Can't get Time Machine to work

When I select a date in Time Machine, nothing happens. My external drive is connected OK. What could be the matter with it?

What are you trying to restore?
Did you select a specific app?

I didn't know I had to select something specific (if only there were instructions with thses things!)  thanks for pointing that out! What I am trying to do is to restore a particular Outlook folder of emails that disappeared.

What you're going to need to do is:

Before running Time Machine, open Outlook on your Mac. Now open Time Machine and choose which date you wish to restore the Outlook data base from. When you find the lost folder of mail, select restore. You'll be asked to verify the restore.

If you don't open Outlook first on your Mac, Time Machine will not be able to locate the mail folder. The same applies to restoring Mac Mail from Time Machine.

That doesn't seem to work. Time machine just shows one of the folders that's open on my Desktop

That should have worked if in fact you correctly made the Time Machine backups and did not exclude anything. Are your Outlook eMail messages still being stored on the server? Perhaps you can get at them that way.

I have since been advised that I needed to open the folder in Documents / Microsoft User Data / Office 2011 Identities, and then enter Tima Machine; I did that, but the folders in there don't seem to contain any of my mail or my outlook mail folders. I'd be grateful if you could explain further.

I have since been advised that I needed to open the folder in Documents / Microsoft User Data / Office 2011 Identities, and then enter Tima Machine; I did that, but the folders in there don't seem to contain any of my mail or my outlook mail folders. I'd be grateful if you could explain further.

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That's what I was getting at in my original reply to you. It should have worked if those folders were backed up correctly by Time Machine. It works for me.

The Outlook data is buried fairly deep, so make sure you open all the folders which are below "Office 2011 Identities".

The folders saved in my Data Records in Office 2011 Identities are unrecognisable! They have strange codes instead of their original names, and they won't open. So I can't see how I will be able to find the folder I've lost, let alone the contents within it. If anyone has any suggestions I'fd be grateful. This Time Machine is not at all the useful feature I imagined it would be.