I'm in a tricky situation with my Time Machine backups and need some guidance. Recently, I had to send my MacBook Pro for repairs, during which I backed up my files to a hard drive formatted with Mac OS Extended (HFS+). After the repair, I tried to restore my files, but to my surprise, my backups didn't show up at all. I called Apple Support for help, and after explaining my issue to a representative, they insisted that the problem was my fault for using the wrong format, asserting that Time Machine backups can only be restored from drives formatted in APFS. But here's the catch: I created the backup just days before without any issues on this same drive! I can see the backups on the hard drive, so I don't understand why I can't restore them now. I'm really frustrated because I've stored 17 years of family photos and memories here. Can anyone help me figure out how to restore my Time Machine backups to a new APFS drive? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
2 Answers
Have you thought about accessing your backup directly through Finder? You can try to pull your data from there instead of relying on Time Machine. Also, check out this support article about Time Machine: 'If you can't back up or restore your Mac using Time Machine.' It might offer some insights. Technically, transferring data from HFS+ to APFS is about moving files, not the drive format itself, so you should be able to retrieve them. Just double-check that you have a complete backup folder too!
You might not need to go through Time Machine to retrieve your files if you can see them on your hard drive. It sounds like it’s just a matter of doing some manual work. I agree with you, the support rep didn’t handle your situation well at all. A tip I picked up while working at Apple is the 321 rule for backups: have 3 copies of your files, 2 of which are backups, and keep 1 of those offsite. This doesn’t solve your current issue, but it’s a good practice moving forward! If you need any more info, feel free to ask.
I see the Backups.backupdb too, but when I try to copy the files, I encounter an error stating the drive isn't compatible with backup files. There's definitely a structural difference in data formats that complicates things. If I had just been informed earlier that HFS+ wasn’t supported anymore for backups, I could have acted differently. Now I’m in a bind.
Exactly, the files should be there and can be manually copied over. Don't get discouraged!