Time Machine backup size almost 1T for two months worth of archives. How to minimise space consumed by Time Machine short of starting over?

I have an MBA mid-2012 wtih only 250GB of internal SSD space. I have run my back up since last year, but have subsequently removed my older back ups through Time Machine. I now have only two entries one day each for December of 2012 and January this year. The backup space consumed seems to have grown to 900GB. My external drive is 2TB large, but it seems that the Time Machine back up space has grown over large.
How can I trim it to size short of starting from scratch? I actually don't have problems starting my backup over, but if a more elegant solution is available then I am all ears (or eyes in case of the internet and my screen).

Thank you for the link. It helped immensely. Attached is a screenie of my disk usage. So I didn't realise earlier that my virtual machines (save for Boot Camp) could be eating up a sizeable chunk of the back up space. I think I'll do a complete redo of my Time Machine back up, I keep a copy of each VM I use as a pseudo snapshot anyway. I've added a number of exclusions too, since I only really use several folders in my home directory as temp (e.g. watching a movie I copy it to my Videos folder so I so I can disconnect my external HDD).

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Limiting Time Machine backup Size with WD MyBookLive and 10.8

I cannot take credit for the any part of this solution; merely for merging and clarifying how the solutions discovered by 2 Apple Support Communities contributors much smarter than I (namely “Pondini” – Florida and “himynameismarek”) - worked perfectly for my situation. All cudo’s to these two!
I have about average or better PC skills, but am an absolute newbie with Apple. This week I got a new iMac. Having a number of home PC’s all sharing files and back up space on a Western Digital MyBookLive (“WD MBL”) 3TB network drive (NAS), naturally I wanted to use it to backup the new Mac rather than rushing out to buy an Apple Time Capsule.
There are hundreds of threads on limiting size of a Time Machine (“TM”) backup, many of which required entries in “Terminal” or were devised on older versions of OSX. I’m running OSX Mountain Lion 10.8, so was concerned they may not work.
The issues I wanted to resolve were:
Time Machine will use up all of the space on my WD MBL if left to it’s own devices.
The WD MBL is compatible with Mac and PC’s… which is good… but unlike a back up in Windows 7 Pro which will allow you to make backups in a mapped “share” you create yourself, Apple TM Backups will not; they end up in a hidden folder on the NAS (much like PC backups done with WD Smartware)
At first I thought maybe I could limit the size of a share created in the MBL, but not possible, at least not that I've seen and I have searched for days.
The solutions:
First make sure you have the latest firmware for the WD MBL as of today it is MyBookLive 02.11.09-053. From what I’ve read Western Digital fixed the compatibility issues with 10.8 Mountain Lion just recently.
Next you need to start TM so that it starts to create a back up. You can stop the back up once you see files being copied. Do this before you walk thru the video tutorial by my Marek below. WD MBL will create the hidden folder you need to find for TM Backups. This folder is called “TimeMachine” but it is not visible even in the “MBL_NAME-backup” folder in Finder.
Open safari and type “ afp://xxx.xxx.x.xxx ” but use your own ip address of your MBL. Mine was 192.168.1.120, yours will be different.
It will ask how you want to connect. CHOOSE AS A GUEST even if your MBL is protected… I’m not sure why it works but it does. Then a window will come up asking which share you’d like to mount. You will see all of your own shares plus one called software and now one called “TimeMachine”. Choose that one.
Now in “Finder” you will see a mounted shared item called “YOUR_MBL_NAME-“ (the same as the one that is probably already there but with a dash(-) at the end). You’ll also see a new “device” in the device list called “Time Machine Backups” (If you already have watched the video tutorial by Marek, you’d know you are looking for a file called “YOUR_MACHINE_NAME.sparsebundle”. Well if you browse the folder “Backups.backupdb” in the Time Machine Backups device you won’t find it… again I don’t know why but you won’t. It resides in the hidden folder called “TimeMachine” that is now visible in the thing you just mounted in step 4)
NOW watch this video tutorial http://youtu.be/Nq7mSizqUSI and follow it step by step.
Voila... issues resolved. Thank you Pondini and Marek!

Try Use Terminal to limit Time Machine sparcebundle size on timecapsule,
should work to limit Time Machine backup size on any NAS or external disk (or not...)
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize 500000
to return to ilimited
sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize
if you want to reclame deleted files space shrink it use
hdiutil resize -size 500g -shrinkonly /Volumes/TimeMachineYOURNAME/YOURNAME.sparsebundle/
Regards

Time Machine backup size discrepancy

Apologies if this has already been answered, but I just did my first Time Machine backup to a new external HD and when I compared the amount of data on the Time Machine drive to the internal HD I backed up, it's about 7 GB smaller (149 GB vs. 156 GB). Is it normal to have a discrepancy in the initial backup file like this? I didn't exclude anything on the internal drive from the backup. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Frank O'Connell wrote:
Oops! You're right, I meant Spotlight (you use a Mac for 25 years and you get confused sometimes!). Anyway, I checked the entire log folder and it's less than 100 MB. Could the other things you mentioned (temporary files, swap files etc.)
yes, they could although it's somewhat uncommon. swap files are in /var/vm. DO NOT delete those by hand. restarting the computer will reset them to the default size. sleepimage is in the same directory too. you can delete that one but if you have safe sleep enabled then it will be recreated next time you sleep the computer. also check your Trash size.
account for that big a difference, and if not, should I be worried that my TM backup is incomplete?
no, I wouldn't worry about that. check your TM exclusion list in TM system preferences->options. if nothing is on it and nothing is obviously missing you should be fine. but i would be worried about having a lot of stuff that's abnormally large and takes away space. for example, if it's the swap files that take so much space it means that you need more RAM.

Restore using Time Machine to new hard drive, but last "full" backup was 2012. how do I restore the rest of the Time Machine backups, particularily IPHOTO libraries for each user?

Restore using Time Machine to new hard drive, but last "full" backup was in 2012. How do I restore the rest of the Time Machine backups, particularily IPHOTO libraries for each user?
I entered Iphoto for my user and only photo up until 2012 were in the library. I thought the restore would do the incremental Time Machine backups too.....
Running 10.8.2

It usually means you are running Mavericks but have an earlier version of iPhoto. Open the App Store and upgrade your version of iPhoto to the Mavericks version.
The iWork apps are free with a new iOS device since 1 SEP 2013. They are free with a new Mac since 1 OCT 2013. They are also free with the upgrade to OS X Mavericks 10.9 if you had the previous version installed when you upgraded.The iWork apps are free with a new iOS device since 1 SEP 2013. They are free with a new Mac since 1 OCT 2013. They are also free with the upgrade to OS X Mavericks 10.9 if you had the previous version installed when you upgraded.
iWork and iLife for Mac come free with every new Mac purchase. Existing users running Mavericks can update their apps for free from the Mac App Store℠. iWork and iLife for iOS are available for free from the App Store℠ for any new device running iOS 7, and are also available as free updates for existing users. GarageBand for Mac and iOS are free for all OS X Mavericks and iOS 7 users. Additional GarageBand instruments and sounds are available for a one-time in-app purchase of $4.99 for each platform.

Back up and access problems on MacBook Pro 15 2.2Ghz Yosemite 10.10.2 cannot finish time machine backup on My Passport for Mac, and cannot recognize LaCie quadra H2

New MacBook Retina Pro 15.4 inch with 2.2 Ghz and running Yosemite 10.10.2 will not recognize LaCie Quadra H2 disk. Also will not complete Time Machine Backup onto My Passport for Mac which it does recognize. Plenty of disc space both externals.

If you choose to use garbage such as "Intego VirusBarrier" you are going to need more memory, a lot more. I suggest you uninstall it according to its instructions, and evaluate your Mac's performance without burdening it with completely useless junk. As long as Intego remains active, your Mac will have few resources remaining to do anything else.
Using Intego's "Virus Barrier" and "Net Barrier" products on a brand new Mac containing nothing but one minimally configured user account resulted in performance degradation so severe that it became nearly unusable. No knowledgeable Mac user would consider using it even remotely tolerable.
Intego should only be uninstalled using the uninstaller included with it. Don't use anything else. A successful uninstallation will result in the following:
After that, restart your Mac. Other Intego components will remain but they will be inert and will not affect your Mac's operation.

Limiting Time Machine backup size onto external drive

I have a 6TB RAID LaCie external drive that I would like to use with Time Machine. My mac has a 1TB HD which is not full. I do not want Time Machine to fill up my external drive with multiple backups. Is there some way to limit how much space Time Machine will use on an external drive? My understanding is that Time Machine will fill up the drive completely, then start overwriting the oldest files.
I do not think that I could partition the drive. But I am not sure how to do that, if it works with mac, and if I can do it now without reformating the drives. I am looking to see if there is a solution on the Time Machine software side.

Try Use Terminal to limit Time Machine sparcebundle size on timecapsule,
should work to limit Time Machine backup size on any NAS or external disk (or not...)
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize500000
to return to ilimited
sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize
if you want to reclame deleted files space shrink it use
hdiutil resize -size 500g -shrinkonly /Volumes/TimeMachineYOURNAME/YOURNAME.sparsebundle/
Regards

When i put firefox in offline mode, and then click on pages saved in history , it can't load any pages or any images. i put cach size to 250mb but the problem is the same, it saves history for two months, but can't load pages.

when i put firefox in offline mode, and then click on pages saved in history , it can't load any pages or any images. i put cach size to 250mb but the problem is the same, it saves history for two months, but can't load pages.

Hi there,
When I inspect your site in browser tools, I'm getting 404 errors from your page:
[Error] Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found) (jquery-2.0.3.min.map, line 0)
[Error] Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found) (edge.4.0.0.min.map, line 0)
BarnardosIreland wrote:
I would have thought that publishing should give a complete package that doesn't need any further edits to the code and can just be directly ftp'ed to the web - is this correct?
In general, you are correct - but also your server does need to be properly configured (and those errors above lead me to think it may not be) to serve the file types that your uploading - but it could be something else entirely. Can you zip up your composition folder, upload it to your Creative Cloud files, set it to share, and then post a link here so I can download it? If you'd rather not share it publicly, can you PM me with a link to your composition files?
Thanks,
Joe

Slow Speeds, no phone for two months, extortionate...

Last summer, in preparation for Infinity (or so we were told), work was carried out at our local cabinet. Most houses in the street lost their phone for days, weeks or even months.
Thankfully we have a second line in the house dating back to dial up days and the broadband is on that line so broadband was unaffected.
Our phone was dead for two months. I phoned BT several times a week during the outage and was told each time that they couldn't help me but promised someone would ring back. We made probably ten to twenty phone calls, and never received even one call back. Before you think that they couldn’t return the call because the line was dead, of course they had another number where they could reach us!
After a couple of months the phone just started working again. Unsurprisingly we were not informed that it had been fixed, or why it was out for so long or anything like that. Never heard anything from any customer service representative, never received any compensation or an apology.
A week ago our phone went dead again. Phoned up and since this time there was a question that it might be an internal fault, BT were suddenly extremely interested in fixing it. BT engineer visited, replaced a meter of internal wiring that had become damaged and was gone in under thirty minutes – price £380! Yes THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY POUNDS. Some of us have to work months to save that much. Obviously BT are very willing to fix things when there’s money to be made and you can (in theory) get someone else to fix it. When it’s a fault in their street cabinets that only they can fix they don’t seem quite so keen on fixing the problem, no wonder!
If the man had arrived in a plain white van instead of one with BT printed on the side you would almost expect to see him on an episode of BBC "Rogue Traders".
A year on and Infinity is still not available to us, although people only a few doors down the street can get it. Every time we’ve enquired we’ve been told it will become available to us within the next month or two, but that’s been going on for a couple of years now, they just keep pushing back the date. I don’t anticipate it anytime soon, so in the meanwhile will fall back on the regular BT ADSL line, which in the last couple of weeks has halved in speed. Unrelated to the fault on the first line, remember, because it’s a different line.
Of course I don’t live in the middle of nowhere. There’s been broadband here for twelve years. Twenty-five minutes on the train from central London and even the (ex) council houses here have Porsches parked in front. This is a wealthy area, which doesn’t really benefit the poor locals like me, but you would think we would get Infinity at some point.
No phone for two months, never being called back, charged £380 for a meter of cable and now getting half the broadband speed I was two or three years ago.
BT probably call this progress.

welcome to the BT community forum where you probably read is where customers help customers and only BT employees are the forum mods
if you want to complain about the cost of the work then try online chat
live chat http://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact/c/2902/?s_intcid=con_intban_sanda_contact_us_chat_from_forums
if you would like some assistance from the forum with your conenction speed then please can you post the adsl stats from your router may need to 'show detail' to get all stats (if hub enter 192.168.1.254 in your browser and navigate to adsl or use a-z, if netgear enter 192.168.0.1) and run btspeedtester (MAC users may have problems) bt speedtester and post the results .
are you connected directly via a filter to the NTE5 master or test socket or to somewhere else? Is the master the only phone socket in your home?
Have you tried the quiet line test? - dial 17070 option 2 - should hear nothing - best done with a corded phone. if cordless phone you may hear a 'dull hum' which is normal
Someone may then be able to offer help/assistance/suggestions to your problem
If you like a post, or want to say thanks for a helpful answer, please click on the Ratings star on the left-hand side of the post.
If someone answers your question correctly please let other members know by clicking on ’Mark as Accepted Solution’.

My unibody macbook (latest 2010 model) wont connect to my home wifi. When it does which is rare, it is very slow. I have tried everything from renewing DCHP lease and such. This has been going on for two months.

It will not connect but my other apple devices can connect and the wifi works very well. I have moved houses to my house wifi isnt the same as the old one. Also, i have to type in the password every time even if i click autosave. Sometimes it also says invalid password or connection timeout. This has been going on for two months and is getting really annoying. I've tried most of the solutions listed on other discussions, none of them work. Any other tips? Thank you. Ps i've had this macbook for 3+ years

Two questions:
1. Your profile says OS 9.2.x. Is that correct?
2. Impossible to provide "other" tips without knowing what you have aleady tried. What have you tried?

How does this happen: The picture of recent apps you get when double clicking the home button showed in Settings-Wifi that I had been connected to a network I have not been near for two months. Its not a recent "image" of Settings-Wifi. Can anyone explain

How does this happen: The picture of recent apps you get when double clicking the home button showed in Settings-Wifi that I had been connected to a network I have not been near for two months. Its not a recent "image" of Settings-Wifi. Can anyone explain?

Greetings,
I've never seen this issue, and I handle many iPads, of all versions. WiFi issues are generally local to the WiFi router - they are not all of the same quality, range, immunity to interference, etc. You have distance, building construction, and the biggie - interference.
At home, I use Apple routers, and have no issues with any of my WiFi enabled devices, computers, mobile devices, etc - even the lowly PeeCees. I have locations where I have Juniper Networks, as well as Aruba, and a few Netgears - all of them work as they should.
The cheaper routers, Linksys, D-Link, Seimens home units, and many other no name devices have caused issues of various kinds, and even connectivity.
I have no idea what Starbucks uses, but I always have a good connection, and I go there nearly every morning and get some work done, as well as play.
You could try changing channels, 2.4 to 5 Gigs, changing locations of the router. I have had to do all of these at one time or another over the many years that I have been a Network Engineer.
Good Luck - Cheers,
M.

MacBook Pro won't start after being off for two months

I had to store my MacBook Pro for two months while I was traveling and shut it down completely. Ow that I am back it won't start up. Figuring the battery was flat, I plugged it in. No light came on the power cord and I wasn't able to start up the computer. I bought a new power adapter...still nothing. I have tried the SMC reset. No luck.. Any ideas?

• Already tried that.
Yes you did, and you said so in your post. Sorry - my fault I did not read the complete post.
What model MBP is this? Removable battery?

I have purchased Adobe CC and have been paying $9.99 for two months now, but all of the sudden today I tried to open it and it is saying that my 30 day trial has expired

I have purchased Adobe CC and have been paying $9.99 for two months now, but all of the sudden today I tried to open it and it is saying that my 30 day trial has expired and will not let me access it.

Does your Cloud subscription properly show on your account page?
If you have more than one email, are you sure you are using the correct Adobe ID?
https://www.adobe.com/account.html for subscriptions on your Adobe page
If yes
Some general information for a Cloud subscription
Log out of your Cloud account... Restart your computer... Log in to your paid Cloud account
-Sign in help http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/account-password-sign-faq.html
-http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/sign-in-out-creative-cloud-desktop-app.html
-http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/activation-network-issues.html
-http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/trial--1-launch.html
If no
This is an open forum, not Adobe support... you need Adobe staff to help
Adobe contact information - http://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html
-Select your product and what you need help with
-Click on the blue box "Still need help? Contact us"

I have only had my iphone 5s for two months and the charger has stopped working. Is there anyway that I can recieve another.

I have only had my iphone 5s for two months and the charger has stopped working. Is there anyway that I can recieve another.

take it to an Apple store genius bar ,it has 12 months warranty and they will check it out

Hello to everyone : I have a problem every time I try to open iTunes for windows 8 64bit... Program stops to work every time trying to access to the store... Is anyone able to help me to solve this issue? Thank you so much...

Hello to everyone : I have a problem every time I try to open iTunes for windows 8 64bit... Program stops to work every time trying to access to the store... Is anyone able to help me to solve this issue? Thank you so much...
N.B. iTunes version is the last one available from https://apple.com/it

Hey sweetcake74,
Thanks for the question. I understand you are experiencing performance issues with iTunes for Windows. The following articles may help to resolve your issue:
iTunes for Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8: Fix unexpected quits or launch issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1717
Thanks,
Matt M.

I will be out of town for two months, will my MacBook Pro drain out by then?

I will be out of town for two months, will my MacBook Pro drain out by then?
If yes what precautions should I take??

mmnoble88,
I mean that it should not be charged higher than 50% prior to a period of not being used. If its battery is higher than 50% just before you head out of town, you should let it discharge until it’s at 50% or less.

Time Machine backup size almost 1T for two months worth of archives. How to minimise space consumed by Time Machine short of starting over?

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