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Time Capsule and Deleting Old Back-ups

I have a 2TB Time Capsule that appears to be nearing capacity. I'm relatively sure it is becuase of old back-ups. How can I delete the older back-ups?

iMac 27″, macOS 12.6

Posted on May 26, 2023 12:57 PM

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Posted on May 26, 2023 1:20 PM

How can I delete the older back-ups?


You can't.....if you are asking about deleting older backups while keeping newer backups.


You have 2 options:


1) Connect a USB drive to the USB port on the back of the Time Capsule and use the Archive function in AirPort Utility to copy all of the data on the Time Capsule hard drive over to the USB drive. Then, erase the Time Capsule drive and start over again with a new backup of your Mac(s).


2) If you don't need all the old backups....most of us ever need them.....you can simply erase the Time Capsule drive and start over again with a a new backup of your Mac(s).

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 26, 2023 1:20 PM in response to doclock07

How can I delete the older back-ups?


You can't.....if you are asking about deleting older backups while keeping newer backups.


You have 2 options:


1) Connect a USB drive to the USB port on the back of the Time Capsule and use the Archive function in AirPort Utility to copy all of the data on the Time Capsule hard drive over to the USB drive. Then, erase the Time Capsule drive and start over again with a new backup of your Mac(s).


2) If you don't need all the old backups....most of us ever need them.....you can simply erase the Time Capsule drive and start over again with a a new backup of your Mac(s).

May 27, 2023 8:40 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Thank you Bob - so there is no way to go into the Time Capsule and delete individual backups? I thought I had done that before - if memory serves, I was able to go in and select which ones to delete (I kept one per month for a year then would delete those after the first one in the new year). I've moved since then and haven't deleted backups in almost a year. Time Machine is also giving me the following message "The backup disk image “iMac.sparsebundle” could not be accessed (error 19)."


Time Capsule and Deleting Old Back-ups

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