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I just got my new Macbook Pro Retina and update it to Yosemite. I now want to recover/get some files from my Time Machine backup of my previous Macbook but don't want to migrate my whole Time machine onto my new Mac. So for example I want some folders from my Documents folder of my older Mac, but not the whole folder. And some specific Apps/Programs and not all of them.

I'm working on a Synology NAS so I don't have a backups.backupdb folder. I can open the network folder "Time machine" and there is my Computer name. But when opening I just find a list of files called "ff", "fe",... The main Computername folders are called computername.sparesbundle. So its not like the Machine drive & file hierarchy. Is there any other option? When trying to "Browse Other Backup Disks" via Time machine itself it opens the Time machine "star wars" but shows my current working computer instead of the Time Machine backup.

Thanks in advance!

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4 Answers 4

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The following worked with my Synology NAS:

  1. Browse to the network drive in Finder
  2. Double-click on the sparse bundle file for the computer you want to access.
  3. Click on the "Time Machine Backups" disk image in Finder (added to the left-hand pane by step 2 above).
  4. Open the backups.backupsdb folder inside this disk image.
  5. Continue as per previous comments.
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    I was backing up to a NAS drive on an Ubuntu server over my local network, and the resulting backup directory contained not a computername.sparsebundle file, but a computername.backupbundle directory. After a bit of digging I realized that the internal structure was the same, so I renamed the directory to computername.sparsebundle and finder now treats it as a file that I can click on (and follow the instructions as outlined in this post).
    – taylorthurlow
    Commented Nov 20, 2019 at 1:47
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Open Time Machine > backups.backupdb > [ComputerName] > Latest

Once in there, everything is set out just like your old Machine's drive & file hierarchy.

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    Thanks for the answer! I'm working on a Synology NAS so I don't have a backups.backupdb folder. I can open the network folder "Time machine" and there is my Computer. But when opening I just find a list of files called "ff", "fe",... The folders are called computername.sparesbundle. So its not like the Machine drive & file hierarchy. Is there any other option? When trying to "Browse Other Backup Disks" it opens the Time machine "star wars" but show my current working computer instead of the Time Machine backup. Thanks in advance!
    – Matsooh
    Commented Nov 29, 2014 at 20:36
  • Thanks for your input. I will add the info to question. I've done a lot of research but didn't find the working answer. I don't would like keeping a clean install with some documents I need instead of A recovery from the previous. It's a supported way of Time Machine via Synology but apparently it's more common to just use a HDD instead of a NAS. Nevertheless thanks for your help!
    – Matsooh
    Commented Nov 29, 2014 at 20:43
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Turns out I left my bitcoin wallet on my old machine...now that they coin is up to $1k again, I suddenly cared enough to dig and find my old wallet.

Here's the steps:

  1. As Tetsujin says, just open through finder.
  2. Drag the relevant restricted folder(s) to your local desktop.
  3. Create a user/pw that matches the old user of the time machine backup: system preferences --> users & groups --> unlock --> (+) add standard user with appropriate user name (looks at permissions of the folder if you can't remember user name) --> guess the appropriate pw
  4. move the restricted folder to the "new" user, and voila, in finder you will now be able to view all files.

At this point you could recursively chown the restricted folder to your typical user and move it back to your home. Or you could login as this new user and access the time machine directly (didn't try this).

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I wanted to add information specific to Netgear ReadyNAS since I had the same need. I wasn't sure how to access the Time Machine sparse bundle from my Macbook at first since I wasn't connected as the right user.

The following worked for me:

  1. Connect to your ReadyNAS via Finder. You must connect as the same ReadyNAS user that you use to the Time Machine service. So I had to disconnect from my normal NAS user first.
  2. Once connected you'll see ReadyNAS folder that contains all the sparse bundles like "Rob's MacBook Pro"
  3. Then I followed the instructions already provided for the Synology
    • Double-click on the sparse bundle file for the computer you want to access.
    • Click on the "Time Machine Backups" disk image in Finder (added to the left-hand pane by step 2 above).
    • Open the backups.backupsdb folder inside this disk image to browse your files
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