How do I restore my Mac to an earlier date without Time Machine? You’ve accidentally messed up some things on your Mac without a Time Machine backup. Now, you need to restore your Mac to an earlier date without the help of Apple’s helpful backup software.
Is that even possible?
Making Time Machine backups can be ridiculously time-consuming that most Mac users don’t even consider it. Most people that consider frequent Time Machine backups don’t wait for its conclusion before messing up with their systems. Either way, you need a solution that will help you recover your Mac without the help of Apple’s magic tool.
We’re here to help. In this article, you’ll learn some strategies to help you recover old files or restore your Mac to an earlier date without a Time Machine backup.
What does Time Machine do?
If you’re here, there are chances that you disabled Time Machine on your Mac soon after you purchased it. That’s not a relatively uncommon or bad thing. Most times, Time Machine is simply useless without an additional disk to store Time Machine backups.
Unless you have an external backup disk, turning off Time Machine will be the best option for you. However, losing most of your data in the case of a disk failure is even a worse option. When you desperately need to recover some of your data, you’ll wish you had a backup disk.
But you can also lose data on your Mac even if you were a devoted user of Time Machine. Since Time Machine relies on an external storage device to work, the backups are stored on your computer when the hard disk is disconnected.
Since the backups are still on your computer, you’ll lose all the backups that haven’t transferred to your backup disk.
If you fall into either of these dilemmas, there might be a way out.
How do I Restore my Mac to an Earlier Date Without Time Machine?
If you don’t have a Time Machine backup, you may need to rely on external software to recover some data from your Mac.
While some of this software might not work perfectly, they’re still worth trying if you want any chances of recovering your lost files.
Here is a list of free and paid software that can help you recover lost files or restore your Mac to an earlier date, even if you don’t have a Time Machine backup.
EaseUS Data Recovery Software
Of all the software solutions that promise to help you recover lost files from your Mac, EaseUS has one of the best press coverages.
EaseUS has data recovery software for all major operating systems, and most of their software work partly for free.
The EaseUS Data Recovery Software for Mac lets you recover files you’ve lost without a Time Machine backup. You can recover up to 2GB using the free version, and you’ll need to pay for a pro license to recover more files.
If all the files you need are recoverable, there is no harm in paying the premium for the functionality. Here are the steps required to recover data on a Mac using EaseUS Data Recovery Software.
- Download and install the program on your Mac.
- Launch the program after the installation is successful.
- Select the location of the lost files.
- If you’re trying to recover all the files from a computer, you may need to use the SSD as an external hard disk for another Mac to make it work.
Also, you’ll need a premium license as I doubt anyone has less than 2GB of important stuff on their Mac.
- Tap on the scan button after selecting the disk you want to restore and wait for the results to show up. You should see most of the files from the disk or folder in the results.
- Select the files you want to recover, and click on ‘Recover‘ to restore those files to a specified folder on your Mac.
It’s generally recommended that you don’t pay for the software until after scanning and discovering that you can recover your files.
Also, you shouldn’t download files to a disk before running a recovery scan. Copying new files to the disk overwrites the lost ones, making it less likely to recover your files.
If EaseUS doesn’t seem to work for you, you can try alternative recovery software like AnyRecover.
AnyRecover
AnyRecover works exactly like EaseUS Data Recovery Software, and like EaseUS, it is also available for Windows and macOS computers.
AnyRecover lets you recover up to 1000 different file types; not individual files, but file types. These file types include various document formats, ebooks, videos, and photos.
If you accidentally delete files from your Mac, USB drive, SD card, or hard disk without backing them up, you can recover them using AnyRecover.
The procedures for recovering files using AnyRecover are strikingly similar to that of EaseUS Data Recovery Software. However, the success rates of both programs make the difference.
To restore files on your Mac using AnyRecover, follow the steps below.
- Launch the program on your Mac.
- Select the folders where you want to recover files.
- If you need to recover files from an entire disk, connect it to your computer and click on it to continue.
- Click ‘Start’ to commence the scan. Depending on the size of the lost items, this process might take a while.
- After completing the scan, select all of the files you’ll like to recover and click ‘Recover.’ You can click on the checkbox at the top to recover every recoverable file.
And that’s how to restore lost files on a Mac using AnyRecover without a Time Machine backup. The best thing about the entire process is that it’s free.
Conclusion
Time Machine is one of the best utilities in a Mac. It is a lifesaver for those moments when your hard drive fails and all your files are on the verge of a loss.
What if you didn’t make a Time Machine backup before losing a file?
Well, it’s never lost forever. With any of the recommended programs in this article, you can always restore your Mac to an earlier date without a Time Machine backup.