Time Machine keeps saying: "There isn't enough space on TimeMachine"

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Level 1

56 points

Time Machine keeps saying: "There isn't enough space on TimeMachine"

For years TimeMachine is doing its job without any problems. Lately this message shows up again and again.

I tried a new external disk, without any change. Earlier I used to quit TimeMachine, erase the backup partition with Disk Utility and then start a new backup. For a change I left TimeMachine running and opened its window. The backup process was still in progress, but what puzzled me was that TimeMachine didn't count down from the total amount of the backup. I don't know how to express this more clearly so I added some screenshots for clearifying.

Any ideas what goes wrong here?

Thanks in advance

iMac 27", macOS 10.13

Posted on Mar 28, 2019 6:02 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

hanyvo Author

Level 1

56 points

Mar 29, 2019 5:47 AM in response to BDAqua

I remembered that I used a trial version of Acronis True Image backup software, but I didn't purchase it after the expiry date. Dragged the app to a cleaner app and that was it. I thought! Apperently some remnants stood in the way of Timemachine to function properly, so I downloaded a cleanup tool of Acronis, cranked up TimeMachine again and: it finished my first fullbackup! Now I have to wait some days if the incrementals are finished as well. After that I will asume this problem solved.

Thanks for your time and support, so far.

Hans

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

250,511 points

Mar 28, 2019 8:54 AM in response to hanyvo

Hmmm, so about 150 GB free on the internal drive?

Open Console in Applications>Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.

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Answer 3

hanyvo Author

Level 1

56 points

Mar 31, 2019 3:46 AM in response to BDAqua

Update: Up to this date all incremental backups are done as scheduled. So it probably were the remnants of the "other software" that stood in the way of TimeMachine.

Thanks again for your attention and time.

Hans

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