time machine backup is full

Question

time machine backup is full

hello, first let me start off by saying i am tech challenged. i've been following steps online to clean up my time machine. via finder, i moved the majority of files to the trash. i have been trying to empty the trash for over an hour now. no success. i have a late 2012 iMac with 3 TB storage, and this external hard drive that is now full. how do i clear the trash, or how can i erase all content on the external drive and reformat it. unfortunately i really need step by step guidance ( old and tech challenged! forgot to mention the old part! ) i believe the external hard drive is a seagate.

currently my computer was showing 285,000 and now it says it cannot complete the deletion.

would anybody be able to assist. thank you

Earlier displays & monitors

Posted on Nov 11, 2023 1:57 PM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

149,360 points

Nov 11, 2023 2:13 PM in response to writetogiovanna

You have almost for sure made a mess of your Time Machine Drive. The best thing to do is format it and start over. If the drive is 5 years old or older I d recommend replacing the External Hard Disk . They wear out over time and 5 years is about average for replacing.

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Answer 2

Nov 11, 2023 2:15 PM in response to writetogiovanna

my goodness i think i solved my own problem. erased the disk in disk utilities and renamed it. now it reads 3 tb available.

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Answer 3

Nov 11, 2023 2:17 PM in response to rkaufmann87

thanks. i managed to erase the hard drive. rename it and reinstall it. it shows it is now working on the first back up. i didn't realize that after 5 years, the externals can wear out. nobody mentioned that when i bought it. :)

i believe mine is only 3-4 years old so it should be ok. will keep a close eye on this. thank you!

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

251,435 points

Nov 13, 2023 6:42 AM in response to writetogiovanna

TM backups are mostly links pointing to the last unchanged files, like...

Full Backup

Take one new picture...

New picture + pointers to each unchanged file in the full Backup...

Next make a new Pages Document...

New Pages Document + pointer to New pic + pointers to each unchanged file in the full Backup...

A simplified attempt at explaining why not to delete in the finder... only TM is aware of the complicated structure of the backups. :)

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

251,435 points

Nov 12, 2023 5:04 PM in response to writetogiovanna

Also, since I don't see it mentioned so far, never deleteTM files in the Finder, only within TM itself.

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Answer 6

rkaufmann87

Level 10

149,360 points

Nov 11, 2023 2:23 PM in response to writetogiovanna

It’s just wise to do, it could last 10 years or die tonight you just don’t have any warning. So it’s wise to be proactive because they somehow seem to know to die when you need it the most. Believe me I have learned the hard way.

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Answer 7

Nov 11, 2023 9:34 PM in response to rkaufmann87

yes, that is usually how things work. lol i will definitely purchase an extra one now. i honestly thought it would last a decade or two - thanks again. now if i ever had to restore from a backup, that would be a bigger challenge that i dont want to even think about!

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Answer 8

Nov 12, 2023 7:52 PM in response to BDAqua

Backups are easy to do. I do it three ways. I use TM to an external drive, at 10 pm nightly (TM editor). I also use Carbon Copy Cloner weekly to a different external drive. Lastly I keep sensitive stuff in an encrypted sparse bundle (plus a copy). Weekly I copy the two sparse bundles to a thumb drive. I am lucky I haven't yet had a HD failure, however I have had to recover files I messed up. TM is the easiest for recovery.

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Answer 9

Nov 13, 2023 6:14 AM in response to BDAqua

That is what I actually tried to do , but then it did not delete from my trash

can u explain why it shouldn’t be done that way ? What happens ?

in the end I figured out how to erase data on the hard drive, thankfully

but just curious why they give that as on option online

thank you

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Answer 10

Nov 13, 2023 6:19 AM in response to DesertRatR

That’s an impressive backup system you have !

I tried to follow instruction online to backup only once per day but perhaps because my iMac is from late 2012 , it doesn’t support the latest updates and I cannot seem to edit how Time Machine backs things up. It appears it’s every 15 mins or every hour.

I probably need a backup once a day only

the most important things I don’t want to lose are my photos and videos which take up most of the memory

and I’m the end I don’t even think you can get photos back from Time Machine - well at least that is what the people at apple told me

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