How do I remove old time machine backups?

Yesterday I learned that I had no more room in my external hard drive to back up my computer, so I moved old backups to trash. Computer won't let me delete them and I don't know how to put them back.
Has anyone faced this before? What should I do?

Hi. I read this very helpful....but I wish I had seen it before I put old backups into the trash.....can't explain exactly how or why but my computer crashed and when it came back to life the trash was emptied....but now I can't get time machine to work at all. I imagine I need to reconfigure my external hard drive.....any other ideas?
Thanks for all your help.

Similar Messages

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

Moved User to new account. How to connect to old Time Machine backup.

Hello. I've just upgraded my wife's macbook pro to Mavericks. There was an issue with the install and we couldn't launch programs. I noticed that while logged in as Guest everything worked, so after many other futile attempts I created a new user and moved all her docs, etc. to the new user. I've renamed her old account and changed her new one to her previous name. All appears to work and everyone is happy. Except Time Machine. She now has a bcakup for an account she no longer uses and no backup for the account she does. Is there a way to connect the new account to the old backup so as to retain all the historical data?
Thanks in advance,
Mike

Time Machine backs up the whole computer, not just one account, so unless some hardware was changed or you erased the internal hard drive, I think Time Machine should continue to work. What are you seeing that indicates it's not backing up?
If it's indeed not working, see Pondini's excellent website for everything having to do with Time Machine: http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
One page that might be particularly applicable to your situation is: http://pondini.org/TM/19.html

How can I access old Time Machine backups after restoring from Time Machine?

Just restored my iMac and I can only see "Now" when I enter Time Machine. How can I see all the backups and dates I had before I restored?

While in Time Machine, press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible. Select the one you want and navigate to the files you want to restore.

How do I move old Time Machine backups to new USB disk

Hi,
I purchased a new 1TB USB disk and want to keep my historic backups. I remember trying this a while ago when I moved disks and ended up giving up. Anyone care to tell me the steps I need to step on ?
cheers
Adam

See #18 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.

How can I copy a time machine backup from one Time Capsule to another ?

How can I copy a time machine backup from one Time Capsule to another ? I bought a 1 Tb Time Capsule to replace my 512Mb Time Capsule. Now, I like to copy my time machine backup from the old Time Capsule to the new one so I can keep using my backup.

from this support article:
(click on image to enlarge)

HT203756 How can I remove 'old' or 'incomplete' backups from iCloud?

How can I remove 'old' or 'incomplete' backups from iCloud?
When I attempted, the iPhone 6+ message asked if I wanted to remove ALL of the backups... without giving me the option of selecting the specific one I wanted to remove.
I had performed 'backups' of my old iPhone, but, when I tried to RESTORE to the REPLACEMENT iPhone, at least one of the iCloud backups shows 'incomplete'. There was no 'error' on the original iPhone...when it 'failed' to complete the backup.
Now, I would like to 'clear up' the 'storage' on the iCloud, but am unable to select specific ones. I can either keep all instances or shut off iCloud Backup which would, according to the message, remove/delete ALL of the BACKUPS.
This shouldn't be this difficult.....

I too wondered how you remove apps from iCloud. Judging by the quantity of questions, comments, suggestions and replies (some rather rude) there is a clear need for Apple to make their literature a lot clearer. The page describing what iCloud backs up refers to "app data" as an item which is backed up. To the uniniated this might mean the app program but it seems not. The app is "bought" via iTunes or the App Store and details of your purchase (free or otherwise) is held there separately on the server.
It would be nice however to be able to remove the reference to junk I have downloaded and decided I don't want so that it doesn't appear on the purchased apps listing! Apple please note this.
It must be remembered that Apple products come pitifully supported by manuals "out of the box" on the assumption that it is so easy to use the product that no explanation is needed. They forget that most buyers of Apple products (me included) don't know (and don't want to know) how they work, so when something is not obvious they are required to plough through Lord knows how many web pages of "knowledge base" material until they find an answer.
All I can add is that it is worth spending time reading the multiitude of discussion threads before asking the question yet again...

How Can I Migrate My Time Machine Backups To A New External Hard Drive?

I have a external hard drive that has 500 GBs left, but I want to buy a larger drive.

ivan wrote:
How Can I Migrate My Time Machine Backups To A New External Hard Drive?
I have a external hard drive that has 500 GBs left, but I want to buy a larger drive.
Hi iVain
Fire up *Disk Utility*, click the Restore tab, then drag your old and new TM drives into the Source and Destination fields. Click Restore, and a complete copy of your old TM files will be made on the new drive. Go to TM preferences and select the new drive, and it will continue backing up just as it left off.
Hope this answers your question. See:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2595485&tstart=0

How does one SUCCESSFULLY transfer Time-Machine backup to a new (larger) hard disk drive using OSX 10.5.8

I have read a number of articles about how to transfer a complete Time-Machine backup to a new (larger) hard disk-drive. Some of these articles are specifically for OSX10.6 users, which are not applicable to me since I am operating with OSX 10.5.8.
However, I have tried several times to use the Disk Utility 'Restore' function, dragging my old time-machine volume into the 'Source:' box and my new volume into the 'Destination:' box. This works, of sorts, BUT the newly created volume on the new larger hard disk-drive remains the same size as the original volume on the old Time-Machine HDD, with no apparent way of increasing the new volume's size. So I am not really any better off:
E.g. the total capacity of my new HDD is stated by 'Disk Utility' to be 465.8 GB, of which I'm told 228.2 GB is used for the Backups.backdb folder, but only 4.6 GB of free space is actually available. Yet under the 'Partition' tab of 'Disk Utility' it tells me that there is still 236.4 GB of available space.
Does anyone know how to resolve this issue without upgrading to OSX 10.6?

First, how did you prepare your new drive? See:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select 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. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition 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 Options 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.
If you plan to partition this new drive then be sure you create a larger partition for TM than your old volume.
Next, clone your old TM volume:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4.Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

Old Time Machine Backup Problems - Permissions

Today, I figured out how to access my iPhoto Library photos from my old Time Machine backups. I was SO happy! The backups were from 2011 and earlier (hardrive crashed in May 2012). I had not done a Time Machine backup since 2011, so I decided to do a new backup today. After the backup finished, I decided to look at my old photos again (in the old backups) and when I tried to click on any of the files in the old backups, I get the message: The folder “Pictures” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.
Of course, now I am crushed/frustrated because I do not understand why I cannot access the old backups anymore. *Note: the new backup is accessible.

No problem.
You probably need to use Browse Other Time Machine Disks and within that older backup go to User/Pictures and restore the file "iPhoto Library" to a separate folder on your drive (so as not to replace your current iPhoto library) and then look in that restored photo library.
You need to do this in the Time Machine "Star Wars" interface from "Browse Other...."

Defrag an old Time Machine backup to save space for archiving?

I'm aware of all the reasons not to defragment an OSX volume, as well as Time Machine volumes, but hear me out on this one...
I bought a new iMac and will be starting a brand new Time Machine backup. I would like to keep the old Time Machine backup around just in case I need access to some old files. I will not be adding anything further to this old backup, and I will not be using this old backup to restore any system. I will only be browsing and restoring files from this backup, but only rarely. I have removed (via the Time Machine interface's "Delete all backups of...") a number of large files and unecessary directories to reduce the backup size. I then ran the hdiutil compact command to reclaim free space from the sparsebundle.
I read, however, that the hdiutil compact command will only delete unused bands of the sparsebundle, and that defragmenting the contents of a sparsebundle will likely produce more "empty" bands that can be removed with another run of compact to further free up space.
Will it be okay to defragment the sparsebundle under these circumstances?

I've looked over Pondini's site and it's an awesome resource. I've learned a lot from it over the years. But my specific question isn't answered there.
The Time Machine software is complex and I understand that there's a lot of things to know to keep it running smoothly. However, my particular situation isn't commonly discussed. In scenarios not involving Time Machine, defragging a sparsebundle before running hdiutil compact is known to help free up more disk space by creating more unused bands within the sparsebundle that can be removed by compact. Makes sense. Why would this affect Time Machine's process? And could it be that it won't cause a problem for a sparsebundle that will only be used to browse and restore files? ... As opposed to a sparsebundle that one intends to continue backing up to? Are there defregmenting options that I should avoid, or be sure to use?

Want to move an old time machine backup

I'm trying to backup an old drive before it fails.
It has a folder on it with old time machine backups.
My system won't allow me to move that folder.
I get the message "The backup can't be copied because the backup volume doesn't have ownership enabled."
How do I enable ownership or force that file to be backed up?
Thanks.

nowsthetime wrote:
Now I'm stuck with these files taking up space on a drive and no way to get rid of them without wiping the drive. Which is what I'll have to do.
Launch the Terminal app, in the window that pops up, copy & paste in this snippet, follow by adding a space, and then dragging one of those files into the window. Hit the return key and at the Password: prompt, carefully enter your admin password, and hit the return key:
sudo rm
so it looks something like this:
sudo rm /Users/username/Desktop/"name of file"
If that works, then collect the others into a folder and repeat, but use this as the leading part:
sudo rm -R
so it looks something like this:
sudo rm -R /Users/username/Desktop/"name of folder"

Is there a way to get my photos off an old time machine backup from an external hard drive?

Is there a way to get my photos off an old time machine backup from an external hard drive?

You will have to connect the Time Machine HDD and click on the Icon. You will see one folder called Backups.backupdb. Click on that and you will have to continue until you find the home folder. The iPhoto library (where the pictures are, not the application) will probably be in your pictures folder. You will have to drag that to your desk top. Then you will have access to individual images.
Ciao.

Help. I hit 'Restore All' in an old Time Machine backup

I fully realize I made a terrible mistake. I had an iphoto library on my imac that i haven't backed up at all. I was playing around with an old time machine backup and i pressed restore all thinking it would warn me that i was going to overwrite my existing library. well, now i have lost a years worth of photos without having backed them up. my question is, is there anyway to retrieve them? the trash holds nothing. there is no backup save my iphone. when i hook that up it only shows 2 photos. hide already imported photos is NOT checked. i imagine i can pull them off. i'm wondering if they will be the full resolution however. i would like to UNDO the restore first if there is a way. if not i guess i have to do it with the iphone which i'm not sure if it had all the photos from my previous library anyways. please advise and i will love you forever.
mark

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. About the only recourse is to use a file recovery application like SubrosaSoft FileSalvage. You can run it in demo mode to verify that you can recover the photos you want before you have to pay for it.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
Note: There's now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

Accessing Old Time Machine Backup From a New Account

I have had problems with my old Account and decided to create a new Account. I can "see" the old Time Machine backup lists from the new Account, but can't open or restore them to the new Account. I get the message that I do not have sufficient privileges although I set the new Account up with Administrator privleges.

You should have used Setup Assistant, not Migration Assistant, to transfer your data. I suggest you start over by booting into Recovery, erasing the startup volume, and installing OS X. When you reboot, Setup Assistant will start automatically. Follow the prompt to import data from a Time Machine snapshot. The backup history will then be inherited. The first backup will still be a full one; that can't be avoided.

How do I remove old time machine backups?

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