Can I safely delete old Time Machine back ups?

I use a 1TB external drive for Time Machine but it's nearly full. There are 43 different back ups on the drive, can I safely delete all but the most recent one or two? I realize I would not be able to restore my system from a deleted back up but I can't think of a reson I'd want to. Would greatly appreciate any insight on this, thanks!
p.s. Why does Time Machine keep so many back ups in the first place? I can't find anything in preferences to limit the number of stored back ups. Is there a way to limit the number?

Hello:
I use a 1TB external drive for Time Machine but it's nearly full. There are 43 different back ups on the drive, can I safely delete all but the most recent one or two? I realize I would not be able to restore my system from a deleted back up but I can't think of a reson I'd want to.
It makes no sense to delete old backups.  Time Machine automatically deletes backups if it needs space.  If you start deleting backups, you will do it ONE at a time.
Why does Time Machine keep so many back ups in the first place?
It is designed that way.
Is there a way to limit the number?
No.
Why are you having a problem with the design of Time Machine?  Do you need, for some reason, extra space on the external drive?  If that is the case, you should have partitioned the external.
Barry

Similar Messages

  • How do you delete old time machine back ups?

    I have a 2009 iMac (currently on Snow Leopard) that has been using Time Machine (TM) to back up to a 2009 Time Capsule (TC) since new.  I have a 2011 Macbook Pro (currently on Snow Leopard soon to be Lion) that I would like to begin backing up using TM to the TC as well.  The problem is that I recently did one back up of the MBP to the TC and it used almost all of the remaining space on the TC.  Going forward the iMac has continued to back up to the TC creating space by deleting it's oldest back ups.  The MBP however says there is not enough space to back it up.  I am guessing that the TM for the MBP is unable to delete old back ups of the iMac to create space and since there is only 1 back up of the MBP it cannot delete that.
    So... long story short is it okay for me to go into the TC to delete old back ups of the iMac manually and if it is how do I do that?
    Thanks for your help in advance
    djbrown

    Is this more what you mean?
    Re: Can not delete sparsebundle backup 
    Nov 17, 2009 8:30 PM (in response to Ricardo Blach)
    +What I really need is to delete the old sparsebundle from the TC. How can I do that?+ 
    Open your Hard Drive and look for the Time Capsule icon under the SHARED heading. Click the TC icon and a folder will appear to the right. Double click this folder. 
    You should now see a xxxxx.sparsebundle file for each of the computers that have been backing up. The file contains the name of the computer and the MAC address so you should be able to easily identify the xxxxx.sparsebundle file that you want to delete. 
    Click the xxxxx.sparsebundle file to highlight it and then click the gear shaped icon just above and select Move to Trash. 
    Be very careful since you will not be able to retrieve the file if you make a mistake and delete the wrong file.
    That comes from https://discussions.apple.com/message/10595875#10595875
    ...and no, I don't think I'm related to that Dave Bean.
    david

  • Deleting Old Time Machine Back ups

    I regularly back up my system ( every couple of weeks! ) and data to an external 2TB drive however I only really need a copy of recent state of system and data. Will it be good practice to enter time machine and go back to the old back ups and delete so that only recent backs up are maintained on drive. This would also free up space on my external drive? I just want to ensure deleting old back ups does not harm the integrity of the data.
    Also i wanted to ascertain if it is possible to use time machine drive in another mac and simply drag and drop files from the latest back up onto this other computer?

    DO NOT manually adjust Time Machine Backups. That can cause you to lose the integrity of the Backup database.
    Time Machine deletes portions of older backups when space starts to get scarce. It carefully computes what files must continue to be saved and ensures it has a copy of those files, never deleting the last copy as long as the original is still present.
    If you would like to understand better how it does this, there is an excellent Multi-page description or how it works written by the late James Pond on his site:
    How Time Machine Works its Magic
    NB> When you have read the first page, click the Next link at the bottom of the page for more -- the detailed description continues on several more pages.
    It is inadvisable to keep other files on a Time Machine drive. If you want to maintain your Backups manually, I strongly recommend you use a different Backup method. Buy yourself an additional drive -- they are cheap.
    The BIG advantage to Time Machine is that it is the Backup that actually happens, automatically and in the Background without interfering with your work. Other Backup schemes can be MUCH more clever, but they have the tragic flaw that you need to remember to do them.

  • Deleting old Time Machine Back ups, locked files wont delete?

    Will unlocking them help-if so how do you unlock? I can open with Text edit but due to years of caution when not knowing what I'm doing causes more problems I ask before doing things-grin (Suppose it shouldn't matter since all I want to do is trash them????)
    The file in particular is the boot file boot.efi. Trash basket is still full presumable until I can delete. 

    See > Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions 12. Should I delete old backups? If so, How?
    of the > Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions

  • HT3275 how do i delete old time machine back ups?

    I just switched to a new MBP, and my external drive does not recognize it.  How do I delete old backups in order to make room on the external for the new computer's backups?
    Thank you.

    You could click on the time capsule in the SHARED panel in Finder, then enter your data folder and delete the sparsebundles, but that will take some hours for the delete to finish with the millions of nodes.
    You could also use the airport utility and click on the DISK tab, then do a quick erase.

  • Can i just delete OLD time machine backups?

    I went to the BAckup directory because I keep getting this annoying window that time machine has run out of space.....It is 1 TB and my HD is 500gb and i am using about 400gb....roughly.
    i think I see  2 backup ups  from  June 9th.
    How can I change the setting on length of time TM keeps backups?

    vdotmatrix wrote:
    How can I change the setting on length of time TM keeps backups?
    There is no such option.  Time Machine keeps backups for as long as there's room on the backup disk, then deletes the oldest one(s) to make room for new ones.
    It is 1 TB and my HD is 500gb and i am using about 400gb....roughly.
    Which message are you getting?  There's one that's just letting you know it deleted some old backups:
    That's not really a problem -- it just means Time Machine is doing it's job of cleaning up old backups for you, so there's room for new ones.  If you don't want to see it anymore, just click the box on the message.
    But if the backups are actually failing, with a message like this;
    Then something doesn't add up -- if you're backing-up 400 GB to a 1 TB drive, there should always be enough room, unless you have (lots of) other stuff on the same drive.  
    See #C4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for details on those messages.
    If those June backups are really the only ones left, it sounds like your backups have been failing for a long time (or you haven't done any).  If so, your best bet is probably to erase the backups and let Time Machine start fresh.  Then keep an eye on it -- if backups fail, or don't complete, investigate sooner rather than later.  If you get an error message, see Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
    If you're backing-up to an external HD, just erase it with Disk Utility (see #2 in Using Disk Utility if you don't know how to do that).
    If you're backing-up to a Time Capsule, erase it via Airport Utility (per the green box in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule.
    If you do have other data on the drive, roughly how much is there, and what sort of data is it? 

  • How can I remove old Time Machine back-ups for a Mac I no longer have??

    So, i am trying to back-up a brand new MBPro to my Time Machine but it says there's not enough room. Only 13.5 GB avail and need 284 GB. Is there a way to go into Time Machine and delete all the old back-ups from my former MBPro? (I've already migrated all the files and data to the new MBP from my iMac, also on the same Time Machine.) If I could wipe out the old MBP back-ups that should create enough room.

    Delete the backups.
    Q12 here. http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

  • Can I manually delete old Time Machine backups?

    I've got a 1TB ext. HD that has 950GB of TM backups on it from my Mac Pro. The Pro has to go in for repairs so I'm using my Macbook Pro. Can I (& HOW) remove some of the older backups from the drive to make room for things off the Macbook Pro?

    Of course. To do it, open Finder and choose the Time Machine drive in the Finder sidebar, under "Devices". Then, open the "Backups.backupdb" folder, open the folder with your MacBook Pro's name and delete the old backups. You can delete as many as you need.
    Then, you have to create a volume in the external drive, as you can't use the Time Machine volume to store other data or you might damage the Time Machine structure. See > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html

  • I can't empty trash. I get error code 8003. I am trying to delete some time machine back ups to make more room on my external hard drive.

    My trash has files from time machine/Drobo, my external hard drive. It refuses to empty and prevents me from emptying other files from my iMac.

    Please look at the More Like This link to your right. Any with a green check mark indicated the question has been answered with a solution.

  • Removing old Time Machine back ups from Time Capsule

    I have just purchased a new iMac (2.7GHz Intel Core i5 running LION) that I am using to replace both my wife's old iMac (2GHz Intel Core Duo running Snow Leopard) and my 17" MBP Intel Core Duo - we've both made the switch to iPads for lap browsing. I migrated my user accounts from both the MBP and old iMac to the new iMac and I want use TimeCapsule as my back up disk. However, I cannot back up my new machine because the older back ups that I no longer need take up most of the TCs disk space.
    How can I remove the older, no longer needed backups from TimeCapsule to make room to run back ups of my new iMac? I've tried deleting the sparsebundle, but that did not seem to work.
    If anyone can help, please be as detailed as possible in how to remove the back ups. Thanks in advance.
    - Ryan

    Thanks for the tip.
    You did forget to mention that it is necessary to click on the "MANUAL SETUP" button located at lower left part of the Airport Utility window to get to the Disk.
    I went through the more generic/standard setup windows a couple of times because I was not seeing the disk and thought I was missing something. After I had an "ah-ha" moment and clicked the manual setup key, everything was there and erasing the disk was easy.
    Thanks again,
    RT

  • Old Time Machine Back-Ups on new iMac

    Hey Everyone..
    So I got myself a new iMac today and I'm really pleased with it. I went for the 3.1GHz i5 in place of my old 2.8GHz i7.
    Anyways - I restored the new machine from the most recent back up of my old iMac which has worked great and looks just like my previous computer. However..when I enter Time Machine it only goes back as far as today and when I try to do a back up it says there is not enough room. I would have hoped that my new iMac would recognise the back up as it's own and reinstate it as normal..but this doesn't seem to be the case.
    If someone could give me some guidance on this I would appreciate it.
    Many thanks..
    Ricky

    Time Machine will always treat a new computer's data as a completely new backup and start it from scratch. You can either get a larger backup drive or erase the current one.
    About TM "Backup Drive is Full"
    Alert TM only deletes older files if they have been deleted from the source and when TM needs space on the backup drive for a new incremental backup. Time Machine "thins" it's backups; hourly backups over 24 hours old, except the first of the day; those "daily" backups over 30 days old, except the first of the week. The weeklies are kept as long as there's room.
    So, how long a backup file remains depends on how long it was on your Mac before being deleted, assuming you do at least one backup per day. If it was there for at least 24 hours, it will be kept for at least a month. If it was there for at least a week, it will be kept as long as there's room.
    Note, that on a Time Capsule the sparsebundle grows in size as needed, but doesn't shrink. Thus, from the user's view of the TC it appears that no space has been freed, although there may be space in the sparsebundle.
    Once TM has found it cannot free up enough space for a new backup it reports the disk is full. You can either erase the backup drive and start your backups anew or replace the drive with a larger drive.

  • Using old time machine back ups for new mac

    I have upgraded to a new intel macbook pro from a g4 powerbook. I was able to move my files and apps to the macbook pro. How do I get time machine to use the old back up data on my new laptop. I have selected the hard drive that has the back up data from my powerbook but the macbook does not pull up the info.

    First a couple of things you're posting in the iMac forum not the MacBook Pro forum. In addition there is a Time Machine Forum. I'd recommend reading the Time Machine FAQ's there. You can find the TM forum at:
    http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1342
    and the MacBook Forum is at:
    http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=190
    Roger

  • I cant restore old time machine back ups.?

    Hi , so i went to restore my old itunes from time machine, but i can no longer access te old back up, its just clear line in time machine down the side.
    Yesterday it was fine an i was looking through to see when i want to go back to to restore it.
    I can see the old backed up files all dated?
    CAn anyone please help
    regards
    Ricky

    time machine with a 1tb hardrive, if i go into the hardrive i can see the back ups, but i cant get to them by selecting it from the side

  • Merge 2 time machine back ups on 1 back up drive?

    I was running low on space on the USB drive I use to back up my Air, OS 10.6.5 with TIme Machine, and I had a new USB drive handy, so I just used the new drive.  Now I have 2 USB drives and each has a time machine back up file, "Backups.backupdb"
    I'd like to free up the first USB drive, and have the use of all of those old TIme Machine backups on the new drive.
    It's clean up time, trying to reorganize my back ups and drives... is there any way to save the old Time Machine back ups from the old drive in usable format?
    Thank you for any help
    (btw, I do not want to upgrade to the latest versions of Mac OS's)

    Funny you should mention... it was Pondini's TM FAQs that sent me here
    If they answered this question, I missed it.
    I have also read up on http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5096
    But neither could tell me how to manage the back up files when I had already started another external drive as backup disk.
    I am currently copying all the files from the original back up drive to the new drive under another folder, it's taken  about 10 hours so far, estimates 6 hours more to go.
    And on the apple bulletin, it said I should uncheck "ignore ownership on this volume", which I failed to note.
    Thanks for the link though, its a great one.  If I missed it there, (and I checked Troubleshooting too) please let me know?

  • I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down eliminate

    I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down menu with the gear box symbol to eliminate

    I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
    You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots.  Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
    See Pondini's page for more explanation:   What are Local Snapshots?   http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
    I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
    You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.  
    The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library.  Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots.

Maybe you are looking for