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Cannot delete Time Machine backup off external hard drive

Cannot delete Time Machine backup off external hard drive

Posted on Jan 16, 2020 11:37 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 16, 2020 11:51 AM

Why do you want to delete the Time Machine Backup Drive?


You can not and should not manually delete backups from Time Machine. Time Machine will automatically thin and delete old backup when necessary. If your Time Machine Drive is full and automatically deleting old backups, then you need to use a larger external drive for Time Machine.


If you want to use the drive for something else? Then you need to use Disk Utility to Erase the external drive.

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 16, 2020 11:51 AM in response to Pactricia666

Why do you want to delete the Time Machine Backup Drive?


You can not and should not manually delete backups from Time Machine. Time Machine will automatically thin and delete old backup when necessary. If your Time Machine Drive is full and automatically deleting old backups, then you need to use a larger external drive for Time Machine.


If you want to use the drive for something else? Then you need to use Disk Utility to Erase the external drive.

Cannot delete Time Machine backup off external hard drive

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