Time Machine No Longer Saves Lost Emails, Contacts, etc

[CJ Dorschel]

I've been using Time Machine since day 1 with .Mac and iCloud and could always recover lost Contacts, emails, etc within Core Apps. Now you cannot open Contacts or Mail to recover individual contacts or emails, etc. Many of us have filed bug reports with Apple since this began with Catalina. Initially it was an acknowledged bug, now Apple claims recovery is only possible with a full restore of Mail, Contacts, etc. which defeats one of the great features of Time Machine. Opening a core app and going back in time to recover a lost email has saved me many times. Opening Mail then Time Machine doesn't list older backups of emails. This is the case for my Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, iMac Pro, etc. Why has Apple completely ruined one of the best features of OS X?

I haven't updated my Mac's to Big Sur since development for many reasons. I'm considering going back to Mojave at this point. I've been keeping an eye out for any changes regarding how Time Machine operates hoping this is resolved. I'm hoping Apple brings back the ability to open Mail or Contacts with Time Machine to restore individual emails and contacts, etc. I don't understand this direction.

Has this been addressed or does anyone have any work arounds? Thanks!

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

In addition to that, you can no longer delete individual items within a TM backup on Big Sur using an APFS-based backup. Not sure if the same condition applies when using a traditional HFS-based backup.

Sadly, Apple seems to be slowly moving the TM model towards a simplified iOS-like model that's more of an one size fits all approach, without the ability to do concentrated, individual restores on anything other than files. I too miss the ability to restore contacts from TM using the Contacts application.

 

[omicronx9]

Sad the way Apple are gutting out macOS. The whole OS seems in disarray and suffering from crippling bugs and omissions.