I deleted my Time Machine backups using Finder, now the trash won't empty

Hello
I've just been to the Apple genius bar and thought this was solved, there the trash emptied no problem. But I realized that the problem has to do with two external drives that have time machine backups on them. I deleted some of the older back ups because my drive was filling up and I didn't see any other way to delete them.
Now they can't be reinstated back where they were, and the trash won't empty using any method. I've even tried the Terminal SUMO methods on here and other sites, and the Trashi It app, and Cocktail app - nothing works.
The only solutions I've found say to wipe your back up drive completely and start over but that is NOT an option as I have ALL of my photos on there. I use my external drive for my images (I am a photographer) and use time machine to back up my MacBookPro onto there as well. I had no idea deleting those was going to be an issue. Now I've tried to delete other things on both external drives and they are all stuck in the trash.
Someone please help!

photogirl67 wrote:
I use my external drive for my images (I am a photographer) and use time machine to back up my MacBookPro onto there as well.
Not a good idea, as you've learned the hard way.
And especially bad in the same partition, as you can't just erase the TM partition.
Plus, how do you back up the images?
For best results, consider getting another external HD; one for the images, and one for TM. Then you can have Time Machine back up both your Mac and the external. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #32 for details and considerations.
But my question for Pondini is this - if I use that command will it erase that entire drive, or just the trash on it?
Just the trash folders. I've reworded those instructions a bit, hopefully more clearly and safely, and put them in #E6 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Similar Messages

Can I delete individual Time Machine backups using Finder

I recent fount necessary to do a complete install and restore. As I was having trouble with system performance, I chose to restore Applications from Time Machine and set the system parameters manually. In the process, I wound up with some very large (50 Gbytes) on my Desktop. I neglected to turn off time Machine backup while doing the restoration and wound up with several big(!) files in the back ups taken during the restoration. There is nothing useful on the backups taken during the restoration and they have really filled up my backup disk. Looking at the structure of the backup disk, it seems you could just delete the backups after I started to restore things. Are there other considerations? Are there hidden tables laying around that might become unsynchronized?

Hi Kappy,
Thanks for the lead. I did not realize there were these capabilities other than restoration in Time Machine. I looked in the help for Time Machine and found this
"You can move, copy, or delete the Backups.backupdb folder on your Time Machine backup disk as you would other folders. You can also delete folders within the Backups.backupdb folder. You can’t delete individual items inside the dated folders."
Seems like I can just delete, with the Finder, the backups taken after I started the restore.

Deleted time machine backups in Finder, now what?

I know this was foolish, but I didn't do any research before hand. My external drive had 8Gs left and the Time Machine window said it couldn't backup because it was almost full. I thought it also said something about deleting previous Time Machine backups, so I selected the first 10 or so and put them in the trash. Then when I tried to empty the trash, it took forever (still going right now at 317,996 items to delete). Anyway, my question is, now what? I am not concerned about the older backups but do I need to do anything special for a proper backup of the iMac now? Should I start over or will Time Machine fill in the gaps. I have been searching on the forum but I still don't understand how this works. Any help is greatly appreciated!

photobug mjm wrote:
do I need to do anything special for a proper backup of the iMac now? Should I start over or will Time Machine fill in the gaps. I have been searching on the forum but I still don't understand how this works.
Sorry, I neglected to answer this before.
Assuming there's no damage, or it's repairable, then no, you don't need to do anything more, although you should do a new backup as soon as you're sure the existing backups are ok.
What you've lost is only the backups of any files and folders that existed only at the time of the backups you deleted.
So if those "first 10 or so" were your oldest backups, all you've done is what TM would have done anyway, although perhaps a bit faster. If they were your more recent ones, then you've lost the copies of items that were added or changed after the time of the oldest one still there.
It is a strange concept, and a very powerful system, but let me put it this way: TM will never delete it's copy of anything that's still on your system, or was there at the time of any remaining backup.
You manually deleting them works exactly the same way.
This is the "magic" of the "multi-links" that TM uses. Think of them as multiple, extra-fancy aliases. Every backup contains "links" to TM's copy of every item that was on your Mac at the time of that backup. So a file that's not been changed in a long time will have a whole passel of them; a new file will only have one, or a few. What you deleted were these links; the actual backup copies are only deleted from the TM disk when the last link to it is deleted.
So . . . you may have dodged a bullet!

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.

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?

Copy Time machine backup using a different Mac

A friend has a Time Machine backup from an iMac that he sold some time ago. He's concerned that the drive might fail so wants to make a copy of the backup, but doesn't have a Mac at the moment. So he'd like to use my MacBook to copy his backup drive. The backup is about 400GB, my HD is 256GB and he'd like to copy it to a new 1TB drive.
All the answers that I can find to similar questions assume that the Time Machine backup belongs to the Mac making the copy, in this case it doesn't. So is there a way to copy a Time Machine backup using a Mac that wasn't used to create the backup?

Hi ozRob,
If you would like to copy an existing Time Machine backup from one drive to another, you may find the following article helpful:
Time Machine: How to transfer backups from the current backup drive to a new backup drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5096
Regards,
- Brenden

Can't Completely Delete a Time Machine Backup

How do I completely delete a Time Machine Backup? In Snow Lepord I had no problem with deleting a Time Machine Backup. I back up my HHD on a external HHD. Since using Time Machine with Lion the back ups are not being fully deleted. My trash can each time I connect my external HHD is displaying deleted files. When I go to delete from trash I am told there are locked items. So I select the option to delete locked items, hear the deleted trash can sound but the trash can still indicates the files haven't been perminetly deleted yet. What is my problem here?

hopesdead wrote:
None of that worked. I used the Terminal method. No good.
What does "no good" mean? What happened, or didn't happen? That should empty the trash on the disk. As mentioned, it may take a long time, if there's lots of files there.
Repairing will be no good to be cause my external HD contains everything on one partition. The backups are not on there own partition like that site assumes. Repairing did no good.
Do you mean you didn't try it? If so, try it. It may or may not be able to repair them, but it's worth a try.

I accidentally deleted my time machine backup

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Data Recovery from time machine is something tough job even the best data recovery software can not do so because the complex structue in time machine is not understood by any data recovery software which Apple uses. Time Machine puts your backup in a sparse bundle disk image (backups.backupdb). However you can try some data recovery software which may recover someting from your trash. There are software having demo version which can show you the recovered files on preview if you found any of your important file then there is a good chance to recover your data and your good Luck..REMEMBER FIRST TRY THEN BUY

HT3275 Time Machine backup not completed because "the backup disk image ....sparsebundle already in use"

Time Machine backup not completed because the "backup disk image"/Volumes/Data/MacBookAir.sparsebundle" is already in use. ??

Reboot the TC.. this is most common issue since Mountain Lion.
Look at the More Like This just on the right column.

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I am trying to restore from a May 7th time machine backup. At that time my username was michaelhood. I had a system crash and when my computer was returned to me I inadvertently set it up under a different username, thinking I would do the restore later. Between May 13 and today, Time machine did backups under the name mhoo4494. Changing the name didn't let me access my May 7 backup, nor did creating a different user account. I have erased the hard drive and am reinstalling from the Install CD. I have set up a third user name. I now want to restore my data from the Time Machine May 7 backup. How do I do that? Migration assistant saw two users -- mhoo and mhoo4494 (michaelhood was not an option). I selected them both, but got no data for either -- no docs, no music, no pictures. This procedure should not be this hard~!!

Hi uclamikey90,
It is possible, using Migration Assistant, to restore the contents of your hard drive selectively. See this article -
Mac OS X v10.6: How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from a Time Machine backup - Apple Support
In particular -
To migrate data from a Time Machine backup
In Finder, press Command-Shift-U.
Double-click Migration Assistant.
Click "Continue" and enter an administrator name and password when prompted.
Select the "From a Time Machine backup or other disk" option, then click "Continue".
Select your Time Machine backup disk or Time Capsule (enter the user name and or password if prompted), then click "Continue".
Select the Time Machine backup you would like to restore (such the most current one you just made), then click "Continue".
Select Items to Migrate, then click "Continue". Note: The "Continue" button will be dimmed until the "Calculating…" stage is complete.
A user account sheet may appear if you have a user name on your Mac that is the same user name in your Time Machine backup. You will have to give the username in your Time Machine backup a new username to avoid conflicts. Note: This will create a new user account on your Mac to hold the data from the Time Machine backup. After migration, you can use the /Users/Shared folder to transfer data files the accounts.
Migration Assistant will begin the process of transferring the items you selected to migrate. When it is finished, click "Quit" to exit.
When you reach step 7, deselect items that you do not wish to migrate. Videos, photos and music are likely candidates for this as they take up a lot of disk space. You can later put items on an external hard drive.
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

Can I Update Time Machine Backup Without Booting From The Source Drive

Greetings,
Can I update a time machine backup without booting from the original source drive?
My main Macbook Pro internal drive seemed to have died. I had not backed up in months so my Time Machine backup was old.
I replaced the drive with a new one and settled for restoring from the old TM backup because my latest info was on the dead drive and not backed up.
I just plugged the "broken" drive into a dock and it mounted.
It won't boot from the drive but I can mount it and copy from it so far.
I now want to update my Time Machine backup with the info on the 'broken" drive while it's able to be mounted.
How can I accomplish this without booting from the 'broken" drive and running time machine.
Recap...
I need to update a Time Machine backup using another hard drive without booting from the source (as I cannot). Both drives are connected via USB to my MBP and I am booted from another MBP. I want to end up with the newer info from the "broken" drive updating my older Time Machine backup.
Thank You,
SG

Hi
Time Machine will only be able to backup whilst booted into OSX, so unless you can mount the drive, and boot up the OS that is installed on the disk, then no, you will not be able to run a Time Machine backup of that drive.
You could image the drive onto another using Disk Utility
Cheers

How do I access my encrypted User Account files from my Back Up hard drive? Time Machine was used to create the back up disk; File Vault was used to encrypt the files.

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Thanks. I will try going through TM. Since my Simpletech is on the way out, I'll be plugging in a new external hard drive (other than the back-up drive) and trying to restore the library to the new drive. Any advice or warning if this is NOT the right thing to do?
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Carbon Copy Cloner.

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Hi bluegrandpanash,
Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
If you backed up your iPhone to iCloud before updating the software, first try the steps under "Restore from an iCloud backup" in this article to recover your data:
iOS: Back up and restore your iOS device with iCloud or iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766
Best Regards,
Jeremy

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.

Manually deleting Time Machine Backups Via Finder?

Hi everyone,
I'll just pose the question right away:
Is it safe (and feasible) to navigate through my external HD in which I've set up for Time Machine via the Finder and manually select and delete back ups (ie. drag them to the trash can)? Thanks!
If you really want to know why I ask, please read below:
I recently had my logic board replaced. Then I noticed my system was not backing itself up via Time Machine. After a few Google searches I found out that when you replace your logic board, your MAC address changes I also found out that Time Machine pairs its backups via MAC addresses.
I found a procedure to help pair your new MAC address to your previous Time Machine backups from the old logic board and MAC address, this required finding your old MAC address, something I could not do. However also read that after completing the procedure, Time Machine will do a FULL backup, backing up all it had basically. It would not have fit on my external HD anyways.
So my plan was instead to start Time Machine fresh with this new logic board and MAC address. However, it needed to do a full backup as well, and I don't have space for that. I don't want to wipe my external hard drive and start from there, because I'm afraid that something will crash in the whole process of starting a new set of backups. What can I do is, delete a set of backups from the old logic board. I am aware of how to do this via the Time Machine interface. But because of my new logic board/MAC address, I cannot view those backups in that Time Machine interface. After having a steady set of new backups, then I'll delete ALL of the old backups.
Thanks ahead of time for any help.

jusdel wrote:
But because of my new logic board/MAC address, I cannot view those backups in that Time Machine interface.
Ah, you haven't found the fairly well-hidden +*Browse Other Time Machine Backups+* option.
See #17 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

I deleted my Time Machine backups using Finder, now the trash won't empty

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