I need help with a frustrating situation regarding my Time Machine backups. I've stored 17 years' worth of my family's photos on a hard drive formatted in Mac OS Extended (HFS+). After having my MacBook Pro repaired and a new hard drive installed, I was unable to restore my backups. Apple Support told me that Time Machine requires backups from drives formatted in APFS and that my backups on the HFS+ drive wouldn't work. However, I had successfully created those backups on that drive just five days prior without an indication that the format was unsupported. It seems like a major oversight on Apple's part that they allowed me to create these backups without a warning about the formatting issue. Now, I'm stuck and need help figuring out how to access those backups. Does anyone know a way to restore my backups from this HFS+ drive to a new APFS drive?
2 Answers
You don’t necessarily need Time Machine to get your files back. If you can still see the Time Machine folders, you can manually copy the files over to your new drive. I’ve dealt with a similar issue before—it's definitely a hassle! Just be careful when transferring files. Also, here’s a tip: keep a backup strategy in mind, like the 321 rule (three copies of your data, two of which are backups, and one off-site). It might help prevent similar issues in the future.
Have you tried accessing the backup directly through Finder? Just plug in the drive and see if you can retrieve your files without using Time Machine. There’s also a support article that might be useful: "If you can't back up or restore your Mac using Time Machine."
In theory, you should be able to move files from an HFS+ formatted drive to an APFS drive since it's the data you’re moving, not the drive itself. Just double-check that you have a complete backup.
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