Time machine backup folders in trash

Hi ok
I have just bought a new HD & i transfered the backups folder across to the new drive
on the old drive i put the backups folder into trash on my Macbook Pro then emptied trash
thing is I now have locked files which i cannot remove from the trash nor can i empty them
I have tried to unlock them by clicking on the lock logo on the bottom right of the info window & entering my password
but nothing works & they wont delete
Any ideas how i can empty these files from the trash
Thanx

Hello af:
This knowledge base article will, I think, tell you what you need to know:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1526
Barry

Similar Messages

HOW DO I GET A TIME MACHINE BACKUP OUT OF TRASH ???

I know this sounds like a really stupid question because to get things out of trash you just grab them and move them like you do with all the icons. BUT..... I accidentally put a vital time machine backup in the trash and then tried to move it back to the external disc and it wanted to go through the rigmarole of 'copying' which doesn't normally happen when you move things out of the trash.
Although I thought that was strange I thought it wouldn't matter if it was copied but what happened was it kept on saying it was 'preparing' the huge number of items and that number kept kept on climbing to 12 million before I stopped it. It should have been no more than about two million for the entire hard disc.
I tried this in several different ways but it did the same thing all the time, keeping the icon in the trash and saying it was copying but not actually doing it.
There must be a way of getting the thing out of trash and I need it because it has a year old backup on it I urgently need.
This really is a failure of the time machine software writers to write sensible software. Can anyone tell me how to sort this ?? ( if anyone is still left actually using this wrecked forums that is !)

You cannot just drag a Time Machine backup out of the Trash. It will always copy itself from the Trash to the location you chose to drag it to. What it won't do is copy itself back to where it was on the backup drive. The issue you have is not the fault of the authors of Time Machine. It's the fault of the user by trying to dump a Time Machine backup by putting it in the Trash instead of using the Time Machine application.

I dragged some of the Time Machine backup folders into the Trash and now I can't empty them out of the trash because it says the applicaiotns ar ruining - what can I do?

I have dragged soem of my Time Machine folders into the Trash. Now when I try to empty the Trash it says it cannot empty some of the files because the applicaitons are running.
What can I do to delete them and completely empty the Trash.
NOTE: the Trash is on my iMac, not the Time Machine backup drive.
Thanks!

Greetings Dennis,
Time Machine handles file deletion of its backups or you can use the Time Machine window to tell Time Machine to delete specific files: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
Follow the steps here: http://Pondini.org/TM/E6.html
Cheers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to restore a time machine backup from a corrupted disk

Hi.
I have quite a problem. I recently downgraded to os x 10.5.4 due to the requirements of Digidesign's Pro Tools. I did so with a clean install in order to have the most optimized computer possible without loads of unused data. I had backed up my data using Time Machine on an external hard-drive (LaCie, 1 TB) so I wasn't worried about losing important data.
However, when I inserted my external hard-drive after the clean installation it turns out to be corrupted in some way. It is only recognized in Disk Utility, it doesn't mount on my desktop.
Disk Utility is unable to repair the disk. The errors are:
+Verify and Repair volume “Kristoffer's back-up disk”+
+Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.+
+Invalid node structure+
+Volume check failed.+
+Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.+
I went out and bought "Data Rescue II" at once to try to recover my data. It works fine with the stuff I've manually dragged to the disc but the Time Machine backup folders seem compressed in some way (It's only about 86 MB). And when I click a file restored from one of the Time Machine folders it seems like it's just a shortcut to an "original file". I get this error when double-clicking such a file:
+The alias "filename" could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found.+
Is there some way for me to get Time Machine to understand the back up disk even though it's corrupted? Or some other way to retrieve my data?
I have TONS of extremely important data on the disk so it would cost me a huge amount of work to format the disk and start from scratch.
ANY help is greatly appreciated

ohnoono wrote:
Hi.
I have quite a problem. I recently downgraded to os x 10.5.4 due to the requirements of Digidesign's Pro Tools. I did so with a clean install in order to have the most optimized computer possible without loads of unused data. I had backed up my data using Time Machine on an external hard-drive (LaCie, 1 TB) so I wasn't worried about losing important data.
However, when I inserted my external hard-drive after the clean installation it turns out to be corrupted in some way. It is only recognized in Disk Utility, it doesn't mount on my desktop.
Disk Utility is unable to repair the disk. The errors are:
+Verify and Repair volume “Kristoffer's back-up disk”+
+Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.+
+Invalid node structure+
+Volume check failed.+
+Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.+
I went out and bought "Data Rescue II" at once to try to recover my data. It works fine with the stuff I've manually dragged to the disc but the Time Machine backup folders seem compressed in some way (It's only about 86 MB). And when I click a file restored from one of the Time Machine folders it seems like it's just a shortcut to an "original file". I get this error when double-clicking such a file:
+The alias "filename" could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found.+
Is there some way for me to get Time Machine to understand the back up disk even though it's corrupted?
no, that's quite impossible. you may try using Disk warrior on that drive. it's known to be able to fix the kind of error that DU is reporting. if that doesn't work your only hope is data recovery. If Data Rescue II doesn't work you can try other data recovery software like Filesalvage or try professional data recovery services (those can can a fortune).
Or some other way to retrieve my data?
I have TONS of extremely important data on the disk so it would cost me a huge amount of work to format the disk and start from scratch.
ANY help is greatly appreciated

How do you erase Time Machine Backups?

I thought I could use a 1TB External drive to back up my 320GB startup disk, and use the rest of the empty 680GB for storage. However, Time Machine started taking up 600GB of spaceon the External drive! I was like "What the heck!?" So I put unwanted Time Machine Backups in the trash and emptied it. Nothing, they're stuck there now.
I'm planning on wiping the disk clean and starting over, but for future reference is there a proper way to delete Time Machine Backups? Surely there must be; (I mean, who would have known Time Machine would take up MORE SPACE than the drive it's backing up in the first place?!?) Thanks!

A Time Machine backup drive needs to be at least twice the capacity of the drive it backs up. This fact is quite well known. It takes up more space because Time Machine saves all changes rather than overwriting them. If you want the latter type of backup then use something other than Time Machine.
Use Disk Utility to erase the drive.

Time Machine backup mirrors Hard Drive, but doesn't back up

I noticed a few days ago that my external hard drive, on which I store my Time Machine backups, only mirrors the content of my Hard Drive instead of actually backing up. I don't know if it has anything to do with that fact that I finally recently upgraded from OS Snow Leopard to OS Lion, which is the last OS upgrade my late 2007 model MacBook will accept. I'm using 10.7.5, build 11G63
I can drag files from my Time Machine backup folders going back to Feb. 22, 2013 on to my desktop, but they do not copy. Instead, they move out onto the desk top from the Time Machine folders and the same files disappear from the equivalent hard drive file folders, as if they had been dragged to the desk top. Likewise, any file I drag from any hard drive folder to the desk top disappears from the equivalent Time Machine folder. Conversely, files moved from the desk top to either a Time Machine folder or its hard drive equivalent show up in the other.
I don't know the significance of the Feb. 22 date, since I upgraded to OS Lion sometime after that.
Any suggestions?

I solved this myself. I found that, after upgrading to Mac OS Lion from Snow Leopard, some of the aliased folders in my Time Machine backup hard drive are not locked, but the regular folders are locked. Apparently this is new in Lion. (As I mentioned above, my MacBook is too old to upgrade to Mountain Lion.) I had based my query above on my ability to delete things from some aliased folders on my backup hard drive. Fortunately, they are locked in the equivalent non-aliased folders.

Time Capsule: How can one limit size of Time Machine Backup?

So there appears to be no easy way of partitioning the hard drive in Time Capsule. If this is so how does one limit the size of the Time Machine backups folders?
I want to use the hard drive to act as a normal storage device for various files but I understand that Time Machine will keep on increasing the size of the backups folder until it eventually runs out of space on the hard drive partition. Since one cannot re-partition the hard drive how can Time Machine be allotted only a specific portion of the hard drive? I don't want the hard drive to be filled with Time Machine backup folders.

Thanks BSP. Yes I am aware of the ability to limit the folders that TM backs up. I use this capability, But that certainly is not the solution I want.
I have not bought Time Capsule and probably will not buy it unless Apple fix this 'problem' and make the hard drive in TC behave like any other hard drive.
Why is it that Apple comes up with innovative designs which are let down by being 'crippled' in some way? Apple TV is another good example; can you steam from DVD Player? No. Can one steam a presentation directly from Keynote? No. With a little more thought Apple's products would be great. But, alas, this is not the case.

More on the Time Machine backup folder issue

R C-R has a couple recent posts related to identifying the volume on which the current backup folder for Time Machine is located -- so other volumes can be safely unmounted. He developed a script that may be the best of all possible approaches and has asked forum members to test it in "Does this script work for you? (10.5 users only)". To date the responses have been positive.
I don't use 10.5 but figure that eventually I might. After R C-R's first post I wondered if the most recently modified backup folder might actually be the one he is looking for. Short of forcing Time Machine to do a backup just before running a script (I don't know how), there's no way (for me) to know whether the most recently modified backup folder is of any significance. But I had started fooling around with code to identify that folder and now have a script that seems to work nicely on a 10.4 mock-up of the Time Machine save scheme (or at least I think it is a mock-up). Of course, I find myself without a way to really test it.
SO: if anyone with 10.5 wants to give it a whirl, the questions are:
1) Does it run on 10.5?
2) Does it appear to return the name of the volume containing the most recently modified TM backup folder?
and
3) Is there any correlation between the volume name it returns and the result of R C-R's test script? (I won't be surprised if there isn't)
(BTW, through my own stupidity I encountered a number-comparison problem while writing the code, but other forum members quickly got me straightened out.)
--BEGIN (for me, the script runs in a fraction of a second)
set SI_ to system info
set CN_ to computer name of SI_
set IntList to {}
set VtrueList to {}
set VtrueList_par to "NONE!"
set minVol to "[Not Applicable]"
set Vlist to do shell script "ls /Volumes"
repeat with v_ from 1 to count paragraphs of Vlist
set VolName_ to paragraph v_ of Vlist
try
set SF_ to do shell script "ls /Volumes/'" & VolName_ & "'/Backups.backupdb"
if SF_ contains CN_ then
if VtrueList_par is "NONE!" then set VtrueList_par to ""
set Vtrue to VolName_
else
set Vtrue to ""
end if
tell application "Finder"
set IT_ to item ("" & Vtrue & ":Backups.backupdb:" & CN_)
set MD_ to modification date of IT_
end tell
set Interval_ to ((current date) - MD_)
if Vtrue is not "" then
set VtrueList to VtrueList & Vtrue as list
set VtrueList_par to VtrueList_par & Vtrue & return
end if
set IntList to IntList & Interval_ as list
end try
end repeat
try
set CI_ to count items of IntList
set MinInt_ to item 1 of IntList
repeat with i_ from 2 to CI_
set NextInt_ to item i_ of IntList
if MinInt_ > NextInt_ then set MinInt_ to NextInt_
end repeat
end try
repeat with q_ from 1 to CI_
set Int_ to (item q_ of IntList)
if Int_ = MinInt_ then
try
set minVol to (item q_ of VtrueList)
end try
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
activate
display dialog "The following connected volumes contain a Time Machine \"Backups.backupdb\" folder at the root level which in turn contains a subfolder with the name of this computer (" & CN_ & "):
" & VtrueList_par & "
The most recently modified of the subfolders is on:
" & minVol & "" buttons {"Unmount all volumes except
" & minVol & " (and the startup volume)", "Cancel"} default button 1 with title "TIME MACHINE BACKUP FOLDERS ON THIS COMPUTER"
if button returned of result contains "Unmount all volumes" then
beep 3 -- (or substitute code for unmounting the appropriate volumes)
end if
--END
Note: this is not a competition -- I'm just curious.

Hello osimp,
To distinguish two volumes with same name in plain AppleScript (without denpending upon particular applications such as 'Finder' or 'System Events'), I think you can use either POSIX file object or alias object.
if I'm not mistaken, POSIX file object has typeFileURL data, which contains mount point information. And alias object contains fertile information to track file system object dynamically not only by its path. (In order to create new alias objects for volumes with the same name, however, you'd have to distinguish them by other means, such as by using POSIX file object.)
E.g.
If you have two volumes named "Mac HD" and their mount points are:
/Volumes/Mac HD
/Volumes/Mac HD 1
I think you can distinguish them by:
set f1 to "/Volumes/Mac HD" as POSIX file
set f2 to "/Volumes/Mac HD 1" as POSIX file
or:
set a1 to "/Volumes/Mac HD" as POSIX file as alias
set a2 to "/Volumes/Mac HD 1" as POSIX file as alias
and these references can be used such as:
set d1 to modification date of (info for f1)
set d2 to modification date of (info for f2)
or:
tell application "Finder"
set d1a to modification date of a1
set d2a to modification date of a2
end tell
After all, you might write a script as follows:
--SCRIPT
set CN_ to computer name of (system info)
set IntList to {}
set VtrueList to {}
set curDate to current date (* get curDate, time origin, once *)
set Vlist to paragraphs of (do shell script "ls /Volumes")
repeat with v_ from 1 to count Vlist
set VolName_ to item v_ of Vlist
try
set BkDB_ to ("/Volumes/" & VolName_ & "/Backups.backupdb")
set SF_ to paragraphs of (do shell script "ls " & quoted form of BkDB_)
(* get SF_ as string list in order to do exact comparison between each string and CN_ *)
if SF_ contains CN_ then
set pf to (BkDB_ & "/" & CN_) as POSIX file
(* get pf as POSIX file in order to distinguish volumes by mount point. *)
set end of VtrueList to VolName_ -- mount point name
set end of IntList to curDate - (modification date of (info for pf))
end if
end try
end repeat
set CI_ to count IntList
set MinInt_ to item 1 of IntList
repeat with i_ from 2 to CI_
set NextInt_ to item i_ of IntList
if MinInt_ > NextInt_ then set MinInt_ to NextInt_
end repeat
set minVol to "[Not Applicable]"
repeat with q_ from 1 to CI_
set Int_ to (item q_ of IntList)
if Int_ = MinInt_ then
set minVol to (item q_ of VtrueList)
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
if CI_ = 0 then
set VtrueList_par to "NONE!"
else
try
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {return}
set VtrueList_par to VtrueList as Unicode text
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {""}
on error errs number errn
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {""}
error errs number errn
end try
end if
return {CN_, minVol, VtrueList, VtrueList_par} -- # for test
(* Rest omitted *)
--END OF SCRIPT
Hope this may be of some help,
H

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.

Time Machine backup folder trashed

I've screwed up. I sent my Time Machine Backups.backupdb folder to the trash.
Fortunately, I caught the error and didn't empty the Trash and dump the folder. But then instead of using "Put Back" I copied it out of Trash to the HDD and now have two folders: Backups. and RETRIEVED… but the Backups folder is empty and the RETRIEVED folder has an odd string of folders: HDD> iMac > 2011-08-08-000744 and 2011-08-09-124425 both of which have >HD > System >Library > Core Services> boot.efi
If I open Time Machine I see a full backup but only for the last day and I can't go back any further.
I still show a Backups.backupdb folder in the trash, but I don't know what, if anything, to do with it. If I use "Put Back" I will then have 3 such folders. I'll survive losing the backup files because I have been duplicating most of my data files from the past several months on another HD 'just in case,' but I want to get this set up correctly.
Any guidance on what I did, how to fix it? Thanks,
Brian

azartguy wrote:
I've screwed up. I sent my Time Machine Backups.backupdb folder to the trash.
Fortunately, I caught the error and didn't empty the Trash and dump the folder.
You can't. Once removed from the Backups.backupdb folder, backup folders can't be put back:
Unless you need something from it, move the "Retrieved" folder to the trash and empty it (while holding the Alt/Option key).
Or, if there's nothing left on the drive (not a good idea to mix other stuff with Time Machine backups anyway), just erase it with Disk Utility.

Cannot restore some files/folders from Time Machine Backup

When I try and restore files or folders from my Pictures folder, which is a sub folder of my user I get the message "The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access xxxx". As far as I can tell this has only just started to happen because I've recovered stuff from the folder since I bought the machine in July. Yesterday I deleted an old Time Machine backup folder from the Time Machine disc. This caused empty trash to go berserk - the "files to delete" count went negative and I had to stop/restart the empty trash command about 20 times before it sorted itself out. Maybe this has screwed some permissions somewhere? I have run disc utility and repaied permissions on my hard drive and verified the TM drive. Still no joy. The permissions for Pictures look OK. Anyone any ideas?

Yesterday I deleted an old Time Machine backup folder from the Time Machine disc. This caused empty trash to go berserk - the "files to delete" count went negative
Probably you corrupted your Time Machine Backup by manually deleting older backups- that is dangerous.
See Pondni's advice on how to fix it - Time Machine trouble Shooting
I hope that helps
Léonie

Unable to empty trash due to a corrupt Time Machine backup.

I have a 3TB Seagate Backup Plus for my Macbook Pro. On this drive, I had a Time Machine backup from a secondary Mac that was stopped half way through. In this folder is the file '2014-10-03-144053.inProgress'. I moved the whole folder to the trash of my MBP, and can not empty the trash because of it, nor can I move the file elsewhere. I have tried the following:
Secure Empty Trash... (results in the trash being stuck on 'Preparing Items to Delete')
Using a third party software (OnyX) to empty the trash.
Executing the script:
sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash
sudo rm -rf /Volumes/*/.Trashes
(This results in terminal being stuck executing the second command).
Moving the file to the desktop results in finder being stuck on 'Preparing to move ... to desktop.'
What should I do?

BDAqua wrote:
Hi again, are there maybe hidden files in those folders?
Show Hidden Files 1.0...
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/29096/show-hidden-files
Hidden Way is a toggle for hidden files view in Finder...
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/25716/hidden-way
Show hidden files in OSX Finder
Open the Terminal and type or copy/paste:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true
Reverting to the default of NOT showing hidden files:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false
*Restart or Force Quit Finder required to take effect.*
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/developer/hiddenfiles.html
http://www.burobjorn.nl/blog/?p=96
Finder Force Quit, or restart required to take effect.
Not that I saw through Terminal's ls -all and Windows XP Pro. SP3 machine. Someone told me to try secured empty trash and it did more, but not fully.
I used the administrator (sudo) account in Mac OS X 10.5.8's Terminal to delete the trash, but it still failed:
$ sudo rm -rf *
Password:
rm: 501/2010/07252010/My Documents/My Pictures: Operation not permitted
rm: 501/2010/07252010/My Documents: Directory not empty
rm: 501/2010/07252010: Directory not empty
rm: 501/2010/01162010and05042010/My Documents/My Pictures: Operation not permitted
rm: 501/2010/01162010and05042010/My Documents: Directory not empty
rm: 501/2010/01162010and05042010/Favorites: Operation not permitted
rm: 501/2010/01162010and05042010: Directory not empty
rm: 501/2010: Directory not empty
rm: 501/06182011/My Documents/My Pictures: Operation not permitted
rm: 501/06182011/My Documents: Directory not empty
rm: 501/06182011/Favorites: Operation not permitted
rm: 501/06182011: Directory not empty
rm: 501: Directory not empty
I tried deleting this on an old, updated Windows XP Pro. SP3 machine and it had no problems! Weird. I wonder why Mac OS X 10.5.8 failed to delete it through its Finder and Terminal (sudo rm -rf command).

Time machine backup folders in trash

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