HT201250 How do it delete old backups?

I have decided that some of the files I save for the last years is not longer require and I wanted to save some space on my Time machine HDD. So, how do I remove them? Like the entire backup data on certain date.

First, open Finder and select the Time Machine disk under Devices, in the sidebar. Then, go to Backups.backupdb > computers and delete the Time Machine backups you need
WHOA!!!! That is extraordinarily bad advice! Messing with your Time Machine backups in the Finder can damage or even destroy your backups!
The proper way to delete old backups is described here:
Should I delete old backups? If so, How?
However, note that this is completely unnecessary. Time Machine will automatically remove the oldest copies of files when it needs more space. Rather than deleting them now and discovering in a month that you actually do need to restore them for some reason, just leave them there and let them be removed when necessary.

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HT4847 How can I delete old backups on my iCloud so that I can just backup my latest things?

How can i delete old backups on my iCloud so that I can jsut backup what is on my device now, and not from a year ago

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
All backups made on iCloud overwrite the old one, so you have only the latest backup with your most recent files. If you have a backup of an old device, open Settings > iCloud > Storage and Backup > Manage Storage, select the backup and delete that backup

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.

HT3275 how do i delete old time machine back ups?

I just switched to a new MBP, and my external drive does not recognize it. How do I delete old backups in order to make room on the external for the new computer's backups?
Thank you.

You could click on the time capsule in the SHARED panel in Finder, then enter your data folder and delete the sparsebundles, but that will take some hours for the delete to finish with the millions of nodes.
You could also use the airport utility and click on the DISK tab, then do a quick erase.

How can i restore old backup without deleting my existing data

how can i restore old backup without deleting my existing data. unfortunately i have deleted few of my old photos and restored them from my old backup. i got the deleted photos but lost my recent data and photos. how can i get those too.

You cannot. However, if your back up is through iTunes on your computer and you do an internet search for something like "iPhone BackUpExtractor", I believe there is software that will help you access the SQL database that is your back up. You may be able to pull out what you need.
Once you restore from a back up, any data that was on the phone is gone.

How can i delete old RMAN backup files

Hi All
We have configured RMAN backup for one of our clients PROD instance[10.2.0.3] in 2010 Dec.
Now my doubt is how can i delte old backup files of Dec and January, only this two months backup files only i need to delte.
kindly suggest me.
The parameters are :
CONFIGURE RETENTION POLICY TO NONE;
CONFIGURE BACKUP OPTIMIZATION OFF; # default
CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO DISK; # default
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP ON;
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO '/ebiz/backup/PROD-%F';
CONFIGURE DEVICE TYPE DISK BACKUP TYPE TO COMPRESSED BACKUPSET PARALLELISM 1;
CONFIGURE DATAFILE BACKUP COPIES FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO 1; # default
CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG BACKUP COPIES FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO 1; # default
CONFIGURE CHANNEL DEVICE TYPE DISK FORMAT '/ebiz/backup/PROD-%U';
CONFIGURE MAXSETSIZE TO UNLIMITED; # default
CONFIGURE ENCRYPTION FOR DATABASE OFF; # default
CONFIGURE ENCRYPTION ALGORITHM 'AES128'; # default
CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG DELETION POLICY TO NONE; # default
CONFIGURE SNAPSHOT CONTROLFILE NAME TO '/ebiz/oracle/proddb/10.2.0/dbs/snapcf_PROD.f'; # default
Regards
Shaik

Hello,
You can use this :
DELETE BACKUP COMPLETED BEFORE TO_DATE('01/31/2011 00:00:00','MM/DD/YY HH24:MI:SS');Regards,
Sylvie

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

[Windows Server 2008 R2] [Windows Server Backup] How to remove an old backup set

Hello,
long time ago I made a backup of some files of a server on a network location running manually a command like this one:
"wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:\\Server1\Backup\MyServer\wbadmin_Effe -include:F: -user:DOMAIN\myself -password:******** -quiet"
Now this network location is no more available because that machine is definitely broken.
I have no problems to run and create backups on a local drive or on other network locations.
My only problem is that now, in the main window of Windows Server Backup, when i click "View details" under "All Backups", I can still see that backup as the oldest available... that's a bit annoying.
It appears also if I run the command "wbadmin GET VERSIONS".
Does anybody know how can I remove this backup version set from my server?
Thanks,
Alex.

Hi Alex,
The command will remove all backups existed on your server. If you cannot get Shadow Copy ID and there are "good" backups existed on you server, you could not remove the old backup versions.
How to completely delete the backup file from network share and clean up the backup version for the server?
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/2ecc1c25-9308-4c50-be37-9762913cab61/how-to-completely-delete-the-backup-file-from-network-share-and-clean-up-the-backup-version-for-the?forum=windowsbackup
Regards,
Mandy
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Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.

How do I remove old backups from my iPhone?

I have a fairly full iPhone 5. When I look at my iTunes Wi-Fi Sync, it shows backups from 2 old computers that I no longer use. I need only one of the three backup files my phone is holding. Note: I am not asking how to go into iTunes and delete old backups. I need to delete them from the actual phone.

The three backups I refer to in my original question are listed in Wi-Fi Sync as backups that are waiting to complete. The list is 3 computers my iPhone has been used with. I no longer use 2 of these computers, so I no longer need these backups. They are ONLY listed on my phone not in iTunes so I cannot delete them in iTunes. They are on my phone as backups that are waiting for me to reconnect to those computers to complete.

Doesn't Time Machine delete old backups when it needs more space?

I've had time machine running for a long time now. It worked flawlessly for quite some time.
Today it gave me the error that there was not enough free space on the disk to complete the backup (the error message says something like there is 360 GB of data on the Time Machine drive already, 140 GB of free space and it would require more than that to complete my backup). I have a 500 GB Time Machine disk and my Mac has a 500 GB hard drive, so I should technically never run out of space.
The Time Machine almost acts like this is the first time I've ever backed up, which is not true. Shouldn't Time Machine delete old backups to make space for the new? What's even weirder is that if I open the "Star Wars" window of Time Machine I only see one backup from March 31, 2011, but I have been running Time Machine for well over a year now. I'm totally confused as to what happened. Any advice on how to get my Time Machine back up and running (without buying a new drive) would help!

You see only one backup in the Time Machine window because Time Machine has deleted the older backups to make space to do the current backup.
Time machine needs some working space to do its backups, and so backing up a 500GB drive onto a 500GB time machine volume is not ideal.
However, I do essentially the same thing, and what I do, when I have this problem, is exclude things from the backup.
First off, figure out what you changed. If you moved things from one partition to another, then that will cause a backup of the size of the thing that was moved. This may be why you have a large backup.
When I have this problem, I exclude large things that have changed recently from the backup. This makes the backup smaller, and means that there is less working space needed. I do this until I get a successful backup. Then I remove things, one by one, from the exclusion list, and back up after each one.
So, for instance if you just put 4 new folders on your drive, each of which s 20GB of data and they are named A, B, C and D, add all four to the exclusion list, do a backup, then remove A from the exclusion list (leaving B, C & D on it) and do a backup, and continue like this, adding 20GB of backup data each time until none of the new data is on the exclusion list and you get a completed backup.
Another possible issue, if you use multiple partitions, is that Time Machine may be keeping an obsolete backup of a partition that you previously reformatted. To see if this is the case, go into time machine (The universe interface) and go back to the most recent backup it shows. Click on your computer and see what partitions show up-- are any of them old ones that have been reformatted and renamed? You may be storing a duplicate backup because Time Machine does not realize that the disk that went away isn't coming back (because it has been reformatted as a different partition)
You can right-click on these items and remove them from your backup by sleecting "Delete all backups of...." This will free up space as well.

When Time Machine deletes old backups......

My Time Machine disk is about to be full. I realize that when the disk becomes full, Time Machine will delete old backups.
I am not clear, however, exactly what this means.
Is what are deleted:
1. older disk pseudo-images?
2. files which no longer are on the computer?
Or is Time Machine actually deleting files which are still on the computer (but were in the old now-being-deleted backup)?
I suspect it is #1 and #2. So if you had a computer where files are added over time (without meaningful deletions), this strategy will not help a lot---you just need to get a new disk.
Is another option to just make a complete new full Time Machine backup (losing all the intermediate backups)? How is this done?

Jeffrey Folinus1 wrote:
Is what are deleted:
1. older disk pseudo-images?
I have no idea what that is.
2. files which no longer are on the computer?
Yes. More to the point, files that were changed or deleted long ago.
Or is Time Machine actually deleting files which are still on the computer (but were in the old now-being-deleted backup)?
No.
When Time Machine does it's first, Full backup, it of course copies every file and folder on your system. It also makes a folder in your backups, named with the date and time of the backup. This folder appears to contain all those copied items.
But it doesn't. It contains "hard links" to the backup copies. Think of these as extra-fancy aliases.
Thereafter, TM does "incremental" backups. It copies only the files and folders that were added or changed, and makes another dated folder for that backup. In that folder are links to the new items, plus links to the items that didn't change: so they're cleverly named "multi-links." This is how TM appears to have many full, complete backups of your system when it obviously doesn't.
When TM deletes a backup, all that's really deleted are the folder and the links.
Consider what happens when you do a normal (not secure) deletion of a normal file: OSX basically "forgets" where it was, so the space can be re-used. TM is a little fancier: as long as there's even one link to a file, it isn't forgotten, so it's available to be recovered from any backup that has a link to it, and the space isn't re-used. When the last link is deleted, the copied file is forgotten.
Thus, when you delete a backup, the only actual backup copies that are deleted are the ones that have links in no other backup. So, for example, once you've done a Full backup and a single Incremental, you (or TM) can delete the Full without losing it's copy of anything current.
Another way to look at it is, *each backup is, in effect, a full, complete copy of your entire system the way it was at the time of that backup.*
So much for "fancy." The "extra" fancy part is, TM doesn't necessarily make another link for every single file and folder that didn't change. Instead, if a folder wasn't changed, and nothing in it was changed, TM makes only a single link, to the folder. When you consider that your System folder, for example, contains many tens of thousands of sub-folders and files that rarely change, you see how efficient this is.
For more details: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/10/12/roadto_mac_os_x_leopard_timemachine.html
and: http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2007/10/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14

Time Machine Deletes Old Backups without warning!!

I have just lost loads of pictures and emails when my Timemachine deleted old backups. I was so happy to have an easy way to keep my iPhoto cleaned up while keeping all the photos for the future. I would load my all the photos from my camera, backup with TimeMachine and delete the "bad" unwanted photos, confident in the knowledge that these pictures are still there on my external. I looked forward to some future date when someone would write an easy piece of software to consolidate old iPhoto libraries and even go through TimeMachine and consolidate those photos too. But until that fantasy event, my pictures, even though not wanted were still there.
Not any more!!
I replaced my hard drive and reloaded my laptop from Timemachine and I think that was the event that sparked the dump.
There should be a special check box to make sure that NO backups are automatically deleted, EVER. They should be a way to make them Sacred!!
There should be a way to create a separate backup just for iPhoto because right now, there are no good ways to easily break apart or merge iPhoto libraries. At least what I was doing worked, (well.... until it didn't).
Any ideas??

nerowolfe wrote:
True, TM is not a classic archival system, but until the drive is full, the difference is moot.
No, the difference isn't moot.
I still have on my TM HD every file I ever had because it's only 1/2 full.
No, you don't. Read on...
Time machine has three levels of backups:
1) hourly - deleted after 24 hours
2) daily - deleted after a week
3) weekly - deleted only when the disk is full - these are the only deletions you will be warned about
Time machine is always deleting files. Every time it backs up, it deletes files.
But the OP's real question is why he was never warned about the old backups being deleted, as TM says it will do, archival stuff notwithstanding. Apparently TM simply ignores the user's request to be warned.
No, it doesn't.
That being said, as I asked in a post not too long ago, "how many have had a warning from TM that old backups are being deleted?" as one would expect when the TM preference box, "Warn when old backups are deleted" is checked.
It appears to me to be a bug.
I ask again if anyone has gotten this warning.
Nobody answered my previous post with a yes.
Yes.
Because Time Machine continually cleans up behind itself, it tries very hard to ever delete the weekly backups. The only time I've gotten the deletion warning was when my disk was full. I think I just avoided the problem by removing my old Parallels images from Time Machine and got back an extra 70 gig or so - good for another six months.
This is not a bug. This is how Time Machine works. It is unfortunate that the original poster did not fully understand this. The fact is that Time Machine backs everything up. If you create 100 files, it backs up the folder with 100 new files. If you delete 100 files, it backs up the folder with 100 less files. Then, the next day, it deletes old backups. The only one it keeps is the last one, with 100 less files.
It is correct to say that Time Machine is not an archival system. It is a backup system. If you want to save your files forever, you need to copy them to a location that isn't under the control of any sort of automatic software.

Time capsule not deleting old backups

My time capsule is no longer backing up due to lack of space. How can I get it to delete old backsups?

If you upgrade installed the OS, Mavericks.. then the TM seems to lose the ability to delete old backups..
Step in and do in manually.
See Q12 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

I backup to an external hdd with Time Machine, when it ran out of space it did not delete old backups, now my internal hdd says its full when before it had heaps of space. I have searched for extra files but cant find any. Can anyone help, please.

I backup to an external hdd with Time Machine, when it ran out of space it did not delete old backups, now my internal hdd says its full when before it had heaps of space. I have searched for extra files but cant find any. Can anyone help, please.

First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
To locate large files, you can use Spotlight as described here. That method may not find large folders that contain a lot of small files.
You can also use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
Proceed further only if the problem hasn't been solved.
ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual.
Triple-click the line of text below to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Launch the Terminal 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 Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means.
When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

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.

HT201250 How do it delete old backups?

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