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Time Machine FAQ

Does Time Machine provide the ability to restore an individual application?

Hello all,

After I do a complete bare metal OSX build, will Time Machine provide the ability to restore an individual application? For example, is it possible to restore my Mac Office suite and only the Mac Office suite using Time Machine?
 
spizzi said:
Hello all,

After I do a complete bare metal OSX build, will Time Machine provide the ability to restore an individual application? For example, is it possible to restore my Mac Office suite and only the Mac Office suite using Time Machine?
Click to expand...

Yes, but you would have to know where all the Office files are/go as you would have to do the restore through finder.
 
Thanks Diamond. Does that mean I have to drag and drop the application suite out of Time Machine and place them onto my newly built OS via Finder in their correct path structure?
 
spizzi said:
Thanks Diamond. Does that mean I have to drag and drop the application suite out of Time Machine and place them onto my newly built OS via Finder in their correct path structure?
Click to expand...

Pretty much yes. All the files, folders and plist. It would probably be easier to just reinstall Office from scratch.
 
So I experimented and tried to restore my entire photography application and it did NOT execute correctly after I restored the app via Time Machine. It gave the equivalent of a fatal error.

However, if I do a complete SYSTEM restore from a Time Machine image, the applications execute without a hitch. So lesson learned, you most likely cannot restore on an individual application basis through Time Machine.

Too bad. The application must bury some deep roots throughout OS/X that break if you try to restore it individually through Finder/Time Machine.
 
spizzi said:
So I experimented and tried to restore my entire photography application and it did NOT execute correctly after I restored the app via Time Machine. It gave the equivalent of a fatal error.

However, if I do a complete SYSTEM restore from a Time Machine image, the applications execute without a hitch. So lesson learned, you most likely cannot restore on an individual application basis through Time Machine.

Too bad. The application must bury some deep roots throughout OS/X that break if you try to restore it individually through Finder/Time Machine.
Click to expand...

Some apps you can restore easily, some apps you can't.

The problem is when the app starts putting stuff under /Library. You don't always know exactly what it puts in there and where. Fonts, support files, libraries, and so on all go into different locations, and the apps aren't required to use any specific convention to make it easier for the user to find stuff. In the case where an app is complex enough to /require/ an installer (Office, Aperture, Photoshop, iWork, iLife, etc)... odds are it won't restore well.

If it is in a DMG or Zip file that you can move anywhere? It will restore fine. Although more stuff that will restore just fine is coming in an installer package (MPlayer) when it doesn't need to.
 
LightSpeed1 said:
Can I restore just one application from time machine that i purchased in the mac app store?
Click to expand...

Looks like you were able to find that post as well as my post #326 that pretty much asks the same question (sorry to the others for not reading all page responses of the OP). Anyway, LightSpeed, it looks like the answer is: it depends on how the application is installed by the .dmg/pkg. See the posts starting at #327 up to this one.
 
I just purchased an Airport Extreme Base station and hooked in my external HDD. I set up time machine wirelessly on my laptop. I'm curious what my laptop will do when I'm not on my home network. I assume it will just not backup, but will it give me some error. Is this a bad idea?
 
spizzi said:
Looks like you were able to find that post as well as my post #326 that pretty much asks the same question (sorry to the others for not reading all page responses of the OP). Anyway, LightSpeed, it looks like the answer is: it depends on how the application is installed by the .dmg/pkg. See the posts starting at #327 up to this one.
Click to expand...
My bad.
 
Backup will take forever...

Hi folks!

I just set up TM for the first time and a message displays saying that backup should take about 17 days!!

First, can I keep working on my mac while the computer is backing up?
If no, can I stop TM and resume at another time?

Thank you for your help!

Marc Guevin
 
Robin said:
Here's the thing I still don't get with Time Machine though. It seems like one of the big purposes of it is to allow you to "go back in time" to find different versions,ect
9qjW
of a file.
I think this makes sense and is fine when you are at home, but how will TM work when you're with your MB or MBP out and about all day?
If I spend all day in a library working on a paper, TM isn't going to be able to back anything up to an external drive I have at home, right?
So it's useful when it has a drive to back up to, but for laptop use, it seems like you don't get those individual backup versions of a document any time you were working on something away from "home base".
Click to expand...
It doesn't sound like TM will keep versioned backup copies locally till it hits a BOD. Which, at first sucks, but if you're anyone who pays attention to how much stuff on your machine gets moved around and written to, you know it'll be moot unless the MBPs were faster, with more ram, and had a larger drive.

I think TM's first function is for backups, and 2nd is versioning just in case you do a minor change to a file you don't notice for several days. For many of us who are looking for a fairly simple backup solution, I don't think we're going to care that not every-single-change is going to get versioned and archived.
 
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