bizlaw

Q: How to delete time machine local backup?

My MacBook Pro is running out of hard drive space, and the culprit is Time Machine. Apparently Time Machine stores local backups on the hard drive when it is not connected to the backup drive, and then is supposed to delete them when it does backup. However, this causes huge problems because I'm running out of hard drive space. I ran the following in Terminal to turn off the local backups:

 

sudo tmutil disablelocal

 

However, that has not freed up the hard drive space taken by the local backups. Any ideas on how to reclaim that space?

Posted on Mar 23, 2012 4:48 PM

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Q: How to delete time machine local backup?

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  • by bizlaw,

    bizlaw bizlaw Apr 3, 2012 3:08 PM in response to calbob84
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 3, 2012 3:08 PM in response to calbob84

    Not the same backup sets we are talking about. These are local backups created on laptops because the TM backup drive is not connected. They are supposed to be deleted when the TM backup drive is reconnected and TM runs, but that's not happening for some of us.

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Apr 3, 2012 3:23 PM in response to bizlaw
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Apr 3, 2012 3:23 PM in response to bizlaw

    bizlaw wrote:

    . . .

    These are local backups created on laptops because the TM backup drive is not connected. They are supposed to be deleted when the TM backup drive is reconnected and TM runs, but that's not happening for some of us.

    Screen Shot 2012-04-03 at 6.21.45 PM.pngThey're made whenever Time Machine is turned ON, whether the exernal backups are available or not.

     

    And they're not deleted once the backup drive becomes available; they're "thinned" after 24 hours to one per day, then deleted after a week.

     

    From Time Machine Help:

  • by philipjamesbowen,

    philipjamesbowen philipjamesbowen Jun 3, 2012 7:24 PM in response to bizlaw
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 3, 2012 7:24 PM in response to bizlaw

    I'm on a Macbook Air and found that my backup file was almost 25GB (which is a lot when you only have 120GB), so I used the sudo command to turn off local backups. When I did that the 25GB purple Backup section was added to 'Other'. I did some research and found out that supposedly Lion would delete it after a little bit of time, but a week and a half on, it's still there.

     

    Any suggestions?

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 3, 2012 7:33 PM in response to philipjamesbowen
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 3, 2012 7:33 PM in response to philipjamesbowen

    philipjamesbowen wrote:

     

    I'm on a Macbook Air and found that my backup file was almost 25GB (which is a lot when you only have 120GB), so I used the sudo command to turn off local backups. When I did that the 25GB purple Backup section was added to 'Other'.

    Yes, while the snapshots are being deleted, they'll be counted as "other."

     

    a week and a half on, it's still there.

    How do you know that?  Do you have a /.MobileBackups folder? If so, how large is it?

  • by philipjamesbowen,

    philipjamesbowen philipjamesbowen Jun 3, 2012 7:39 PM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 3, 2012 7:39 PM in response to Pondini

    Cheers for the reply. I understand that they'd be switched to 'Other' whilst they are being deleted.

     

    Reason I know that they're still there is that when I turned off the local backup feature the 'Other' file went from 50GB to 75GB....and it's still on 75GB.

     

    Could you tell me how to try and get to that /.MobileBackups folder, because I can't seem to navigate to it.

     

    Thanks,

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 3, 2012 7:48 PM in response to philipjamesbowen
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 3, 2012 7:48 PM in response to philipjamesbowen

    philipjamesbowen wrote:

    . . .

    Could you tell me how to try and get to that /.MobileBackups folder, because I can't seem to navigate to it.

    That's because it's hidden (the leading dot in the name).   If you don't know how to display hidden items, see #A3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for a free app that will do that.

     

    That will show the folder, if it exists, but not the size, since you also don't have permission to read the folder.  For that, you'll need something like the paid version of WhatSize (not the one in the Apple Store), per the green box in Where did my Disk Space go?

     

    If it doesn't exist, the 25 GB is elsewhere.  Try the other things in the Where did my Disk Space go? article.

  • by philipjamesbowen,

    philipjamesbowen philipjamesbowen Jun 3, 2012 8:25 PM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 3, 2012 8:25 PM in response to Pondini

    Hey,

     

    I went on to Tinker Tool but I couldn't find /.MobileBackups. When I went to 'Volumes' it wasn't there, and when I used 'Go To' and put in /.MobileBackups, it said that it couldn't be found.

     

    Regarding the 'Where Did My Disk Space Go?' article, is there anything else I can do to save having to pay!?

     

    If I turn local backups back on, perhaps it might start to clean out the old ones!?

     

    Cheers,

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 3, 2012 8:28 PM in response to philipjamesbowen
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 3, 2012 8:28 PM in response to philipjamesbowen

    philipjamesbowen wrote:

     

    Hey,

     

    I went on to Tinker Tool but I couldn't find /.MobileBackups. When I went to 'Volumes' it wasn't there, and when I used 'Go To' and put in /.MobileBackups, it said that it couldn't be found.

    The slash means "the startup drive."  So .MobileBackups is at the top level of your internal HD.

     

     

    If I turn local backups back on, perhaps it might start to clean out the old ones!?

     

    That will start making new ones.

  • by philipjamesbowen,

    philipjamesbowen philipjamesbowen Jun 3, 2012 8:31 PM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 3, 2012 8:31 PM in response to Pondini

    Yeah, I turned 'Show Hidden and System Files' on inside Tinkertool, and couldn't find any sign of a backup file. I understand where it's meant to be, but it just isn't there. Nor could I find '.MobileBacks.Trash'.

     

    I understand that it will start creating new ones, but I didn't know whether this would kickstart the deletion of old ones......(I'm a mathematician, so that logic seems to carry for me)!!

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 3, 2012 8:42 PM in response to philipjamesbowen
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 3, 2012 8:42 PM in response to philipjamesbowen

    philipjamesbowen wrote:

     

    Yeah, I turned 'Show Hidden and System Files' on inside Tinkertool, and couldn't find any sign of a backup file. I understand where it's meant to be, but it just isn't there. Nor could I find '.MobileBacks.Trash'.

    Then they have been deleted.  Your problem, if any, is elsewhere.

     

    "Other" won't ever be zero.  See Lion's Storage Display for a list of some of the things there; one possibility may simply be that Spotlight isn't caught up, or is having a problem, so that display may not match what's actually on your disk.  75 GB sounds large for "Other" on a 120 GB disk, but could be reasonable depending on what data you have.

     

    Work through the Where did my Disk Space go? article, starting at the top.  If you get all the way to the green box without finding what's taking up most of the 75 GB, pay the $13 for WhatSize. Just be very careful with it in "As Admin" mode -- don't even think about deleting anything you don't understand, or you may find yourself in a much larger pickle.

  • by philipjamesbowen,

    philipjamesbowen philipjamesbowen Jun 3, 2012 8:53 PM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 3, 2012 8:53 PM in response to Pondini

    Yeah, I just remember that before I turned off the backups, they were around 40/50GB (they kind of fluctuated).

     

    I'll work through that article and give it a go.

     

    Thanks for all of your help!!

  • by Shootist007,

    Shootist007 Shootist007 Jun 4, 2012 3:41 AM in response to philipjamesbowen
    Level 6 (16,660 points)
    Jun 4, 2012 3:41 AM in response to philipjamesbowen

    Have you tried turning on the TM backup system? Supposedly once you turn that on it deletes all the Local backups, and or once you start to create a real TM backup to some type of external disk the Local BUs get deleted.

  • by philipjamesbowen,

    philipjamesbowen philipjamesbowen Jun 4, 2012 3:53 AM in response to Shootist007
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 4, 2012 3:53 AM in response to Shootist007

    Yeah, I have. I thought that might 'kickstart' the deletion. It didn't though.

     

    It's as if the 25GB of backups is just floating somewhere.....

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 4, 2012 7:24 AM in response to Shootist007
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 4, 2012 7:24 AM in response to Shootist007

    Shootist007 wrote:

     

    Have you tried turning on the TM backup system? Supposedly once you turn that on it deletes all the Local backups, and or once you start to create a real TM backup to some type of external disk the Local BUs get deleted.

    No.  If you have Time Machine ON and are using a laptop, Local Snapshots are made hourly, space permitting; then are "thinned" down after 24 hours to one per day, then deleted entirely after a week.

     

    It has nothing to do with whether the external destination is available.

     

    See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #30 for the gory details.

  • by drzoom,

    drzoom drzoom Dec 19, 2012 2:51 PM in response to bizlaw
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 19, 2012 2:51 PM in response to bizlaw

    I don't know if is it the same problem, but in the 256 GB's HD of my MBP 15" retina display I have 4 folder: Applications 22GB, Library 7.27GB, System 6.30GB and Users 82GB for a total of 118GB, but if I get info of my HD said that I used 222GB.
    Where did they go the 104GB I missed?

    It is more than a week that my Timemachine HD is connected to the computer, but i still not get back my missing GB.

     

    thanks

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