Deleting files on time machine - why doesn't the storage capacity refresh??

Quick question,
After I permanently delete a file off time machine (something that has storage mass ~3 G), I am not seeing the storage capacity of the time capsule refresh with a higher number. In other words, before the file was deleted from all backups, the time capsule disk read 399 G available. After I permanently deleted the backups for this 3 G file, the available storage capacity was still 399 G. I checked to make sure the file was deleted from the back-up volumes and it was. Do I have to wait sometime before the time capsule updates the available storage capacity. Just curious.

remote TM backups are stored inside sparse bundles. if you open your TC in finder you'll see it. when you delete something from a sparse bundle it doesn't automatically compact and recover the free space. TM will use it up again in future backups. you can also manually compact the sparse bundle from terminal if you really want to.
the terminal command is
sudo hdiutil compact /path/to/sparsebundle
you have to put the correct unix path to the sparse bundle in the command and enter your admin password when prompted for it.

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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 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.

HT201250 File deleted on Opperating Drive- will this delete file from Time Machine?

If a file has been backed up to my time machine back ups and I delete the file from my computer, will the file be deleted from my time machine backups as well?

Only if the drive used for the backups is out of space.
(66314)

Deleting Files in Time Machine Backup

I found a problem that others may or may not experience. When attempting to delete files that are in Time Machine's backups the Action worked to Delete All Copies once. When I tried deleting another file using the same method, I couldn't put my password into the admin window. The window was on the screen but it acted like it was in the background. Mouse clicking didn't do anything.
After a restart, I was able to go back to the same file and activate the Action to delete all the copies.
If others experience this as well, I'd call it a bug.

It is actually better if you choose the folders or files you don't want Time Machine to get near to from the System Preferences.. The whole folder of backup is somehow messed up.
Just go to your Time Machine preferences, and put the folder you don't want backed up and Time Machine will do the job for you, rather than getting your hands dirty with the manual method

Deleting files on Time Machine HDD

I have a folder containing 2GB or more of music that I don't need backed up any longer. How can I free up the space on my Time Machine HDD and delete this folder?
Does Time Machine just reference this folder once or does it continuously make back ups of your system? I can go back in to the Time Machine drive and find this folder listed for every back up ever made by Time Machine.
What about all the huge bit torrent files I've downloaded? How can I cherry pick and delete them off Time Machine's HDD? I'd like to have more than 12GB left on my 500GB back up drive!

Don't do it manually. I wouldn't even know how, since Time Machine is using multi-linking to make one copy of a file appear to be in multiple date/time archive folders. So if a file never changed during the whole time you have been using Time Machine, it should only be stored once. But if you look in your archive using Finder, it appears to be in every one of your date/time archive folders.
The way to do what you want is through the Time Machine +flying through space+ interface.
Open a Finder window, then go into Time Machine. In the cool interface, navigate to the folder or file you want to eliminate from your backup. Right (Control) click on it and select +Delete All Backups of "<name of the item>"+.

Problem moving/deleting files from time machine backup

I recently ran into some problems with my hardrive and had to get it replaced at the mac store.
Unfortunatly, i only ran a partial time machine backup on the hardrive before i lost it.
Fotrunatly though, it did manage to save some important stuff, but now for the next problem....
I have dragged my files from my external hardrive with the partial time machine backup onto my new desktop but it wont let me do stuff with them
this includes;
asking for my password whenever i want to delete one of them
saying "cannnot be modified" whenever i try to drag the files to a new location.
as you can imagine, this is a bit of a pain.
anyone have anything similair?
help would be great
thanks
Chris

That is not how you restore from a Time Machine backup.
Repairing the permissions of a home folder in Lion is a complicated procedure. I don’t know of a simpler one that always works.
Back up all data now. Before proceeding, you must be sure you can restore your system to its present state
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the page that opens.
Drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:
chmod -R -N ~
The command will take a noticeable amount of time to run. When a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) appears below what you entered, it’s done. You may see a few error messages about an “invalid argument” while the command is running. You can ignore those. If you get an error message with the words “Permission denied,” enter this:
sudo !!
You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up.
Next, boot from your recovery partition by holding down the key combination command-R at startup. Release the keys when you see a gray screen with a spinning dial.
When the recovery desktop appears, select Utilities ▹ Terminal from the menu bar.
In the Terminal window, enter “resetpassword” (without the quotes) and press return. A Reset Password window opens. You’re not going to reset the password.
Select your boot volume if not already selected.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.
Select  ▹ Restart from the menu bar.

How do I restore a deleted file with time machine?

I have accidentally deleted a file that runs my very old HP laserjet. How can I recover the file on time machine? Any ideas? I'm running Lion.
Thanks.

If you need a little more guidance, see:
How do I view or restore selected items?

Time Machine: why doesn't it back up Applications?

I have nothing excluded in Time Machine Preferences.
My backup external drive failed about a year ago: I replaced it and backups continued.
Had to restore an application recently: found the applications folder in Time Machine was empty, however far back I went.
Does Time Machine know that I replaced the backup drive? If not, perhaps /applications has not been backed up since nothing has changed since I replaced the drive - ? But I have been told that the backup information is stored on the backup drive, so Time Machine should know that the drive was replaced and do a full backup as the first one - ?
If that is the problem, how do I force Time Machine to do a full backup?

the last iPhone update said that it "significantly reduced" the back-up time for the iPhone, and for a while it did. I've noticed it get steadily longer and longer to where now i am having the same issue you are, it taking forever to backup even if it's just a standard sync. It's possible that the different applications that are on the phone, especially if they take a lot of memory and/or use a lot of the phone's RAM may cause the backup to take a lot longer than intended, but that's just my guess.

Can I delete files whilst time machine is working? Or don't I have to?

Long story short...I have just had to start my time machine from scratch. Taking ages.
i have just noticed that it looks like I have less space available on my external hard drive, than I am trying to back up.
So what I am asking is... Can I work on the mac (MBP 10.9.3) and find some big files to delete, even whilst it is backing up... Even if perhaps it has already backed up those files (doesn't sound like a good idea!) ...Or what else can I possibly do?
I am really desperate as it seems my beloved Mac is taking its last breaths.... Two days ago i thought it had completely died after a couple of temperamental weeks, but it woke up this morning and I don't know how long it will last. so I need to do this now. I live no where near an apple store (a plane ride away) and not very technical ....so would be very grateful for any input and help. thank you.
I Have

I think you can try but I am not sure it will work.
You would be better getting rid of stuff on the USB drive you are backing up to..
Or stop the TM backup and get a USB drive with more space.. do not shut down the Mac.
I would grab a copy of superduper or carbon copy cloner and clone your disk.. TM is fragile at best.

Deleted files make Time Machine backup larger

This seems curious to me. I deleted a few large files from my computer. I noticed later that TM was taking a long time to back up. Now, the available space on my TM disk is much smaller. I'm sure there's some logic to this, but I can't figure it out. It seems like it would be the other way around.
Message was edited by: Hookshot

Since you've changed the contents of your computer, TM needs to create difference directory of the updated hard drive contents. Time Machine has save your old configuration and the back up and your Time Capsule (or whichever back up device you are using) still has a copy of your 'old' setup with all those big files you have now deleted. Remember, TM doesn't delete you previous configuration. In fact, if you think want to recover those big files, it will be available using Time Machine if you go back to the point in time in which those files still exist.

Safe to delete file from Time Machine hard drive?

Is it safe to delete a file from an external hard drive that's being used for Time Machine backups? The file is not a backup -- it's a .dmg from the manufacturer of the hard drive. Other than that one file, I don't use the drive for anything other than Time Machine.
I'm just concerned because I don't want deleting the file to affect Time Machine in any way.
Thank you.

I have done it without issue.

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

Can no longer delete files from Time Machine

My Gear icon in Time Machine that allowed me to delete all copies of a file, has disappeared -- as has the magnifying glass. Any one else lost this?

Go into View Menu in Finder and see if there is an option to Show Toolbar, if so click on it. If not click on Customize Toolbar and drag the default set into the toolbar.
Joe

Can't delete files in Time Machine

I have a time machine backup that was used to back up a borrowed computer. The computer has been returned and I want to delete the backups. I can get into time machine with the new computer and delete some of the backup. But some of the files just won't delete.
It asks me if I want to deleted them. I enter an administrator password. And it makes the sound to indicate it is finished, but the files (and the folder they are in) are still there.
These are files in the "System" and "Library" directories.

davidpsummers wrote:
I should clarify. The drive has more stuff than just that backup. I would have to find a place to put it all (non-trivial) and then wipe it.
That's likely what you need to do. It sounds like the previous deletions left some "abandoned" space you'll never get back otherwise, and there may be directory damage, too, which can compromise your backups.
Then partition the drive, so Time Machine has it's own, exclusive partition. See #3 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Or, your best bet may be to use a separate drive for Time Machine.

Deleting files on time machine - why doesn't the storage capacity refresh??

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