HT201250: Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac

Learn about Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac
barbarbox

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

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Q: "oldest backups are deleted" Okay, but to where?

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  • by Drew Reece,Solvedanswer

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Jul 15, 2015 8:35 AM in response to barbarbox
    Level 5 (7,659 points)
    Notebooks
    Jul 15, 2015 8:35 AM in response to barbarbox

    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.

  • by barbarbox,

    barbarbox barbarbox Jul 15, 2015 9:10 AM in response to AdrianHunter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 15, 2015 9:10 AM in response to AdrianHunter

    Adrian,

    yes i see it now, sorry, thought i was clear with "configuring" and all.

  • by barbarbox,

    barbarbox barbarbox Jul 15, 2015 9:21 AM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 15, 2015 9:21 AM in response to Drew Reece

    Hi Drew,

    I got over it :-)

     

    About 4. Im getting it now, only recent stuff. But when i read what time machine does:

    https://support.apple.com/library/content/dam/edam/applecare/images/en_US/osx/tm _sys_prefs.png

    This seams contradictionary. When I click options, no preferences excist to insert my personal preferences and keep some monthly stuff (for instance).


    Office auto recovers every 10min, so that situation "oh dear, I just deleted my work" is covered.


    About 5. my point exactly! Why get a warning AFTER the fact?

    Why not options upfront when it notices the latest backup needs more space? And let the user decide which backups can be deleted?

     

    And sorry Csound1, I got the message about the size of disk/partition.

     

    Thank you all for your help!

    gr Barbara

  • by Drew Reece,Helpful

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Jul 15, 2015 9:48 AM in response to barbarbox
    Level 5 (7,659 points)
    Notebooks
    Jul 15, 2015 9:48 AM in response to barbarbox

    Click the options button it should show a checkbox, it may have been removed in 10.10 I'm not able to check at the moment, sorry if that is wrong it is on 10.9 & lower.

     

    I suspect Apple chose to inform you after the backups are removed because there is very little you can do about it - you would have to either delete items in the backups yourself or you would have to exclude some of your current files to reduce the size of the next backup. Time Machine has no user interface (or very little) to handle most of that & it would confuse many users. It is a typical Apple solution 'one button, no control, it just works (if you follow all the guidelines)'.

     

    Office auto recovers, but other apps don't (Photos, iTunes, many third party apps etc). Time Machine covers everything.

     

    Time Machine is not for every user, however it is better than nothing. Personally I use Time Machine & other software. It is not possible to have too many backups

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jul 15, 2015 9:52 AM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 9 (50,801 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 15, 2015 9:52 AM in response to Drew Reece

    Deleting parts of a Time Machine backup will usually corrupt the whole backup, I suggest not doing that.

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