Restoring a file or version
One restore screen, go back to a day you remember, pick the version that looks right, restore it or save a copy.
Find it
From the Overview screen, search by name (“thesis”, “invoice March”) or use the shortcuts: Deleted recently, Changed today, Desktop, Documents, Photos. Or open Browse & Restore and go back to a day you remember having the file.
Go back in time
Browse & Restore shows your Mac as it was at a moment you choose. The timeline has three levels — weeks, days and hours — and taller bars mean more files changed. Select a file and the timeline marks exactly when that file changed; Earlier and Later then stop only at those changes, so you never scroll through hours where nothing happened.
Folders show every file as it was at that moment, with a filter for All, Changed and Deleted, and a column that says how each file compares with today’s: Same, Older version, or Deleted with the date.
Pick the version by sight
Select a file and the preview panel shows it as it was — pages of a document, the image itself, with the part that differs from today highlighted. Under the preview is a strip of versions with their times; each one has a preview too. Versions from the last 24 hours are still on your Mac and restore instantly; older versions come from the cloud.
Restore it
- Restore This Version puts the file back where it was. Today’s file is kept too — Yester takes a snapshot before every restore — so you can always undo.
- Save a Copy… puts the version somewhere else and leaves today’s file alone.
- Full Preview opens the version full size without restoring anything.
You can restore a whole folder the same way.
Waiting for older files
Files from an external drive that haven’t changed in a long time, and Mac versions older than a year, live in archival storage. They still restore, but they take up to 12 hours to arrive. Yester shows the restore as pending with an estimate, queues it, and sends you a notification when it’s ready. Recent files never wait.