Time Machine Backup doesn't delete older backups

Time machine preferences doesn't allow much of modifications as to how frequently should it backup the data etc.. Is there any way where I can specify the intervals between two successive backups and thus limit the backup size, coz I think I'll need

I have the same problem. My computer name did include invalid characters but changing the name to fix that did not solve the problem. I recently had the logic board replaced (for the 2nd time in 3 yrs but that's another issue) and wondered if there is something related to that. I've had to reset a few things and reauthorize iTunes, is there a similar process for Tine Machine to make it see my previous backups? I guess I can reformat and start over but I'd really like to avoid that since I have almost 4 months of backups and am not sure what might get missed if I do that. Any advice would be much appreciated!

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Backing up to a thumb drive - time machine doesn't delete older backups when it's full. I will have to erase and re-do the drive. Why?

Backing up to a thumb drive - time machine doesn't delete older backups when it's full. I will have to erase and re-do the drive. Why?

You are both right.
Time Machine can backup FROM:
It cannot back up a USB thumb drive.
Time Machine can backup TO:
•A USB thumb drive (but most aren't large enough, and are very, very slow)

Time Machine - strange behavior while deleting old backups

Not sure if this is the right place, because this is actually not on Time Capsule, but on a Time Machine on an external USB drive.
In any case, I searched the web for "time machine delete old backups" and found many discussions of various aspects of this task. My objective is to clean up a partition on a the external drive that I no longer use for active TM backups, but to retain a small set of backups in case I need to go back to them. The partition now has other uses and I need the space. My main TM backup is now on a separate Time Capsule.
So again my objective is not to remove all backups, but just most of them.
It appears that the well-discussed procedure is the following:
Go into Time Machine.
Select the Macintosh HD.
Go back to one of the oldest backups.
Click on the Gear > click Delete Backup.
This procedure will remove one Backup at a time, and it seems to take 5 - 10 minutes for each backup.
Here is what I noticed that was "strange":
You could delete a selected backup using the above procedure.
For the first selected backup so deleted, there is a confirmation dialog with a warning message that it is not undoable.
After clicking OK on the warning message, the display backs up to the "Present" backup, and the administrative password is requested.
After the administrative password is entered, the backup starts but control is passed back to the user interface, and another backup can be selected to be deleted.
However, after the second backup is selected and deleted, there is no warning dialog, and no request for the administrative password. At this point the user interface is busy and nothing more can be done until the backup delete is completed. Except that the Time Machine can be exited by first pressing Escape, then Cancel on the lower left of the screen.
If the time machine is exited, there is a Delete Backups progress dialog with a progress bar for each backup so far requested. If the second backup was requested, as in the steps above, there would be two backups.
I discovered by playing around that either you had to wait within Time Machine for the deletion to complete, or alternatively exit Time Machine. While I was not sure what was going on, I kept starting one backup, then exiting Time Machine and re-entering Time Machine and requesting another delete operation. Each time after entering Time Machine, the warning/admin password sequence occurred and I was able to exit. And then immediately re-enter Time Machine and request another backup. Only by exiting and re-entering could another delete request be made.
When out of Time Machine, I thus saw the Delete Backups dialog with any number of concurrent "Delete One Backup" progress bars.
Because of the nature of the hard links used to indicate backups, I was wondering if these multiple delete operations could possibly be hung in a deadly embrace, so I decided to only do one at a time. Some further study to see if the multiple delete operations were all able to complete would be needed to know if this would be a good way to "queue up" multiple delete requests.
Bottom line: seems like kind of an odd implementation. Would be really nice if you could select many (say 30) individual backups and delete them all at once, rather than taking 5 - 10 minutes each. Again, this is because I am trying to reclaim disk space, but not delete all the backups from a Time Machine backup set that is not in active use.
Also, the method of "queuing up" backup delete requests is kind of odd, but seems to work, with the proviso that I have not yet confirmed that doing more than one at a time actually works.

Heinz-G?uenter Arnold wrote:
since the upgrade to SL it seem that Time Machine has problems to completely remove old backups completely. The "removed" backups do not show up in Time Machine anymore, but the backup folders and part of their contents can still be seen in Finder.
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
That happens occasionally, in both Leopard and Snow Leopard, sometimes after something was deleted from the Finder, but also after an abnormal shutdown or improper disconnection of the TM disk.
Run a +*Repair Disk+* on it via Disk Utility, in your Applications/Utilities folder. If it finds errors, but can't fix them all, run it again (and again) until it either fixes them all, or can't fix any more.

Time Machine UI doesn't display previous backups

Hi!
My Time Machine is running to a mirror disk and backing up files regularly. I can see them in the finder when I go to the backup disk. But when I "Enter" time machine, it doesn't recognize and show the files. Just "Now" and some time ago before I switched out hard drives.
Background: This occurred when I swapped in new drives for the old ones and named them the same as the old ones were named. Basically, I upgraded from 1TB drives to 2TB drives and now have this issue.

Thanks, Pondini.
I don't see any drives in grey. They are in black but in the UI I see "Now" and Oct. 23rd with nothing in between even though Time Machine is backing up every hour and I can see the backups by navigating to the backup drive in the Finder. So Finder shows there are backups, Time Machine menu and sys prefs pane says it's backing up, but the app doesn't find and display the backups.
Ideas?

Time Machine does not automatically delete old backups when drive is full

I back up to a 1TB external drive with TM. It will not delete old back-ups and instead tells me that the drive is full. I thought TM was supposed to manage all of this on its own.

It will, if it can. But it will never delete your last remaining backup.
See #C4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting, probably the pink box there.
Basically, if Time Machine has to do a full or very large backup, and your Time Machine drive isn't well over twice the size of the data it's backing up, there won't be room for the last backup, plus the new one, plus some workspace.

Stopping Time Machine from deleting older backups?

Dear Folks,
I'm using Time Machine Editor to control how often TM does its backups and it works great. Because I have a large TM drive and am not doing super-frequent backups, I have plenty of free space on the drive; it'll easily take 6-9 months before the drive would be full of daily backups. Accordingly,I'd like it if there were some way to preserve the daily backups that are older than a month(TM preserves only the weekly ones).
Does anyone know of a third-party app that will let me control the frequency with which TM deletes older backups?
Thanks!
pax / Ctein

(none) Ctein wrote:
Dear Folks,
I'm using Time Machine Editor to control how often TM does its backups and it works great.
Do note that if you ever decide to stop using it, you must use it to revert to Time Machine's default behavior before deleting the app. Otherwise, Time Machine will continue use the last settings it made. See #13 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Because I have a large TM drive and am not doing super-frequent backups,
Time Machine was designed to do hourly backups, and will protect you best if you let it back up as often as practical. If they're done frequently, the backups should be quick and unobtrusive. If they aren't, something is wrong.
I have plenty of free space on the drive; it'll easily take 6-9 months before the drive would be full of daily backups. Accordingly,I'd like it if there were some way to preserve the daily backups that are older than a month(TM preserves only the weekly ones).
Does anyone know of a third-party app that will let me control the frequency with which TM deletes older backups?
No. The actual Time Machine application doesn't actually perform the backups; it just lets you control where, when, and what gets backed-up. The backup programming, including the "thinning," is built-in to the "works" embedded deeply into OSX.
If you were to keep all the daily backups, it would reduce the length of time before the oldest weeklies start getting deleted. That's usually a pretty good trade-off.
And remember, every Time Machine backup is, in effect, a full backup -- it's a complete "snapshot" of the way your entire system looked at the time of the backup.

HT201250 I'm using Time Machine. Its Full. Deleting older backups as it goes. My desktop Mini is full. I want to delete all files on my computer. How will this affect Time Machine?

I'm really wanting to make room on my Mac Mini. I have about 70 gb left. I'm not sure what to do. I'm using Time Machine to regularly backup my computer and its already full and deleting older backups. I used to, in the past before Time Machine, just drag and drop files into an external hard drive and empty the file from my computer. Should I follow a similar procedure here? If I have time machine backup up, and I remove all my files from the computer, will Time Machine begin to backup a "clean" machine onto the external drive and begin deleting past backups? What would be the best way to approach my backups, remove all my files from my computer since a variation of them are already on time machine, and not lose viable backups? Thank you.

If you erase the hard disk and you install a new Mac OS X copy, Time Machine will start a new backup and will stop using all backups you made in the past.
One option you have is to reinstall Mac OS X and restore a Time Machine backup, but restoring only some files: for example, instead of restoring everything, restore only your user files, and not your applications, so you will have more free space. Also, doing this, Time Machine will continue backing up to your old backup, because Time Machine will detect that you have "the same computer with the same files and the same Mac OS X version", but it's not.
If you have more questions about Time Machine, see this site > http://pondini.org

Time machine doesn't delete old backups when disk is full

TM disk is 750GB. It tells me there is not enough room for backup…then I look into TM and find there ARE NO BACKUPS anymore. (There were a few days ago.) All backups are gone, except for one two days ago, which was when I began getting the "no room" error.
I assume I've lost everything, as the TM disk shows only the backup from 2 days ago. True?
Do I just format and start again?
Is there a fix for this "no room" message? (It says oldest backups are deleted when disk becomes full. But it doesn't do it.)
Do people rely on this?

How much data is TM backing-up? (What's shown for +Estimated size of full backup+ under the exclusions box in TM Preferences > Options?)
Note that your Time Machine disk should, in most cases, be at least twice the size of the data it's backing-up. See #1 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
It appears that Time Machine needed to do a large backup, perhaps a full one, for some reason, and deleted as many old backups as it could (but it won't ever delete the last remaining one, as that would leave you with no backup at all), trying to make room.
If in doubt, Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. Navigate to the backup in question, then copy and post all the messages for that run here, along with the amount of data that TM is backing-up.

After update to Maverics, one can't delete older backups (on older OS) throu Time Machine

After i updated one of my three macs to Maverics, i've stumbeled apon a "problem".
One can' delete older backups, throu time mascine, that have been backuped using an elder OS (like Snow Leopard).
You can see its's there on the timeline, but you can't do anything with it.
There is of course a solution, and that is to format the time capsule. And do a whole new back up.But thats where my problem is.
As i mention, i do have thre macs. And the other two are still on Snow Leopard. But thats not the issue here.
The issue is that i dont want to start the prossess of backing up all three mascines... Again.
All i want to do is delete and older backup. Since i have 2 TB, use almost all space on the Time capsule, when i backup three macs. Aand thats why i need to delete older bacups manually every time on each indidual mac i have.
So i hope anyone maybe have a easier solution, then to formate the time capsule.
Anyone?

Update:
The "problem" is now solved. I went into Time machine again, and all of a sudden i could delete the old Snow Leopard backup.
I think maybe i was to eager and didn't wait long enough. This time i waitet for the backups to "load" up, and it did.
And then i could delete the old back up.
I feel a bit silly, but the "problem" is now solved. And thats the most important thing, is it?

Can I manually delete older backups of Time Machine?

I have an external drive for use with Time Machine. I only want to keep the latest backup. Will it cause a problem if I go into the drive - select the older dated backups - right click and move to trash?
I don't want to wait for the disk to become full so time machine can delete them, as I have other files on the hard drive, and will add more.
Thanks

So if I partition a 1tb external hard drive, I can allocate 500GB for my time machine backups,(which will allow time machine to fill that 500gb space up and delete when necessary) and the other 500GB for other backed up files?
Yes.
Would this be a better method than having my time machine backups and other files together on the one partition?
Yes.
Is the reasoning behind not sharing the time machine drive with other non TM backups because it wastes more space as TM just keeps using up more until it's full?
Sort of. The problem with sharing TM backups with other files is what you described. A volume specified for TM backups eventually becomes full as a normal consequence of using it. At that point you are faced with the problem of adding more, non - TM backups to a volume that has reached its capacity: you can't. Tampering with Time Machine backups increases the possibility of corruption should you delete backups in a manner not consistent with the way Time Machine creates and maintains them.
Time Machine's biggest advantage is that it requires no user intervention, and is ideally suited to those who lack the discipline or skills to routinely perform this tedious exercise. Its biggest disadvantage is that is has few configurable options, and none that address your specific goal.

Time machine doesn't show older backups anymore after restoring one

After restoring a backup, my older backups are not shown anymore in my Time Machine. Although it's said that the oldest one is from 2010.
how ca i get them back?
thank you for helping!

Try right-click on the Time Machine "clock" icon on the dock
Click Browse Other Time Machine Disks
See if your old backups are there

Time machine - possible to recover deleted backup files that have yet to be overwritten?

I recently had to wipe my hard drive and reinstall my OS after my MacBook Pro failed to start. I managed to restore all my files from a Time Machine backup on an external HD after installing OS Yosemite.
After my computer is up and running again, I switched on Time Machine again, which started deleting my older backup files to make room for a new backup. Before I know it, it has deleted all my backup files except for the latest one, the one which I used to restore my computer.
Then Time Machine discovered that it still would not have enough room for the new backup and stopped. So I don't think anything new has been written to my external HD yet. Given that Time Machine may not have overwritten the old backup images (fingers-crossed), is there any possibility that I could recover those? If so, how do I do it?
The old data backup is extremely important for me. Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

I recently had to wipe my hard drive and reinstall my OS after my MacBook Pro failed to start. I managed to restore all my files from a Time Machine backup on an external HD after installing OS Yosemite.
After my computer is up and running again, I switched on Time Machine again, which started deleting my older backup files to make room for a new backup. Before I know it, it has deleted all my backup files except for the latest one, the one which I used to restore my computer.
Then Time Machine discovered that it still would not have enough room for the new backup and stopped. So I don't think anything new has been written to my external HD yet. Given that Time Machine may not have overwritten the old backup images (fingers-crossed), is there any possibility that I could recover those? If so, how do I do it?
The old data backup is extremely important for me. Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

Can I view photos and movies from my external hard drive? I used Time Machine and a WD Passport for backup. Since my drive on my MacBook Pro is filling up I was planning to delete some of the movies and photos.

Can I view photos and movies from my external hard drive? I used Time Machine and a WD Passport for backup. Since my drive on my MacBook Pro is filling up I was planning to delete some of the movies and photos. I wanted to see if I could view them from the hard drive. Thanks

Hello, eco1.
Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.
This sounds like you are wanting to move your iTunes media folder to an external drive and have iTunes this folder from this location. If this is the case then I would recommend taking a look at the article below.
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
Cheers,
Jason H.

Time machine fails to complete/maintain a backup

Time machine is driving me nuts!:
The last successful backup was one month ago. Since that time it seems to have been stuck in a perpetual loop of trying but never successfully completing a backup, no matter what I try. Here is the history:
I bought a new iMac 6 months ago with OS X Lion (1Gb HDD). Set up Time Machine over wireless network with a 1Gb WD MyBookLive attached to a new BT Homehub 3 router (UK). Lion successfully backed up my system (total size approximately 159Gb) over a two day period, but every 4-6 weeks Time Machine would tell me it needed to create a new backup. Frustratingly, this meant that the backup history never stretched very far in the Time machine 'starfield window' but at least I had a backup of some sort.
I upgraded to Mountain Lion 3 months ago, in the hope that it would fix the error and, briefly, things were going well. Time Machine didn't need to create a new backup from scratch after upgrade, and continued to add to the existing backups & history for 2 months. Then i got the dreaded 'Time Machine needs to create a new backup' message and, 1 month later, it hasn't been able to finish the process yet!
After about 6 days it was about 30% complete (just over 50Gb) which didn't sound right given how long it previously took. I stopped the backup using the TM dialog box , reset my mac, router and MyBookLive and started again. Time machine automatically started again, and after several days of crawling I got the message that the 'sparsebundle was already in use'. I followed the suggested tips regarding unmounting the drive, reset everything and tried again. TimeMachine took about another 4 days to get to about 30Gb, then stopped itself with the message that the backup had failed. I tried deleting the preferences files for TM as several sources suggest, but this doesn't seem to have helped, TM just takes days to crawl along and then terminates saying either simply that the 'backup has failed' or that the sparsebundle is already in use. About 5 days ago I used the WD browser-based administration tools to create a new, separate, share for TM (presumably because this ensures that there can be no record of any previous backups on the backup device which TM sees) and set up TM from scratch. All seemed well, it took only 23 hours to back up 103Gb - then it failed, saying that the 'sparsebundle is already in use'. I set the backup away again overnight and it managed about 12Gb before the same message appeared. TM now estimates 5 days to backup the remaining 40Gb.
Somebody please tell me what is going wrong and how to get TM to actually complete a full backup then maintain it without constant intervention!!!
Some further points worth mentioning:
1) My iMac is located too far from my router to backup using ethernet cable.
2) I have used iStumbler to determine that the signal strength is 36% (surely strong enough?) with only 3% noise. (802.11n Gigabit Ethernet).
3) WD MyBookLive plugged into the GigE port on the router, and firmware is up to date.
4) I've searched Pondini's tips, from start to finish looking for a solution, as well as the Western Digital and BT forums, but none of the common solutions seem to work.
Help! and thanks.

Thanks, Linc, for your response. I will also seek advice from the manufacturers of the other devices, however, I fear that every party will foot the blame at the door of others.
I don't agree with your suggestion that this shouldn't be my only backup, given the marketing literature of both Apple and Western Digital. Apple state on their website:
"Connect the drive, assign it to Time Machine, and start enjoying some peace of mind. Time Machine automatically backs up your entire Mac, including system files, applications, accounts, preferences, music, photos, movies, and documents."
Similarly, Western Digital state about their MyBook Live:
"Mac users can utilize all the features of Apple Time Machine backup software to protect their data."
So where, I wonder, does the fault lie? At the end of the day I am a home user and 'consumer' - just your average Joe looking for a robust home computing solution, not an IT boffin with an in-depth understanding of the nuts and bolts. I expect both products to do what they say on the box. Not surprisingly BT (the supplier of the router) state "The wireless 'N' technology in the BT Home Hub ensures you get a more reliable wireless connection throughout your home at all times."
To me, the advantage with my set up (should it ever work) is that, should the unthinkable happen and my computer is stolen, the likelihood of my backup device disappearing with it (as might be the case with a locally attached device) is greatly reduced because the NAS is hidden away elsewhere.

HT3275 Is it possible to delete older backups manually? I have tried and the files will not delete (Files remain in trash when emptied)

Is it possible to delete older backups manually? I have tried and the files will not delete (Files remain in trash when emptied)
I am Backing up to a Lacie HD 1tb.
I also use the drive to store Current work on as well as my Time Machine Backup.
Thanks!

Read the following link to get a clearer idea on how to approach trash problems.
Solving Trash Problems and this is a link to download Trash it.
Download Trash It! for Mac

Time Machine Backup doesn't delete older backups

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