My time machine is connected to 2 external drives but lately doesn't back up

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My time machine is connected to 2 external drives but lately doesn't back up

I get a message that my Time Machine can NOT finish the backups because my external hard drives don't have enough space .. My computer hard drive is 3 TB, one of my external backs is 3TB the other is 2 TB and the data to back up are my photos,, aprox. 1.5 TB,, I though that the time Machine will erase the oldest back up and continued automatically to work , I know it was working , but on the last 3 months it tells me that was not able to back up since one of my externals only have 450 GB left on it,, and the other has 68GB left on it ... I don't get it,, why is TM not erasing the old back ups?? ,,, My question is if I erase manually 5 or six of the old back ups WILL I BE ERASING THE PHOTOS THAT I HAD, let's say IN 2017 and the back up of DEC. 1019 will not have them ( what I mean is every back up is complete or the program of TM only backs up THE CHANGES THAT OCCURRED BETWEEN THE NEW BACK AND THE PREVIOUS ONE ,,, ALL I back up from my computer are PHOTOS and I have 80,000 and I need to be very careful when I have to Press a square that says DELETE .. I hope you guys understand . The question is WHY TM does not erase the oldest back ups automatically did I configured something wrong ? and Second if I delete some of the old Back ups and old keep the last 2 will I have ALL MY PHOTOS Backed up and this way I'll have enough memory , but I guess the most important question is the firs one. THANKS

iMac 27", macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 5, 2020 10:17 AM

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Answer 1

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léonie

Level 10

195,031 points

Apr 7, 2020 12:31 AM in response to jackikes77

How are you planning to delete backups? The only safe way I now of for deleting older backups is to use Time Machine to delete all backups of certain large items, as described here:

Delete a file from your Time Machine backup disk - Apple Support

It wouln not be safe to delete older backups using the Finder.

But before you weed out one of your backup drives, check, if the backup on your other backup volume is in a working condition. You should be able to startup your mac from a backup drive, if the backup is working. See: Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

In OS X Lion v10.7.3 or later, you can start up from your Time Machine disk, if necessary. Press and hold Option as your Mac starts up. When you see the Startup Manager screen, choose “EFI Boot” as the startup disk.

Check both drives carefully, if you can still browse them in Time Machine and can select files and folders to restore, before you remove older backups from one of your drives. If the smaller backup drive is fine, remove as many backups as possible from the larger volume. if you cannot get time Machine to work again, I would erase the Volume completely with Disk Utility and start a new backup as described here: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202784#format

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

195,031 points

Apr 5, 2020 10:54 AM in response to jackikes77

Time Machine will erase the oldest backups, but not, if no backup will be left.

The problem is, that the upgrade to Catalina changed the Photos Library completely - all original image files have been renamed, and new versions created. The first Catalina backup will need to replace the backup of the Photos Library completely, so will need at least as much free storage on your backup drives as the size of your Photos lIbrary.

An external volume to be used with Time Machine needs to have as least 2.5 times the storage as the computer you want to back up. For a computer with 3TB Storage you need a Time Machine volume with 7.5 TB for tIme Machine to work well. Then Time Machine will be able to erase all backups but the last one and have enough storage for a complete new backup, and may save some incremental backups as well.

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Answer 3

jackikes77 Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 5, 2020 4:03 PM in response to léonie

Thanks for the answer, This explain what os happening since the way I remember I up dated to " Catalina" around the same time I got my last back up. NOW could I ask a clarification ... Are the back ups done by the TM "Incremental" one to the next oldest one or are their a "FULL ' back up individually of all my Photos .. IF they are FULL back ups this will allow me to delete ALL except the last one and still have space to back up the one today and I can do the same next month and so on until I can buy an external drive off 7 TB , ( things are not to clear economically on the past month ) . I know this will expose the work I have done in the lat 30 days before I back up , but what can I do I have not backed up the computer in close to5 months and I have corrected many photos .

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Answer 4

jackikes77 Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 7, 2020 10:13 AM in response to jackikes77

Thanks a million for your answers , Before I do anything I'll think about it for a few days , ( My photos are very important to me I have travel the world for more than 50 years and I'll hate something happening to any of them ) after a few days and after investigating prices for New external drives off +- 5 TB I will decide what to do ... I know it's expensive especially in this times but I might end up being an other bigger external drive ... Thanks for your help .. Best Regards ; Stay safe

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

195,031 points

Apr 7, 2020 10:40 AM in response to jackikes77

Good Luck!

If you get yourself a larger Time Machine volume, you could use your 2TB volume to make regular clones of your Photos Library with a cloning software like Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper or similar. A clone is a perfect addition to a Time Machine backup, in particular, if Time Machine stops working. then you have a second backup method.

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My time machine is connected to 2 external drives but lately doesn't back up

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