How to restore from a back-up when only back-ups showing are old

I need to restore my Mac and back up my Mac via Time machine hourly. However, when I go to Restore from Back-up, the only back-ups showing on the external drive are 4 years old. However, when I look in the drive itself on the mac I can see all the most recent back-ups. How can I do a full back-up so I have a complete, full recent back-up to use to restore my computer? (I need to reinstall MacOS and want to be sure I have the most recent back-up available to restore from). Macbook says I have Ventura which isn't showing in the topic list below either.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 13.7

Posted on Nov 5, 2025 1:19 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 5, 2025 2:03 PM

buwp9296 wrote:

I need to restore my Mac and back up my Mac via Time machine hourly. However, when I go to Restore from Back-up, the only back-ups showing on the external drive are 4 years old. However, when I look in the drive itself on the mac I can see all the most recent back-ups. How can I do a full back-up so I have a complete, full recent back-up to use to restore my computer? (I need to reinstall MacOS and want to be sure I have the most recent back-up available to restore from). Macbook says I have Ventura which isn't showing in the topic list below either.


Hold the Option key click the TM icon in the menu bar, and see if there is a "browse other backup disk" option...?


you local Recovery has the local snapshots— so depending on how far back you need to go(?)


ref: About Time Machine local snapshots on Mac



do not wait for a catastrophic failure to get the back up religion:


If you value your user data

3-2-1 Backup Strategy: three copies of your data, two different methods, and one offsite.

More than one device, more than one backup methodology— and backup regularly.


You can reinstall the macOS on top of the existing macOS if that is the extent of it...

there are options there, leaving your user data un touched.

How to reinstall macOS Recovery (both M1/M2/M3/M4 and Intel) — How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support



5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 5, 2025 2:03 PM in response to buwp9296

buwp9296 wrote:

I need to restore my Mac and back up my Mac via Time machine hourly. However, when I go to Restore from Back-up, the only back-ups showing on the external drive are 4 years old. However, when I look in the drive itself on the mac I can see all the most recent back-ups. How can I do a full back-up so I have a complete, full recent back-up to use to restore my computer? (I need to reinstall MacOS and want to be sure I have the most recent back-up available to restore from). Macbook says I have Ventura which isn't showing in the topic list below either.


Hold the Option key click the TM icon in the menu bar, and see if there is a "browse other backup disk" option...?


you local Recovery has the local snapshots— so depending on how far back you need to go(?)


ref: About Time Machine local snapshots on Mac



do not wait for a catastrophic failure to get the back up religion:


If you value your user data

3-2-1 Backup Strategy: three copies of your data, two different methods, and one offsite.

More than one device, more than one backup methodology— and backup regularly.


You can reinstall the macOS on top of the existing macOS if that is the extent of it...

there are options there, leaving your user data un touched.

How to reinstall macOS Recovery (both M1/M2/M3/M4 and Intel) — How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support



Nov 5, 2025 3:24 PM in response to buwp9296

<< the only backups showing. >>


¿are you using FINDER to look at the bare guts of your Time Machine backups?


DON'T DO THAT!


Time Machine.APP (not to be confused with Time Machine Settings/ControlPanel) allows you to see the ENTIRE universe of what is available to you.


Invoke by navigating to the folder you want to investigate/Restore, the choose from the Time Machine drop-down menu either (depending on macOS version):

Browse Time Machine backups. --OR--

Open Time Machine



then navigate to the Folder you want to examine, and Time Machine will build a virtual backup contents for you to examine.


Nov 5, 2025 3:32 PM in response to buwp9296

When I'm in Recovery mode to install the new OS, the only back-ups that show are from 2021 on that drive. That's where all my back-ups reside, so I'm not following how to do this as TM doesn't show up at that time on the menu bar. And I have no other OS options on my hard drive- those are damaged- already tried first aid under disk utility, hence why I need to reinstall via the back-up.

Nov 5, 2025 3:34 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I can see all of those. But when I'm in recovery mode, the only ones that show up to choose from to restore from are from 2021, nothing since then. It says that it only shows 'complete' back-ups and I assume that the others are just the minimal updates from each time, not a complete one. And I can't figure out how to get a complete back-up from now to use that will show up in Recovery mode.

How to restore from a back-up when only back-ups showing are old

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.