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PaulScheer Author

Level 1

9 points

Time Machine Can't Complete Backup

I have a Backup Ext Hard Drive - I always get a message that it can't complete the backup because there isn't enough space; so I have to erase the entire thing and start over again. I can't figure out how to fix this. My Ext Hard Drive is 1TB; it's not partitioned. It says it needs 700GB to back up but should it just be refreshing the newest files, not constantly doing a full backup?

MACBOOK PRO 13 Inch - Running Monterey 12.5 w/ 1TB of Mem and it's not full.

The Hard Drive is a Samsung SSD 1TB Ext Harddrive

MacBook Pro Apple Silicon

Posted on Aug 31, 2022 3:31 PM

Top-ranking reply

John Galt

Level 10

147,288 points

Posted on Aug 31, 2022 3:45 PM

... and it's not full.

How full is not full?

Time Machine does not touch the previous backup until after completing a subsequent one. The bottom line is if TM says it needs more space, then it needs more space. Buy a 2 TB hard disk drive and your troubles are over. SSDs are nice but not particularly advantageous for Time Machine.

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Time Machine Can't Complete Backup

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