(Archived) Single File Recovery From Time Machine

[Scooter 11]

Hi:

I deleted a bunch of files some time ago, and need to recover ONE. I'm sure it's been caught by my Time Machine backup, but...

I can't find it in search (even using a third party "Real time" search, not just relying on the spotlight index).

I don't want to 'recover' my whole computer back to where it was in January.

In the past I've just naviagted to the originaly file and copy it back to my primary drive, but I do that with an Evernote file because there file naming is arbitrary.

Any ideas?

[anjoschu 67]

Edit: I assume that you already looked into the trash and also checked the note history.

If you are only looking for a FILE (that is, a file attached to Evernote), AND if the file content is searchable through Spotlight AND if you know how to find said file's content through Spotlight, you can go about it like this:

1. In Finder, navigate to the directory /Users/[your username]/Library/Application Support/Evernote/data (To get to the Library directory on Lion, you will need to open Finder's "Go to" menu, hold down the alt key and click on "Library" which magically appears).

2. A Finder window appears. Activate Time Machine and use it to find your backup'd file in this Finder window using a combination of search & TM's arrows.

In case that your file is not searchable, you might still be able to find the text body of the accompanying note (a file called "content.html"). When you find that one, you can use ctrl-click -> open containing folder to get to the right directory where you should also find the file when going back using TM.

If this doesn't work for you, you will unfortunately need to invest more time:

See this knowledge base article for a detailed description on how to restore stuff:

https://support.ever...Data-under-OS-X

Essentially it means temporarily doing a COMPLETE restore of all Evernote data, salvaging the one thing you're after, and then re-restoring the previous state, which is a complex process to say the least.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Quote deleted since it was determined to be spam & not even appropriate to the topic at hand. (SHAME ON YOU!)

What is your affiliation with this website/app? People who join a board & their first/only post is for another piece of software tend to come across as spammers. If it's your app, fine. Say so, rather than trying to come across as just another user, which is very offputting.

[anjoschu 67]

It's clearly spam. The advertised software is a standard "undelete" software to restore recently deleted and not-yet-overwritten files. It would be of no use whatsoever in the posted scenario. I've reported the post as spam.

[gbarry 2,658]

Yup. Deleting, thanks for the catch anjoschu!