Where apps hide your files

Locating Time Machine backups

Updated 2026-10-28 · 6 min read

Where Time Machine puts your backups depends on the destination: a Backups.backupdb folder on older HFS+ disks, read-only snapshots on APFS disks and a disk image on a network share. This shows how to tell which you have, plus the local snapshots on your own drive.

Where the backups are

Time Machine writes to the disk or network share you chose, not to your Mac's own drive. What you find there depends on the kind of destination:

APFS backup disk (set up on Big Sur or later):
/Volumes/<backup disk>/                                  each backup is a read-only snapshot
HFS+ backup disk (older):
/Volumes/<backup disk>/Backups.backupdb/<Mac name>/<YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS>/
Network share (NAS, another Mac):
<share>/<Mac name>.sparsebundle   or   <Mac name>.backupbundle

The terms come from the tmutil manual page installed on every Mac (man tmutil). It defines Backups.backupdb as the top-level folder on an HFS+ backup disk and states that APFS backup disks do not have one: on APFS, the root of the disk is the Mac's machine directory and each backup is an APFS snapshot named like com.apple.TimeMachine.2026-10-28-120000.backup. When macOS mounts one to read it, the manual gives its path as /Volumes/.timemachine/<UUID>/<date>.backup/<date>.backup/<volume name>.

For a network destination, the manual describes the backup as a disk image, a sparse bundle that macOS mounts on the share and writes into. Since Catalina, some Macs name that image .backupbundle instead of .sparsebundle; Macworld reported the change and noted that Apple has not documented it. Either way it is one file per Mac, named after the Mac, and for backups started on Big Sur or later the volume inside it is APFS.

To ask the Mac where its backups go, without changing anything:

tmutil destinationinfo

It prints each configured destination: name, kind (local or network), the URL for a share and the mount point if it is connected. On a Mac without Time Machine set up, such as the one used for this guide, it says No destinations configured, which also answers "where did my backups go": nowhere on this Mac.

Which layout do I have?

• An APFS disk set up on macOS 11 Big Sur or later. Big Sur was the first macOS that could back up to APFS. Each backup is a snapshot of the backup volume, so there is no Backups.backupdb. Finder shows each backup as a folder named by date ending in .backup, but Howard Oakley's analysis at Eclectic Light shows Finder assembles that view, and Terminal and other apps see only one backup, named with .previous.
• A disk first used by an older Mac (HFS+). It has Backups.backupdb, with one dated folder per backup and a Latest link to the newest. You can browse these in Finder, but do not change anything inside: unchanged files are shared between backups.
• A NAS or other network share. One .sparsebundle or .backupbundle per Mac. Do not open, move or rename it while a backup runs.

A disk shared by old and new Macs can show more than one of these.

Browsing and restoring

Do not dig through the folders to restore files. Choose Browse Time Machine Backups from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar (the label in macOS's own resource file), or open the Time Machine app from /System/Applications. Select the files, folders or disk you want and click Restore, and they return to their original location.

System Settings > General > Time Machine is where you add disks and set options; the menu bar's Open Time Machine Settings opens it too.

tmutil listbackups lists this Mac's backups, but its manual says it needs root and Full Disk Access. On the Mac used for this guide, with no destination set, it answers No machine directory found for host.

Local snapshots on your own disk

Time Machine also keeps snapshots on your Mac's startup disk. Apple's support article says it saves one approximately every hour and keeps it for 24 hours, keeps an extra snapshot of your last successful backup until space is needed, and on High Sierra or later saves another before installing a macOS update. Your Mac counts the space they use as available storage.

List them, read-only:

tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

Each is named like com.apple.TimeMachine.2026-10-28-120000.local, and they are not folders you can open in Finder. To clear them early, Apple's route is to open Time Machine settings, click Options, set Backup Frequency to Manually and wait a few minutes. The manual also lists tmutil deletelocalsnapshots; given a disk instead of a date, it removes every local snapshot on that disk, so use Apple's route instead.

Space, and what is safe to delete

• Apple says Time Machine keeps hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month and weekly backups for all previous months, and deletes the oldest when the disk is full. It recommends a backup disk with at least twice your Mac's storage.
• To remove a backup yourself, use Time Machine rather than dragging folders to the Trash. Finder's own resource files include a Delete Backup command for this. The tmutil manual allows deleting a single path from a backup only on HFS+ disks, so on APFS you remove whole backups.
• Do not delete a sparse bundle, a backup bundle or a backup volume unless you mean to lose that Mac's entire history on it.

Changing the destination or moving to a new Mac

Adding a new disk in Time Machine settings leaves the old backups where they are. To bring an old backup to a new Mac, choose Migration Assistant during setup (or later from /Applications/Utilities), point it at the backup disk and choose what to bring.

Why a Finder search shows only the current file

A Finder search shows the copy of a file that is on your Mac now, not the dozens of past copies inside a backup. Old versions are reached through Time Machine's own browser, and on an APFS backup disk they live in snapshots that macOS mounts only while you browse.

Finding the files next time

Everywhere keeps the names of files on drives you have unplugged, but only scans external drives such as a backup disk once it has Full Disk Access. On an older HFS+ backup, where each backup is an ordinary dated folder, typing a file name can list the backed-up copies, with the date in each path. APFS backups are snapshots rather than ordinary folders, so for those use Time Machine's own browser. It matches names, not file contents.

Common questions

Where does Time Machine store backups on a Mac?

On the backup disk or network share you chose, not on the Mac itself. Older HFS+ disks have a Backups.backupdb folder, APFS disks store each backup as a snapshot with no such folder, and network backups are a disk image named after the Mac.

What is the difference between backupdb and backupbundle?

Backups.backupdb is the top-level folder on an HFS+ backup disk. A .sparsebundle or .backupbundle is the disk image Time Machine creates on a network share; Macs running Catalina or later may use the .backupbundle name.

What are Time Machine local snapshots and where are they?

Snapshots on your Mac's own startup disk, taken about hourly and kept for 24 hours according to Apple. List them with tmutil listlocalsnapshots /; they do not appear as folders in Finder.

How do I see where my Time Machine backups are?

Run tmutil destinationinfo in Terminal, or open System Settings > General > Time Machine. If it says no destinations are configured, Time Machine is not set up on that Mac.