Time Machine is using a lot of space

My TM says there is only 255 Gb available on my 465 GB (500 GB) external USB HDD (210 GB used). My Finder says my internal HDD has 464 GB available out of 596 GB (132 GB used). I only started using it a few days ago and the used space seems to be growing fast. Why is TM using so much more space and what happens when it runs out?

I'm having the same problem.
I have a 320GB internal hard drive and a 320GB external. Until recently, the "free" space on my external was very similar to the free space on my main drive (about 50% full). But then in the last few weeks, suddenly my external is almost full.
All I've done in the last few weeks is add a bunch of music to my iTunes, but that was only 5-10GB of space. I find it strange that Time Machine is using so much more space, even though it does have all the incremental backups.
2 questions:
1) Anyone know why it might be using so much more space?
2) Is the 'rule of thumb' that an external drive should be bigger than the internal one, because of all the incremental backups?

Similar Messages

Does time machine backup use a lot of battery?

I have a 3 year old macbok pro and I am finding that my battery is dying within 2-2:30 hrs. I am trying to figure what might be causing my battery to be draining. Please help and thanks in advance!

It totally depends on your network path back to the server, and what the smallest TCP/IP connection timeout is in that path.
For example, if somewhere between the cell site you're using and the server, is a device that drops TCP/IP connections after ten minutes of inactivity, then the phone must send a keep-alive request every nine minutes. And that will chew up battery.
OTOH, if the minimum network timeout along the entire route is more like thirty or forty minutes, then the phone will have to transmit much less often.
The nature of the route could be different even within a town.

How to limit the amount of disk space Time Machine will use?

On Yosemite, how do you limit the amount of disk space Time Machine will use?
I'm using a Seagate Goflex Home 2tb drive connected to my router as a Time Machine backup drive. I use this for three things 1)Time Machine 2) an occasional backup of windows document subdirectory 3) backup of music and photos for long term storage. Doing something like re-partioning the drive is not an option. I'll just go buy another drive for time machine's sole use. In addition, using software from Seagate is not an option. I don't want to use their software for different reasons (mainly the GoFlex home is really designed as a "media server" which I don't use. I, of course, use iTunes. ) On the Mac, I'm only using about 250GB total but time machine is rapidly using up space.
Apparently using a terminal command like below, used to work, but no longer works under Yosemite.
For a limit of 100gb the number below would be 100 x 1024
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize 102400
To remove the limit, use the following command:
sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize
Now, I'm not too familiar with terminal and I'm not about ready to issue a command without knowing exactly what it is going to do.
Is there an easier "switch" someplace or an app that does this?
If I don't limit the size, at some point there will not be any space left for windows backups and additional photo and music files.

Hmm- added "sudo" and there was no error reported:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize xxxxxx
I guess we'll see.

Time Machine failure: Disk run out of space unexpectedly

Hi
I'm having serious problems in the last few days with Time Machine backups.
I have an iMac '27 (late 2009) running Mountain Lion 10.8.2. The internal disk is 1 TB, and I use an external FW HD LaCie d2 Quadra 1 TB for my TM backups. After 3 years the disk is always full, but old backups were regularly removed. All the possible source of large variable files were excluded long time ago (VM disks, temporary directories, large download files).
TM used to work quite smoothly, but now, since 10 days, the backup fails with the message
"The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. Time Machine will try to make more space available by removing expired backups during the next scheduled backup."
I've checked previous messages in the forum about such an error, but the various cases do not seem to match my specific problem (or I was not able to find the message with working answer).
It seems that the "unexpected" problem is related to the fact that Time Machine is trying to backup again a large part of my filesystem, and it determines this fact only after the backup starts (so there is no pre-cleaning): when it happens I can see that the target size of the backup increases over time, while more and more data are written on the disk, until the disk is full.
I'll try to summarize my situations with an itemized list:
The current backup fails because it runs out of space, leaving an .inprogress file behind
The latest backup did not fail: the log report a successful backup (checked with Time Machine Buddy)
Examining the content of the latest backup, the one that did not fails, shows that some system directories, /Applications, /usr, and /bin are missing
So, possibly, the "unexpected" error happens because the system is backing up a lot of stuff (like 60GB), and TM discover this only after it starts writing the files
I've verified with Disk Utility both the TM disk and the internal HD, and they both report no problem.
After some digging around, I was able to make TM work again removing the .inprogress file (using the Pondini instructions), removing (using the "Star Wars" interface) the latest backup, the one with the incomplete content, and removing a few older backups to create some more free space.
The first time I thought it was a transient problem, but it happened again after a few days.
So the real issue is, why the latest successful backup is actually incomplete, with a large number of directories missing, but there is no hint of this in the logs?
I've read that old LaCie HDs might have problems with Mountain Lion, and with its power saving settings. May this be the cause? I did already turn off the power saving setting (put HD to sleep when possible) before the latest failure, but nothing changed.
I've also tried to update the d2 Quadra firmware, as indicated by other messages and on LaCie website, but the update fails and the provided instructions are less than useful (I'll try to contact LaCie on this issue).
My doubt is that this does not seem a power save issue... the failed backups happen while I'm actually using the machine (so no wake up/disk spin issue seems to happen), and the backups starts with no problem: they just finish abruptly with no apparent reason but with a success message.
Does anyone have problems similar to mine (successful but incomplete TM snapshots)? Is the problem triggered by the HD firmware, or there are other possible causes?
I plan to repair the TM one more time, and then keep it turned off to run only manual backups, but I'm aware that there is no guarantee that also a controlled manually started backup is not going to fail in a similar way.
Thanks for any suggestion.
Maurizio

I am not running out of space, but I do have the same problem. Every so often TM does a backup which is about 60 GB bigger than expected.   The extra is always a new backup of /System /Applications /usr etc. - that is the 'system files'.
The key thing is, as you have noticed:
Examining the content of the latest backup, the one that did not fail, shows that some system directories, /Applications, /usr, and /bin are missing
As a consequence the next backup is, in my case, 60 GB bigger because it includes all the system files.
It is as if 'systemFilesExcluded' was turned on for the previous backup (the one that 'did not fail'). But I have looked in the .exclusions.plist for this backup and it is exactly the same as for other backups and does include:
        <key>systemFilesExcluded</key>
        <false/>
It seems that TM is treating this as if <true/>.
Like you, I have done a disk verify and it finds no errors.
I think this must be a bug. I have had this on four occassions since upgrading to Mountain Lion. And it is doing a large one right now - I have caught it in the act!

Can Time Machine be used to back up iTunes?

I use Time Machine to back up my computer, and recently used it to set up my new computer. But I always exclude iTunes because my current library is at 1.41 TB, running off an external drive. I would like to make a regular back up of our iTunes library, say every week or so. That's why the DVDr route is not appealing, it's not fluid enough. Can Time Machine be used in this way? If I set up another dedicated external, and set it up with TimeMachine, but told it to exclude everything except the iTunes external, and made sure I did this every week, would it work? Thanks.

I'm not sure I understand your question, but there's no reason why you should treat the iTunes library any differently than other data for backup purposes. The first TM snapshot that includes it will take a long time and a lot of space, but once that's done, the files won't change and therefore won't need to be copied again.

I backup to an external hdd with Time Machine, when it ran out of space it did not delete old backups, now my internal hdd says its full when before it had heaps of space. I have searched for extra files but cant find any. Can anyone help, please.

I backup to an external hdd with Time Machine, when it ran out of space it did not delete old backups, now my internal hdd says its full when before it had heaps of space. I have searched for extra files but cant find any. Can anyone help, please.

First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
To locate large files, you can use Spotlight as described here. That method may not find large folders that contain a lot of small files.
You can also use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
Proceed further only if the problem hasn't been solved.
ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual.
Triple-click the line of text below to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means.
When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

Timecapsule uses a lot of space

Hello, hope someone can help.
I use timecapsule1T to backup my system. The problem is it's using a lot of space. All 1T is used. Why is it using so much?

How large a drive are you backing up? TM is an archiving utility which means every backup uses more hard drive space. Given enough time and data the drive will eventually fill up.
About TM "Backup Drive is Full"
Alert TM only deletes older files if they have been deleted from the source and when TM needs space on the backup drive for a new incremental backup. Time Machine "thins" it's backups; hourly backups over 24 hours old, except the first of the day; those "daily" backups over 30 days old, except the first of the week. The weeklies are kept as long as there's room.
So, how long a backup file remains depends on how long it was on your Mac before being deleted, assuming you do at least one backup per day. If it was there for at least 24 hours, it will be kept for at least a month. If it was there for at least a week, it will be kept as long as there's room.
Note, that on a Time Capsule the sparsebundle grows in size as needed, but doesn't shrink. Thus, from the user's view of the TC it appears that no space has been freed, although there may be space in the sparsebundle.
Once TM has found it cannot free up enough space for a new backup it reports the disk is full. You can either erase the backup drive and start your backups anew or replace the drive with a larger drive.

I would like to connect an external hard drive to my time machine and use it as a network drive to store itunes and iPhoto how do i do this

I have just purchased a new my book hard drive and would like to connect it to my time capsule and store my itunes and iphoto contentent there to free up space on my internal hard drive . Can this be done and what is the process?

I'd like to store my Aperture /IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive.
That is fine and recommended.. use the fastest disk you can afford.. ie Thunderbolt>USB3>FW800>USB2.
In addition, I'd like to partition the external hard drive so that Time Machine can use it to both back up my IMac and the external library drives.
Let me be clear.. you want to partition the one disk.. use it for TM and move your files to the external disk.. and then backup to the same disk.. You can do it.. but that is not a backup.. that is an experiment in how long you can get away with running files and backups on the same disk before you lose everything.. like Russian Roulette.. pull the trigger enough times and laws of probability will do you in.
You must have backups on a different disk .. otherwise it is pointless.
Can I set up a RAID 5 format for redundancy?
No.. you can buy special USB and Thunderbolt external drives that support RAID..
BUT that is still not a backup.. let me show why.. you make a silly move and corrupt your file in aperture.. it is not that rare.
Raid will corrupt all copies of the files.. it is replicated across all disks.
Delete a photo it is deleted across all disks.. you have no recovery.
Alway, always consider RAID system one disk.. backup onto another disk.. and if the photos or movies are at all important to you.. ie your family .. make another copy and store in a relatives house.. There is no such thing as too much redundancy.

I have a problem after upgarding the OS Yosemite and time machine. It says not enough space on external hard drive when I should write over older backups? thanks. late 2009 imac 3.06 8GBimac

Having upgraded to OS Yosemite, I find time machine says hard drive full so won't back up? and I can't access any back ups
Please help!
Thanks
Richard

Hey rgmhughes7,
Thanks for the question. After reviewing your post, it sounds like the Time Machine backup disk is full. I would recommend that you read this article, it may be able to help you resolve or isolate the issue.
OS X Yosemite: If your Time Machine backup disk runs out of space
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Have a nice day,
Mario

Any way to force Time Machine to use existing backup after inheriting?

Hi,
The hard drive in my iMac failed last week, and a replacement drive as well as a new logic board were installed. I installed OS X onto the new drive and then used Setup Assistant to recover all data from my Time Machine backup. Of course, once everything was back in place, Time Machine wouldn't recognize the backup as its own (per Pondini's site, this is because the logic board replacement makes Time Machine think it's a whole new computer).
To resolve this, I issued the Terminal command to inherit a backup, but this wasn't enough so I also issued the command to associate a backup with the computer. This seemed to work, and I was able to kick off a new backup. Time Machine did a complete scan and determined that it needed to back up everything on the computer as new. Because there's not enough space on the Time Capsule, it then started deleting old backups, one after another, until I noticed what was going on and stopped it after a couple hours.
So my question is this: is there a way to get Time Machine to use the old backup data to do an incremental backup? I'm not sure why it thinks it has to save everything; I could see it saving a copy of the OS, since that was installed from scratch, but all the user account data has been restored from backup so it should match what's in Time Machine. If there's no way to do this then I guess I'll just delete the Time Machine archive and start over, but for versioning purposes it would be nice to have the old Time Machine archive data.
Thanks!
Here's some log data:
10/12/13 8:25:12.755 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Starting manual backup
10/12/13 8:25:12.841 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://[email protected]/TimeMachine
10/12/13 8:25:14.645 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/TimeMachine using URL: afp://[email protected]/TimeMachine
10/12/13 8:25:14.687 PM fseventsd[48]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/.fseventsd/fc007524359f8bb3 (No such file or directory). mount point /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/.fseventsd
10/12/13 8:25:14.687 PM fseventsd[48]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/.fseventsd/fc007524359f8bb3 (No such file or directory). mount point /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/.fseventsd
10/12/13 8:25:40.251 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Disk image /Volumes/TimeMachine/iMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
10/12/13 8:25:40.253 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
10/12/13 8:25:41.831 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Inheritance scan required for /, associated with previous UUID: 30DCBA86-7702-31FD-B8A5-0CFBCE325E36
10/12/13 8:25:41.923 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
10/12/13 8:25:41.966 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Deep event scan at path:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|
10/12/13 8:25:41.966 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: First backup after disk inheritance for / - complete scan required
10/12/13 8:41:23.297 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Finished scan
10/12/13 8:49:06.137 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Found 1059692 files (565.28 GB) needing backup
10/12/13 8:49:07.658 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: 679.85 GB required (including padding), 143.39 GB available
10/12/13 8:49:15.324 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Ejected Time Machine disk image: /Volumes/TimeMachine/iMac.sparsebundle
10/12/13 8:49:15.324 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Compacting backup disk image to recover free space
10/12/13 8:49:57.436 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Completed backup disk image compaction
10/12/13 8:49:57.437 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Starting manual backup
10/12/13 8:49:57.888 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TimeMachine
10/12/13 8:50:23.419 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Disk image /Volumes/TimeMachine/iMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
10/12/13 8:50:23.421 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
10/12/13 8:50:24.966 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Inheritance scan required for /, associated with previous UUID: 30DCBA86-7702-31FD-B8A5-0CFBCE325E36
10/12/13 8:50:25.022 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
10/12/13 8:50:25.069 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Deep event scan at path:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|
10/12/13 8:50:25.070 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: First backup after disk inheritance for / - complete scan required
10/12/13 9:06:03.024 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Finished scan
10/12/13 9:14:04.765 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Found 1059692 files (565.28 GB) needing backup
10/12/13 9:14:06.234 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: 679.85 GB required (including padding), 143.39 GB available
10/12/13 9:14:06.318 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/iMac/2013-10-12-202541.inProgress/DB2AD703-283F-42A2-8 97D-194AE5F2F23B containing 4 KB; 143.39 GB now available, 679.85 GB required
10/12/13 9:16:59.047 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/iMac/2013-09-05-000218 containing 877 MB; 144.26 GB now available, 679.85 GB required
10/12/13 9:24:37.780 PM com.apple.backupd[19003]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/iMac/2013-09-04-002732 containing 1.33 GB; 145.6 GB now available, 679.85 GB required

Thanks Linc.
What happened is I needed to retrieve something from Time Machine prior to starting a backup (the first backup after restoring everything). However, Time Machine wouldn't connect to the Time Capsule, so that is why I used the tmutil commands. Probably if I had instead started a backup then it would have asked me if I wanted to inherit.
Well, if there's no way to avoid a full copy then I guess I'll delete the archive and start over.
Thanks again for your help.

Can Time Machine be used as a normal router?

Sorry my ignorance on this type of Apple's products.
My question is simple:
Can Time Machine be used as a router? I know it backs up files, but I'm not sure about this function.
Thanks in advance!

Yes, it does function as a "normal router".
In addition to its ability to function as a "normal router" (ie a device to share a cable/DSL internet connection) the Time Capsule will also:
1. function as an a/b/g/n wireless access point
2. network attached storage device, for Time Machine backups as well as general purpose file storage
3. point of attachment of one or more USB printers, which can be shared with all computers on the network
4. point of attachment of an external USB hard drive, for storage space additional to the built in hard drive

My iPhone 4s notified me that I had to manage my storage so I deleted apps that used a lot of space I deleted almost all my picture and it still keeps telling me I don't have enough storage is there any other way I can make room on my phone ?

My iPhone 4s notified me that I had to manage my storage so I deleted apps that used a lot of space I deleted almost all my picture and it still keeps telling me I don't have enough storage is there any other way I can make room on my phone ? Were it shows how much storage I have available it still says 9.9 even after all that I have done so I don't know if I need to change my storage plan or what but anything will help I guess

Check for 'others' in iTunes against your iPhone.
Restore from a previous backup to reclaim some of it.
Still want more, Restore in iTunes, setup as New.

I have an IMAC and I'm running OSX 10.9.2. I'd like to store my Aperture /IMovie Libraries to an external hard drive. In addition, I'd like to partition the external hard drive so that Time Machine can use it to both back up my IMac and the externa

I have an IMAC and I'm running OSX 10.9.2. I'd like to store my Aperture /IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive. In addition, I'd like to partition the external hard drive so that Time Machine can use it to both back up my IMac and the external library drives. Is this possible? Can I set up a RAID 5 format for redundancy?

I'd like to store my Aperture /IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive.
That is fine and recommended.. use the fastest disk you can afford.. ie Thunderbolt>USB3>FW800>USB2.
In addition, I'd like to partition the external hard drive so that Time Machine can use it to both back up my IMac and the external library drives.
Let me be clear.. you want to partition the one disk.. use it for TM and move your files to the external disk.. and then backup to the same disk.. You can do it.. but that is not a backup.. that is an experiment in how long you can get away with running files and backups on the same disk before you lose everything.. like Russian Roulette.. pull the trigger enough times and laws of probability will do you in.
You must have backups on a different disk .. otherwise it is pointless.
Can I set up a RAID 5 format for redundancy?
No.. you can buy special USB and Thunderbolt external drives that support RAID..
BUT that is still not a backup.. let me show why.. you make a silly move and corrupt your file in aperture.. it is not that rare.
Raid will corrupt all copies of the files.. it is replicated across all disks.
Delete a photo it is deleted across all disks.. you have no recovery.
Alway, always consider RAID system one disk.. backup onto another disk.. and if the photos or movies are at all important to you.. ie your family .. make another copy and store in a relatives house.. There is no such thing as too much redundancy.

Copy Time machine backup using a different Mac

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

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

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

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

Thanks. I will try going through TM. Since my Simpletech is on the way out, I'll be plugging in a new external hard drive (other than the back-up drive) and trying to restore the library to the new drive. Any advice or warning if this is NOT the right thing to do?
Meanwhile, that is a great tip to do an alternate back-up using a different means. It's been tough to figure out how to "preserve access" to digital images and files for posterity, knowing the hardware will always fail/obsolesce sooner or later, and that "clouds" are only as good as their consistent and reliable accessibility. Upping the odds with redundancy will help dull the edge of my "access anxiety", though logically, it can never relieve it. Will look into
Carbon Copy Cloner.

Time Machine is using a lot of space

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