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I did a Time Machine backup to an external hard drive, then when I deleted files on my macbook hard drive, it also deletes them from the backup. This seems screwball, since it defeats the purpose of a backup. I even tried unplugging the external drive, then deleting the file, but once I plugged the drive back in, it was deleted from the backup.
Does anyone know how to stop this?
It does exactly what it's supposed to do. Time Machine keeps a separate record of *each backup*, with all files present at the time of backup. If file A and B existed in your last backup, but file B was deleted prior to your new backup, the new backup will only have file A in it. In other words, if you have 5 backups on your machine and 4 were made when file B was present, backups 1-4 will have file B but backup 5 will not because that is the backup from after it was deleted. Any of the four backups will have the most up-to-date version of the file from the time when the backup was made.
Additionally, in Time Machine, you can go to the last backup that had file B in it and file B will be there, but it will not be present in any backups after it was deleted until it is added back to your macbook's hard drive.
It does exactly what it's supposed to do. Time Machine keeps a separate record of *each backup*, with all files present at the time of backup. If file A and B existed in your last backup, but file B was deleted prior to your new backup, the new backup will only have file A in it. In other words, if you have 5 backups on your machine and 4 were made when file B was present, backups 1-4 will have file B but backup 5 will not because that is the backup from after it was deleted. Any of the four backups will have the most up-to-date version of the file from the time when the backup was made.
Additionally, in Time Machine, you can go to the last backup that had file B in it and file B will be there, but it will not be present in any backups after it was deleted until it is added back to your macbook's hard drive.
Thank you for the response. It may be doing as it's supposed to, but it still seems screwball to me. I'm dealing with a full hard drive and need to delete old files to make space. Unfortunately, I've done this in the past, only to need those old files for something unexpectedly in the future and wish I'd kept them archived somewhere (anywhere!). I had thought this was time machine's whole purpose, so I'll have to use a new strategy going forward.
Time Machine is a backup, not an archive. Your files are probably still on the backup, but they will be deleted eventually.
Files on Time Machine backup delete when deleting them on my macbook
