If Time Machine was running at that time, there's a good chance you'll be able to recover it. Two methods to using Time Machine… 1. Apple's space warp interface way. 2. Manually looking for it. I prefer 2. Although it will require you have an idea of where you would have kept the file. Open the Time Machine hard drive and you'll see one folder "backups.backupdb". Drill down in that folder until you see a very long list of dates. Each date represents a backup. Pick a date close to when you think you still had the document in your possession. Next, drill down into whatever folder you think it may have been stored in. If you don't see it in that particular folder, try going to an older folder. Repeat the process until you've found the file. If option 2 doesn't work, then it's up to Apple's silly space warp interface. With the old drive plugged up, select "enter Time Machine" from the menu bar under the Time Machine icon. On the right side of the weird space window, you'll see a time line. Go back to the date you may have had it and it will scroll back in time with whatever window is open. Usually a finder window is all you'll need. Search for the file name or term within the file and Time Machine may detect where the file exists in its history.
13/01/23 Filed in: time machine | Backup
I am looking for an old document… likely 2014 or 2015 and I have the old external drive Time Machine back ups from then. How hard would it be to find an individual document on those?
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If Time Machine was running at that time, there's a good chance you'll be able to recover it. Two methods to using Time Machine…
1. Apple's space warp interface way.
2. Manually looking for it.
I prefer 2. Although it will require you have an idea of where you would have kept the file. Open the Time Machine hard drive and you'll see one folder "backups.backupdb". Drill down in that folder until you see a very long list of dates. Each date represents a backup. Pick a date close to when you think you still had the document in your possession. Next, drill down into whatever folder you think it may have been stored in. If you don't see it in that particular folder, try going to an older folder. Repeat the process until you've found the file.
If option 2 doesn't work, then it's up to Apple's silly space warp interface. With the old drive plugged up, select "enter Time Machine" from the menu bar under the Time Machine icon. On the right side of the weird space window, you'll see a time line. Go back to the date you may have had it and it will scroll back in time with whatever window is open. Usually a finder window is all you'll need. Search for the file name or term within the file and Time Machine may detect where the file exists in its history.
___________
If Time Machine was running at that time, there's a good chance you'll be able to recover it. Two methods to using Time Machine…
1. Apple's space warp interface way.
2. Manually looking for it.
I prefer 2. Although it will require you have an idea of where you would have kept the file. Open the Time Machine hard drive and you'll see one folder "backups.backupdb". Drill down in that folder until you see a very long list of dates. Each date represents a backup. Pick a date close to when you think you still had the document in your possession. Next, drill down into whatever folder you think it may have been stored in. If you don't see it in that particular folder, try going to an older folder. Repeat the process until you've found the file.
If option 2 doesn't work, then it's up to Apple's silly space warp interface. With the old drive plugged up, select "enter Time Machine" from the menu bar under the Time Machine icon. On the right side of the weird space window, you'll see a time line. Go back to the date you may have had it and it will scroll back in time with whatever window is open. Usually a finder window is all you'll need. Search for the file name or term within the file and Time Machine may detect where the file exists in its history.
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