Recently, the backups kept failing with the error message that there was insufficient space available. Since the process is meant to auto-delete the oldest versions to free up space can anyone offer advice on how to check this setting please.
In theory, Time Machine will delete the oldest backups to make room for new backups. Unfortunately in practice, things do not work as well as the theory might suggest.
Why? Apple assumes that you will only have small incremental backups to add when the Time Capsule is close to being full. But, if you have a significantly larger amount of data to back up......as might be the case after an update or you have added a lot of new data to your Mac......then Time Machine cannot delete enough of the old backups to make room for the new much larger than normal new backup.
If you really do need all the old backups from weeks, months and even years going back in time......few of us ever do......your best bet would be to add a USB drive to the Time Capsule and use the Archive function in AirPort Utility to copy all of the data on the Time Capsule drive over to the USB drive. Then, erase the Time Capsule drive and start new backups again.
If you really don't need all the old backups and are willing to start over again with new backups, then you can simply erase the Time Capsule drive and start over again.
Apple does NOT want you to try to delete old backups manually using the Finder because there is a very high risk that you will corrupt your entire backup for the Mac if you do try to do this. Definitely not recommended unless you first copy all of the data on the Time Capsule drive over to another drive.....before.....you try to mess with things that Apple does not support. But, if you have copied all the data over to another drive.....it would then make more sense to go ahead and erase the Time Capsule drive.
