Retrieving a backup copy

[Dardel]

I made a mistake in my family file, no way to undo it (merging two sources by accident), so I wanted to replace my current file with a backup made a few hours earlier.
I tried to copy the backup file to Dropbox, but a message said I was not authorised to do it.
Then, I trashed the faulty file from Dropbox and tried to put the backup file in its place, but there was some other message and the final family file was 177 kB instead of 60.1 MB. That tiny file obviously refused to open.
Then I copied the backup file to my hard disk instead of Dropbox, and then the file had the proper size but refused to open again: I double-clicked, Reunion just started and nothing else happened: the file wasn't opened.
I have another "safety copy" of my file on my hard disk, and that one can be opened, but it is one week old and I did many changes last week.
In short: can I use a backup copy produced by TimeMachine?

[mjashby]

Re: Retrieving a backup copy

The short answer is 'Yes', but try Reunion's own Help File for very detailed explanations. Just search the Help File for 'Backup' (without the quotation marks) and you will find a great deal of detail, including an explanation of why backup files can be much smaller in size than the original. However, in your case, the extremely small size of the backup file and the problems you've had in attempting to restore it, suggest that either the backup process may not have completed correctly, or the backup file became corrupted in some way after completion.

Mervyn

[Dardel]

Re: Retrieving a backup copy

The short answer is 'Yes', but try Reunion's own Help File for very detailed explanations. Just search the Help File for 'Backup' (without the quotation marks) and you will find a great deal of detail, including an explanation of why backup files can be much smaller in size than the original. However, in your case, the extremely small size of the backup file and the problems you've had in attempting to restore it, suggest that either the backup process may not have completed correctly, or the backup file became corrupted in some way after completion.

Mervyn

Thanks Mervyn. I have read that carefully, and tried again to copy my family file from a TimeMachine backup (after closing Reunion). When I copy this file, a message says "The operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access Dardel 11.familyfile11".
The file however seems to have been copied, but I cannot open it. Copy to my HD shows the original size of 60.1 MB, copy to Dropbox has only a size of 177 kB.
Curiously, when I try to open the file on my HD, without asking, my 9 days old backup file (Dardel 11 Copie 2016-05-01.familyfile11) opens.

[Dardel]

Re: Retrieving a backup copy

It seems I have a problem with Time Machine, that has blocked permission to access some (not all ???) files and folders. I have been able to work around this using the method presented here: http://pondini.org/TM/E10.html, and I could restore my family file, losing only 5 days of updates and corrections.
So the problem was NOT related to Reunion. Sorry for the inconvenience.

However, all started because I inadvertently merged two sources, and was not able to undo that...