I have an external drive that I use for my Time Machine back ups. Recently, Time machine could not back up due to insufficent space. I check the previous back up and noticed lots of file, app, system folders etc all being backed up does it back the same software files daily? or just changes?
I am trying to figure out if I do need another external drive? Do I need all the old back ups from 2019 etc?
Gina
MacBook Pro 14″
removing files from the TM drive is a really bad idea even if you do figure out how to do it. and yes, after the initial backup, it should only save changes.
but usually when i see issues regarding lack of space for TM, it is due to not having enough space on your local drive, not the external TM drive. how much free space do you have on your local drive?
Initially, the latest versions of TM backs up all essential files but no OS. After that TM, only adds what's been changed since the last backup.
Two backup drives is a good idea. Drives are cheap and after all how important is your data to you? All five of our Macs have duplicate backups to a pair of dedicated external drives. We use CCC now but TM does an excellent job and can easily use multiple drives.
Thank you for your response Jefferythefrog. I have 51.25 GB available on my LaCie 8Tb drive that is my designated back up.
On my MacBook Pro it has 614.1GB free.
PS:I will not be removing files from TM.
On my previous iMac I would have my external drives attached and TM would back up the iMac and external drive on to my LaCie 8tb drive.
Thank you
Thank you ku4hx. That is helpful information. I was wondering about what it backs up because when I looked at the backed up info all the APP's, System files, show up on each days back up.
I appreciate your helpful response.
Gina
Time Machine Back up files
