Shulvy

Q: Local Backups moved to Other

I followed bad advice to disable local backups in Time Machine because my backups were coming in at 450GB.  Now all of that data has moved to "Other" storage and I need to know how to take care of this.  What steps can I take to reclaim my storage space?

Screen Shot 2015-06-12 at 7.55.00 PM.png

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Jun 12, 2015 5:07 PM

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Q: Local Backups moved to Other

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Jun 12, 2015 5:11 PM in response to Shulvy
    Level 10 (270,935 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 12, 2015 5:11 PM in response to Shulvy

    Disabling local snapshots does not move them, but deletes them. Local snapshots appear in that image as "Backups" with a separate color.

     

    About Time Machine local snapshots


    Time Machine Snapshots

    Open the Terminal in the Utilities folder and enter or paste the appropriate command line. Press RETURN and enter your admin password when prompted. It will not be echoed. Press RETURN again.

     

    To turn them ON: sudo tmutil enablelocal

    To turn them OFF: sudo tmutil disablelocal

     

    Note that turning them OFF will also delete all existing snapshots.

  • by Shulvy,

    Shulvy Shulvy Jun 12, 2015 5:15 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 12, 2015 5:15 PM in response to Kappy

    So why did my Other section expand by 450GB and my Backup section disappear after I ran sudo tmutil disablelocal

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Jun 12, 2015 5:22 PM in response to Shulvy
    Level 10 (270,935 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 12, 2015 5:22 PM in response to Shulvy

    Couldn't tell you. Read the link I sent. Snapshots do not take up space permanently. The system will delete them as the space is needed. In any event you need to find where the 450 GBs of data are to check it they can be removed permanently. Other is simple stuff that doesn't fit into one of the several categories.

     

    Have you checked your disk's status using Get Into or Disk Utility?

  • by Shulvy,

    Shulvy Shulvy Jun 12, 2015 5:54 PM in response to Shulvy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 12, 2015 5:54 PM in response to Shulvy

    OK so, I had 450GB of backups, I disabled local backups, go and check the storage again and the Other has increased by 450GB while that backups have disappeared.  That's where we stand.  I need to know how to reclaim that 450GB of space.  I tried using Daisy Disk and I can't see that data, it's hidden.

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Jun 12, 2015 6:03 PM in response to Shulvy
    Level 10 (270,935 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 12, 2015 6:03 PM in response to Shulvy

    Don't worry about the space. OS X will delete those files and reclaim the space as needed. I'm afraid I don't know where Time Machine puts the local snapshots. You would need to hunt through library folders to find them.

  • by Shulvy,

    Shulvy Shulvy Jun 12, 2015 6:17 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 12, 2015 6:17 PM in response to Kappy

    Where do I hunt?  There is no where evident for me to look.  DaisyDisk & OmniDiskSweeper are only seeing 532GB used while at the same time showing 36GB free.

    Screen Shot 2015-06-12 at 9.14.04 PM.png

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Jun 12, 2015 10:48 PM in response to Shulvy
    Level 10 (270,935 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 12, 2015 10:48 PM in response to Shulvy

    As I said, I can't help you here because I don't use Time Machine.

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Jun 13, 2015 3:43 AM in response to Shulvy
    Level 9 (52,313 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 13, 2015 3:43 AM in response to Shulvy

    Reindex Spotlight:

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716

     

    Any change in that display?

     

    Ciao.

  • by Firi_me,

    Firi_me Firi_me Sep 22, 2015 9:38 PM in response to Shulvy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 22, 2015 9:38 PM in response to Shulvy

    Were you able to figure out the space issue? I used the same sudo command and the same exact thing happened (twice!). I had a total of ~25GB move to "other" from Backups after I ran the command. I have since tried to copy some large files to lower my available disk space to below 1GB to see if that will cause the older backups to purge, but no luck there either. Rebooting does no good either.