When is it safe to delete older Time Machine back-up files?

I have a 2 TB back-up drive for Time Machine back-ups. It is half full. Is it safe to delete some of the older files? If so, which ones? If the first back-up is a full back-up and not an incremental back-up, I would not want to delete it would I?

Read http://pondini.org/TM/12.html
Allan

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Deleting Time Machine Back-up Files - HELP!

I tried to delete a time machine back-up file from my external drive (to clear space), I dragged it into the trash ... when I tried to empty trash it looked like there were 1000s of files being deleted. That scared me so I stopped the trash from emptying. Now I can't get the file out of the trash. I try to drag it out and it just copies. So two questions: 1) how do I get this file out of the trash? 2) how do I delete all of these back-up files - well, I don't need to delete all of them but there are so many? Do I really need all of these time machine back-ups? If I do delete them - what am I actually deleting? Are they just copies of my harddrive or is it a problem to delete them (when I look in the file that is in my trash it seems like it is my whole system ...). Sorry for all of the questions but I am in a bit of a panic. Also, I did try to delete the files by going into time machine, clicking on the gear icon, selecting a file and clicking on delete, nothing happened. Any thoughts, suggestions, advice most welcome!

wcaroliner wrote:
So two questions: 1) how do I get this file out of the trash?
See #E6 in [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).
2) how do I delete all of these back-up files - well, I don't need to delete all of them but there are so many? Do I really need all of these time machine back-ups? If I do delete them - what am I actually deleting? Are they just copies of my harddrive or is it a problem to delete them (when I look in the file that is in my trash it seems like it is my whole system
You shouldn't have to delete old backups. Time Machine will do that automatically when it needs space for new ones, unless you have the +Warn when old backups are deleted+ box checked in +Time Machine Preferences > Options.+ Just remove the check.
If you have other data on your Time Machine drive, in the same partition, that's not a good idea. It needs to be moved elsewhere, so Time Machine has it's own, exclusive space. See #3 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).
The backups have a complex and somewhat unusual structure; there's a bit of "smoke and mirrors" going on there, where it appears that every backup is a full copy of your system, and it is, in a way, but isn't in another. Seems contradictory, I know. See [How Time Machine works its Magic|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Works.html] for an explanation.
I did try to delete the files by going into time machine, clicking on the gear icon, selecting a file and clicking on delete, nothing happened.
You should have gotten a confirmation prompt, then one for your Admin password. If you didn't, the backups may be damaged/corrupted. Repair them, per #A5 in Troubleshooting.

When I activate icloud on my iphone, is it safe to delete previously made computer back-up files ?

When I activate icloud on my iphone, is it safe to delete previously made computer back-up files ?

It is used for syncing/pushing data to your other devices, and for backing up. It does not add to the physical capacity of your device.

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down eliminate

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down menu with the gear box symbol to eliminate

I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots. Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
See Pondini's page for more explanation: What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.
The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library. Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots.

Can I delete older Time Machine backups?

I have an extensive set of Time Machine back-ups on an external drive for a machine that I no longer own. I want to keep a back-up of that machine...but just one copy, not the multiple copies that exist now.
My first thought was to simply delete all of the backup folders except the most recent one. But I don't know enough about how Time Machine works to know if that approach will work, or if the most recent backup somehow depends on all those previous folders, and I'll end up deleting important content.
Can I delete the older folders? Is there a way to "compress" the backups so I have just a single, last snapshot of the machine?

As Kappy says, you can do this via the TM interface, and from another Mac, but it's rather tedious.
+Enter TIme Machine+ won't show you the backups from another Mac. But if you hold the Option key down while selecting the TM icon in your Menubar, it will change to +Browse Other Time Machine Disks,+ that will.
Locate the backup you want to delete via the "cascade" of Finder windows.
Then select the "gear" icon in it's toolbar and +Delete Backup.+
You'll see a confirmation prompt, then one for your Administrator's password.
When you delete an entire backup, it will disappear from the timeline and the "cascade" of Finder windows, but it will not actually delete the backup of any item that's also present in any other backup. Thus you may not gain much space on any one backup. The deletion is usually fairly quick, but sometimes quite lengthy (if you exit TM, you may see a progress bar for it). Unfortunately, you cannot predict which will be quick and which won't.

Can you delete older time machine backups

I recently upgraded to a new iMac. I had been using an external drive for backing up my previous computer. I would like to use this same drive to back up my new computer; however, I need to delete some of the older backups in order to have enough space.
My understanding is that Time Machine backs up incrementally; therefore, I am wondering if I go in and arbitrarily start deleting the oldest BUs if I will mess up the integrity of the backups. I am reluctant to delete all of them until I am absolutely certain I don't need anything from them.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thank you.

I would let Time Machine 'do its thing' and delete backups as it is designed to. You probably won't hurt the integrity of the backup, but you could delete something you might want. How big is the drive? You could always buy a new drive and backup both computers to that and keep backing up the older computer to both drives. Having 2 separate backups on 2 separate hard drives is desirable because hard drives do fail.

How do I delete a Time Machine back-up from my trash?

I use an external hard disc for my Time Machine back-ups.
In order to make some room on the external hard disc for some other files I wanted to store while I reformatted their original disc, I moved the Time Machine bach-ups into my iMac Trash.
Now when I try to delete thes old unwanted back-ups I get this message -
There are some locked items in the Trash. Do you want to remove all the items, including the locked ones, or just the unlocked items?
I've tried selececting Remove All Items but they just stay there.
I tried to darg them out onto the desktop but although that creates a new folder, the back-ups stay in the trash.
I've tried switching Time Macine off in the preferences bu that doesn't help.
Can anyone help me with emptying them?

dear Sue
i've tried the alt solution to empty trash but it does not work
I still got the -8003 error
for emptying time machine backups that i foolishly put in the trash
i've also tried this solution using terminal and it did not work either
http://www.imore.com/how-force-empty-trash-your-mac-using-terminal
any help you might offer would be greatly appreciated
i am using a 24 inch iMac
OSX 10.6.8
Message was edited by: summer_laughter

Finder Freezing when time machine back up files

I've an 24 aluminium iMac. The finder often freeze (once a day at least) and I noticed that this is often when Time Machine is backing up files.
It's impossible to relaunch the finder and sometimes other mac apps are freezing (preferences etc..). On the dock I can still see that the finder and the apps are active but in fact there are frozen and it is not possible to force quit.
Then if I shut down the computer through the apple menu it doesn't work and the only solution is to shut down manually my iMac with the back button.
Be that as it may it is less frequent since the iMac last software update (graphic card) before everything on the screen was freezing.

I have a 1tb and 540 tb Ultramax Harddrive to support my Mac Pro G5. I originally bought the 650 when the G5 was running Tiger and it worked without fault on a 800 firewire. I partly purchased this model of drive as they advertised its extendibility. When time machine was announced I purchased a second 1tb version and installed the two drives running daisy chained by 800 firewire and they worked fine. Maybe 2 weeks after installing Leopard which had caused me problems because of the application enhancer i was not ready to use time machine so declined to switch it on.
After a few weeks and after the 650 had dismounted itself i started to find after waking from sleep the mac was frozen. There was no way out other than switch it off on the front switch. I later discovered that on powering down the 650 ultramax I could recover my processes but at the danger of corrupting the drive by not removing it properly. As I tried to work out an exit strategy to save data on the 650 I got a system warning to say the Ultramax was beyond repair and was available only to recover files. Eventually it started hanging after a few seconds so i had no choice but to lose data and reformat the drive. That failed and having already contacted Iomega support for advice with little support they eventually agreed the drive had become damaged and agreed to replace the unit.
With the new unit I expected the problem would be gone.. but it was a matter of hours before the symptoms re-emerged, not as bad as before they seemed to allow other apps to continue to run and work it just disabled the finder so i could open an application from recent apps but not through a finder window and if i asked it to open or save a file it would lock the application so much not even a three fingered quit would solve the problem it would close the app in the finder but in the close app window it would remain listed as not responding.. the only way to recover use of the mac was to power off the ultramax almost on loosing power all hanging functions would re-emerge sometimes i needed to switch the mac off.
I decided to risk setting time machine on and although it worked it hung on the first back up and ever since I have woken up the mac as i run a very eco friendly power management policy I would find the hang accompanied by time machine backing up.
I am sure time machine is part culprit in this problem although i cant work out why only the 650 suffers I have tried taking it off firewire and moving to usb and it still does the same....
Any ideas or pointers to an answer of any sort would be welcome

Problem Emptying Trash filled with Time Machine Back Up Files

I have needed to create more space on an external hard drive that I use for TIme Machine back up of my hard drive. I took some of the Time Machine back ups [2011 and 2012] and dumped them into my trash. I have gone into my Preferences and removed the check mark beside the "empty trash securely" so that I can get rid of the folders faster. I have a Mac X snow leopard operating system 10.6.8.
However, it takes about 1o hours to have the trash "preparing to empty trash" identify about 175,000 files. I don't know how many I have in their but it has got to be over a million.
What can I do to get rid of all of these files from my Time Machine back up? I don't want to wait five or six days before the trash starts to empty. Appreciate any help you can give. Thanks.

http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html

Time Machine Back Up Files Missing

I recently had a hard drive crash in mac book pro. Having replaced the hard drive my back up disk also decided to crash but I did not worry too much as I had a separate time machine back up.
I retrieved most of my files but then realised that loads of my photos were missing. I went back into Time Machine only to discover that my back ups now only go back a week and all the old data has simply disappeared.
I have tried pressing the alt key while accessing the Time Machine on the menu bar but there are no other back up volumes.
Has Time Machine simply over written all my old data and rendered it irretrievable?

Just found this from first backup using console app.
Apr 10 10:19:53 Macintosh defaults[1092]: \nThe domain/default pair of (//System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-attach, Disabled) does not exist
Apr 10 10:19:53 Macintosh defaults[1095]: \nThe domain/default pair of (//System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto, Disabled) does not exist
Apr 10 10:19:53 Macintosh defaults[1098]: \nThe domain/default pair of (//System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd, Disabled) does not exist
Apr 10 10:27:15 Macintosh defaults[3233]: \nThe domain/default pair of (//System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-attach, Disabled) does not exist
Apr 10 10:27:15 Macintosh defaults[3235]: \nThe domain/default pair of (//System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto, Disabled) does not exist
Apr 10 10:27:15 Macintosh defaults[3237]: \nThe domain/default pair of (//System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd, Disabled) does not exist
Apr 10 16:52:35 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: Backup requested by user
Apr 10 16:52:35 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: Starting standard backup
Apr 10 16:52:35 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Apr 10 16:52:35 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
Apr 10 16:52:37 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: Reloading changed Time Machine preferences
Apr 10 16:52:38 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Zeus
Apr 10 16:52:38 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|
Apr 10 17:02:22 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: Restarting backup because volume name changed for: Zeus2
Apr 10 17:02:24 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: Backup requested due to disk attach
Apr 10 17:02:28 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: Backup canceled.
Apr 10 17:02:29 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: Starting standard backup
Apr 10 17:02:29 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Apr 10 17:02:30 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Zeus2
Apr 10 17:02:30 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|
Apr 10 17:15:34 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 112.12 GB requested (including padding), 131.02 GB available
Apr 10 19:37:18 Macintosh /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[783]: Copied 153575 files (94.2 GB) from volume Zeus2.
Has the fact that i changed the hard drive name meant that all the old backup files have gone?

Deleting Old Time Machine Back ups

I regularly back up my system ( every couple of weeks! ) and data to an external 2TB drive however I only really need a copy of recent state of system and data. Will it be good practice to enter time machine and go back to the old back ups and delete so that only recent backs up are maintained on drive. This would also free up space on my external drive? I just want to ensure deleting old back ups does not harm the integrity of the data.
Also i wanted to ascertain if it is possible to use time machine drive in another mac and simply drag and drop files from the latest back up onto this other computer?

DO NOT manually adjust Time Machine Backups. That can cause you to lose the integrity of the Backup database.
Time Machine deletes portions of older backups when space starts to get scarce. It carefully computes what files must continue to be saved and ensures it has a copy of those files, never deleting the last copy as long as the original is still present.
If you would like to understand better how it does this, there is an excellent Multi-page description or how it works written by the late James Pond on his site:
How Time Machine Works its Magic
NB> When you have read the first page, click the Next link at the bottom of the page for more -- the detailed description continues on several more pages.
It is inadvisable to keep other files on a Time Machine drive. If you want to maintain your Backups manually, I strongly recommend you use a different Backup method. Buy yourself an additional drive -- they are cheap.
The BIG advantage to Time Machine is that it is the Backup that actually happens, automatically and in the Background without interfering with your work. Other Backup schemes can be MUCH more clever, but they have the tragic flaw that you need to remember to do them.

Deleting old Time Machine Back ups, locked files wont delete?

Will unlocking them help-if so how do you unlock? I can open with Text edit but due to years of caution when not knowing what I'm doing causes more problems I ask before doing things-grin (Suppose it shouldn't matter since all I want to do is trash them????)
The file in particular is the boot file boot.efi. Trash basket is still full presumable until I can delete.

See > Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions 12. Should I delete old backups? If so, How?
of the > Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions

Accidentally deleted the Time Machine back up drive!

After a hard drive faliure, I was trying to get my new hard drive ready to import from an external hard drive through Time Machine. In the process, I deleted my back up drive (the availble room is the same as hard drive's capacity). What I'm confused about, is that there was no warning and 4 years worth of data disapeared all of a sudden. No bar showing the data is being deleted or at least moved to the trash can. Is this possible and if yes, is there any way I can retrieve those data?
Thanks,
Amir

DId you Erase or Format it via Disk Utility? If so, yes there was a warning.
If not, what did you do?
You may be able to recover most of the data, but it will not be easy. See Data Recovery

Error 36 when trying to recover iphoto library from time machine back up

When I try to recover a backup of an iPhoto library from my Time Capsule using TimeMachine, I receive the following error code: "The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “iPhoto Library” can’t be read or written. (Error code -36)." I have read a post regarding Snow Leopard 10.6.6 being the issue. Has anyone else had experience of this and if so how did you reslove this.

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Connect to the TC via Ethernet cable if at all possible.
Try repairing your backups, per #A5 in [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).

Can I safely delete old Time Machine back ups?

I use a 1TB external drive for Time Machine but it's nearly full. There are 43 different back ups on the drive, can I safely delete all but the most recent one or two? I realize I would not be able to restore my system from a deleted back up but I can't think of a reson I'd want to. Would greatly appreciate any insight on this, thanks!
p.s. Why does Time Machine keep so many back ups in the first place? I can't find anything in preferences to limit the number of stored back ups. Is there a way to limit the number?

Hello:
I use a 1TB external drive for Time Machine but it's nearly full. There are 43 different back ups on the drive, can I safely delete all but the most recent one or two? I realize I would not be able to restore my system from a deleted back up but I can't think of a reson I'd want to.
It makes no sense to delete old backups. Time Machine automatically deletes backups if it needs space. If you start deleting backups, you will do it ONE at a time.
Why does Time Machine keep so many back ups in the first place?
It is designed that way.
Is there a way to limit the number?
No.
Why are you having a problem with the design of Time Machine? Do you need, for some reason, extra space on the external drive? If that is the case, you should have partitioned the external.
Barry

When is it safe to delete older Time Machine back-up files?

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