How to download files from old backup mac

If you don't have your old Mac, just use the latest backup on file on with Time Machine on your external hard drive. Here's the easy part. Just connect the external hard drive that you were storing your old Mac's Time Machine backups on.

If you were using the same external hard drive for you old and new Mac, you've already completed the first step! If you're on a network attached storage NAS hard drive to save and store backups, you may have noticed that you're having a difficult time accessing files from your old Mac on the hard drive.

I don't personally use a NAS, and so have not been able to test this method, but StackExchange user bofolsen noted that you can access restricted NAS file on your new computer after you create a new User with the same login credentials as the one you used with your old Mac. Enter your user account password. Select the information to transfer.

In this example, John Appleseed is a macOS user account. If it has the same name as an account already on your Mac, you're prompted to either rename the old account or replace the one on your Mac. If you rename, the old account will appear as a separate user on your Mac, with a separate home folder and login. If you replace, the old account will delete and then replace the account on your Mac, including everything in its home folder. Click Continue to start the transfer. Large transfers might need several hours to complete.

Published Date: November 12, In this example, John Appleseed is a macOS user account. If it has the same name as an account already on your new Mac, you're prompted to either rename the old account or replace the one on your new Mac.

If you rename, the old account will appear as a separate user on your new Mac, with a separate home folder and login. If you replace, the old account will delete and then replace the account on your new Mac, including everything in its home folder.

Click Continue to start the transfer. Large transfers might need several hours to complete. After Migration Assistant is done, quit Migration Assistant on both computers, then log in to the migrated account on your new Mac to see its files.

Published Date: October 27, Yes No. Character limit: