I have less than 400 GB of data on my machine, and I have a new blank 1TB hard drive. But Time Machine keeps telling me there is not enough space to back up my computer. I have used Disk Utility to erase the drive in case there was something on it that I can't see, but I get the same result.
Any idea what's going on here, and how I fix it?
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.6
1 - Assuming the user used this method >> Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac Special attention to the image in the link webpage
2 - There are times when the issue is not the TM Backup Drive but rather the Internal Drive not having enough empty space to create new TM Backup Snap Shots. In that case >> How to delete Time Machine snapshots on your Mac
1 - Assuming the user used this method >> Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac Special attention to the image in the link webpage
2 - There are times when the issue is not the TM Backup Drive but rather the Internal Drive not having enough empty space to create new TM Backup Snap Shots. In that case >> How to delete Time Machine snapshots on your Mac
Is this external drive partitioned into more than one ?
If it were partitioned into more than one - the previous link on how to Erase an External Drive would have Removed all portition make the Whole Drive into one.
Suggest re-reading the instruction but just incase it wes missed refer to below image
Thank you for your reply. I really thought this was going to work. In answer to your first question, yes, that is how I reformatted the drive.
Regarding item 2, I did as you directed, and there indeed were 5 snap shots that I deleted. So this morning I tried again to back up, but there is no change. It still says I don't have enough space on the drive.
I did get an odd error message, though. Keep in mind that this backup drive is 1TB, and my hard drive just barely over 400GB.
Ok, I've done that again. The first time I missed the step to change the view to "show all devices." So I've done that this time, and erased it again.
I will try backing up again this weekend and let you know what happens. Thank you again for your help!
I replied this past weekend that the reformatting didn't help, but I don't see that post here now. But here is what occurred today. I went in and erased the drive again then started the backup. You can see in these pics that it started ok, but a couple hours later, when it was about halfway finished, something started happening. Over the next 6 hours, only 2 more GB were backed up (134GB of 238GB). Then it barely moved anymore, even though you can see that the backup drive is continuing to fill up.
Excellent and do keep us posted on the progress - time permitting
Time Machine--new drive, "not enough space"?
