Deleting Sparse Bundle File

I'm running out of disk space on my Mac Book Air. I have used 'What Size' and it shows me that I have 36gb of data as sparse bundle file.
I have read online that various users has encountered problems after deleting sparse file to make space available.
Is it recommended to delete those files or am I asking for trouble?
Thanks

The sparse bundle you found in WhatSize is indeed a FileVault Home, and the fact that it is currently in /Users/.nelsonesparon (with a leading period) rather than in /Users/nelsonesparon (without the leading period) indicates that you are currently logged into that very account. All the files and folders that currently appear to be in your "Home Folder" - your Documents, Music, Movies, etc - are actually stored in the "bands" of that sparse bundle.
Bottom line - Don't touch it!
But if the sparse bundle containing all your "Home" files is 36GB, and you are "running out of disk space", what accounts for the rest of your HD space? How big is the HD? Do you have other user accounts? Does the space used by files and folders as shown in WhatSize "add up" to the Used space on the HD?

Similar Messages

  • How to delete sparse bundle on TC?

    I ran out of room on my 1TB TC, so got a new 3TB TC and have set it up for Time Machine.  I want to delete all files on the 1TB TC and use it only as an auxiliary hard drive.  I can't seem to delete the Sparse Bundle file. How do I delete the sparse bundle file on my old TC?

    Solved the problem! after a hint by 'nick_harambee', dated Feb 21, 2009 (see at the bottom of: https://discussions.apple.com/message/9036656#9036656) in which he suggested to enable 'guest access' in the Airport Utility tab on the Time Machine..!
    Instead of all failed attempts to change the permissions with 'chflags' (for which you don't have the permission ;-)..
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  • Time Machine Error cannot write to sparse bundle -- file in use.

    We're having trouble with a Time Machine backup. Twice in the last three days, the backups failed with the error message that the backup disk image is already in use.  I noticed that the partition containing the backup sparse bundle is mounted twice in /Volumes -- /Volumes/X and /Volumes/X-1. The error message refers to /Volumes/X-2.
    The icon that appears on the desktop has not cleared as if it's still doing a backup.
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    OK, we fixed this for now with the simple, but common Mac way of
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    Apple networking is annoying, but then on the other, it's easy. We lose printing in a similar way.
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    drwx------   9 root                   wheel  264   Jun 22 10:23 TM-2
    drwx------   9 root                   wheel  264  Jun 22 10:23 TM-1
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  • Deleting sparse bundle without deleting other data

    Hey guys,
    I've got a early 2011 Mac Pro running lion and a Time Capsule from 2011 also.
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    With this exception: when I attempt to backup I get an error message : the sparsebundle cannot be accessed error -01
    My time machine hasn't backed up in about a year (because I kept putting off fixing this issue) so whatever that SB is, I don't need it anymore. I want to delete it.
    BUT I have other items on the Time Mchine (that have just been click & dragged onto it, they have not been backed up onto it) that I don't want to get rid of.
    A few questions.
    If I delete the sparsebundle (in disk utility or otherwise) will it delete these other files? It's about 70gb worth and I don't want to move it all somewhere else to wipe the TIme Capsule then put it all back (kinda defeats the purpose of a Time Capsule).
    And if it WON'T wipe the other files, how can I delete this annoying thing? And will it fix my error message? Will Time Capsule just create a new sparsebundle for the new backup?
    ive googled, but i cant find this specific question anywhere else
    Thanks!

    Trying to delete post.

  • Please help, deleted Sparse Bundle!!!

    So I have done the worst thing and accidentally deleted my Time Machine Sparsebundle, I have since done an erase and install, and I have no way of getting the bundle back.  I can see that my fils are still on my TC, as it shows that I have 434.63GB available on a 1TB hard drive. 
    My question is; is there a way to access my files again without the sparsebundle or is there a dummies guide to making a new sparsebundle to access my files.  I hav tried using TM to backup and see if it merges new with old backups, but it won't. I have years of important data I am trying to recover, any help is good help.

    You are well past the point of no return if I understand you..
    I have since done an erase and install, and I have no way of getting the bundle back.  I can see that my fils are still on my TC, as it shows that I have 434.63GB available on a 1TB hard drive.
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    Perhaps you don't mean erase.. you mean reset.. an erase would cause all the content of the TC to be lost.
    My question is; is there a way to access my files again without the sparsebundle
    No, the sparsebundle is essential to TM.. the files are stored in a special format not accessible to anything but TM.
    You have one hope.. open the TC and remove the hard disk. Put it in a USB to sata holder. and plug into a computer. 
    You will need to buy a utility like disk warrior or data rescue and attempt to recover or rename the sparsebundle or at least extract the backup folder from inside the sparsebundle. If it works it will be immediately obvious. Otherwise the backup I doubt can be recovered.. even if you do the full recover, it cannot put the files back together. 
    If you have no idea what you are doing.. you might be better simply paying for it to be done. Send the disk to a data recovery centre.. it will cost a mint but if the files have to be recovered you have no choice.

  • Is there any way to recover a deleted sparse bundle?

    I had an old sparsebundle (380GB) saved onto an external drive.
    I wanted to keep this old sparsebundle,
    but when I went to run a new Time Machine backup to this external drive it deleted the old sparsebundle.
    Is there any way to recover this deleted sparsebundle.
    As I began to run the new Time Machine backup, it changed the name of the old sparsebundle
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    I ran Data Rescue and all it could find is a file that is only a few KILObytes called xxxxx.in_process.
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    A sparsebundle is a disk image.. if the actual file info is wiped then I really doubt you can recover it. Since you ran a recovery software which has worked recovering stuff for me.. and it couldn't find it.. your only hope would be real data recovery centre.. but although they can get raw data off the disk how useful it would be is questionable.. sorry but I think it is gone.

  • Copying, and using, sparse bundles across OS X systems

    I have a laptop that I use for work, a MacBook Pro 17", on which I have two folders full of data that needs to be secured. I set up two SparseImage files using Disk Utility and copied all data into these file systems, deleting the originals. This worked fine.
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    Thanks - Lawrence

    LawrenceHare wrote:
    I have a laptop that I use for work, a MacBook Pro 17", on which I have two folders full of data that needs to be secured. I set up two SparseImage files using Disk Utility and copied all data into these file systems, deleting the originals. This worked fine.
    I synchronize my laptop with my home iMac which I use when working at home, I can open these sparse image files, enter the password, and have access to the files as needed. Subsequent synching puts changes back onto the laptop where I can open them at work. All is well.
    This however is suboptimal as both machines use Time Machine and this is best used with Sparse Bundle file systems. Accordingly I created a couple of Sparse Bundle file systems and copied all the Sparse Image files over to the bundles. Again, all worked fine - at least on my laptop where I created them.
    However, when I synch, I get all the bundle files over on my home iMac as I would expect, and the Sparse Bundle files, which is a package and I can open and view the contents - it all looks good. However, when I open the Sparse Bundle on the iMac, instead of getting the password window, I get a little window saying "The following disk images could not be opened, Image: "name.sparsebundle" Reason: "No such file or directory".
    The two file systems, on the iMac and MBP appear identical in all respects, down to the "Open with: DiskImageMounter" app in the GetInfo window. Yet the secured SparseBundle image cannot be opened on my iMac, whereas the SparseImage can. Is there some setting or something that the Bundle needs to work when copied to another machine?
    no, there is no special setting. this should work. try deleting the copied sparse bundle and copying it again. also, make sure that you have sufficient privileges to the sparse bundle when you are copying it. how exactly are you syncing the imac with the mbp?

  • Missing iPhoto library - replaced by MacFort with sparse bundle image

    Hello to everyone!
    I am new to the community and to Apple in General! Got my new Macbook Air abouth a month ago and one the first thing I did was to transfer all my pictures to iPhoto (about 18k or 55Gb). I sorted them in Events, Albums, etc - all cool. Then, I decided to password protect my iPhoto library using MacFort. I guess thhis was a big mistake from my part as I didn't really understand how this software really worked...
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    2) Once the encrypting was finished, iPhoto started to request a password everytime it was launched - so far so good
    3) After the trial of MacFort expired I decided to uninstall the App. Stupid as I am, I did it with CleanApp and not using the uninstall option through MacFort
    4) When decided to launch iPhoto it couldnt find any libraries as if none really existed before .. :X
    5) I then restored MacFort as it was still in my Trash and tried to load the encrypted file.. Unfortunately the App doesn't find any files and I cannot decrypt the vault I had previously created for iPhoto...
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    - the only thing that MacFort recognises is the a vault which I can lock or unlock:
    6) I then did some searches and found out that all my pictures (about 50gb) are considered as 'Other' storage (i.e. the sparse bundle disk image) and I have nothing considered as photos in Iphoto
    7) Right then I found out that I approached the entire encrypting process in a very wrong way. I did not create a copy of my iPhoto library and then encrypt it but insted I worked directly on my original iPhoto library file.
    Now I have a single file called Valentin.sparsebundle that contains my entire iPhoto library. I thought I had lost everything when mis-uninstalling MacFort but I can still access my photos when selecting the sparse bundle file when iPhoto asks to 'Choose Library'
    So my question now is: Is there a way I can change this Sparse Image and return my original iPhoto library in order then to unistall MacFort and delete any encrypted disk images? In other words, put back everything the way it was before installing MacFort?
    Sorry for the long post but I wanted to give you as much detail as possible. Any help will be greatly appreciated!
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    Not sure how I can do this.
    So I can see the image file is located in Users->MacFort (again no storage allocated to Iphoto...) :
    The file itself:
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    However in the Pictures folder there is barely anything:
    I think the second file (45bytes) is only an alias(shortcut) to the sparsebundle image.
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  • Sparse bundle on TM just sees now...

    I have searched for a response to this and found hints, but nothing definitive. I am on 10.6.3. I have two large sparse-bundle files created using Disk Utility. If I mount them, they appear, as expected, in the "Devices" section on the left of the FInder. If I then got to TM, they are still there and browsable, but there is nothing in the past, all I can see is today - right now! All the folders that represent earlier versions are black. If I browse through the folder of my mounted sparse bundle while I am in TM, I can see all the latest information and AS I BROWSE through the folders, all the folders behind the front one flash, and I see files and folders for a fraction of a second, which then promptly vanish as the folder in the background returns to black.
    I can browse down to the actual sparse bundle file and I can see all the previous versions, I guess this means I can restore the ENTIRE sparse bundle, but this defeats the purpose of Time Machine.
    Unless I am wrong, this is a new behavior. I have been using TM on sparse bundle files for some time. It seems to be that this has broken in 10.6.2 or 10.6.3. As I have not had to recover a file in some time I cannot be sure when this happened, but I am sure I could mount a sparse bundle and browse down through it in TM and recover a single file.
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    Try the things in #E4 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
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  • Sparse bundle modification date

    I have been using time machine with a timecapsule to back up my macbook pro. I have used it for several weeks. I noticed that the sparse bundle file that contains the backup data has a creation date and a modification date that are both the same and match the creation date. This is despite the fact that I believe the file has been updated many times when time machine does its hourly backups. I can go into time machine and see the more recent backups. Can someone with a similar configuration take a quick look at the sparse bundle file creation and modification dates to see if they match? Is this the expected behavior?

    tall_dan wrote:Can someone with a similar configuration take a quick look at the sparse bundle file creation and modification dates to see if they match? Is this the expected behavior?
    Yep. Same creation and modification date. No problems with a 8 month old sparsebundle.

  • Limit size sparse bundle on airport time capsule

    Hi there
    I want to resize my sparse bundle file on my ATC. I've names the ATC: Airport Time Capsule van John"  and the spars bundle file "Macbook Pro van John" which is on the "data" root of the ATC.
    My wife has an MB Air and is also filling up my ATC andn I want to resize the MBP to 950G and the MBA to 350G.
    Can anyone tell me how to do this ? both haven been backing up for about 6 months but do not exceed the value's I want to limit them to.
    I'm running OS X 10.9.4 and it's a 3 TB ATC.
    thx for the help in advance....
    John

    That is probably a new addition to Mavericks.
    I have just tested it on Mountain Lion and it still works as per Pondini's instructions.
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  • Can't get free space after deleting a file-sparse bundle disk image

    I have a 150 GB Sparse bundle Disk image with a 256 AES enc. I just deleted about 30 GB worth of tv shows to free up some space but the Disk Image is still the same size with no more free space on the virtual disk either. I know that with Filevault the user has to log out in order to recover free disk space but how does this work with a normal Sparse disk image? Thanks in advance!
    -Macguy3000

    IIRC, sparse images only grow as things are added, but do not shrink. Create a new one, mount the original, transfer your stuff from the original into the new one, and delete the original one.

  • Time Machine and mounted sparse bundle disk image - file by file backup?

    I think I had this system working in Leopard, but upon upgrade to Snow Leopard it seems to have broken. Does anyone have any idea how I can get Time Machine to back up the contents of a mounted sparse bundle disk image in real time - file by file within the disk image? For example, I have a 2GB sparse bundle disk image that i keep all of my bank statements/files/records in. It auto-mounts on boot and stays mounted. I use the disk image to keep it password-protected, so if I unmount it it is fairly safe. In Leopard, I would exclude the .sparseimage file from backup, but it would still backup the mounted image itself on a file-by-file basis, so I could enter Time Machine and explore the image folder by folder, file by file (say I deleted an old bank statement by mistake, I could go into time machine and recover as if it were a normal file/folder).
    In Snow Leopard, after a clean install, and creating a new sparse bundle disk image and excluding the .sparsebundle file, I can't seem to get this to work even though the image is mounted. Is there any way to trick Time Machine into backing up the mounted image as it would any other folder? I know I can back up the .sparsebundle file incrementally but in order to recover a lost document I'd have to remount the old bundle and that seems rather roundabout.
    Thanks,

    I think you're trying to bypass the finder to mount the disk. Try this (I'll bold the key steps):
    - *Turn off Time Machine* in the System Preferences.
    - Option A: If you directly use a hard disk (not wireless) that has the sparsebundle you want to open, *connect the disk* but don't double click on the sparsebundle.
    - Option B: If you are using wireless, this means use shift-command-k (or shift-apple-k), and if it says "Connect As..." in the upper right instead of disconnect, then use that button to *connect to that wireless drive*.
    - Confirm the sparsebundle shows in that folder before proceeding...
    - *Open Terminal* (Applications>Utilities>Terminal.app)
    - Type: *hdiutil attach -noverify* (<-- notice a *space " "* must be included after typing this here but *DON'T hit return* yet.)
    - *Drag the sparsebundle to the cursor in terminal*, and it should fill in something like /Volumes/HardDrive/COMPUTERNAME.sparsebundle for you. Now you can hit return, and the disk will mount.
    - After you are done browsing sparsebundle's mounted image, *eject the mounted disk* like you would any other disk (not the sparsebundle image itself, just the disk icon that appeared if you successfully mounted it).
    - Turn *Time Machine back on* in the System Preferences.
    Hope this helps.

  • Due to NAS issues, when I started a new time machine backup it did not have the old backups available. My question is do I need to delete them or will time machine automatically reclaim the space?  Only one Sparse Bundle, same name.

    Due to NAS issues, when I started a new time machine backup it did not have the old backups available. My question is do I need to delete them or will time machine automatically reclaim the space?  There is only one sparse bundle but when I enter time machine I don't see my historic backups.  I use a synology DS212 for my time machine.  Started a new backup which is 218gb but it says 618 gb is occupied  therefore it looks like 2 or 3 backups are still on the disk. Before my NAS issues the last backup was in 2014.  As you can see there is a second sparse bundle from 2012.  Not sure what that is.

    This is an old message now, but what happened to me similarly was:
    I had a major computer crash and through complicated pathways ended up reinstalling (Mavericks) as a new user (long story).
    At least I had good Time Machine backups on an NAS drive (Synology DS212j), or so I thought - when I started Time Machine up again, the old backup file was gone, replaced by a new one using my "new computer" name. The old file was gone both by directly mounting the NAS drive and by clicking "Enter Time Machine".
    It's like I had {OldShareName}.sparsebundle and then it was replaced by {NewShareName}.sparsebundle, all of the old info vanished.
    (I have spent a week finding old files elsewhere and have completed a satisfactory self-restore. It pays to "archive" [my own variation of] as well as "back-up".)
    My belief is that if this were a wired-netword-drive, e.g. plugged right into my iMac with a USB cable, then the old file would have remained.
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    As usual when things get complicated with computers (not just Apple computers) there was never a warning message. Something like "YOU'RE ABOUT TO DELETE A TIME MACHINE BACK-UP FILE!!!" would have made my life a lot simpler.
    BTW, I did try a "restore from Time Machine" option the first thing I had my "new computer" (old hardware, 2009 iMac) up and running, using Migration Assistant, and it ran for many hours and then failed in the wee hours - what that has to do with anything I'm not sure.
    I'm not sure that I have a question about this other than "why do these things happen to me?", but it's a warning. Apart from that I've been very happy with the stability and reliability (but not the cost or set-up complexity) of NAS vs. directly-cabled external drives.
    Charles

  • Why is the sparse bundle so much smaller than the backed up computer...can I be confident all files are backed up?

    Hey gang,
    iphoto folder became big so I have moved it to an external drive. I made sure the external disk is not excluded from timemachine backup in tm preferences. Backup seemed to take forever (it actually said "preparing for backup" the whole time with a spinning progress bar) ie 24 hours and still the same pogress bar.
    i stopped the process as i had no confidence anything was actually happening
    When i open up time machine, an earlier version of my imac is there, but the external drive is kind of greyed and i cannot access it.
    When  I check the sparse bundle size, it is under 200 gb, when my imac is around 600 gb, 900 with the external drive.
    Why is the sparse bundle so small relative to the imac? are there hidden data files outside of the sparse bundle? when checking the preferences, it states total included is 921 gb...yet that is not reflected in the sparse bundle size.
    I want to be sure iphoto is actually backed up before deleting it from my imac.
    thanks anyone!

    marten berkman wrote:
    I am wondering whether the "processing" progress bar was due to the time capsule freeing up space for the additional data on the new external drive. When I cancelled it, available space on the tc incresed from 200 to 500 gb.
    Yes, quite possibly.  Especially on Leopard and Snow Leopard, that process on network backups is excruciatingly repetitive and slow.    It's improved greatly in Lion and later, but still isn't exactly quick.
    The backup complete, i checked the contents of the backed up version of the external drive, and the iphoto folder was the same size as original, so I have confidence that iphoto is backed up. Now I could delete the iphoto from the imac, freeing up tons of space.
    Yay! 
    Still curious why the imac sparsebundle is only 160gb, while my macbook pro sparsebundle is about 700 gb...as though they are inversely named from the computers they back up.
    Oh, I didn't realize you had two Macs backing-up to the TC.  Which one is the external HD connected to? 
    Unless you've specifically excluded things, after the initial backup, the sparse bundle should be nearly the size of the data it's backing-up (TM does exclude some things like system work files, most caches and logs, and trash, so the backups are a few GBs smaller).  As you do more backups, of course, it will grow.
    So please clarify how much data is on each drive, Mac, and sparse bundle.
    Also, the 2tb time capsule has 258 gb of 1.8 tb available....am I to suppose that there is hidden backup data not in the sparse bundles?
    Sparse bundles are odd critters.  They don't automatically shrink when things are deleted from them.  Instead, the vacated space is used for new files until it's full, then it begins to grow again.  Time Machine will "compact" them when necessary, to reclaim the empty space, but doesn't take the time to do it unless it's out of room.
    You can do that manually if you want, per the pink box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #12. 
    Message was edited by: Pondini

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