backup document stuck in trash
QSomehow I’ve managed to put a document from one of my Time Machine backups into the Trash. It can’t be deleted there, and I can’t return it to its backup. How can I get rid of it?
AOriginally, Time Machine enabled you to remove items from its backups using the Trash, but since this can cause havoc and damage those backups, they’re now protected by the same System Integrity Protection (SIP) that applies to macOS system files. That occasionally leads to this type of problem.
More recent versions of macOS should offer a command to Put Back that item in the Finder’s contextual menu: select the document in the Trash and right-click to see if that’s available. If it isn’t, or doesn’t work, you’re
going to have to disable SIP in Recovery mode before dealing with the file. This is one of very few reasons for disabling SIP, one of your Mac’s primary protection systems, and must be used with great care.
Restart your Mac in Recovery mode holding ç+R, open Terminal there and type in the command: csrutil disable; reboot When you press ® your Mac will then restart in regular mode again. If possible, replace that file from Trash into the correct backup to minimise any risk of damage to those backups or, if you can’t, just empty the Trash. As soon as you’ve done that, restart in Recovery mode again, then in Terminal type the following command:
csrutil enable; reboot
Once again, your Mac will restart in regular mode, where the problem should be fixed.