Time Machine was only able to complete 7% of the backup because there is insufficient free space on the backup disk.
iMac 24″, macOS 12.5
If the Time Machine drive is full you need to erase it and start a new backup.
No! Time Machine is supposed to delete older backups as needed, to create space for the latest ones, as it used to do beautifully year, after year, after year, But since I've acquired my 24" M1 iMac (with the pitifully small 2TB storage, which is all I could load it with, and even the smallest of the Time Machine externals I've been trying to use has at least 4TB) that isn't happening. It seems to be creating little miniature Time Machines with every automatic backup, which is new. And they're not reliably disappearing when space is needed for newer ones! Of course I've had to keep reformatting the drives when they think they're full, but as an 83-year old double cancer survivor I ain't got time for that! Ive noticed that I'm not then only one experiencing this.nes which it never did before
There might be chances that your drive is in HFS+ format, that’s why it is unable to transfer data to a time machine backup drive and showing issue like "there is not enough space on time machine backup" and may also ask you to erase or reformat the drive.
Further, here are few DIY fixes to resolve the time machine backup failure issues:
1. Check external hard drive’s file system.
2. Check free disk space on external hard drive.
3. Check for junk files or other unwanted data as it might be causing problem.
4. Check if the Mac software is updated.
5. Try restarting your Mac.
6. Check if the mac and the backup drive connected to the same network.
By checking the above issues, you might resolve the time machine backup failure.
Hope it helps!
Time Machine was only able to complete 7% of the backup because there is insufficient free space on the backup disk.
