Q: "oldest backups are deleted" Okay, but to where?
I back up to my hard disc, which I configured to Mac and Time Machine.
During backups, it occasionally tells me it's full.
I checked, it isnt, the partition is 150GB large and the backups now (5 of them) together are 50Gb.
However, Time Machine did delete backups about 7 of them.
1. So where to?
They are not in my Mac Trash I checked.
2. It shouldn't have deleted anything, right?
Also, Time machine says it will keep daily, weekly or monthly backups.
3. Where are those? Cause I only see the last those 5, which were all from yesterday.
(I am using a time machine scheduler to plan backups now, hope it will improve the situation, but questions remain the same.)
In general:
4. Why does it automatically delete the old(est) ones? I really don't need the ones from an hour ago! 24 times a day.
5. Why doesnt it ask me or tell me I should delete some backups, give me some options, or preferences or something like that?
FYI:
I'm running 10.10.3 right now, will upgrade to 10.10.4 soon, but haven't yet because of this. Don't know if it will disturb something.
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), Time Machine
Posted on Jul 15, 2015 6:29 AM
You should do some rethinking on what you expect from Time Machine. It is not a system that gives you much control & your current setup will only give you anguish & frustration at the lack of power you have over something as important as backups.
In an attempt to answer your original questions (again) …
1. They are removed from the disk, you get no chance to see them or put them back, they are simply gone for good, get over it.
2. Time Machine is in control of this system not you, you have an opinion that it didn't need to delete the files, Time Machine had it's own reasons so it deleted the oldest backups. It automatically checks how much new data is going to be backed up & if that is larger than the free disk space it will remove old items.
3. Time Machine cannot magically fit more data into a disk, eventually files WILL BE DELETED - that is how it works. Time Machine scheduler will not help very much, it will just slow the process down a little, but old files will still be deleted when space is limited.
4. Time Machine is not an 'archive' that keeps data forever. It is system intended for moments like 'oh dear I just deleted my work, where can I get an older copy?' or 'I prefer the original version, can I go back a few days'. If you have a bigger disk you get more history. You really need to dedicate a Terabyte or two to get a lot of history. 150GB to backup a 120GB OS disk is a joke frankly.
5. Time Machine has an option to warn you when backups are deleted (see the preferences). It does this AFTER the deletion has happened in my experience - it is too late to do anything!
When you update to a newer OS there will be even more files that get backed up, more old data will be deleted.
You have been advised several times how Time Machine works, I hope re-reading it all will make it sink in. At the moment your backup disk is terribly small - you may not like what Csound1 said but it is accurate.
Do yourself a favour & get a very large disk for Time Machine or make plans to create your own archive backups (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! will help).
Good luck with it.
Posted on Jul 15, 2015 8:35 AM