testing manual iphone 14 pro max backup and restore to macbook 15.1 (24B83) and restore

I have been manually backing up my iphone to macbook via Finder then using time machine to back up macbook to external hard drive.

iphone backup on macbook is taking over 100gb of storage space so I want to delete.

So I decided to test if I could delete iphone backup on macbook and restore from the external hard drive.

Apple Support have advised I have to use migration app to do this ... migration app is scary ... because I don't know which box to tick out of Applications; User; other files/folders; system & network because I'm unsure which section the hidden file is in. I tried ticking "other files/folders" but the backup file hadn't been restored to it's place in Macbook (mobilesync folder which is only accessible via go>gotofolder). The file is still in the trash so I haven't lost it.

I was going to try to tick user box but a scary instruction came up to set a password for the admin account. also in the instructions on support.apple.com it seems to indicate that unless I choose the "replace" option I will create a new user account.

surely there is some easier way to restore ONE file ...

interestingly since I started this process I've had a message that imessage is no longer working on macbook and was asked to enter my apple account password and software update permission to install later tonigh also asked for a password that I had already entered earlier today.

#migration assistant #restore #restore iphone #iphonebackuptomacbook #restoremacbookbackupfromexternalharddrive