Time machine will not delete old backups

time macine will not delete old backups....is there a manual way to do it

Just let it run. It will manage itself fine, you may benefit though from reading Pondini's Time Machine FAQs

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Time machine will not delete old backup when space is needed

Time machine says there is not enough space to complete backup yet will not delete old backups

Start with C4.
Time Machine Troubleshooting

Time Machine Still Not Deleting Old Backups and Hence Running Out of Space

... and this with a 1TB external drive there just for this purpose.
You'd have thought they'd have fixed this by now as it's an old issue.

Hi Richard, thanks for the messages. How much disk space is used up on your MacintoshHD? I ask because if you for example have around 850GB of MacintoshHD used, TM would only be able to keep one full backup on the 1TB external drive. All of the other backups will be smaller, incremental backups. When TM needs more space, it can only delete the oldest incremental backups, as the full backup is needed in case of a complete restore. If, at some time in the past, another couple of hundred GB were needing to be incrementally backed up, then the 1TB external drive will not have the space, and your messages seem to bear out this scenario. Since the first occurrence of the failure, the amount of data requiring backup would be increasing by a small amount each week.
Even if the very first full backup on the TM drive was of a small MacintoshHD (say, from just after installation), you might have hundreds of GB of music or pics or movies etc. These files would have been part of a later incremental backup, but, if they never change again, they're never backed up again. This also means that, there being only one copy of these files on the TM drive, they will never be deleted to make space for more backups. This could be an explanation of why, in your log messages, you see so little data actually deleted when it tries to make space; you may not have many files that change often.
By way of comparison, my full backup is only 27GB As all my data, music, etc are stored on a network drive, and my incremental backups are of the order of hundreds of KB rather than hundreds of GB. Because my network drives are fault tolerant, I only need to use TM to backup my MacintoshHD and the TM drive is therefore set at only 256GB.
It seems the only two solutions would be:
1. Move movies, music etc. to another drive or, more sensibly,
2. Get at least a 2 TB external drive for TM to use. I seem to remember that there is advice out there to have a TM drive of at least double the size of your total data size that needs to be backed up. Mine is overkill at a ratio of ten times the size, but you get the idea.
if, on the other hand, you only have 50GB of disk space used up on MacintoshHD, then there must be more than one full backup of it on the TM drive. In this case, if you are prepared to, you can start the TM drive from scratch by deleting its files or reformatting it. This would make TM take a full backup of the MacintoshHD as it currently stands and then the 1 TB drive will have plenty of room for incremental backups again. The down side is that you would lose any past versions of changed files; this point in time is the furthest back you can go to from then on.
I hope this helps and I'd love to know the outcome.

Time Machine will not delete.

Greetings.
The problem I'm having is that my 300GB backup disk is full. Time Machine says there is not enough room and it will not delete old backups to make room. How can I get it to do its thing?
Thank you.

dmac,
This might help...
*_“This Backup is Too Large for the Backup Volume”_*
First, much depends on the size of your Mac’s internal hard disk, the quantity of data it contains, and the size of the hard disk designated for Time Machine backups. It is recommended that any hard disk designated for Time Machine backups be +at least+ twice as large as the hard disk it is backing up from. You see, the more space it has to grow, the greater the history it can preserve.
*Disk Management*
Time Machine is designed to use the space it is given as economically as possible. When backups reach the limit of expansion, Time Machine will begin to delete old backups to make way for newer data. The less space you provide for backups the sooner older data will be discarded. [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15137.html]
However, Time Machine will only delete what it considers “expired”. Within the Console Logs this process is referred to as “thinning”. It appears that many of these “expired” backups are deleted when hourly backups are consolidated into daily backups and daily backups are consolidated into weekly backups. This consolidation takes place once hourly backups reach 24 hours old and daily backups reach about 30 days old. Weekly backups will only be deleted, or ‘thinned’, once the backup drive nears full capacity.
One thing seems for sure, though; If a new incremental backup happens to be larger than what Time Machine currently considers “expired” then you will get the message “This backup is too large for the backup volume.” In other words, Time Machine believes it would have to sacrifice to much to accommodate the latest incremental backup. This is probably why Time Machine always overestimates incremental backups by 2 to 10 times the actual size of the data currently being backed up. Within the Console logs this is referred to as “padding”. This is so that backup files never actually reach the physically limits of the backup disk itself.
There appears to be a method for getting around this that may work for some. Bear in mind that it will involve deleting older backups that Time Machine does not yet consider “expired”. But it should allow you to complete the current backup attempt while at the same time preserving some of the previous backups. It is fitting, as well, to remind users that backup disks should be +at least+ twice as large as your Macs’ internal hard disk.
The Time Machine error message tells you how much space the current backup requires.
Using that measurement, go into the Time Machine Preferences and click “Options…”.
Now using the Exclusion List, begin adding things like System & Library folders, and anything else that will get the “Total Included…” figure down to the amount that Time Machine reported was necessary. Leave your User folder for last. If it is still not enough, you can begin including folder within your Home folder.
Once the “Total Included…” is below what Time Machine requires, then perform a backup. During the backup, Time Machine perform certain house-keeping duties that frees up additional space.
Once the backup is complete, check Time Machine Prefs “Available:” line. You may discover that you now have more room than expected.
Go back to the Exclusion List and begin removing items until the “Total Included…” is again just under what “Available” states.
Perform another backup. Again more room may become available. You may have to repeat this procedure several time until a backup includes ALL of your desired files.
*Backups WAY Too Large*
If an initial full backup or a subsequent incremental backup is tens or hundreds of Gigs larger than expected, check to see that all unwanted external hard disks are still excluded from Time Machine backups. Time Machine will attempt to backup any hard disk attached to your Mac, including secondary internal drives, that have not been added to Time Machines Exclusion list.
This includes the Time Machine backup drive ITSELF. Normally, Time Machine is set to exclude itself by default. But on rare occasions it can forget. When your backup begins, Time Machine mounts the backup on your desktop. (For Time Capsule users it appears as a white drive icon labeled something like “Backup of (your computer)”.) If, while it is mounted, it does not show up in the Time Machine Prefs “Do not back up” list, then Time Machine will attempt to back ITSELF up. If it is not listed while the drive is mounted, then you need to add it to the list.
*Recovering Backup Space*
If you have discovered that large unwanted files have been backed up, you can use the Time Machine “time travel” interface to recovered some of that space. Do NOT, however, delete files from a Time Machine backup disk by manually mounting the disk and dragging files to the trash. You can damage or destroy your original backups by this means.
Additionally, deleting files you no longer wish to keep on your Mac does not immediately remove such files from Time Machine backups. Once data has been removed from your Macs' hard disk it will remain in backups for some time until Time Machine determines that it has "expired". That's one of its’ benefits - it retains data you may have unintentionally deleted. But eventually that data is expunged. If, however, you need to remove backed up files immediately, do this:
Launch Time Machine from the Dock icon.
Initially, you are presented with a window labeled “Today (Now)”. This window represents the state of your Mac as it exists now. +DO NOT+ delete or make changes to files while you see “Today (Now)” at the bottom of the screen. Otherwise, you will be deleting files that exist "today" - not yesterday or last week.
Click on the window just behind “Today (Now)”. This represents the last successful backup and should display the date and time of this backup at the bottom of the screen.
Now, navigate to where the unwanted file resides. If it has been some time since you deleted the file from your Mac, you may need to go farther back in time to see the unwanted file. In that case, use the time scale on the right to choose a date prior to when you actually deleted the file from your Mac.
Highlight the file and click the Actions menu (Gear icon) from the toolbar.
Select “Delete all backups of <this file>”.
*Full Backup After Hardware Change/Replacement*
If you are running out of disk space sooner than expected it may be that Time Machine is ignoring previous backups and is trying to perform another full backup of your system? This will happen if you have replaced your computer with a new one, or had significant repair work done on your existing Mac. Time Machine will perform a new full backup. This is normal.
You have several options if Time Machine is unable to perform the new full backup:
A. Delete the old backups, and let Time Machine begin a fresh.
B. Attach another external hard disk and begin backups there, while keeping this current hard disk. After you are satisfied with the new backup set, you can later reformat the old hard disk and use it for other storage.
C. Ctrl-Click the Time Machine Dock icon and select "Browse Other Time Machine disks...". Then select the old backup set. Navigate to files/folders you don't really need backups of and go up to the Action menu ("Gear" icon) and select "Delete all backups of this file." If you delete enough useless stuff, you may be able to free up enough space for the new backup to take place. However, this method is not assured as it may not free up enough "contiguous space" for the new backup to take place.
*Outgrown Your Backup Disk?*
On the other hand, your computers drive contents may very well have outgrown the capacity of the Time Machine backup disk. It may be time to purchase a larger capacity hard drive for Time Machine backups. Alternatively, you can begin using the Time Machine Preferences exclusion list to prevent Time Machine from backing up unneeded files/folders.
Consider as well: Do you really need ALL that data on your primary hard disk? It sounds like you might need to Archive to a different hard disk anything that's is not of immediate importance. You see, Time Machine is not designed for archiving purposes, just as a backup of your local drive(s). In the event of disaster, it can get your system back to its' current state without having to reinstall everything. But if you need LONG TERM storage, then you need another drive that is removed from your normal everyday working environment.
This KB article discusses this scenario with some suggestions including Archiving the old backups and starting fresh [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15137.html]
Let us know if this clarifies things.
Cheers!

Time Machine Backup Error. Time machine could not delete the backup disk image .sparsebundle

Time Machine is giving an error message. Time Machine couldnt complete the backup. I am using the Seagate GoFlex Home. Error message states Time Machine could not delete the backup disk image "/volumes/Go Flex Home Backup/iMAc.sparsebundle". Does anybody have any ideas?

I have deleted all files in the Time Machine backup via Windows, Finder, and GoFlex UI.
I think this is your problem.. you need to follow the exact setup from seagate to get TM running again.. please read the manual... I do not have one but I do have another brand of NAS and setting up TM involves a fairly complex set of instructions.. because it is not a native Apple device.. your computer does not recognise it as TM capable.. you need to use the work around the manual will explain.

"Time Machine could not delete the backup disk"

This morning, I got the "Time Machine must create a new backup for you" message referred to here: http://pondini.org/TM/C13.html
I went ahead and told it "start new backup" but after a few minutes, got this message, ending in error message -1: "Time Machine could not delete the backup disk." It did not reference a sparsebundle file or some other specific file name as I've seen in some other threads, and I haven't been able to find this exact issue anywhere in the forum or on Pondini's page.
I went ahead and told it manually to do a new backup, but I am concerned that it will "lie to me" about the verifiability of the files per Pondini's page above (orange box at the bottom). I'll attempt to force it to manually verify once this backup completes to see what happens, I guess.
I'd appreciate any input.

And now an effort to manually start a backup produces this error: "This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 233.73 GB but only 188.30 GB are available."

My Time Capsule is full of backups from Time Machine. Time Machine will not complete its backup. Any ideas?

My Time Machine does not complete its backup. It is using my 500 gig Time Capsule, which is full. Does anyone have a suggestion?

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console 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 Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message that corresponds to an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showning, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Time Machine will not delete backups

I am running 10.8.2 and have a recurring message every couple of weeks from Time Machine that says the backup disk is full and the backup could not be completed. I am attempting to have about 750G backed up onto a 1000G Gsafe external drive.
I do notice that everytime my Backup drive is mounted, there are what appears to be 3 old backups in my trash that will not delete when I empty the trash. The system asks me if I want to remove all items or only unlocked items. I select "all items", and the files remain in the trash. I am sure this has something to do with the Time Machine error.
Any ideas?

The backup volume was full. That shouldn't happen, because TM is supposed to manage disk space by deleting snapshots as needed to make room for a new one, up to the last complete snapshot, which is never removed automatically.
One possibility is that you were writing other data to the volume during the backup. Apple recommends that no other data be stored on a backup volume.
Otherwise, I suggest you clear possibly corrupt data from the TM preference file. Open the Time Machine pane in System Preferences. Click the padlock icon in the lower left corner, if necessary, to unlock it. Scroll to the bottom of the list of backup drives and click Add or Remove Backup Disk. Remove the problem disk, then add it back. Quit System Preferences. Test.

Time Machine doesn't delete old backups

Hi,
I keep getting errors from the TM backup that the disk for backup is full. It appears that TM doesn't delete the old backups that are on the disk. Any idea why it is not deleting the backups to make space? I also checked the button to notify me when deleting....useless....I am using Lion/Mountain Lion
Thanks

When you have issues of this sort.. Pondini is your man..
See http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
There is no need for admin / Root / SU login to TM.. that will not achieve anything.
You can delete the current set of TM preferences and start over.. See A4.
You have to delete the whole existing backup to start over. Or archive it off as I said if you want historical record, and erase the disk.
You erase the TC by using Airport Utility, under disk is erase option.. that is the fastest way. A quick erase via AU takes about 1min. Do use any other erase option, as they will take several hours.
You can also delete a sparsebundle.. but it is a long and time consuming process. That is important though if you have multiple backups on the TC you do not wish to lose.
See Q12 here http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
There are many many posts about how to speed up deletion of large backups.
eg https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2224110?tstart=0

Time Machine does not erase old backups

Hi,
I have a problem using Time Machine on my MacBook Air. I use a LaCie 500GB Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drive for backup. The external drive has 3 partitions, one of which is dedicated to time machine and measures 128 Gb. It happens very often that I receive an error message saying that Time Machine cannot complete backup as there is not enough space and that I should manually remove old backups. Time Machine is supposed to do that automatically. The backup partition is of the same size as the internal flash drive which is not even full so I don't see why there should be a problem.
I also have a MacMini with an external Iomega drive and same setup (3 partitions on the external drive and the Time Machine dedicated one of the same size as the internal drive) and I never had an issue with the Time Machine not erasing old backups to make room for the new ones.
How can I fix the problem on the MacBook Air?
Many thanks in advance,
Igor

How much space is currently in use on the volume TM is backing up from? If it needs to do a large backup for some reason, there may not be space to do so without deleting so much that you are left with less than a full backup. TM needs the backup drive to be a minimum of 2-3 times larger than what is being backed up.

Time machine will not perform initial backup

Hey,
time machine is not performing my initial backup, this is the error it gives
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/6425/screenshot20100419at522.png
The error shows up anywhere from the first few megs to the first few gigs during the backup (and the backup is incredablly slow, I don't know why...(not like the apple videos where it goes 0.5gigs/s))
It is the second partition on a 1TB USB drive.
I tried several formats (pretty much everything in disk utilities).
How do I fix this?
Thanks
Message was edited by: Positron1234

Positron1234 wrote:
Shoot, my partition scheme is MBR and not GUID or Apple....
Is there anyway to fix this without wiping the entire harddrive (I don't have enough storage in everything that I have to store stuff to backup this entire harddrive (at least 10 years worth of stuff))
It's risky. iPartition, and perhaps some other 3rd-party apps, claims to be able to change formats and/or the partition map without erasing, but they very prominently recommend backing the drive up first. And it costs about half what a new HD will.
If the things in the other partition aren't backed-up some other way, your best bet might be to get a larger internal HD, so you can keep all your originals on it, and reformat the external and let TM start over.
Or, get a second drive, and let it back up both your internal HD and the current external.

Time Machine will not delete the oldest backup when external hard drive is full

I may not understand this timemachine thing, but....
I have macbook pro, 15", mid 2011, mountain lion......I have a WD Passport Studio I have ben using to back up with time machine periodically. I tried to back up today and it says i do not have enough room on my external drive. I tought the time machine automatically deletes the oldest back up?

I agree with Linc's response but you also have to realize that it will keep the oldest backup and start removing snapshots if it can.
It is my undestanding that time machine does what is called a full backup the first time and then the snapshots done after that are changes since the first backup. I'm not sure if time machine then does periodic backups or just snapshots.

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.

Time Machine won't delete old backups.

I keep getting an error that the backup failed due to not having enough space yet it says in prefs that old backups will be deleted when the drive is full. Does anyone have a fix for this?

I had a similar problem when I upgraded to 10.8. The TM searched and searchand had it brains semi-scrambled. I got tired of waiting for it to do its thing so I went to the Disk Utility and erased the TM drive. Then had it start over with a fresh backup. It has been working perfect.
It may be time to flush yours and start over.

Time Machine does not recover old backups

Dear All,
I have a Time Machine disk for a long time (from the Leopard days) and have been using it without any trouble even after updating to Snow Leopard (iMac- intel).
However, a few days back I upgraded my system with the latest Snow Leopard release (over software update) to install the Apple Store application.
Now, today, when I put my Time Machine disk in, it correctly shows all the backup dates correctly (on the right hand side Time Machine index pane), but I could recover only files from my Snow Leopard backups. The Leopard backups, though shown correctly do not reveal anything when I click on the date.
I am feeling desperate as some of my important files are in Leopard backups. Any help would be welcome!

Madhurjya wrote:
Now, today, when I put my Time Machine disk in, it correctly shows all the backup dates correctly (on the right hand side Time Machine index pane), but I could recover only files from my Snow Leopard backups. The Leopard backups, though shown correctly do not reveal anything when I click on the date.
What you see in the "Star Wars" display depends on how you get there. If you're starting from a Finder Window, then entering Time Machine, be sure the Finder window shows something that was backed-up on Leopard.
Or, try the procedure in #E3 of [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
If nothing helps, try Repairing your backups, per #A5 there.
I am feeling desperate as some of my important files are in Leopard backups.
Do you mean you've been deleting things from your system, counting on Time Machine to keep the backups indefinitely? If so, that's NOT a good idea. See #20 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Time machine will not delete old backups

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