Is there a way to delete one file from past TimeMachine backups?

Paulfletcher wrote:

I'm on OS 10.13.6. I have a external drive for TimeMachine. I want to delete one file from the TimeMachine backup of a few backups ago. (The file isn't on later backups.) I would delete the whole back done on that date but there are other writings I don't want to lose on that date's backup. Are the writings still on my main computer even though TimeMachine backed them up? If so, then I could delete the entire backup on that date and still have the files that were backed up on my main MacBook Pro.

I would not mess with the TM database. No.

You interface with the TM through the interface only

The main advantage of TM is that it creates recursive backups—enabling you to restore a specific file or the entire drive— from a certain point in time.

restore items backed up with Time Machine

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/restore-files-mh11422/mac

Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac - Apple ...

Starry001 wrote:

No I am not being melodramatic. It's a simple functionality that existed and was removed and should not have been. Without that functionality I had to delete all my backups. All because it wouldn't let me remove from my backups one single file with sensitive data that was supposed to have been deleted permanently but had been accidentally stored in the wrong location.

If Time Machine won't allow for correcting human mistakes such as the aforementioned, then it's just not very good. Particularly since it was a feature that existed previously then removed.

No one here in this user-to-user forum can do anything to change what Apple does. Nor does Apple read here for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

There used to be a way to do it by going into the Time Machine, right clicking on the "Today" version of the file and a "delete all copies" or similar command was available on right-clicking the file. I can't see that option on my Time Machine today, but that might because not all the discs are connected (I have some offsite backups). If you try this (click TM in menu bar and then click Browse and note that it might take a long time for all the bakcups to become visible) and the option is available then it might be OK to use it, but I'd need a pretty serious reason to mess about with mine like this. If you do, then you must immediately verify the backup afterwards.

My advice, however, echoes leroydouglas - leave it alone unless deleting this file is more important than losing your backup. If it's that important (e.g. legal requirement) then as a minimum I'd create a new, separate backup and then delete the backup with the file you want to delete. Otherwise you run the risk of getting some months or years down the line and needing to recover something equally important only to find out that your backup is useless.

I must be missing something.

What Time machine does differently is to save and keep careful track of MULTIPLE saved states. Rather than merging the incremental backup data into the ONE backup, it keeps that each incremental backup separate, identifiable, and able to be combined with the other data it already holds to obtain a Perfect image of your Mac as of, "any date&Time it still has saved".

If you don't want to re-use a certain file that was once on your Mac, don't restore as of the date it was present, or after restoring, delete that file.

I don't understand why you would need to undertake the risky operation of modifying the record of what was on your Mac in the past.

You can connect an ADDITIONAL backup drive for time machine to use at any time. When you do, time machine will create a new stand-alone backup set that does not depend on (or contain) files from before you started to use the new drive. Every-other backup goes to every other drive.

Either drive can be removed, even repurposed, at any time. After a few hours, the new backup will be pretty good, and the old backup could be removed, if desired. At no time are you left "working without a net".

Starry001--

you are not using the same avatar as the original poster, so I have to assume you are different poster.

I have only one response to what you wrote, either:

a) speak for yourself, please, and do not attempt to speak for others -OR-

b) please use the SAME avatar every time you contribute to the discussion. Doing anything else if is too confusing for Readers, who may be following twenty or more different discussions is a day.

here is a link to make it easy:

Start a NEW discussion

.

So instead of offering a method to fix a mistake since humans are fallible, Time Machine users are punished by being forced to delete their entire backup? I understand different file systems mean different base functionalities but the "delete all copies" functionality should still be available, and as far as I am concerned it is poor design to have abandoned it.

I'm deleting my backup because I have no choice as someone decided to drop that feature. I am also turning off Time Machine since clearly it is not offering basic features an automatic backup should have.

You’re being a bit melodramatic. Time Machine offers much more than “basic backup”. The interface is easy and there’s zero setup making it great for non-tech users. Recovery is the so simple too. Your requirement to delete one file is a bit special for non-commercial users and would have been a problem in the good old days when I managed tape backups. However, if you want to backup without Time Machine then rsynch in Terminal is your best bet, but you’ll need to spend a bit of time understanding different backup types and then the rsync switches/options to make sure it’s doing what you need.

No I am not being melodramatic. It's a simple functionality that existed and was removed and should not have been. Without that functionality I had to delete all my backups. All because it wouldn't let me remove from my backups one single file with sensitive data that was supposed to have been deleted permanently but had been accidentally stored in the wrong location.

If Time Machine won't allow for correcting human mistakes such as the aforementioned, then it's just not very good. Particularly since it was a feature that existed previously then removed.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

I don't understand why you would need to undertake the risky operation of modifying the record of what was on your Mac in the past.

Although you didn't reply to my comment, this was posted after mine and ostensibly directed at me. Perhaps I wasn't clear but the file that was backed up for over a year contained sensitive data that was to have been deleted ages ago. It was supposed to have been in a location that Time Machine didn't back up ...but clearly did because I set it up wrong. If I cannot delete the backed up file (as Time Machine used to allow people to do) then I have no alternative but to delete the entire backup. Because they didn't retain that simple feature, the whole backup had to be tossed out.

I have been reading information about Time machine for many years, and following the (very few) changes in Time Machine since it was first introduced. I do not recall the feature of deleting certain files from a backup as EVER being available. So I do not understand your suggestion that feature has been removed.

[in my opinion] that has NEVER been a feature of Time machine.

Starry001 wrote:

Although you didn't reply to my comment, this was posted after mine and ostensibly directed at me.

None of Grant's posts here have previously been directed at you. You can see who a post is in replied to at the top of every post to the right of the date it was posted. When you resurrected a thread that had been dead since last September, it cause resulted in people replying to the original poster.

It is generally more advisable to start a new thread rather than add on to one that is this old. It avoids this sort of confusion. And, as it is very rare that problems are identical, you tend to get better help.