Hi.
My Time Capsule has been complaining that there isn't enough space to backup my iMac for awhile, so I've been wondering if I can delete a backup from there to make a backup of the current files and have it constantly backing up.
How can I free up space on the time machine and have it delete older backups automatically?
In theory, Time Machine is supposed to delete the oldest backups automatically to make room for new backups, but as you......and countless other users have found.......the theory does not work in practice.
The fact that you are seeing a message that there is not enough room for a new backup confirms that Time Machine cannot do for you what it claims to be able to do.
The simplest, quickest, and most reliable thing to do is simply erase the Time Capsule hard drive and start over again with a new backup and move forward from there.
Few of us ever need the old backups from weeks, months, even years going back, but some users have a tough time erasing them, even though they will never need them.If you cannot bear to lose the old backups, Apple provides a means for you to Archive or copy all of the data on the existing Time Capsule hard drive over to a USB drive before you erase the Time Capsule drive.
Let us know which route that you want to take and whether or not you need a few more tips to get the process underway.
Amazing, maybe a miracle that the Time Capsule is still working.
Time to replace. Do not store any data on the Time Capsule that you cannot afford to lose since the drive...and power supply..... are way overdue to fail.
Look for a drive that has least 4-5 times the capacity of hard drive on your Mac. A USB drive connected directly to your Mac is the cheapest, fastest and most reliable way to back up.
Wow.. that is a Gen1. A small wonder in itself that it still runs.
Time for a replacement. And since Apple no longer makes Time Capsules, if you want network backups then perhaps consider a NAS. Expensive but long term far superior to TC. Synology is the one we recommend.
Or use local USB drive. Great for desktop Mac.. not so convenient for laptop you are carrying around. You can buy a charging dock with USB port for a hard disk so as part of just plugging it in for recharge you also get access to external drive.
I'm fairly certain it's the fact that the Time Machine has a capacity of 500 GB and is quite old. It's still doing the job, but it cannot hold that many backups.
Free up space on Time Capsule
