Time capsule filling up

So TC has warned me that it is filling up and something about deleting older backups to make room for newer ones. Fine, but does it delete them on a day by day basis or how much will it delete to make the room? It's just a generic message.
I have excluded a few folders but the total included amount is 210.5gb to back up. So why is my sparsebundle on TC only 48.96gb? Seems like it is missing an awful lot. Any insights?

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1828063
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15137.html

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Time Capsule filling up unexpectantly

I do my weekly backup of my macbook pro using one seagate backup plus for mac and another seagate backup plus for SuperDuper and I see I have about 12 gigs to back up. No problem I try backing up to my timeCapsule and it proceeds to try and backup 190 gigs. It has been 6 days sine my last backup. What gives? Now my Time capsule is almost full. It's a Time Capsule 802.11n 3rd Gen.
Thanks.

Do you have..
Bootcamp partition.. that will cause trouble.
Parallels .. that will cause trouble.
Offline cloud storage.. that will cause trouble.
Find out what TM is doing..
A1.. install the widget.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
A2 to see what files are included.
D4 for why your backups are too big.
This can just be TM especially on Mavericks where occasionally it goes beserk.
It could have corrupted some stuff and need to recopy them.. there is heaps and heaps of stuff that goes wrong.
TM is far too complicated.

Aperture Vault & Time Capsule

If your machine is regularly backed up with TC, do you need to create and backup Aperture with Vault(s)?

Hi...... Now if I get this right... I am sure the good people of this forum will correct me if not........ Aperture is backed up to time capsule regularly, but when your time capsule fills up.... older back-up's are deleted to make more space.... so older photo's...documents.. etc are deleted. Therefore it is better to have Aperture back up seperately to an external hard drive...using vault's... so that you never loose valuable photographs.
Hope this is of help..
W

Adding second backup client to time capsule after first has filled drive?

I'm trying to add a second Time Machine client to my Time Capsule. I've had it for a while and the first client has filled the drive. The problem is there isn't enough space free on the Time Capsule for the second client. Is there a way to free up some space so I can add the second client? How do I manage how much space gets allocated to each?

Hi swills. First, click the Time Machine Dock icon and enter the TM 'star field' interface. Then go all the way back to the oldest backups. Go up to the action menu (gear icon) and select "Delete Backup". Do this with several of the oldest backups. This will free up needed space.
Then you need to compact the existing disk image.
First, turn OFF Time Machine Backups on all Macs backing up to the Time Capsule (TC).
Next, open a Finder window and click on your TC in the Sidebar.
If you don't see a blue share folder, you may need to click the "Connect As..." button and enter your Time Capsules password. (Note: NOT your own username and password.)
Double-click the blue folder that appears in the finder window. The sparsebundle should now be visible. DO NOT mount it, just leave the window open.
Now, launch Terminal from the Utilities folder.
At the prompt type in:
+hdiutil compact+
...and then hit the Space bar so that there is a space after +hdiutil compact+.
Next, drag the sparsebundle in question from the Finder window into the Terminal window. This will complete the command.
Now, with the Terminal window in focus, hit Enter.
Eventually, you will see something like this...
+Starting to compact…+
+Reclaiming free space…+
+Finishing compaction…+
+Reclaimed 5.4 GB out of 217.9 GB possible.+
Repeat this procedure for each sparsebundle contained on your TC.
Finally, remember to turn Time Machine backups back ON on all Macs backing up to the TC.
Obviously, if the other Mac still does not have enough space for it's first backup then you will need to repeat the above to free up further space. let us know if this resolves your issue. Cheers!

Time Machine Filling Up My Time Capsule

I use a time capsule for file storage, and also for backups. The backup is filling up my Time Capsule so I cant store any files on it. How can I set Time Machine to only fill up a certain of space or delete older backups?

blackbeardesign wrote:
I use a time capsule for file storage, and also for backups. The backup is filling up my Time Capsule so I cant store any files on it.
Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.
That's the way Time Machine (which I presume you're using) is designed. See this: http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/3.html
How can I set Time Machine to only fill up a certain of space or delete older backups?
It may be impossible to partition a Time Capsule disk with resorting to surgery. There are two things you could try: (1) Create a large "disk image" (.dmg) file and copy it to the Time Capsule disk. This will reserve that much space on the Time Capsule disk. Then mount the disk image and copy into it what you want to store there. (2) Get an external USB drive, connect it to the Time Capsule, and use it for the non-Time Machine data.

I'm a beginner with iMovie and my hard drive is filling up fast. How do I move the event files from the hard drive to my time capsule?

I'm a beginner with iMovie and my hard drive is filling up fast. How do I move the event files from the hard drive to my time capsule?

you should never (ab)use a designated backup-setup for 'ordinairy' storage tasks.
plus, the wireless connection to TC is too slow for iMovie.
purchase any ext. usb-harddrive, 500Gigs starting at 50$ ...
you HAVE to follow advice given here:
http://help.apple.com/imovie/#mov3ac6d42c

Filled Time Capsule Backups

I have filled a Time Capsule back up, added another terabyte and now that is almost full. If I buy a 4tb can I move the other ones over to that one?

Do you really need all the old backups going back many months, if not years?
If not, erase the Time Capsule drive and start over with Time Machine backups there. You will still likely have a 6-12 month backup history or more on the other hard drive.
When the Time Capsule starts to fill up, erase the other drive and then continue backing up there. In other words, rotate the drives, so you will always have at least a 6-12 month backup history at any given time.
Few users ever need to go back more than a month or two to pick up a document that might have been deleted by mistake. And, if you buy a new Mac, and want to transfer data over from your old Mac to the new Mac to make the new Mac look just like your old Mac, the setup software will only go as far back as the most recent Time Machine backup when you set up the new Mac using Setup Assistant.
Sure, it is possible to transfer the old backups onto a 4 TB drive, but this is usually not worth the time and effort required to do this....and.....Time Machine will start over again with a new complete back up of your Mac again anyway, taking up quite a bit of space right off the bat with that and the other backups that you have moved over.

How do I move time machine backup on filled time capsule to external disk

TIme machine backups from imac and mbp are currently on 1TB time capsule running out of space.
I want to split the time capsule and move just the imac backups to a new external drive which I want to share with a new macbook air.
The new external drive has been set up with mac OS extended with a GUID partition.
THe instructions on MAC 101: time machine Mac OS X v10.6: How to transfer your backups from your current hard drive to a new hard drive tell me to drag "backups.backupdb" to a new drive but I can't find it. I have just upgraded to Lion thinking I would find it now but it is still not there. Is this becaue I have both imac and mbp backups on the TIme capsule? Here is a screen image of my DATA folder. Desktop seems to be empty. A search for "backups" finds nothing.
EVen if I found backups.backupdb I am not sure whether I should have the external drive connected to the time capsule or the imac to move this file. It will be kept as an external drive connected to the time capsule so I can use it for both the imac and the macbook air.
And I am not sure whether I first need to set up the new drive as the time machine backup drive on the new macbook air or do it after I move the file.
Thanks for any help you can give me.

oops, I just found how to find backups.backupdb by myself, or at least with help from:
Pondini's excellent resource.....Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html
See #18.
I will come back to this forum and update after I try what I have learned from the fantastic Pondini.

I have a Time Capsule as my main WiFi router in my home. I'd like to extend my WiFi service to my guest house located approx 100 feet away. Will the AirPort Express fill this need? Is the AirPort Extreme a better fit?

I am using a Time Capsule in conjunction with my IMAC 27" system as my main WiFi router in my home. I would like to extend my WiFi service to my guest house which is located about 100 feet away. Can I use the Airport Express to provide this extended range? Would I be better served to use the Airport Extreme? Thanks!

The normal location for an AirPort Express or AirPort Extreme is a point that is about half way between the main router....the Time Capsule in this case.....and the area that needs more wireless coverage.....the guest house.
I doubt that you will be able to locate an AirPort at this "half way" point, correct?
Before you buy anything, take a laptop, iPhone, iPad, etc out to the guest house as a test to see if you can log on and get a reliable Internet connection over the wireless.
If you can, then either an AirPort Express or AirPort Exreme could be used to provide additional wireless signal coverage in the guest house.
If you cannot get a reliable connection with the "test" mentionded above, neither AirPort will help since they can only "extend" the quality of signal that they receive.
If this is the case, you will need to look at running an Ethernet cable from the Time Capsule out to the guest house to provide the reliable connection that you will need.

Making a backup of my Time Capsule

Bonjour,
Sorry if this has already been asked; I could not find what I was looking for.
I have a Time Capsule (500 GB) which connects to a MacBook Pro, an XP desktop and a Vista laptop. I make backups of my PCs each week (ish) and store them on an external drive in a vault. (yes, I have been scorched)
In the two months since I bought it, I notice that it has started filling up alarmingly. My Mac backup directory is roughly 356 Go, whereas I know that I am only using about 75 Go on my hard drive.
Is there a way of copying my Time Machine's backup to an external drive? On my PCs, I simply backup direct to external drive. I would love to be able to:
1 - from my PCs, backup direct to the Time Capsule
2 - copy this and my latest Mac backup to an external drive.
Is it possible? Why is the MAc backup so huge?
Thanks for your time,
Rick

RickIsTrying wrote:
if I have 385Go of info on my TC but only 75 on my hard drive, would it make an archive equivalent to the 75G?
The amount that will be backed up will be the 385 GB.
For the PC backup, it was not too bad; I select a destination for the backup files and I just point to the network disk, the TC.
Will that really work? I wouldn't expect Windows to understand a disk formatted to satisfy Time Machine.
It's annoying about the TC behaviour. I would like to backup photos and songs from the various computers in the house, but from what I gather, eventually all the space will be used up by the TM software.
It's understandable why it works that way. It's trying to preserve as much backed-up data as it can.
You can reserve space on the Time Capsule disk by creating a "disk image" (.dmg file) and copying it to the Time Capsule disk. Don't make it a "sparse disk image"; you need to allocate all the space you want to begin with. To use the disk image you'll have to first "mount" it. That technique won't work with a Windows computer, as it won't know anything about a Mac OS X disk image.
Is there a way of purging older versions (there's a blast from my VMS days...)?
That happens automatically as the Time Machine disk fills up. You could try mounting the Time Machine "sparsebundle" file, but (1) I'm not sure how easy it would be to delete anything in it, (2) it would be easy to mess up all your Time Machine backups, and (3) doing that wouldn't necessarily free up any space unless you could perform some sort of "compress" operation on the "sparsebundle" file. (I worked on VMS as recently as 2004.)

How do I use my Time Capsule to back up my wife's MacBook Pro running 10.4.

I just installed a Time Capsule. I've extended the range with two Airport Expresses. I've connected my MacBook running 10.6.3 to the wireless network. I've connected my wife's MacBook Pro running 10.4.11 to it. I've connected my wife's 3G iPhone to it and my first gen iPhone to it and our Apple TV to it. All devices can connect to the internet. I've connected the Time Capsule to the printer and printed wirelessly from both computers.
I've backed up my MacBook and seen that the Time Machine is backing up my MacBook as it should.
How do use the Time Capsule to back up my wife's MacBook Pro running 10.4.11? I've tried connecting them via ethernet cable and via USB cable. In both cases the Time Capsule failed to show up as an external drive and wasn't seen by the 10.4.11 back up utility.
How do people do this? (Other than convincing their wives to let them upgrade their MacBook Pro to 10.6.3?)

James Elliott1 wrote:
How do people do this? (Other than convincing their wives to let them upgrade their MacBook Pro to 10.6.3?)
That really is your best option. Sooner or later, you're going to have a problem with the "other" data on your Time Capsule, since the backups of your Mac will, eventually, fill up all the available empty space. That will, of course, limit the space available for the other backups.
There's a very cumbersome workaround in the blue box of #Q3 of the Using TIME MACHINE with a TIME CAPSULE *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
Another is to connect a USB drive to the Time Capsule, partition it if desired, and back up one Mac to it and the other to the TC's internal drive.

Time Capsule Can't delete a sparsebundle

i have a time capsule which i used to backup 3 macs. but having 3 macs eventually filled it up completely and now i am backing up the macs on other separate time capsules. but on my original time capsule, i find i still have the old sparsebundles for the backups of the other macs there.
i just tried dragging one to trash since it was huge (500GB!) and a window popped up saying preparing to delete, and then it said it couldn't delete it because some item 'bands' is in use.
how can i force delete this sparsebundle? am i forced to reformat the whole thing, even losing the backups of the single machine i'm still using it for?
thanks in advance!

Plug your TC into your computer by ethernet.
Change it to bridge mode.
Update the TC.
Plug it by ethernet into your dad's TC LAN port.. to any port on your TC although by convention we use WAN.
Now check again when you connect by wireless to your dad's network.. or ethernet direct to your TC.. it should come up and be accessible.

How to manage a MacBook Pro + Time Capsule + Apple TV combo?

Hi, everyone. I'm a new user to Mac techonology and I have a few doubts I'd like to clear before I acquire some new stuff and avoid a useless expense.
I just bought a 500 GB 15" MacBook Pro, and I've always used several external USB hard drives for backup (one HDD) and releasing space from my computer (two HDD). So you can imagine how much I have to juggle with since I'm an avid iTunes store customer for TV shows, movies and music, on a weekly basis. So, you can imagine also a 500GB internal HDD will fill up eventually with all the rest of the data I have.
I'm thinking about buying a 2TB Time Capsule to get rid of all the cables, countless copy/drags/syncs, and reduce the number of external HDD's. And I just got a new Apple TV as a birthday gift (don't have it yet with me) so I can enjoy all my media in the living room.
So, would Time Capsule be the best option? To backup my MacBook AND use it as a data storage external HDD for files that fill up the MacBook (movies and tv episodes)? Also, can both options be accessed remotely for sharing purposes and for Apple TV playing?
I hope I'm making myself clear enough. Does anyone have an accurate idea if what I'm trying to go for is possible? I'd hate to spend 500 bucks on a Time Capsule and not defeat my current "management" of data.
Please help.
Best regards,
Martin V.F.

martinvfraga wrote:
I'm a new user to Mac technology
Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.
So, would Time Capsule be the best option? To backup my MacBook AND use it as a data storage external HDD for files that fill up the MacBook (movies and tv episodes)?
You don't want to mix Time Machine backups and other types of files on the Time Capsule disk. By design Time Machine will eventually fill up the Time Capsule disk, making it hard to manage your other files. Instead, connect a USB disk drive to the Time Capsule and put those other files there. Size the Time Capsule disk strictly for Time Machine backups. Since Time Machine won't back up the files on that external Time Capsule drive, you'll have to arrange for that some other way.
Also, can both options be accessed remotely for sharing purposes and for Apple TV playing?
If you want to share the Time Machine backups, why?? If iTunes can find the files on the Time Capsule external drive, then the AppleTV should be able to access them.

I have partitioned my time capsule, but I can't get it to work as a Time Machine back up and permanent media server for both mac and PC. What format do I need to partition the drive to so that it works for both mac and windows and so that it will be visab

I have partitioned my time capsule, as I want part of it to act as a media server for both mac and windows. However I don't know what format that I need to partition it to. I also can't make it a permanently accesible drive. I want to restore the drive to the original format (which I don't know) and start again and re-partition the drive in a format that can be used for media by both mac and PC and for time machine back-ups and make the media part of it permanetly accesible so I can add and acccess my files.
Thanks

You are mixing up a couple of things here.
The TC drive cannot be partitioned without removing it.. did you do that?
If you partition it you must use a Mac disk utility and use the HFS+ ie standard Mac format. And GUID partition table not windows type.
You can select erase disk in the airport utility.. that will take the disk back to original format. No partitions. TC is deliberately not partitioned as it is not a media server.. it is a backup device for TM. Over time .. the disk will be filled with TM backups so you have a long history of file changes to your computer.
There is no media server in the TC.. it is merely disk storage.. you can serve files from it to a media device.. but the TC itself is dumb as dumb.
Now the actual format of the drive is irrelevant to the PC.. The TC offers SMB file services to the network. You can copy files to and from the TC as if it was a local disk without caring one iota about the format. The TC handles that .. it is not a local disk .. it is a network drive.
Although you cannot partition the TC. you can still copy files to it.. this does have implications for TM.. but as long as there is plenty of free space should not be a major issue.
You can create a disk image via the disk utility in a Mac.. and as stated you can create partitions if you do it on a Mac with the disk directly connected which means breaking warranty if any exists on the TC.

How does an external hard drive compliment Time Capsule?

Hi, I am relatively new to iMac and time capsule. I am a novice computer and Mac user so things have to be simple. I have been reading a number of threads in the forums gleaning as much information as I can. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
My iMac is running OS 10.6.4 with a 313 GB HD and my time capsule is 500 GB. I purchased my first iMac 2 years ago. Shortly thereafter I decided that I needed to be backing up files that I have been creating and building especially my photos and music files so I purchased a time capsule which I have been using as an external hard drive not as a wireless router. It is hard wired to my Mac. I use another wireless network. I have used Time Machine a few times and it has worked well for me. So far this simple set up has met my needs.
Just recently I got two error messages, one that "Your startup disk is full." and "The disk containing your iPhoto library is running low on space.
While I was exploring my memory capacities and possible ways of freeing up space on my computer my Time Capsule croaked. Apparently all hardware has an expiry date. It has since been replaced under an extended warranty and the new one reinstalled. I have done a complete back of my hard drive and deleted some useless stuff on my computer's hard drive to create 17 free GB. I am pondering what further steps I should take to safeguard my data. I hopefully will be building a much more extensive photo library both in iPhoto and Aperture. I wonder whether I should be looking at an additional external hard drive which seems to be the easiest thing to do. My Time Capsule (500 GB) is not quite twice the size of my computer's hard drive. Maybe it is too soon to invest in an external hard drive seeing that it may have a shot life span such as my first Time Capsule did.
Does Time Machine only work with Time Capsule or will it work with other external hard drives? The folks at my Apple store tell me that Time Capsule can be used just to store data but I have heard otherwise in the forums. How would an additional external hard drive will work with Time Capsule? What is the difference is between USB and firewire? Is it possible to open files stored on the Time Capsule to see exactly what they are?
I do realize that Time Capsule only backs up new files and any changes so I wonder how long I can continue with this arrangement.

curious r wrote:
Does Time Machine only work with Time Capsule or will it work with other external hard drives?
Yes, Time Machine works with external HDs. That's how most folks back up. Connecting directly via USB or FireWire is much faster then Ethernet, but you're right -- all disk drives fail, sooner or later.
The folks at my Apple store tell me that Time Capsule can be used just to store data but I have heard otherwise in the forums.
It can be used for Time Machine backups and other things, but trying to use the same one for both presents problems, because of the way Time Machine works (filling-up all the available space before deleting the oldest backups) and the fact that you can't partition a Time Capsule's internal HD to separate your backups from the other data. Plus, you can't back up the other data.
How would an additional external hard drive will work with Time Capsule?
It won't extend the TC's internal HD -- backups can't "span" the two. In your setup, you'd be much better off connecting an external HD directly to your iMac. The advantage of a TC is, since it includes a wireless router, you can use it to make a wireless network and do backups wirelessly. That's what a lot of laptop owners do.
What is the difference is between USB and firewire?
FireWire is faster and more reliable for large amounts of data transfer. It also requires less use of your Mac's CPU, since the FireWire chipset does some of the work that your CPU has to do with USB.
Is it possible to open files stored on the Time Capsule to see exactly what they are?
Yes. Files you put there (other than Time Machine backups) are just like files on any other disk.
I do realize that Time Capsule only backs up new files and any changes so I wonder how long I can continue with this arrangement.
Yes, that's a concern. It varies greatly depending on how you use your Mac, but our general "rule of thumb" is that it needs 2-3 times the size of the data it's backing-up.
There's another consideration: Time Machine can back up FROM your internal HD and external HDs that are directly connected via USB or FireWire (if they're formatted for a Mac), but it cannot back up from any network drive, including a TC's internal HD or a USB drive connected to it. So if you move some data from your internal HD to an external HD connected to the TC, you'll need some other way to back it up.
Forgive me, but I'm not sure why you have a Time Capsule in your setup, if I understand it correctly. You have one iMac, no laptops or other computers, and you use a different router for your network, right?
Your best bet may be to get one external HD for the "overflow" of things you don't have room for on your iMac's internal HD, and another, much larger one, for Time Machine backups of both.
I'll press my luck here and also suggest yet another external HD, perhaps a portable, for "secondary" backups. With a portable, you can take it to a secure off-site location, such as your safe deposit box, workplace, relative's house, etc., and also be protected against fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on your power lines, etc. See #27 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] for more.

Time capsule filling up

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