How to delete folders from time machine

I have all this information backed up onto an external drive , and I want to delete some of the back up folders to make room on that external hard drive.
How is this done? Can someone direct me to a "tutorial" as to how this is done?
thanks

First, why do you want to make room on the external hard drive? If it's for "other" data besides Time Machine backups, that's a losing proposition. What you really need to do is partition the disk so Time Machine has it's own, exclusive space. See #3 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum, for details and instructions.
You can delete individual backups, or all backups of selected items, via Time Machine. See #12 in the FAQ Tip. As it says, do not use the Finder.
If it's because a backup has failed for lack of space, see #C4 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

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How to delete files from time machine volume

Before selling my old MacBook Pro, I had backed up all my data on to an external WD hard drive using Time Machine. I had since switched to a desktop but since I did not have any need for the MacBook Pro files at the time, I had put aside that WD hard drive. Recently, I wanted to clear some space on that external drive to make way for some of my present files. I drilled down in to Backups.backupdb and tried to delete files, but was met with the error "
An error occurred.The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -5000.) Insufficient access privileges for operation".
It did prompt me for a username and password before showing that message. I tried both my current user/pass as well as (what I remember to be) my old user/pass on the MacBook Pro. Both presented me with the same error message.
I also did try to mount the drive as Time Machine on my present system, and then try to enter Time Machine and delete it from there. However, clicking on "Enter Time Machine ... " does nothing.
Any ideas?

Hi Linc,
my back-up data is managed by Time Machine; the actual data is on a second internal Hard Drive with a capacity of 1TB - not partitioned. I am using Time Machine and have access to all data backed up since Mavericks Clean Install but not the data prior to this date.
When I open the 1TB drive in Finder I can see a folder "Backups.backupdb/Sigi's Mac Pro/ followed by many folders of backup dates going back to 2010-09-20-103441 and up to 2014-02-07-142414 all followed with folder Macintosh HD. February 7th 2014 was the date of the clean install.
These Backups are followed by backup date folder 2014-02-08-075554 with a subfolder of MacPro-320GB (this is the name I assigned to my Boot Drive during formatting; I suspect I should have assigned the same name as before ie. Macintosh HD) and 2014-02-11 with a subfolder Macintosh HD, these are the ones I get access to by way of Time Machine > Restore.
Weird thing is on Febr 11 when I relised my possible mistake and renamed the Bootdrive back to what it was initially ie. Macintosh HD despite this I have access to all backup data since the Clean Install in both folders MacPro-320GB as well as Macintosh HD but not to any data prior to the Clean Install.
Is there something that Time Machine knows and prevents access or is it simply a matter of renaming the subfolder 2014-02-08-07554/MacPro-320GB to ........./Macintosh HD?
I like to restore selectively and not everything - It was hard work reinstalling apps that were supposed to be the troublemakers (ref my discussion on Maverick problems) but I now need to get onto data specific to some of these apps as well as other data I may have missed. Long story? Yes and sorry.
Sigi

How do you delete file from time machine back up?

How do you delete file from time machine back up?

This from Apple KB Article If Time Machine is not in your Dock, you can enter Time Machine from the Menu Bar or System Preferences.
Deleting data from a Time Machine backup
To delete all backups of one or more items from a Time Machine backup, follow these steps:
Click the Time Machine icon on your Dock to enter the Time Machine restore interface.
Click on the item you would like to delete. Command-click to select multiple items.
Control-click (or right click) the highlighted item(s) and select "Delete All Backups of..." from the contextual menu, or select "Delete all backups of..." from the Action Item menu.
Authenticate with an administrator password when prompted.

Can't restore folders from Time Machine after Lion

Hello guys,
after upgrading to Lion 10.7.1 I can't seem able to restore some old folders from Time Machine
Here's what happens: I log in TM, I can scroll through my old backups, I can choose the folders I want to restore, I can click on the folder, but when the systems tries to restore it, it stops saying that I don't have the privileges to access file A in the folder (and then all the procedure is stopped).
Oddly (at least for me) if I try to restore just that same file A (and not the whole folder) that I should have no privileges for, from the same old backup, I can do it, but I have to give the system my password: It pops up a window saying something "Finder is willing to make some modification, can you authorize?" (forgive i'm translating the alert from another language) and then I can restore it.
Has anybody else this problem and how can be solved?
Many thanks
Ps: I did a simple upgrade on Lion, no partition, no blank disk, and never changed anything in my user preferences, it's always the same, administrator
Pps: Before Lion I could restore easily exactly the same folders and files I tried to restore with Lion

wrongusername wrote:
But if I transfer everything with the Setup Assistant, won't I once again be experiencing the problems I had?
If the problems were caused by your data. But that's extremely unlikely. It may have been an app, or, much more likely from your description, something corrupted in the Leopard OS. That's one of the problems with upgrading a sick system without knowing what or where the causes are. It's a bit like a brain surgeon operating on himself: if he isn't in tip-top shape to start with, his condition is likely to change, and not for the better.
Most of us would have recommended first simply doing a +*Repair Disk+* on your internal HD; if that didn't help, installing the "combo" Leopard update; if that didn't work, doing an +Archive and Install+ and re-installing the "combo."
After a clean re-install of Snow Leopard, my Mac worked fine again (except for the TM trouble). So it probably had something to do with my old files.
Probably not. Much more likely OSX was somehow damaged. And you got a whole new one.
How come I could read the files on my external HD and yet not be able to copy the files?
Time Machine uses special "deny everybody everything" permissions on it's backups, among other things, in an attempt to keep us mere mortals from moving, changing, or deleting things and corrupting them.

Deleting Backups from Time Machine to Make Room

Deleting Backups from Time Machine to Make Room
So, I went into my 1.5 terabyte back-up drive and deleted a number of the TM backups because the drive was getting too full. (I also use that drive to store “permanent” photo files in other folders.)
Evidently, the computer does not recognize the deletions because the drive shows the same miniscule amount of space as it did prior to the deletions.
I know people have talked about using “actions” button in the gear icon. However, I can’t find that.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Tek

Thanks for the reply, V.K.
Unfortunately, I deleted via the finder and then emptied the trash. :-}
I know now, (after the fact) that this was the wrong thing to do. However, I didn’t find a “delete” option within TM.
It all seemed “logical” at the time. . . and quite frankly, still does. Why the heck is TM so difficult to control? Why can’t one just set it for X number of backups and have an easy to access delete button? (grumble, grumble)
I looked at the FAQs, but am still not clear on how to find the “action” button. I am using a laptop with no “right click” feature. The mouse is a one piece model.
My backup drive is directly attached, but, only when I want to backup since I work on a MB pro laptop.
So please:
How do I correct this?
Do I need to format the backup drive and partition? I don’t want/need so many backups cluttering my drive. I need space for permanent photo archives which are very large. These are now merely in a separate folder on the backup drive.

Delete hardrive from time machine

how to delete hardrive from time machine

Not quite sure what you're asking. Time Machine is normally an external hard drive - are you perhaps wanting to eject it or erase it? Perhaps you could clarify what you wish to do.

Is it possible to delete files from time machine?

Is it possible to delete files from time machine? I had a drive crash, restored the files to a new drive, and now the old versions and the new versions of the files are both backed up, taking up a mountain of drive space. Do I just have to wait 'til the drive gets full and then tell it what to delete first?

Hi, I need help in a related problem. I have 500gb time capsule. I needed larger hard drive, so I now use TM to back up to a different 1tb hard drive. So I don't need the TC as a TM back up device. But I want to use the TC's hard drive as an extra external hard drive. I deleted the files that were on it. but it still shows it has a sparsebundle file with a size of over 400gb ( probably the size of the old backups). When I use disk utility to try to erase it, I am not offered the erase tab. This "disk" does show on the desk top as a mounted disk (I think) with only 53 gb free. How can I set this up so all the disk space is free and I can use it for storing files, not as a back up? Thanks

How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks

How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks. I know the data is there but seems unaccessable because I may have changed the Computer or Owner name. Is there any way to fix that now?

Hi Linc,
my back-up data is managed by Time Machine; the actual data is on a second internal Hard Drive with a capacity of 1TB - not partitioned. I am using Time Machine and have access to all data backed up since Mavericks Clean Install but not the data prior to this date.
When I open the 1TB drive in Finder I can see a folder "Backups.backupdb/Sigi's Mac Pro/ followed by many folders of backup dates going back to 2010-09-20-103441 and up to 2014-02-07-142414 all followed with folder Macintosh HD. February 7th 2014 was the date of the clean install.
These Backups are followed by backup date folder 2014-02-08-075554 with a subfolder of MacPro-320GB (this is the name I assigned to my Boot Drive during formatting; I suspect I should have assigned the same name as before ie. Macintosh HD) and 2014-02-11 with a subfolder Macintosh HD, these are the ones I get access to by way of Time Machine > Restore.
Weird thing is on Febr 11 when I relised my possible mistake and renamed the Bootdrive back to what it was initially ie. Macintosh HD despite this I have access to all backup data since the Clean Install in both folders MacPro-320GB as well as Macintosh HD but not to any data prior to the Clean Install.
Is there something that Time Machine knows and prevents access or is it simply a matter of renaming the subfolder 2014-02-08-07554/MacPro-320GB to ........./Macintosh HD?
I like to restore selectively and not everything - It was hard work reinstalling apps that were supposed to be the troublemakers (ref my discussion on Maverick problems) but I now need to get onto data specific to some of these apps as well as other data I may have missed. Long story? Yes and sorry.
Sigi

How do I transfer from time machine lightroom programme to my girlfriends computer (backed up on time machine) with out setting up my full desktop - i need it until i can afford a new computer to restore my old set up completely.

How do I transfer from time machine adobe lightroom programme to my girlfriends computer (backed up on my hard drive via time machine) with out setting up my full desktop - i need it until i can afford a new computer to restore my old set up completely.
Any ideas, I can access files - i.e. jpegs of old work, but can't edit new photos...
P

If you have a license for Lightroom, you should be able to reinstall it from an installer disc or re-download it from Adobe after explaining the situation and clarifying the license issues. Either will be simpler than trying to extract and install it from a TM backup of a different Mac, I think. If it's anything like other Adobe products, it has bits and pieces all over the place that you'll have to find and put in their right places on your girlfirend's Mac.

I can not restore folders from time machine

installed a new HD per apple tech and email from apple. now i can not restore any folders from time machine to the new HD. i have been working on this for hours and hours. Please help

See Pondini's TM FAQs for starters.

How can I restore a deleted calendar from time machine

I accidentally deleted one of my calendars. How can I restore it from time machine?

I'm not sure why it didn't work. I deleted the old Calendar folder and then replaced it with a Time Machine version of the same folder from the previous day. Then I opened iCal and there was still nothing there.
The reason I just deleted Calendar folder and it's sub-folders and tried to start from scratch is because I could tell which sub-folder was for any one specific calendar since the sub-folder names were in some sort of code.

How do I restore individual files/folders from Time Machine to a PC?

My Mac of six years have crashed and been sent to the apple hospital for surgery, but I had time machine backing up all my files. Yah! Now with the help of 'macdrive' I can see the files on my windows computer, but when I tried to restore any individual files or folders to the pc, nothing.
I would click on the files from my external drive and a box comes up for 'where do you want to copy selected files?'. Right-clicking only provide the 'copy', 'copy to', and 'create a shortup' options. Whichever options I try, no copies/restored files is created.
How do I restore the files (not the entire system, just pictures and documents) to a windows computer?
Help please

You need to be more specific what types of files are you trying to restore. It sounds like you just need to learn how to use TM which is pretty darn easy. Here is one good article and you can always use Apple's find out how video on TM.
Time Machine FAQ

How do I recover accidentally deleted bookmarks from time machine.

I use lion os I still have the bookmarks on my ipad and iphone. I stopped the auto sync.
Is there a way to import my old bookmarks from time machine?
I can't find it .
As a side note I was deleting bookmarks with the keyboard delete key and it ran away deleting bookmarks long after I let up. Then safari froze. died and lost the bookmarks

I don't know why you moved the app. Move the application back into your "Applications" folder which is where it belongs and should always stay. Then drag the app down to your Dock, if the Dock icon is not there already.
Now, open AddressBook. The click on the TM icon on your Dock. Now do you see the TM screen with AB open? Good. Use the TM time arrow back button until AB appears the way it used to be. Then click restore.
-mj
[email protected]

Deleting folders on Time Machine backup disk

How do I delete certain folders on the TM backup disk? There seems to be a tool in time machine to do that, but it doesn't seem to work.
I've tried choosing a folder (safari cache ~/Library/Caches/Safari), then selecting tools/delete all backups of "Safari". Then nothing happens. It asks me to confirm the delete but it doesn't do anything else. No disk activity. No freed space on the backup disk. The folder remains there even though I close time machine and re-enter it.
The folder is currently excluded from Time machine backups but I'd like to get rid of the old crap in there.
/hv

~/Library/Caches is not backed up by TM so there is nothing to delete there.
To see the list of things that TM never backs up Quciklook
/System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/StdExclusions.pli st

Cannot restore some files/folders from Time Machine Backup

When I try and restore files or folders from my Pictures folder, which is a sub folder of my user I get the message "The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access xxxx". As far as I can tell this has only just started to happen because I've recovered stuff from the folder since I bought the machine in July. Yesterday I deleted an old Time Machine backup folder from the Time Machine disc. This caused empty trash to go berserk - the "files to delete" count went negative and I had to stop/restart the empty trash command about 20 times before it sorted itself out. Maybe this has screwed some permissions somewhere? I have run disc utility and repaied permissions on my hard drive and verified the TM drive. Still no joy. The permissions for Pictures look OK. Anyone any ideas?

Yesterday I deleted an old Time Machine backup folder from the Time Machine disc. This caused empty trash to go berserk - the "files to delete" count went negative
Probably you corrupted your Time Machine Backup by manually deleting older backups- that is dangerous.
See Pondni's advice on how to fix it - Time Machine trouble Shooting
I hope that helps
Léonie

How to delete folders from time machine

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