Restore your Mac from a backup
Use Migration Assistant to transfer files from your Time Machine backup to your Mac.
If you made a Time Machine backup of your Mac, Migration Assistant can use that backup to restore all of your personal files, including your apps and everything in your user account. If you prefer to restore just a few files or earlier versions of those files, find out how to use Time Machine to restore specific files instead.
Use Migration Assistant
If you need to reinstall macOS, do that before continuing. For example, if your Mac starts up to a flashing question mark, you first need to reinstall macOS. Find out how to reinstall macOS.
Make sure your Time Machine backup disk is connected to your Mac and turned on.
Open Migration Assistant:
If your Mac starts up to a setup assistant, which asks for details such as your country and network, skip to the next step, because migration is part of that setup.
If you already completed initial setup of your Mac, open Migration Assistant. You can find it in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder. Or use Spotlight to find and open it. If asked for permission to make changes, enter your administrator password.
When asked how you want to transfer your information, select the option to transfer from a Mac, Time Machine or startup disk. Then click Continue.
Select your Time Machine backup disk. It may take a few moments to appear. Then click Continue.
Select a backup and click Continue. If Continue is dimmed or you want to use an older backup, click the disclosure arrow
next to the backup shown, then select a backup.
Migration Assistant calculates how much storage space is used by all of your information, including applications, user accounts, files, folders and settings. Wait for the calculation to complete.
Select the box next to each category of files that you want to transfer. Or click the disclosure arrow
next to a category and select specific items within it. Click Continue when finished.
In the example pictured, Danny Rico and Olivia Rico are user accounts.
If transferring an administrator account, you’ll be asked to click Set Password and enter a secure password. Remember this password. You will need it to log in to the account on your Mac.
If transferring a standard account, a temporary password is assigned and appears onscreen. Write down this password. When the user first logs in, they must enter this password, then enter their own new password when prompted.
If an account with the same name already exists on your Mac, you’re asked to choose:
Replace the account on your Mac with the account from the Time Machine backup. You may also have the option to keep a copy of the replaced account’s data by moving it to the Deleted Users folder, where you can access that data later.
Or rename the old account before transferring it to your Mac. This keeps both accounts, so that you can log in to them separately on your Mac.
If asked for the password of an existing user who is already authorised on your Mac, click Authorise, then enter that account's password.
Large transfers may need hours to be completed, and may seem to pause occasionally. After Migration Assistant has finished, quit Migration Assistant, then log in to the migrated account on your Mac.