my iMac has been out of service for about a month and will be so probably for at least another month. (don't ask. it's a pain and not relevant to my question at the moment.) I have a full Time Machine back up of the iMac and I'm getting by with my M1 MBA. I'm running into more and more times when I really wish i had some apps or docs that were on my iMac.

I've never done anything but a full restore from Time Machine. Can I go in and just pull a few things from the iMac back up to use on the MBA? If I pull an application do I also need to pull info from somewhere that shows I already own that application?

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If you want to fix our country, work with us in the states. statesproject.org

"Success isn't about how much money you make. It is about the difference you make in people's lives."--Michelle Obama

You can view inside the TM folder for docs, but not apps. Should be able to search it if its indexed.

If you own an app, download it from the companies site -- you prob have logins or PWs?. No way I can think of to restore an app otherwise.

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

Unless you were running Big Sur on the iMac, you can browse the contents of your backups in the Backups.backupdb folder on the backup drive.

It's easy to drag-drop an application from the Applications folder in one of the backup folders and most of the time that's all that you will need to do, but for those apps that install a bunch of components all over the drive you'll need to reinstall. If an app requires a license/activation code then you'll need to re-enter the code.

Access to the copy of your home folder on the backup drive may be simple, or it may be complicated by permissions problems when you try to view/copy your documents from the MacBook Air. If you have minus symbols over the folders within the backup of your home folder then you'll need to bypass that to access your files. I won't cover that subject here unless you hit that snag.

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Sarcany
Unless you were running Big Sur on the iMac, you can browse the contents of your backups in the Backups.backupdb folder on the backup drive.

i was running Big Sur so I take it the protocol changed with Big Sur and that Backups folder no longer exists?

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If you want to fix our country, work with us in the states. statesproject.org

"Success isn't about how much money you make. It is about the difference you make in people's lives."--Michelle Obama

You might also migrate the iMac user to the MBA:

[support.apple.com]

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graylocks

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Sarcany
Unless you were running Big Sur on the iMac, you can browse the contents of your backups in the Backups.backupdb folder on the backup drive.

i was running Big Sur so I take it the protocol changed with Big Sur and that Backups folder no longer exists?

It depends...

If the drive was set up under a previous OS then it should have continued backing up in the same fashion.

If the drive was set up under Big Sur then it will use the new backup system that prevents browsing through backups in the file-system.

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Update:

Since the iMac is sitting here awaiting the Costco box I decided to try using Migration Assistant to get what use of the one program i need at the moment.

In MA i chose Applications, User, and Files & Docs. No system stuff as I am suspecting that is where the problem with these random restarts may lie. MA is very slow. It's been about two hours now and it say at least 90 minutes to go. Maybe I'll get use of it by late tonight.

I do think the original set up of this back up drive was before I upgraded to Big Sur but has been backing up on Big Sur for awhile.

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If you want to fix our country, work with us in the states. statesproject.org

"Success isn't about how much money you make. It is about the difference you make in people's lives."--Michelle Obama