I had to restore from a Timeshift backup today. I thought all was swell until I went to work on creating a new file.
Instead of my file system calling the file like this: /usr/share/applications/Xubuntu.desktop , it's calling it like this: /media/charlieg/5915e2b5-c1ba-44ed-a93a-a437b8a1a85e/usr/share/applications/Xubuntu.desktop
When I try to save the file as ~/.local/usr/share/applications/Xubuntu.desktop nano gives an error saying that root directory does not exsist. IKES!!
It's impossible to work like this. Why is it seeing it as a media device instead of my actual computer and how in the world do I fix this?
It is reading it as if it was in the location of where your TimeShift saved the files to, instead of your actual location.
(This is why I do my backups manually and independently and not rely on backup utilities.)
Most importantly, it is always preferred to Not Back Up Root. I know that since a lot of people use these utilities in hopes of not having to reinstall some apps... But it is not unusual that by the time your system crashes to the point of needing restoration, the damage that was done got saved into the Timeshift backup.
This is why Timeshift and deja dup exclude Root by default.