select the hard drive, external disk, or SSD from where your data and files were deleted, and click “Search for Lost Files.”

Select the location to scan for deleted files on your Mac

Step 2: Filter out missing files

The software will perform a quick and deep scan to find as many deleted files as possible on the selected volume. Filter the required files by the “Type” and “Path” options.

Step 3: Recover the deleted files

preview the deleted files by double-clicking on them, and then click “Recover” to get them back.

Since the primary use of Time Machine backups is to restore files to your Mac, the next section shows you how to recover files from a Time Machine backup.

Part 2: How to Restore Files from Time Machine Backup

There are two ways to restore files from Time Machine backup: one is to restore from the backup disk, and the other is to restore from local snapshots, which are backups that Time Machine stores on your Mac to help you restore files when your Time Machine backup disk isn't available. (If you want to recover deleted files/folders but don't have a Time Machine backup, you can also use a data recovery tool to recover deleted files without Time Machine.)

Method 1: Restore the File from a Time Machine Backup Drive

Step 1: Connect the backup drive to your Mac, and then turn on your computer.

Step 2: If your Mac starts up to Setup Assistant, set the details for your country or region, keyboard, and network. Then in the Migration Assistant window, choose to transfer information from a Time Machine backup. If your Mac starts up to Finder, go to Applications > Utilities > Migration Assistant, then choose to transfer from a Time Machine backup.

Step 3. Select the Time Machine backup you want, then click "Continue."

Step 4: If you have several backup options, choose one and click "Continue."

Step 5: Select the files you want to transfer, then click "Continue."

Step 6. Restart your computer and log in to the target account. Your files should now all be there.

Method 2: Restore the File from a Local Snapshot

Step 1: Enter the "Time Machine"

Step 2: Select the file or folder that you want to restore, and then choose an earlier version of that file or folder.

Step 3: Hit the space bar to preview it and make sure it's what you want.