How to delete Time Machine backups from Trash

OK, so you deleted Time Machine backups via Finder and now you can't delete them from Trash.
First of all - you should NOT delete Time Machine backups in this way.
BUT all is not lost - to remove the backup folders from your Trash can, all you need to do is hold down the Alt key whilst using the Empty Trash facility.
Hope this helps.

I have same problem keep getting annoying error something like 8003. trying to delete all of my back ups as well as the one back up i placed in the trash

Similar Messages

How to delete time machine backups from trash bin

Hello,
I've got a little issue with time machine and doing something stupid on my part. I have seen different posts on this question, but it appears that most people haven't found a working solution, so I want to see if anybody has more insight.
A few weeks back I found that there were some files and folders that were getting backed up to time machine that I didn't want getting backed up for various reasons. Rather than wisely removing the individual folder and files like I've since learned, I removed the whole backup for that date to the trash bin. I know, bad choice.
I've tried to empty trash bin and delete the backups altogether, but error codes and permissions keep me from doing that. Space isn't an issue on the external drive I use for Time Machine, so I'd be fine with just getting the files OUT of trash and back into the folder with other backup dates-now that I know how to delete individual files. When I try and drag them back to TM folder from trash, get another error message saying something along the lines of the "drive not being able to be modified".
I've heard of some people using Terminal to remove files, while other folks say that that's dangerous and asking for bigger problems in the OS. So, what are my BEST options? Just want to get locked files out of the trash bin, don't care where they go at this point. I've tried the secure trash delete option and some other simple suggestions with no luck. Backups still sitting in trash.

Hi DonnaR,
What's not good is to remove them via the Finder or any way other than within Time Machine
Unfortunately this is what I did, and I know better now, but I can't undo what foolish thing I did. I have tried the steps to a T that you included in earlier post from this page- http://pondini.org/TM/E6.html using the Terminal method. The files are still sitting in trash, no change. I have also done the "secure trash" thing holding down option key and that hasn't worked either. I have also done repeated REPAIR DISK operations of the external drive within Disk Utility and a freeware program called Maintenance, and unless there' some special reboot needed, I still see the files there. At this point, and after reading more on pondini.org, I'd rather figure out a way to "Put Back" deleted backups sitting in trash bin to their place in Time Machine folder via finder, if I could figure out a permissions way around the error message I get saying "The operation can’t be completed because backup items can’t be modified." Is there some way of tricking the Finder window into letting me copy back items somehow? Once I get them back in, I will go through and delete the files from INSIDE Time Machine Star Wars view like suggested. Force deleting items from trash using TrashIt or OnyX is my very last resort. Once I get this figured out, I intend to upgrade to Mavericks, but I want to do it with everything working and clean. Thanks again!

I've mistakenly deleted Time Machine backups from my external HDD. How do I fix this?!

I manually deleted several Time Machine backups from my external HDD. Whenever I attempt to empty trash, it states (error code -22) has occurred. How do I fix my predicament?
I understand (now) that I should never do this and ONLY delete from the Time Machine app itself but I did not assume this would be so complex by taking a blind stab at it. How do I either a) place the Time Machine backups where the originated (Put Back is not an option when right-clicked) or b) successfully delete these so I can clear my bin.
I am running Mac OS 10.10 on a 13" MacBook Air (mid-2013) w/ 4GB of RAM and 128GB SSD. My external drive is a 5400 RPM WD USB 2.0 External Hard Drive.

Try Trash won't empty deleted time machine backups

Accidentally deleted Time Machine backups into Trash...

I messed up big time -- I moved my Time Machine backups into Trash from Finder. I've looked around online and it seems like I've really screwed myself over. I can't reformat/erase the disk because I have about 1.4 TB of other material on it and I don't have any other disk big enough to temporarily hold all these files. Is there any way to either restore or delete the backups without harming the rest of the files on the disk?

Full Details Here from Pondini....
Can't empty the trash after deleting backups via the Finder

How to remove time machine backup from a mackbook pro used in target disk mode

Many months ago I (as my backup drive failed) I used my macbook pro in target disk mode to store the time machine backup of my iMac. How do I delete the backup on the macbook pro? I am running mountain lion on both machines. When I boot the macbook pro in target mode, it's not showing up in the finder on my mac.

When I boot the macbook pro in target mode, it's not showing up in the finder on my mac.
From the Finder menu bar, select
Finder > Preferences > General
and check the box marked Hard disks.

Deleted Time Machine Backups from Finder

I back up my MacBook with Time Machine. My girlfriend has an older MacBook Pro, with Tiger. I was surprised to see that Tiger did not come with any sort of backup utility, and I eventually found Super Duper. I made a backup with Super Duper to my external hard drive with my Time Machine backups. Her computer died, and she took it to Apple. They could not restore her data, which wasn't a big problem because I had made a very recent back up.
I then proceeded to restore the backup. I thought SD kept track of what files belonged to what computer, like TM does. It started copying my TM backups to her hard drive. This wouldn't be a problem, except she only has a 160 GB hard drive, and her backup is about 100 GB and my TM backup was another 100 GB. Thus the file restore would fail. I decided to delete the TM folder, because I was not worried about my computer, and I could create another backup after partition to avoid this disaster again.
I deleted the TM backups... and my drive still had 200 GB of used space. Then I used Google to find out how I royally messed this up. That being said and done, I have had Disk Utility repairing my external hard drive since Thursday at 5p, and it's now 8:40a on Saturday. Furthermore, while I deleted the files, SD still enumerates them and somehow copies them which fills the hard drive before the restore is complete. When I plugged my external hard drive into my MacBook, it automatically started a new TM back up. However, it renamed the folder "Andrew Fawcett's something (2)", as if it were a duplicate folder. So OS 10.5.8 knows somehow that there are files, and so does SD, but I cannot see them.
Apple's support told me to delete the TM backups in Finder... and to fix the invibile files to reformat the drive. How do I fix my TM backups so I can get SD to work? I have files I need to restore! From what I've read, there are a few of you familiar with SD.

afawcett wrote:
I back up my MacBook with Time Machine. My girlfriend has an older MacBook Pro, with Tiger. I was surprised to see that Tiger did not come with any sort of backup utility, and I eventually found Super Duper. I made a backup with Super Duper to my external hard drive with my Time Machine backups. [snip]
I then proceeded to restore the backup. I thought SD kept track of what files belonged to what computer, like TM does. It started copying my TM backups to her hard drive. This wouldn't be a problem, except she only has a 160 GB hard drive, and her backup is about 100 GB and my TM backup was another 100 GB. Thus the file restore would fail. I decided to delete the TM folder, because I was not worried about my computer, and I could create another backup after partition to avoid this disaster again.
I deleted the TM backups... and my drive still had 200 GB of used space. Then I used Google to find out how I royally messed this up. That being said and done, I have had Disk Utility repairing my external hard drive since Thursday at 5p, and it's now 8:40a on Saturday. Furthermore, while I deleted the files, SD still enumerates them and somehow copies them which fills the hard drive before the restore is complete. When I plugged my external hard drive into my MacBook, it automatically started a new TM back up. However, it renamed the folder "Andrew Fawcett's something (2)", as if it were a duplicate folder. So OS 10.5.8 knows somehow that there are files, and so does SD, but I cannot see them.
Apple's support told me to delete the TM backups in Finder... and to fix the invibile files to reformat the drive. How do I fix my TM backups so I can get SD to work? I have files I need to restore! From what I've read, there are a few of you familiar with SD.
SuperDuper! copies entire volumes. That's why it tried to transfer those Time Machine files. If you register SuperDuper! (USD28), you can tell it to exclude certain files, such as those TM files.
If you want to use an external drive for both TM and other storage, you might be happier if you partitioned that drive, using one partition for TM and the other for any other files.
Until you have this resolved, I'd turn off TM on both computers.

How can I delete time machine backups from my external hard rive

My 2 TB hardrive is starting to fill up, so i went to check on what is taking all the space up, aparently time machine has use 321.90GB of space on my hardrive.
if it is possible I want to be able to delete a couple of backups but if i cant delete a couple of backups then i would not mind to delete all of the backups.
Thankyou

Time Machine manages space automatically. You should not delete snapshots yourself. You also should not use the backup drive for anything but backups. If there are non-backup files on the drive, move them to another drive (which must also be backed up.)

How to delete time machine files from external back up drive?

When connected to my Macbook I deleted some old backups to the trash. When I try to empty trash, a message comes back saying there are locked files and files cannot be deleted. I have turned off time machine, and tried to delete files but get the same message. Time machine does not delete oldest file when space is needed. How do I clear these files? I'm trying to delete 2 years worth of backups.

You can drag the Backups.backupdb folder to the Trash, hold down the option key, and try to empty, but often it doesn't work. In that case, you'll have to erase the volume and restore the non-backup data from a backup.

How-to move time machine backup from an old Time Capsule to a new one?

As written on the title, I need to move my old backup from an old 500GB to a new dual-band 2TB Time capsule, but I have not found any hint.
I've found many suggestions how to move the backups between externa HD; from external HD to a Time Capsule; between Time Capsule and external HD.
But nothing about my needs.
Someone can give me an how-to or at least some hint?
Many thanks to every one!!!

Cesare Cerutti wrote:
As written on the title, I need to move my old backup from an old 500GB to a new dual-band 2TB Time capsule
I was able to do that by using the Finder to copy the "sparsebundle" files from the old Time Capsule to temporary storage, replacing the Time Capsule, then copying the "sparsebundle" files from the temporary storage area to the new Time Capsule. If your temporary storage is limited and you have more than one "sparsebundle" file to migrate, you can copy one at a time.
AirPort Utility also has an "Archive" function that you could use instead of a Finder copy.
I believe I saw recently a method of copying directly from one Time Capsule to another, although I can't find it at the moment. If that option makes sense for you, I'll look further.

How can I delete time machine backup folders moved into the trash from an external drive?

I made the mistake of moving Time Machine backup files into the trash, but I can't seem to delete them. I tried the option key when clicking on "Empty Trash" and "Secure Empty Trash" (before and after rebooting), but that always led to error 8003. The files won't allow me to change their name. Using approchaes to Terminal from three different Mac-related webpages also failed. I also tried Trash It, but it seemed to be making little progress after letting it run 48 hours. Any other suggestions before calling Apple?

Assuming these were not backups made over a network (thus not in a sparse bundle disk image), see #E6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
But any way you empty the trash on that disk/partition is probably going to take a very long time -- there's no doubt several hundred thousand files there, perhaps a million or more.
You may have to just erase the disk (with Disk Utility) and start over.
You really shouldn't have to delete Time Machine backups, as it will do that automatically when the destination gets full. But if you really want to, see #12 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

How can I "Put Back" a time machine backup from the trash to my external hard drive?

Basically what happened was I accidentally put an older time machine backup from my external hard drive into the trash on my macbook. Since then, time machine has made new backups onto my external hard drive. How can I either "Put Back" or replace the deleted backup back into my hard drive?
Whenever I try to move it it says "A newer item named “Backups.backupdb” already exists in this location. Do you want to replace it with the older one you’re moving?" I click replace and after a few minutes of loading, it says "Cannot replace. An item named "" already exists."

As long as you don't delete the trash, the files should be recoverable.
I suspect using the Put Back command could take a long time, so be patient.
If your Time Machine backups are mixed with your daughter's backups you might want to buy a larger drive and move the Time Machine files to the new drive.
Regarding missing photos in iPhoto...There might be options to rebuild/recover that data from iPhoto rather than trying to revert to a Time Machine backup.
Check out this third party app, iPhoto Library Manager. It has a demo.
http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/
Options for a larger drive.
I like the Seagate USB 3.0 Backup plus drives. Works on USB 2.0 ports. They come formatted for PC but easy to format in Disk Utility.
I don't recommend Western Digital because of the boot problem with some of their drives.
LaCie makes good drives.
All Mac formatted drives will cost more and it’s easy to reformat with Disk Utility. Do not use the software that comes with the drives. It’s recommended that you use Apple’s Disk Utility.
Prices vary but this gives you an idea of what you’ll find. As you notice the second and third TB is usually only $15 more per TB. Normally, you’ll find these prices but right now the 1T is more than the 2T
Seagate Backup Plus 1 TB USB 3.0 $85
Seagate Backup Plus 2 TB USB 3.0 $99
Seagate Backup Plus 3 TB USB 3.0 $115
I have seen the 3T on sale for $99.
Locally, Best Buy seems to have the best prices.

Can I recover time machine backups from the trash? They are not deleted.

I deleted by mistake time machine backups from an external hard disk and I do not know how to recover htem. The bin has not been emptied. I learnt it would be possible via "Terminal" but I do not know how. Some help would be very much appreciated! Thanks in advance.

That's not possible, the message is: backups cannot be moved (I'm workin in German). After having googled I read somewhere that it would be possible to recover the backups with the software Terminal. I copied the path of that article and adapted it - however nothing happened. So I certainly did something wrong - but what???? Do you have any idea about this? I'm a bit desperate.

How can I use the Time Machine Backups from my Old Computer?

I have two months of Time Machine backups made using my old Macintosh computer which died and I no longer have. I have now purchased a new computer and am trying to use the Time Machine back ups from the original computer, but it will not recognise them. How can I get my new MacBook Pro to use the Time Machine Backups from my old Computer? I phoned the Apple help line and they said I cannot use them and would have to delete them. This sounds crazy if you can only use the Time Machine back up file with one computer and have to delete it when you buy a new Mac. Surely there must be some way to transfer ownership (not files) from an old to the new Mac?
Thanks
Richard

Thanks Kevin for the suggestion posted on MacOSXHints how to "Repair Time Machine after logic board changes".
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080128003716101
It seems as though I am not alone with my frustration with the way Time Machine uses the MAC address of a computer to tell one system from another. This means that if you have your Mac repaired with a new logic board, or replace your system with a new one, you can't resume backups where you left off. Reading through the readers who used the fix using Terminal, it appears that the fix does not always work. I contacted Apple again, but they were no help. Surely Apple should come out with a solution as more and more people use Time Machine/Time Capsule.
It is CRAZY that after a change computers or a switch in the computer logic board that you cannot resume your Time Machine back ups.

I am trying to delete a Time Machine backup from a Time Capsule.

I am trying to delete a Time Machine backup from a Time Capsule. The file is about 400GB and my MacBook has been trying to delete it for 5h now. It still says "deleting" but has not given me a "time remaining" yet. Any idea of what I could do????

You should not attempt to delete backups using the Finder. The result can be a corrupted backup.
I recommend you let it complete, no matter how long it takes. That could be days, if your TC is connected via wireless.
It is not necessary to delete backups, since Time Machine will delete old backups some time after they have been deleted from your source volume. For more information read Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini's explanation here: Should I delete old backups? If so, How?

I threw out 24 time machine backups from an external hard drive into my desktop trash and now I can't empty my trash.

I threw out 24 time machine backups from an external hard drive into my IMac desktop trash and now I can't empty my trash.

Since you didn't mention what type of error message you were seeing, I'm going to guess on what is happening.
I'm guessing that since you threw away Time Machine backups, that Time Machine is probably active on your Mac. There is a chance then that the files you tossed are marked as in use. You can't delete files that are in use.
Try turning Time Machine off, then restart your Mac. Then try deleting them again.
Once done, turn Time Machine back on.
Tom

How to delete Time Machine backups from Trash

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for