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Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup - not enough free space

It says there isn't enough free space on the drive. From my understanding Time Machine wipes clean old backups before saving new backups, is that right? And if thats the case why isn't backing up?


Time Machine hasn't backup since April. I was hoping the issue will resolve itself after upgrading to macOS Monterey but clearly it hasn't.

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 12.0

Posted on Oct 28, 2021 3:58 PM

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Posted on Nov 4, 2021 7:58 AM

You should use the Disk Utility. In my case, I erased the disk then removed the volume completed. I suspect that there is no need to erase before removing the volume. BTW, I only use APFS so the Time Machine volume is located in an APFS Container.


- Pie Lover


12 replies

Nov 3, 2021 4:57 PM in response to erahi

I had this happen a day or two ago after a lot of activity related to the Monterey upgrade.


In my case, I have a second Time Machine backup volume (TM2) which I usually backup once per day. My solution was to erase and remove TM1. I then recreated the volume and added it back to Time Machine. 28 backups have been made so far on TM1 and 93GB (out of 160GB) is still available.


I suggest trying to backup as much important as you can to another device before deleting the your Time Machine Backup.


- Pie Lover

Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup - not enough free space

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