I am trying to use an HD for my TimeMachine Backups bc my Computer is full, but I keep receiving an error. "Time Machine could not create a local snapshot to back up from."

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I am trying to use an HD for my TimeMachine Backups bc my Computer is full, but I keep receiving an error. "Time Machine could not create a local snapshot to back up from."

What could be the possible culprit? I purchased a brand new 5TB WD external HD, reformatted it and partitioned it perfectly. 4 TB to be used as a drag and drop so I can download all my files from iCloud, and 1TB to use as my computer TimeMachine backup. I was able to setup time machine on the HD device and it was backing up fine for about 7 days. Then one day my computer says "Time Machine could not create a local snapshot to back up from." And I now can not get the backup to work on my HD. I erased the HD and reformatted it and partitioned it again and immediately I just get that error message. Any ideas? My computer is out of space and I keep getting warnings about low disk space. Any ideas for troubleshooting? Or should I just order a new HD?

Thank You for your time and response.

Amanda F.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 27, 2023 2:38 PM

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D.I. Johnson

Level 7

22,355 points

Mar 27, 2023 2:45 PM in response to MandyRises

The startup drive of your computer is too full to create the snapshot that Time Machine will use to create the backup(s). You must free up drive space on that startup drive by moving files to another drive and erasing them from the start up drive.

A healthy hdd will have 15%-20% of its total capacity available and free at any time. That should be your target.

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I am trying to use an HD for my TimeMachine Backups bc my Computer is full, but I keep receiving an error. "Time Machine could not create a local snapshot to back up from."

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