How to delet old backups in time machine

How to delete old backups in time machine.
I have no space left for new backups

See Here  >  Should I delete old backups?  If so, How?
From Here  >  http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

Similar Messages

  • Why can't I delete old backups from Time Machine?

    I can actually delete them, but cannot empty them from the Trash Can.
    Any ideas?

    You should avoid deleting backups yourself, but you are determined to do it anyway read the following, courtesy of Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini:
    12. Should I delete old backups? If so, How?
    Your question is likely addressed in the third paragraph from the end.

  • Deleting old backups from Time Machine/Time Capsule

    I've spent a long time deleting copies of old back ups from Time Machine today. In view of this am I right in assumming this should in turn reduce the size of sparsebundle on TC?  If not, please can someone tell me how I can reduce the size of sparsebundle on my 2TB TC; my MacBook has 150GB HD and my sparsebundle is 500GB in size.  I want to address the amount of backups I keep as I do not wish to have a TC clogged up with multiple monthly backups of data each month, which in my opinion is pretty redundant.

    A sparsebundle file behaves differently than a normal file or folder. As you add data to the sparsebundle file, it expands as long as there is room on the drive. But, if you delete data from the sparsebundle, the size of the file remains the same, even though the data has been deleted.
    You will be able to add more data to the sparsebundle, and it will continue to expand as long as there is room on the drive.
    If you want to "compact" the sparsebundle file to have it indicate the exact amount of data in the file, there is a Terminal command that you can use for this purpose.
    See the pink box in this link for excellent information provided by Time Capsule -- Time Machine guru Pondini:
    http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/12.html

  • How to delete the old backup in time machine?

    Hi all,
    As I have use the TM for a year,the backup folder is on a network dirve. HOw can I delete the old backup (eg 6 months ago) in order to release more space?
    Thank you
    Gary

    Hi, and welcome to the forums.
    I'll assume you mean a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device, not a Time Capsule or external HD connected to a Time Capsule or other Mac on your network.
    If so, you can delete individual backups via 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). That may not seem to gain any space, since the backups are in a rather odd container called a +sparse bundle.+ It won't shrink automatically when you delete things, but the space will be reused for new backups.
    You may be able to limit the size of the backups by limiting the amount of space available to Time Machine on the NAS, but you'll have to use whatever facilities the NAS supplies, not OSX. Some allow the disk to be partitioned as on a normal disk, or allocate space to shares.

  • How do I delete all backups of Time Machine in OSX 10.7.2?

    I had some huge photo files (100gb) that were on my computer for a few weeks and have now been processed and deleted. I suspect that Time Machine backed them up on my external hard drive. How can I delete all backups from Time Machine and start with a fresh series of backups?
    Tks

    That would work also.
    I like to reformat the disk just to rebuild the directory when I clean one.
    Allan

  • Delete old Backups from Time Capsule

    Deleting old Backups from Time capsule ist very slow.
    How could it be faster?
    Where can i change the preferences?
    Which Programm changes Preferences?
    If its possible answers in German;-)
    Thanks

    Deleting old Backups from Time capsule ist very slow.
    Deleting Time Machine backups can be slow. Löschen von Time Machine-Backups können nur langsam voran.
    How could it be faster?
    Unfortunately, there isn't any settings that you can make to speed them up. Leider gibt es keine Einstellungen, die Sie vornehmen können, um sie zu beschleunigen.

  • Delete multiple backups in time machine?

    Is there a way to delete multiple backups in TIme Machine and not have to delete old files one by one by slow one by one?

    pcp0827 wrote:
    Is there a way to delete multiple backups in TIme Machine and not have to delete old files one by one by slow one by one?
    Yes, sort of.  You can delete indiividual backups, or all backups of selected items,via Time Machine.  See #12 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.  You can only select one backup at a time, but they're deleted in a separate process, so you can select another before the first one completes.  When you exit from Time Machine, you may see one or more progress bars for the individual deletions.  (As noted there, never delete anything from your backups via the Finder.)
    But you really shouldn't have to do that.  Time Machine will delete your oldest backups automatically, when it needs room for new ones.

  • How to do a backup with time machine?

    Hi Communitieee,
    I dont know how to make a backup with time machine. Can anybody help me?
    And i have another question.. whats wrong with library? when i start my mac the message is popping up but i dont know what it means..
    Thanks
    KR

    Ok thanks mende1.
    Whats with time machine? I already take a look to the link but i could not find the answer of my problem. Can you please take a look of this screenshot?!
    I dont have an extern hard drive. i just want to save my pics and the other data of my mac.

  • How to delete manually old backups with Time Machine

    Hi there,
    Found conflicting information on that topic.
    Apparently, TM is supposed to delete old backups but it is just saying now that my backup drive is full and I still have 8 month old backups.
    Would like to remove oldest ones.
    Any idea?

    Did un-checking the +Warn before deleting ...+ box not work?
    If not, something is wrong. We need some more info to help you figure out just what:
    How much data is TM backing-up (the +Total included+ under the +Do Not Back Up+ box in TM Preferences > Options)?
    How large is your TM disk/partition?
    How much free space is on it?
    Is anything else, besides TM backups, in the same partition?
    The whole design of TM is that you don't have to manage the backups yourself. As long as there's enough room, TM should do it for you.
    You can make feature requests here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/, but don't hold your breath.

  • How can i delete a 'backups' from time machine for a computer i no longer have

    i have been using my time capsule for a few years now, everything was great until my imac died and i had to replace it
    when i did, the time capsule worked perfectly, as it allowed me to "migrate" all my backed up data onto my new machine, joy
    but now, as it wants to start its backups of the new imac, there just isnt enough disk space on the drive, and i suspect this is due to every file on my new machine is marked as never have being backed up which means i need like 400G, and most of the time capsule's space is still consumed by the old backups
    how can i remove this old back up from the time capsule without reformatting the whole drive (i have other machines that are still using the backup service and i dont want that interrupted)
    it just seems like, since i am no longer on the old machine, i cant access that machine's backup in order to delete them (through the time machine interface), and i cant seem to find a single tutorial on how to do this that is written in non-programmer speak (i really dont feel comfortable cracking open terminal and command-lining this sort of thing)
    am i just nuts or is this really all that uncommon a problem with no easy solution?!?
    any advice is appreciated, thanks in advance

    how can i remove this old back up from the time capsule
    click here for instructions.

  • How do I delete old emails from time machine?

    How do you delete all old email backups from time machine?

    Could we please get one more clue? 
    What email application are you asking about? 

  • HT203177 how do i clear old backups from time machine to make more space

    My 2TB Time Machine is nearly full.  I am trying to back up a drive in a Mac Min that is starting to fail and wanted to do so on Time Machine.  Unfortunately since my Time Machine is nearly full it will not back up drive without eliminating nearly all of the files on this Mini.  I am okay overwriting the other backups already on the Time Machine but do not know how to force Time Machine to do so.  Please any clues on how to make Time Machine overwrite other backups would be greatly appreciated.

    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.
    As you can see Time Machine does prune old backups to make space, but eventually it may no longer succeed. Then you will get the alert. You can delete old backups if you wish, but only using the Time Machine application.

  • How to Delete old Backups on a Apple Time Capsule

    I Turn off Time Machine on my mac and it just deletes the local backups. How do i delete old backups on my time capsule becuase i use it as a winodws backup drive to. I just want to free some space up. Thanks for your help if you supplied an answer.

    Energizer7896 wrote:
    How do i delete old backups on my time capsule becuase i use it as a winodws backup drive to.
    That's one of the reasons it's not a good idea to mix Time Machine backups and other data on the TC's internal HD.  See #C3 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule for some possible workarounds.

  • Can't see old backups on Time Machine

    Originally, I noticed the issue when I went to do a backup and it failed because there was not enough space on the disk. Then I went to see if I could delete old backups.  In Time Machine it shows today and one other backup, 6 days ago.  It should be doing backups regularly.  I have had the iMac and my external drive for years.  I did update to Mavericks OS several months ago.  That is the only change I can think of.  I have seen older backups and used them before now.  Not sure why I can't see them anymore and why it says my disk is full.  Why isn't it deleting the old backups if it's full?
    So I guess I have three main questions:
    1 Why can't I see the old backups?
    2 Why aren't the old files being deleted if it's full?
    3 How can it be full if there is only one backup?
    Thanks

    These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
    Launch the Console 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 Console in the icon grid.
    The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
              SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
    from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
              View ▹ Show Log List
    from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
    In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."
    Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of an an abnormal backup. Now
    CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
    so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
    ☞ If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
    If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
    ☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
    Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
    Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
    ☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

  • How do I safely delete old entries in Time Machine?

    Hi All,
    I recently did my first ever Time Machine back up prior to upgrading my OSX to 10.8 from 10.6.8.
    A few weeks on, all is working fine with no conflicts.
    Yesterday I upgraded Aperture from 2 to 3.  I know that Time Machine doesn't copy the entire library file on each back-up, just the changes, but with the recent upgrade it has changed a fair bit and used quite a chunk of disk space (200GB).
    Once I've been in to the new Aperture 3 upgrade and am satisfied that its running fine with no conflicts, I'll have no need for the Aperture 2 library back-up, as I no longer use the application.
    My question is:  Can I delete all older Time Machine entries until the first back up after the upgrade to Aperture 3.  Will this still preserve all data on the library?  There's not that many as I back up manually not hourly.  Sorry if that's a basic question, I'm completely new to TM and not sure precisely how it works with upgrades from one Aperture library to another.
    Thanks for your help.
    Richard

    You just described one reason it's a bad idea to use a single volume for Time Machine backups and other content. Time Machine expects to use the entire volume. It will respect the other content and not erase it, but you will eventually be left with zero free space.
    Edit to add: When that occurs, Time Machine will erase older backups to make room for newer ones, but the problem is that once there is no free space remaining on the backup volume you cannot copy anything else to it. This certainly precludes using Time Machine to back up whatever non-Time Machine content exists on that volume. You would have to erase the source content first, after which Time Machine will eventually erase its backup as well.
    You cannot limit the backup size without limiting the volume size. To do that you must partition it. That is not ideal either, since loss of the drive means losing both partitions.
    Message was edited by: John Galt

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