Urgent Need for Freeing space on time machine

unable to free space on time machine for backups. Unable to see option to delete various backups by right clicking on the file name in the list on the right side of the screen. I clicked on the "gear icon" on the actual picture of the backup in Time Machine and selected "delete" for about a year's worth of backups. Those no longer show up in the list on the right side of the Time Machine screen, but it still indicates that I have only 30 GB available on the disk. [I have only 9GB left on my Macbook 5,1 and I am wanting to upgrade the hard drive and RAM, but I cannot back up my Macbook before upgrading the HD]. If anyone can help with this I will greatly appreciate it.

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Normally there's no reason to manually delete backups. When it runs out of room, Time Machine will do that automatically.
When Time Machine backups are done over a network, they're placed in a rather odd container called a +sparse bundle disk image.+ It grows in size when things are added, but it doesn't shrink automatically when things are deleted.
But you can "compact" it manually, if you really want, to recover the space. See the pink box in #12 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Similar Messages

Missing Spaces and Time Machine dock icons (Tiger to Snow Leopard upgrade)

I noticed on my MacBook (Leopard to Snow Leopard upgrade) that it has icons for Spaces and Time Machine in the dock to the left of the divider. These are missing from the dock on my iMac that I upgraded from Tiger to Snow Leopard. They are both System Preferences with no option for adding to the dock in the Preferences and the Preference icon in "Show All" in System Preferences is not selectable. I located them in System/Library/PreferencesPane but dragging the preference pane file to the dock doesn't work. I did a Show Package Content but did not see anything in the folder that could be dragged like an application. I can put it on the right with the stacks but is there a way to add a Preference to the dock on the application side?

Time Machine is in your Applications folder and Spaces is in your Applications/Utilities folder. You can drag them to the dock from there.

How do I create more space on Time Machine backup disk?

How do I create more space on Time Machine backup disk?

since time machine in Snow Leopard stops backing up when there's no more space on the disk,
That is has not been my experience, and does not appear to be agree with this Time Machine documentation:
Backup drive fills up
As your backup drive begins to fill up to its capacity, Time Machine intelligently deletes the oldest backups to make room for newer ones (and will alert you if the "Notify after old backups are deleted" option is selected in Time Machine preferences).
from : Mac 101: Time Machine

In Lion 10.7.x I cannot disable the Lock documents for 2 weeks in Time Machine! Thus it prevents to change anything else like the system preferences or other settings. How I can disable it?

Hello, In Lion 10.7.x I cannot disable the Lock documents for 2 weeks in Time Machine! Thus it prevents to change anything else like the system preferences or other settings. All is locked. How I can disable it?

Do you mean the check box isn't enabled?
Or you remove the check but it doesn't "stick"?
Or you remove the box but documents are stil getting locked?
That setting doesn't apply to other things in System Preferences, just apps that support AutoSave and Versions. If you're having a problem with System Prefs, please clarify exactly what.

How much space does Time Machine need?

My computer's hard drive is 100 GB, so I created a 100 GB partition on my external hard drive for Time Machine, before I really understood how it worked. Of course, I eventually got a message saying it was out of room. If I understand correctly, Time Machine will continue to back up changed files, but it can no longer maintain a complete series. Rather, it will be forced to delete older backups to make room for newer.
Anyway, do you think a 200 GB partition would be big enough? Or does it simply depend on how much work you do on your computer (or how many files you change and how big they are)?
I'm thinking of reformatting my 500 GB external hard drive into five partitions...
100 GB for cloned copy of my hard drive
200 GB for Time Machine
Three other partitions for quickly backing up and/or storing websites, graphics, music and things that take up too much space on my computer.
I still don't see a tremendous need for Time Machine, as I very, very seldom go searching for lost files. However, I suspect there may be occasions when it might come in handy.
Thanks.

Really depends how much stuff you do, how many files you change each day, how much stuff lands on your computer for a few days then is deleted (for example I have several GB of photos on my Mac for a few days until I do some work on them and drop them on the company server, so I have lots of stuff getting backed up into Time Machine that doesn't even stay on my Mac)... It doesn't hurt to have a backup of them locally in case something goes wrong on the company server...
So what I'm saying is, it totally depends on what you do with your Mac... I've got a 120GB drive, getting backed up to a 500GB drive, and I figure that gives me a year or two of not having to think about it. Drives are so cheap now you are best to just go a bit bigger for the convenience of letting it backup everything..

Need space on Time Machine disk

My Time machine backups are failing - based on the message it's 3GB short of the space needed to do the backup. I need help reclaiming space on my time machine drive.
I realized that I should not have been backing up my Aperture library - so I have excluded that from the backup. I then went into Time Machine and erased the Aperture library backups. (after making an extra copy of the library on another disk)
Since my Aperture library is 278 GB, I thought this would free up plenty of space on the time machine drive (2TB drive, has 667.48 GB free, but needs 671 GB) - however, even after I erased the aperture library backups from within time machine - the free space didn't change.
What am I doing wrong? It seems like there should now be plenty of space on my 2TB drive for the backups. My brute force approach would be to format it and start over (it's only got one backup right now anyway).

loriac wrote:
My Time machine backups are failing - based on the message it's 3GB short of the space needed to do the backup. I need help reclaiming space on my time machine drive.
I realized that I should not have been backing up my Aperture library - so I have excluded that from the backup. I then went into Time Machine and erased the Aperture library backups.
Did you do that via Time Machine, or the Finder or Terminal?
(after making an extra copy of the library on another disk)
Is that an internal disk, or an external?
Since my Aperture library is 278 GB, I thought this would free up plenty of space on the time machine drive (2TB drive, has 667.48 GB free, but needs 671 GB) - however, even after I erased the aperture library backups from within time machine - the free space didn't change.
What am I doing wrong? It seems like there should now be plenty of space on my 2TB drive for the backups.
Is there anything else on that drive, besides the backup of your Mac?
My brute force approach would be to format it and start over (it's only got one backup right now anyway).
How much data is on your system, including any other drives being backed up, but not the Aperture library?

Freeing up space from time machine backup folder

can i just throw away some of the middle folders in time machines backup folder to free up some space? Each of those folders says its holding multiple gigs of data, which they are obviously not.
Throwing one of them away won't incite time machine to discard the originals, will it?

l_elephant wrote:
can i just throw away some of the middle folders in time machines backup folder to free up some space? Each of those folders says its holding multiple gigs of data, which they are obviously not.
Throwing one of them away won't incite time machine to discard the originals, will it?
That could result in a veritable disaster. You stand the chance of corrupting the entire TM database, rendering it useless. Never do anything directly in any of the TM folders or backups. Always use TM itself.
The proper way to remove TM backups is with TM.
Select an item and click the gear in the Finder. You have many choices including deleting all instances of a file or folder.
When TM determines that it needs more room, it properly deletes old files and folders, without any user intervention. It "knows" how to do this.
If you need more room on the HD for other purposes, I suggest using SuperDuper to clone your TM backup onto a larger drive.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

How much extra space does time machine need to backup a 512gig drive?

... in practice, how big does my backup drive need to be for 512gig primary drive?
I know time machine does "snap shots". I can imagine this takes extra space over and above 512gig.
What's your experience here?
Thanks

Web Wizard wrote:
Any other solutions to this quandary?
Yes, go with a smaller drive and be content to have oldest backups deleted more often.
If you don't need hourly backups, you can get a smaller disk and clone with SuperDuper or CarbonCopy Cloner. You can schedule a backup nightly, if that enough.
The advantage of having a clone is that it is bootable in case you run into trouble on your internal, you can boot from the external and keep right on working until you have the time to fix it. You can also run repair programs from that disk.
-mj

Freeing up space on Time Machine external drive

I realise I have probably done the wrong thing! I deleted (sent to Trash) some old back ups on the external drive I use for Time Machine. I emptied the Trash though had to skip lots of the files and folders as they were said to be "in use". The drive has not freed up any space! Plus I now cannot see the folders that I tried to delete. I've tried Disk Utility to erase free space. The backups are in a directory I do not use any more for back ups so I cannot see them in Time Machine either.
I really want to free up the space but I am nervous of using Terminal commands or external software. Any suggestions or shall I just buy another external drive?!

Thanks Rudegar I thought this might have been the answer. Unfortunately, I cannot now see the files that I tried to delete but are still there as the disk is still full. So how do I get them to show up? I'v tried switching off Time Machine but they still do not appear. NB they are a backup from a previous computer not the one that TM is currently doing.

I need help with setting up time machine for backup

I would like help with setting up time machine for backup.

You will need an external hard drive (formatted for a Mac).
Then you plug it in and go to system preferences>time machine and select the external HD and turn it on.
The backups are automatic.
Barry

Using an external HD for both storage AND Time Machine?

Bear with me guys, I'm not sure where to put this question. I figured that because my Macbook Air (and it's limited storage space) was the reason for my needing an external HD I thought this would be the best place.
My MBA has run out of storage and I bought a Seagate External HD to move my stuff onto. I guess my question is: What's the best way to combine the external HD with the MBA? Here are a few of the things on my mind:
-Most of the space is taken up by my user folder right now such as itunes, photos, etc. If I copy that folder to the external drive it would alleviate a large part of my issue, at least for the time being. Eventually I will hit the storage capacity as I add applications over time I guess, so this is a temporary solution (although I free up 27gb of space this way). Can I designate a folder on the external drive as the default for programs like imovie and iphoto like I can with itunes?
-I KNOW there is a way to set the external drive as some kind of default drive but is this feasible? It would be a hinderance if I needed to have it connected at all times to access even applications (which I assume to be the case?
-I also wondered about partitioning the external HD and using one partition for additional storage and the other for time machine? It's a 1TB hard drive, and I figure I could make a 100GB partition to use with time machine (my MBA only has a 64gb capacity) and use the other 900GB for files. Is this even possible or does time machine need it's very own separate drive?
Anyway, this doesn't necessarily ask many specific questions and I apologize if it appears a little disjointed. I'm looking for help and opinions on the best way to use this new piece of equipment to compliment my MBA. Any thoughts are appreciated.

While it is possible to partition an external drive and use one partition for files and the other for Time Machine, there's actually very little point in doing so. The reason is that in your scenario, you'd be storing all your files on the external, meaning that pretty much all there would be on your MBA internal drive is MacOS and your applications - the very things you can easily restore in the event of failure - while all your files would be on the external, where they are not being backed up.
It is also possible to use an external drive as the boot drive for the MBA (easiest done by cloning the internal drive to a partition on the external, and then setting that partition as the startup drive in the Startup Disk preference pane) but that would still require you to wipe at least some of your files from the internal, and mean that the contents of your external drive are not being backed up. It would also mean that your MBA would run pretty slowly when booted from the external.
Rather better, in my view, would be to use the external as the primary store for all non-essential files - your complete iTunes library and all your documents, files, video, photos etc, and then copy back to the MBA just those items you actually need for any day or week's activities. Then get a second external to use for backing up the first!

Missing backups/lack of space with Time Machine

Hello,
I am having trouble with Time Machine since I updated to Mavericks. Time Machine tells me that I have insufficient space on my external hardrive (1TB) even though in Time Machine it only has one full backup. If I Get Info on the drive it says Capacity 999.72GB, Available 71.37GB and Used 928,35GB.
In Finder I used to be able to delete older backups if needed but generally Time Machine did what it was supposed to - it overwrote old backups. I can no longer find the files to delete and TM only says I have one full backup.
How can I uncover these, what appear to be, hidden files? Something must be there as I have no space left!
The external hard drive is 2TBp partioned, I also seem to have lost all of the data from the non-TM partition, which is not great either.
Please let me know if you need any other information.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Do you use virtualization software, such as VMware, Parallels, or VirtualBox?
The virtualization software creates a large virtual-disk container that is constantly changing, so it has to be backed up every time Time Machine runs. That will quickly fill up any backup destination.
You should exclude the virtual-disk file(s) from your Time Machine backups. To do that, click the Options button in the Time Machine preference pane. Back up the files on the virtual disk from within the guest system, using a native backup application.
A compromise solution is to create a "snapshot" of the virtual machine in the virtualization software (not a Time Machine snapshot.) That will give you a single large file that never changes and only has to be backed up once. All the subsequent changes will be stored in a new file that's initially much smaller, but will grow over time. You should still exclude that file from TM backup. If you ever need to restore the VM from Time Machine, you'll have a working setup, which will make it easy for you to restore the rest of the data from within the guest system.
Another common cause of large TM snapshots is native OS X disk images. If you store a lot of data on one or more writable disk images, they should be in "sparsebundle" format, which will be backed up much more efficiently than any other format. Also be aware that disk image files are not backed up at all while the image is mounted. Make sure you unmount the image often so it can be backed up. If you ever restore, you will, of course, lose all changes made since the last backup. Consider eliminating large read/write disk images from your workflow, if possible.

How much space on Time machine?

Okay, so I'm totally new to this, and don't know much about anything.
How do I check how much space I have left on my time Machine?
Had a PC before, where I just went to 'My Computer' then checked whichever drive I wanted to check space on. Is there a similar way to check this on the time machine?

Gems_ca wrote:
Okay, so I'm totally new to this, and don't know much about anything.
How do I check how much space I have left on my time Machine?
Had a PC before, where I just went to 'My Computer' then checked whichever drive I wanted to check space on. Is there a similar way to check this on the time machine?
It's similar to Windows. Right-click on a desktop disk icon, TM for example, and select "Get Info"
You will get all the information about the drive you need.

How much space does time machine take up on hard drive?

Can anyone let me know how much hard drive space time machine takes up?

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Time Machine keeps copies of everything on your system (except a few things like system work files, most caches and logs, and trash), so the first backup will be a bit smaller than the amount of data on your system.
Subsequent backups will copy things you've added or changed, but doesn't delete the copies of the old versions, or of things you've deleted, so you can restore them if you find you've deleted or changed something in error, or something has gotten corrupted. Thus Time Machine will need considerably more space. IIn most cases, it won't delete it's copies until it runs out of room.
It varies depending on how you use your Mac, but a "rule of thumb" is, it needs 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing-up to be able to keep a reasonable "depth" of backups for you.
You might want to review the [Time Machine Tutorial|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics] and perhaps browse [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 the +Time Machine+ forum).

Which folder consumes most space on Time Machine?

I am surprised by the number of Gigabytes that my Time Machine disc has used by now.
I am wondering which folders to remove from the backup; is there any way of finding out what folders on my computer have used the most space on the backup disc?
For the normal harddisk I use DiskInventory X, but the time machine folder structure is different.
Thank you very much in advance!

The space used by the backups for a folder depends on both the size of the files in the folder and on how often they are changed, so it's not easy to figure out how much space a particular folder may be occupying going back to the oldest backup on your TM volume. And the way the TM volume is structured means that typical Finder approaches (e.g., Get Info) don't help. You would need a utility that looks through all of the backup folders' copies of the folder in question, taking into account the hard links TM uses to make a "copy" of a file without actually copying it. If such a utility exists, I haven't stumbled upon it.
What you can do is find out how much space a particular backup of a particular folder is using (in Lion, that is) using the tmutil command-line utility. For example, if your TM volume is named "Backups" and your machine is named "MyMac" and your username is "myuser", you can find out how much TM space is occupied by the latest backup by:
tmutil uniquesize "/Volumes/Backups/Backups.backupdb/MyMac/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/myuser/Documents"
On my system, doing this to my Documents directory shows a size of 2.7 MB, even though Finder shows that directory as having over 3 GB of files. That's because I haven't changed much in that directory recently. If you repeated that command for each of the backups of "Documents" on your TM volume (by replacing "Latest" with the name of the folder in the backup), you could find out all of the space being used by that folder. Kind of laborious to do, though!
If you know of folders that have large files that change frequently but that you don't want/need to back up, by all means exclude them, but just to be clear... the advantage you'll be gaining by doing that is that the TM volume will be able to store older copies of the files you are backing up -- it won't need to delete the oldest backup as often. But that advantage comes at the cost of not having the files you excluded backed up at all. If those files have any importance to you, you should back them up separately.

Urgent Need for Freeing space on time machine

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