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Time Machine

Time Machine says it could not complete a backup (onto an external hard drive) because it "could not create a local snapshot to back up from because there was insufficient free space on the source volume."


How much space is required to use Time Machine?


Do I need to empty stuff off my computer in order to back it up? (Like applications that take up a lot of room?


MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Oct 19, 2021 2:01 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 20, 2021 6:30 AM

After I posted my question, I took all large apps, like Google Chrome, Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, Dropbox...basically anything not installed on the Mac originally...and copied it to the external drive, then deleted them off my Mac. That opened up the space so I could run Time Machine.


Really appreciate your response, Eau Rouge. Good practical suggestions as I go forward with my back up project.



3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 20, 2021 6:30 AM in response to Eau Rouge

After I posted my question, I took all large apps, like Google Chrome, Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, Dropbox...basically anything not installed on the Mac originally...and copied it to the external drive, then deleted them off my Mac. That opened up the space so I could run Time Machine.


Really appreciate your response, Eau Rouge. Good practical suggestions as I go forward with my back up project.



Oct 19, 2021 9:10 PM in response to offuttart

How much free space do you have on your macs internal drive.

It is recommended to keep at least 20GBs of free space on your internal drive

so the mac can do its housekeeping.

If you run very low on free space you run the risk of the mac locking up and

becoming unusable.


Copy files that you do not need on a daily basis to an external drive.

Movies, images and music tend to take up the most space.

Once you have confirmed they have copied over successfully you

can then delete them from your mac.

Time Machine

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