I'm trying to restore my photo album from a time machine backup. I can find the photo album by opening up the backup directly but not through the time machine app. I need to find the "restore" option but I can't find the path.
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 13.5
Some more ideas:
You wrote " I can find the photo album by opening up the backup directly". Is this the Time Machine drive and are you opening in the Finder? While viewing the Library in the Time Machine backup look at the path bar below the Finder window.
If you are not seeing a path bar enable it in the Finder menu "View > Show Path bar". It should look like this:
Check the first item in the path. If it is showing the name of an older computer and not your current computer, you have to tell Time Machine to open a backup from a different computer. By default it will only open the backups of your current computer. To use a different backup, launch Time Machine from the icon in the menu bar. Hold down the options key while clicking the Time Machine icon in the menu bar and select "Browse other backups". If you do not have a Time Machine icon in the menu bar, try to add it from the System preferences > Time Machine.
Before you launch Time Machine, open the folder you are seeing in the path on the Time Machine volume on your Mac. Then Time Machine will directly open with a window showing you the folder you need to find.
Some more ideas:
You wrote " I can find the photo album by opening up the backup directly". Is this the Time Machine drive and are you opening in the Finder? While viewing the Library in the Time Machine backup look at the path bar below the Finder window.
If you are not seeing a path bar enable it in the Finder menu "View > Show Path bar". It should look like this:
Check the first item in the path. If it is showing the name of an older computer and not your current computer, you have to tell Time Machine to open a backup from a different computer. By default it will only open the backups of your current computer. To use a different backup, launch Time Machine from the icon in the menu bar. Hold down the options key while clicking the Time Machine icon in the menu bar and select "Browse other backups". If you do not have a Time Machine icon in the menu bar, try to add it from the System preferences > Time Machine.
Before you launch Time Machine, open the folder you are seeing in the path on the Time Machine volume on your Mac. Then Time Machine will directly open with a window showing you the folder you need to find.
The default location for your Photos Library is in the Pictures folder inside your user directory (usually bearing the same name as your Mac user account). Even if you have deleted or moved it since it was backed up, that would be where you need to be when you "enter Time Machine" and roll back in time to restore a previous version.
Of course, if you had already moved your library, you would need to start wherever you had placed it.
Thank you, that helped immensely in that I see how restore works in Time Machine.
The issue I was having is that I had to be in the folder in finder not in the open app in order for the Time Machine restore to work.
You're welcome 😊
I do not have an "enter time machine" option.
