Backup too large.

[Blacklab]

I recently bought a 14” MacBook M1 Pro.
My problem is, my old iMac had a 1TB ssd which was almost full, my new MacBook has only 512gb. storage. My iMac is now sold but I have a time machine backup. Is there a way to only restore certain apps and downloads etc., from Time Machine and store the remaining items on an external SSD.

 

[chscag]

You can do a limited restore from your Time Machine backup, however, I'm not sure there is a way you can store the remaining items on an external drive. It would have been possible if you had used cloning software to backup your old iMac instead of Time Machine.