I'm clicking "Browse other backup disks…" in the Time Machine menu, then selecting a Time Machine disk. This puts me into the Time Machine interface, but I just see my home folder. Not my home folder from my old computer, but my current home folder. How can I browse my old backups to retrieve files?
Mac – Browsing another disk in Time Machine just lets me browse the actual hard drive
time-machine
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Best Answer
To retrieve files from a Time Machine disk without using the Time Machine interface, open a new Finder window and open the volume from the sidebar. You should see a folder called
Backups.db
. Open this and the folder it contains for your computer.Note: If you're using a Network Disk, such as a Time Capsule or Airport Extreme with a connected disk, you will not see
Backups.db
, you will instead see a.sparsebundle
file. Open this and you should be able to continue these instructions.You will now see a list of folders, named by their date/time. Open the folder you wish to retrieve the file from and navigate to the appropriate location.