Speaking of Time Machine

[waterstrum]

I just had a very odd occurrence.
I opened DP8 and after opening a project, a window came up telling me that I had no MIDI configuration.
In my audio MIDI setup, the MIDI page went blank.
I've got a fairly complex setup and this was very disconcerting.
I went to Time Machine for backups and could not find a backup of the MIDI Configuration files.
I booted in to a fairly recent clone and was able to restore the settings.
Weird!
The only new thing was an install of some EW VI's.
Has anybody seen this?

FWIW, back up your MIDI Configuration files if you have a complicated setup.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I'll check my backups and let you know. Can we assume that the file or folder isn't excluded from the backup?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

You need to post your machine and OS please.

[mikehalloran]

You may need to restore all of your preference files by restoring the folder. You can do a Spotlight Search for files and folders but Spotlight cannot find specific preference files.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2492525

When restoring DP, I have never had success with restoring part through Time Machine -- not once ever. Too many items in too many different locations. Restoring the entire system to a specific time and date always works, however. You will need to re-authorize DP upon restore.

[waterstrum]

Thanks for the replies.
When I went to Time Machine, I was just searching a the specific MIDI Configuration file.
I didn't attempt to DP restore from that version.
I'm running 10.9.1 on a 2012 MacPro.

I'm not sure if I really understand Time Machine.
In this case, I wanted to keep everything from my current setup, and find a specific file from the past.
I was hoping to find that file and bring it forward to the present time.
I couldn't find the file in the TM backups.

I found it on a boot disk clone and brought it back.
Should I have been able to do that with Time Machine?

Thanks

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Are you trying to find a specific configuration or the plist containing all the configurations? You won't find the former and the later is cryptically buried but if the library is backed up the file is there. Let me know and I'll post the location when I'm on my desktop (unless someone else does first).

[mikehalloran]

Look for the file folder with Spotlight. You can restore it without overwriting the current file.

If the MIDI Configuration File is not in the project folder, the only way I know how to do this is to archive (zip) all the project folders that changed since that file was created and copy them to something - DropBox, a thumb drive or even burn them as data files to DVD. It is important that you zip them first to preserve headers and permissions (you don't want to add those headaches).

Next, run Time Machine Restore to the time and date when that file did what you want. Now copy your current project(s) back and unzip to a different directory (it can be inside a new folder).

[waterstrum]

Thanks for the assistance.
I was looking for the specific MIDI Configurations folder when I went back in TM.
I found it, but it was empty.

That being said, if I did restore from a TM backup, would everything work?
And if it didn't work, could I jump back to the present time?

In this case, I had installed a couple of EW virtual instruments.
Somehow the installation messed with my MIDI Configuration.
If I went back in time, would I have to re-install the VI's...?
Would I have to download them again?

Might the installation create the same error?

Sorry for the long winded post, I'm really confused about how Time Machine works.

Thanks