How do I empty my Trash of Time Machine backups?

How do I empty my Trash from Time Machine Backups? I manually moved them there trying to delete them but the Trash will not empty.

Hi,
These Links may be of Assistance to your Issue...
See Here
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/E6.html
From Here
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html

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How do I create more space on Time Machine backup disk?

How do I create more space on Time Machine backup disk?

since time machine in Snow Leopard stops backing up when there's no more space on the disk,
That is has not been my experience, and does not appear to be agree with this Time Machine documentation:
Backup drive fills up
As your backup drive begins to fill up to its capacity, Time Machine intelligently deletes the oldest backups to make room for newer ones (and will alert you if the "Notify after old backups are deleted" option is selected in Time Machine preferences).
from : Mac 101: Time Machine

Trash won't empty after deleting inprogress Time Machine backup

I deleted an in-progress Time Machine backup. It is in my trash and every time I try to delete it, it prepares 270,000 files for deletion, then it just hangs and does nothing. I've tried ~ sudo rm -rf /.Trashes to no avail. I've also tried to put it back; however, there isn't an option aside from coping. I am at a loss. Aside from reformatting the drive 700GB, I'm not finding any other solution. I really don't want to reformat and rebuild the backup, that is a scary process and would like to avoid that if possible. Any idea's would be much appreciated. Thanks
-Justin

jthedwalker wrote:
I've tried ~ sudo rm -rf /.Trashes to no avail.
What does that mean? Nothing happened, or it took a long time and didn't seem to be doing anything?
Did you cd to your TM volume first?
I've also tried to put it back
No; Time Machine backups are full of hard links. Moving things out of the Backups.backupdb folder destroys them, and they can't be rebuilt.
The remaining backups may be corrupted. If you do manage to empty the trash, do a +*Repair Disk+* on them.
As Kappy says, if you can't get rm to work, your only option is to erase.
By the way, you shouldn't have to delete TM backups, but if you do, use Time Machine. See #12 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).

How to recover Mountain Lion iMessages from Time Machine backup?

Today, I sent messages to someone using iMessage on my iPod touch and it said "delivered" on the last one.
But when I woke up my laptop and opened Messages, the latest messages were the ones I sent yesterday, not the ones I sent today.
So I went in ~/Library/and deleted the Messages folder to try to reset the iMessage database so it would re-sync with Apple's servers but it didn't work.
I have my Time Machine backups that have my intact Messages folder stored but when I put the original back in its place, the messages still aren't there and when I click on a conversation, the conversation goes down the list and is empty.
I'd now like to simply recover my iMessage conversations (I don't care about what's in Jabber or whatever), does anyone know how I could do that?
Thanks!

I resetted my PRAM and now it works...

I wanted to trash a time machine backup but got stuck !

Hi i wanted to put my original 1tb My Passport time machine backup drive to an alternative use, it was nearly full up as it was !, i got the very large file in my Trash Can, this was my first mistake !, I then tried to Empty my TRASH which took simply hours, nearly days as it happens, my second mistake !, When Empty Trash had finished, it wasnt EMPTY !!!!!
It has a few LOCKED files that are named BOOT.EFI that i cannot delete !!.
Can someone Please advise
PS. i now know i should have simply Re-Formatted the drive !!!!. that WAS my biggest MISTAKE !!
Tim

Well Done tbirdvet
Thanks i didnt know that option was there
Tim

How can i extract just documents from time machine backup?

How can I extract just my documents from a time machine backup? I had to re-install Lion after the update screwed things up, the Genius Bar guy told me to re-install each App, and then transfer just my data (documents) back but didn't tell me how. I only see how you can restore the entire snapshot of what was on my MacBook that day, I don't see how to select specifics.

Hi,
Install a fresh Lion OS on your Mac. After this is done, then connect your time capsule. Click on the time machine icon in the dock bar so you will enter in time machine. Select the document folder and any document or all you need. The same thing you can do with iPhoto, Emails, etc.
Let me know
Claudio

How do I back up my last Time Machine backup forever...?

Hello everyone!
I just backed up my iMac with Time Machine on Lion OSX and I did a clean install. There are a lot of files I don't want to reinstall on my iMac but I would like to keep them just in case. Now, if I run Time Machine on the new "empty" iMac, it'll erase everything and I will lose my old back up (right?)... In any case, I just need to avoid the new back up to override the old one I want to keep but I want to keep using Time Machine on the clean iMac. I tried to lock the backup folder but I don't want to risk it if that is not the way to do it. Should I just drag and drop the backup file I want to keep on another external hard drive? Hope this all makes sense and thanks for any help you may bring!

The problem is that I don't want to override the old time machine backup... plus, I want to use the hard drive the old back up is on. It's a new 2TB drive with plenty of space left and it'd be a waste to just set it aside, you know? I tried to copy the time machine backup from disk utility but it's giving me this error: Not enough space on /dev/disk3s2 to restore. Any ideas? Thanks Csound1!

How can I restore my old iTunes Time Machine backup after upgrading to Mavericks?

I previously had Snow Leopard, and am wondering how I can simply restore ONLY my iTunes library from my Time Machine backup, last made only a few days ago when I had Snow Leopard. However, I seem to be unable to access anything backed up before I installed Mavericks. Any help would be great, because I'd hate to have to struggle to locate 160GB of music manually.
Many thanks!

Your choice really. Either way will work. Retaining the older backups gives you a way to restore older files. When I upgrade from 10.8 to 10.9, the backups continued without errors. Depending on what you upgraded from, in 10.8/9 you have the option to backup to 2 separate drives thus giving you some protection in case one drive fails. You can either copy the old backup to a new drive (Disk Utility/Restore seems to work best) or start a new one.

How to restore just Mavericks from a Time Machine backup

Macbook Pro 15", (early 2011) 2.0 GHz, 8GB memory
After having my WD 750GB HD crash, I decided that I would opt for a smaller (256GB) SSD drive and just put Mavericks and my apps on the new drive and keep my user files on an external drive. I've installed and formatted the new drive but I can't figure out how to install just OSX from Time Machine since the entire backup is too big for my new drive. Before the drive failed, I had installed the latest update for Mavericks (10.9.3?) Thoughts?

I think you should do the following:
Install Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion Using Internet Recovery
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
Partition and Format the hard drive:
Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
After DU loads select your newly installed hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion. Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
You can find more about restoring from a Time Machine backup at Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
You

HT201250 Mac OS 10.6 - How to restore OS and Data from Time Machine Backup

my exisitng iMac have a defective hard drive that i need to be replace. how do i restore the OS and data to the new hard disk? i have Time Machine backup from the previous hard disk. (note: the OS is 10.6, and i do not have the install disk)

cindy1023 wrote:
i had a hacker get in my computer, got all my info used my name and passwords to convert safari into windows on another computer? and APPLE IS THE ONE GAVE HER THE PASSWORD.
There is no way to "convert" Safari into Windows. And very unlikely for a hacker to get into a Mac.
But, ok, your system is all messed-up somehow.
First, what version of OSX is on your Mac? If you don't know, click the Apple icon at the upper-left of the screen and select About This Mac. You'll see a display like this:
We need the Version number.
Second question: do you have backups made with Time Machine (on an external HD or the like) that you want to restore, or do you want to start your Mac over fresh, the way it came from the factory?
p.s. i dont have the disc it came with , my daughter set it up for me to get started !
You may need that, depending on what version of OSX you're running, to restore the backups or start fresh.
You really should have a copy of the original disc, as there's an Apple Hardware Test on it, tailored to the hardware on that Mac. You'll need it it there's ever a problem. If your daughter can't send it, call AppleCare (800-275-2273),and give them your serial number -- they can send you a replacement for a nominal fee.
Sorry, but it's late here, and I'm going to bed, but will be back tomorrow.

How do I reinstall Mavericks from a time machine backup? (Hard drive failure)

Ok, so I have a mid-2007 iMac and the hard drive finally died. It originally shipped with Leopard or something, but I had it upgraded to Mavericks. I have an external hard drive with a current Time Machine backup on it. I am about to replace the internal hard drive with a brand new (unformatted) hard drive. So here is the question: Is there a way to boot from my Time Machine backup and then reformat the drive and do a Time Machine recovery?
I have the old OS X install disks, but I don't want to have to upgrade through all of the old OS Xs. I also have a Macbook that I could create a bootable USB from--something like this (http://lifehacker.com/how-to-create-an-os-x-mavericks-usb-installation-drive-145 0280026)--and then I could reformat the drive and recover from Time Machine. But is there an easier way? Can I just boot straight from my external hard drive that has the backup on it?
Thanks for your help everyone, I'm hoping to be able to take care of all of this tonight.

You can try this. OPTION boot the computer.
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
"OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the disk icon labeled Recovery HD.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
This should boot the Mavericks Utilities Menu.
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
When the formatting is done quit Disk Utility and return to the Main Menu. Now select the option to restore/reinstall OS X from a Time Machine backup. Follow the directions.

How do I import address book from time machine backup

My address book was populated on an imac running Lion and I used time machine to back up to an external hard drive.
The imac crashed and I've purchased another one running Mavericks.
How do I import the contents of my address book from the backup on the external drive to the address book on the new imac?
Whenever I try to select or open an earlier version of the address book in the backup applications folder on the external drive, I get a message saying that I can't open the file because it is a time machine backup.
There is also a diagonal line going through the address book thumbnail icon and various other applications in the backup applications folder and I get the same error message informing that these apps are time machine backups.
If you have a solution please be as clear and precise as possible with instructions as I am not a computer boffin.

Here's the situation:
I have a G4 with Tiger OS that has 2 years of saved emails and Address Book entries. I just got a G5, installed brand new drives, and did a fresh install of Leopard. I did not use Migration Assistant during the install, because I have no router.
Then I connected the 2 'puters with firewire, and started the G4 in Target Mode, and attempted to Import my old mail and Address Book. I diddled around and was able to import my old mailboxes. I did just realize, though, that only about half the emails were imported; there's a huge gap of nearly a year up until I stopped using the G4.
Also, when I go to the Address Book and try to import my old one, it shows up not as a solid icon that I can select, but a ghostly icon, for lack of a better word, and it will not let me select it.
I really thought this should be easier and less painful. I'm open to suggestions, including whether I should try to use the Leopard install DVD to try the Migration Assistant with a Firewire connection or an ethernet cable.
Thanks.

How do I delete files from a Time Machine backup?

Hi,
I have a Time Machine backup that has a large group of image files on it. How can I delete this data from the TM backup so it is no longer taking up that space on the Time Machine backup drive? Just delete the files in Leopard and run Time Machine again...? I somehow don't think that will work...

hassiman wrote:
Hi,
I have a Time Machine backup that has a large group of image files on it. How can I delete this data from the TM backup so it is no longer taking up that space on the Time Machine backup drive? Just delete the files in Leopard and run Time Machine again...? I somehow don't think that will work...
It would be a disaster.
Only delete TM files from the TM interface. Run TM from the dock, select the file(s) you wish to remove and click the Action Gear. You have the option to delete that particular backup, or all instances of that backup. This is the only way to delete backup files.

How do I retrieve mails from a time machine backup of a different computer?

I had to reformat my computer because of a trojan file I couldn't eradicate, and I didn't want to restore files from a time machine backup for fear of reinstalling the trojan. After reinstalling OS Maverick, my MacBook Pro from early 2009 is now back to good performance. However, I would like to retrieve my old archived mails from 2009 onwards, excluding the present year, of course. I know those mails are there, but how can I access them?
Thank you.
Domenico

See if you can inherit the backup.
Inherit a Backup
Inherit a Backup (2)
See 17.
Time Machine FAQ
Time Machine Troubleshooting

How do i restore photo albums from time machine backups without duplicates?

how do i restore photo albums without duplicates from time machine backups? thx

Worth updating? Totally a personal decision. For some it would be. For others it would not?
Upgrading, if there are no problems, does not affect your data. And since bad things do happen you always have a good backup. Especially when doing any upgrade.
Your password question has nothing to do with iPhoto. Try it in the OS forum
LN

How do I empty my Trash of Time Machine backups?

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