stirling-dad
Level 1 (5 points)
Desktops

Q: Time machine strange behavior

On a day when nothing much much was going on my system, time machine failed.  I got the error message:

 

'Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to “Time Machine Backups”.

The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. Time Machine will try to make more space available by removing expired backups during the next scheduled backup.

Open Time Machine preferences to select a larger backup disk or make the backup smaller by excluding files.'

 

I don't want to exclude files.  I once dropped my mac (stupid human tricks).  The mac was irreparable, and I able to restore the last mac using Time Machine.  Since I'd like to be able to do a full system restore, I don't want to exclude files.  I also don't want to get a larger drive.

 

My Macintosh HD is 500GB of which 294GB are available.  In other words 206GB are used.  My time machine drive is 1TB.

 

The backup that failed was 48GB.

Some questions:

1.  How did I need to do a 48GB backup (23% of my system) when nothing much was going on my system?

2.  Is there any way to free much more space on the Time Machine drive?

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Apr 15, 2016 5:27 PM

by OGELTHORPE,Solvedanswer
OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE
Level 9 (52,182 points)
Mac OS X
A:

notcloudy wrote:

 

From everything I have seen - eventually the drive gets full and you have to go to another drive.

When the drive becomes full, Time Machine will drop off the oldest backups in order to make room for the newer ones.  A new HDD is not needed.

 

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

 

Ciao.

Posted on Apr 17, 2016 3:09 AM

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stirling-dad

Q: Time machine strange behavior

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  • by OGELTHORPE,Helpful

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Apr 16, 2016 6:52 PM in response to stirling-dad
    Level 9 (52,182 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 16, 2016 6:52 PM in response to stirling-dad

    Go to this definitive web site for Time Machine usage and operating problems:

     

    http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html

     

    Here is the troubleshooting section:

     

    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

     

    Ciao.

  • by stirling-dad,

    stirling-dad stirling-dad Apr 16, 2016 7:01 PM in response to OGELTHORPE
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 16, 2016 7:01 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

    Thanks for the reply.  Wow, that's a lot of material.  I don't know where my problem fits.  Could you please help?  Thanks.  By the way, the problem has not happened again.  So a full reset, which I'm reluctant to do, doesn't seem to be called for.

  • by notcloudy,Helpful

    notcloudy notcloudy Apr 16, 2016 8:08 PM in response to stirling-dad
    Level 4 (1,190 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 16, 2016 8:08 PM in response to stirling-dad

    stirling-dad wrote:

     

    Thanks for the reply.  Wow, that's a lot of material.  I don't know where my problem fits.  Could you please help?  Thanks.  By the way, the problem has not happened again.  So a full reset, which I'm reluctant to do, doesn't seem to be called for.

    It will do a full backup of say an IPHOTO library if  you do one of the reset or reorganize options.

     

    After each run of time machine backup it does the cleanup that starts  combining hourly to daily and daily to weekly.    I missed a month of backups while getting a repair done - and it did take more than one time machine run to get the dailies to weeklies.

     

    From everything I have seen - eventually the drive gets full and you have to go to another drive.

  • by stirling-dad,

    stirling-dad stirling-dad Apr 16, 2016 8:18 PM in response to notcloudy
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 16, 2016 8:18 PM in response to notcloudy

        Thanks for the reply.  I prefer not getting a new time machine drive: I'd lose the backups I have now, and there's the cost of the new drive. 

        I don't think I need to get a new drive.  The error messages have stopped.  Apparently, the folks who designed time machine did a good job.

  • by OGELTHORPE,Solvedanswer

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Apr 17, 2016 3:09 AM in response to notcloudy
    Level 9 (52,182 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 17, 2016 3:09 AM in response to notcloudy

    notcloudy wrote:

     

    From everything I have seen - eventually the drive gets full and you have to go to another drive.

    When the drive becomes full, Time Machine will drop off the oldest backups in order to make room for the newer ones.  A new HDD is not needed.

     

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

     

    Ciao.