nmeche17

Q: Deleting Backups off my Macbook Pro

I backed up my macbook with an external hard drive. I did this to free up space by deleting things off my macbook and just having them on my external drive. When i did this it asked if I wanted to use Time Machine and I just agreed, I don't know if Time Machine has anything to do with the problem or not but this is just what i know happened when the problem started occurring. After my computer was backed up and I deleted everything that needed to be deleted I checked my hard drive space and instead of having a lot of space from everything I just deleted I now have 28 gb being used by backups. I tried to delete my time machine backups but nothing happened and I want to know how to delete these backups because I am in college and make movies and really need all the space I can get.

MacBook Pro, iOS 10

Posted on Sep 13, 2016 11:28 PM

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Q: Deleting Backups off my Macbook Pro

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  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Sep 14, 2016 4:20 AM in response to nmeche17
    Level 9 (52,360 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 14, 2016 4:20 AM in response to nmeche17

    This may be the issue that you are experiencing:

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204015

     

    If this is so, you can ignore the Snapshots since they will be deleted if more room is needed for other data.

     

    Ciao.

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Sep 14, 2016 4:20 AM in response to nmeche17
    Level 9 (52,360 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 14, 2016 4:20 AM in response to nmeche17

    This may be the issue that you are experiencing:

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204015

     

    If this is so, you can ignore the Snapshots since they will be deleted if more room is needed for other data.

     

    Ciao.

  • by dwb,Helpful

    dwb dwb Sep 14, 2016 10:28 AM in response to nmeche17
    Level 7 (24,187 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 14, 2016 10:28 AM in response to nmeche17

    Oglethorpe is sending you to Apple’s knowledgebase article but to cut to the chase: when you use TimeMachine on a notebook the Mac OS is smart enough to know your computer isn’t always connected to TM so when it is time for an hourly backup and the TM drive isn’t available a mobile backup of document files is done instead. This is a good thing, trust me.

     

    The important thing to know is that TM’s mobile backup is doubly smart. If your hard drive space needs increase the amount of space taken for the mobile backups is automatically reduced and if need be, the oldest mobile backup(s) will be erased. Don’t worry about mobile backups taking up drive space you need - when you need it mobile backups will be deleted to make that space available when you need it.