Today I was looking through a folder hierarchy and discovered that I had two folders with the exact same name. Not a problem for the OS, of course, but it did confuse me once before. So I changed the second iteration two something a little more logical. Then, I noticed that there was text showing up on the web site I had edited just before dinner, I had cleaned out some cruft in the CSS file. I had a pretty good idea where the error was so I just opened up Time Machine to get an earlier version of that file to double-check. I know, if I had double-checked the editing, his whole "learning experience" wouldn't have occurred!
So, there was
TM "Way Back" screen in all its glory and...and...
there was no indication that the folder I was looking for was even there!!!
There was the recently renamed folder, but it was from a backup
after the editing, not before. And that was the only 'page' available! Nothing prior to that one backup was anywhere to be seen!
Of course not! That folder had only been around since just before that last backup! And, since the name had changed, there wasn't any way to get back into that previous folder Starting at the a higher point in the hierarchy wouldn't work. As soon as I reached that renamed folder, the 'time line' list simply disappeared.
The solution is simple, of course. Exit
TM, rename that folder to what it had been before that backup. Re-enter
TM and everything is back to normal. Except for that one backup, which has the folder grayed out. But those are the only files saved in that hierarchy, so I don't really have any lost data.
Moral of the story? Remember that
TM expects folder names to look like they are at the moment you open it, not what they were before you changed their name(s). Next time it looks like
TM has 'eaten' some files, Stop, Look, Listen to your brain!
And be careful rearranging the hierarchies of folders!
You may end up confusing
TM when you need to look inside some of them weeks/months later!
