SOLVED Restoring items using Time Machine ?

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I found this Apple page with instructions for restoring backed-up items using Time Machine.

Item #3 suggests a window which should appear when I launch Time Machine but I don't see that window here. I see a window showing which drive is being used by Time Machine - together with an 'Options' button for excluding certain drives from each backup. But there doesn't seem to be any way to see my backed up items. The article implies that pressing the app's arrow keys will bring up the window but they don't do anything here.

What am I doing wrong?? How do I get to see the image shown?
 
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In case it helps, here's the window I'm seeing here....

Time-machine-window.png
 

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In case it helps, here's the window I'm seeing here....

View attachment 4295
This window is the Time Machine window from System Preferences. What you need is Time Machine.app (in your Applications folder). To make it easier, add the Time Machine.app file to your dock, then open the Finder window containing the item(s) you wish to restore. Then click to launch Time Machine from the dock, and watch what happens to the open window.

This assumes that you have your TM drive (SANDISK-250) mounted.
 
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Another small thing that's puzzling me...

TimeMachine-screenshot.png


With all the various tabs that are disappearing into the background, why do only some of them have entries but not others? I never noticed it before so I'm not sure if it's normal :confused:
 
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Another small thing that's puzzling me...

View attachment 4357

With all the various tabs that are disappearing into the background, why do only some of them have entries but not others? I never noticed it before so I'm not sure if it's normal :confused:
That’s normal. The windows in the stack with the active title bars are the only ones that have the older versions of the items in the frontmost window, meaning those are the only pertinent snapshots that will have the older versions that you are looking for. It can be easier if you just click on the up and down arrows to the right of the windows. Click up and it will bring you to the first older version of the window. You can also select a particular file in the window and it will show you just the older versions of that particular file or folder.

On the right edge of the screen, the tick marks refer to the Time Machine snapshots, hourly for the day, daily for the past month, and weekly for older backups.

Try and play around with the process even if you are not actually restoring items, just to acquaint you with how Time Machine works.
 
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Thanks Tony - but how do I find out what's in the Windows which seem to be empty - or are they genuinely empty maybe?? Clicking on those ones doesn't seem to do anything at all.
 
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Thanks Tony - but how do I find out what's in the Windows which seem to be empty - or are they genuinely empty maybe?? Clicking on those ones doesn't seem to do anything at all.
Unless it’s a bug, I’m thinking those windows/folders were empty when the snapshots were taken. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to routinely check on certain situations because going into Time Machine takes a while for me. I usually have about five terabytes of data on each of my two Time Machine drives so it takes a while for all the information to update before I could do anything with it.

That brings up another consideration. You should not rely 100% on Time Machine for backups. I have clones as well for volumes that contain critical information. I usually reset (reformat) my Time Machine drives every three to four months before my 8-terabyte drives get close to being full. It’s just the nature of the work I do. I have two Thunderbolt enclosures, one with four hard drives and the other with four SSDs, for a total of about 20 APFS volumes. I elected to stay with 8 terabytes because I hate to imagine what what dealing with even larger drives would entail.

I’m glad you’re making headway in familiarizing yourself and utilizing Time Machine!
 

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