Recovering Mac Screenwriter .TMB and .BK files

If your original Screenwriter document is damaged for some reason, there are two different backup files Screenwriter creates to help capture your document's contents as you write and save.  The first are timed backup files that have the extension .TMB, and the others are backups of previous versions with the extension .BK that are created every time you save manually (CMD+S or File>Save).

NOTE:  As an additional matter of keeping your documents save, we recommend that you use Apple's Time Machine to back up your documents, as well as copying the documents from your hard drive to external drives, such as thumb drives and cloud drives (e.g. iCloud) to protect against hardware crashes.

RECOVERING .TMB FILES

1. Press CMD+SPACEBAR
2. This will open the MacOS built-in app, Spotlight
3. Type ".TMB"
4. Spotlight will list a number of items
5. Scroll to the bottom of the list and double-click on "Show all in Finder..."
6. This opens a window in the finder with the full list
7. Scroll to the section labelled "Other" and see if there is a Screenwriter document with your script's name followed by .tmb. 
8. IF YOU DON'T FIND IT, SKIP TO THE END to read about .BK files
9. IF YOU FIND IT, right-click on the document and choose the "Show in Enclosing folder" option -- this opens a new window in the Finder with your document highlighted
10. Right-click on the highlighted document and choose the Duplicate option to create a new copy of the timed backup file
11. Select the original .TMB file, right-click on it and select the Rename option
12. Change the name slightly so that you know it is not the original, but also change the extension from .tmb to .mmsw
13. Press RETURN once you have finished renaming the file
14. You will be asked to confirm your extension change -- click on the Use .mmsw button to confirm the extension change
15. Double-click on the 'new' .mmsw document -- it should open in Screenwriter
16. If the file looks good, make a small change and use File>Save to save your document
17. If the file does not have what you're looking for, quit Screenwriter and follow the directions to retrieve your .BK (Screenwriter's backup) file

RECOVERING .BK FIlES

1. If the .TMB file cannot be recovered, recover the latest .BK file.  This will be a file of the SAME NAME as the .mmsw script document you are having problems opening.  It will be located in a folder called "Previous Documents".  That folder can be in many places, and there may be multiple copies, but generally it is a folder located in the same place as the document you are having problems opening.
2. Once you have located the most recent copy of your document with a .BK extension, make a Duplicate of it (in the Finder) by either using the File>Duplicate menu command.
3. RENAME the .BK extension to .mmsw.
4. You should be able to open that document using Movie Magic Screenwriter.
5. As an alternative, instead of using a .BK backup you can restore any external copy / backup of the .mmsw script document you may have made in the past.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Understanding difference between Timed Backups (.tmb) and Previous Version Backups (.BK) files