Sometimes the item you’re restoring still exists on your hard drive – for example, a newer version of a document you’re trying to restore back to an earlier state. The ability to browse backups also helps verify that Time Machine is running correctly. It’s worth browsing through your backups a few times to get familiar with how things are stored. Really, really impresses the friends and neighbors.

This is one of the Coolest Visual Effects I’ve ever seen any program do, much less backup software. Time Machine will “zoom out” back to your normal desktop and restore the item to its original location. Once you find what you need, select the file or folder, then click on the Restore button at the lower right of your screen. You can’t open files while in Time Machine, but you can preview many items using the Finder’s Quick Look feature – select the file and press the Space Bar to view the contents. You can use the Spotlight search field to help find items. The arrows pointing back and forward near the bottom right of the screen step things through one snapshot at a time.īrowse through your hard drive on any date to find the file, folder or applications you wish to restore.

The right side of your screen has bars listing the dates and times of saved backups.Ĭlick on any date bar to travel “back in time” and view the contents of your computer on that date. The overlapping windows indicate files on your computer now (frontmost window), and at progressive snapshots in the past. When you launch Time Machine your screen morphs to a “time tunnel” view of your computer.

Add the icon to your Dock if it isn’t already there. The Time Machine app is the most useful (and coolest) part of the program. This is located in your Applications folder, and is placed in the Dock by default on new Mac user accounts. You use the Time Machine application to browse your archives and restore files.

How to make time machine backup mac