My time machine backup is much bigger than my 2 internal hard disks. I've tried deleting lots of old backups but it fills up again very quickly. I've deleted the entire backup and in a few days the backup disk is full again. It's obvious that TM isn't a simple back up tool, but is doing something a bit fancier than that. But what?
Mac mini, macOS 10.15
The other thing that you need to be aware of is what can cause TM to not properly delete "old" backups on the destination drive.
The three biggest contributors are:
The other thing that you need to be aware of is what can cause TM to not properly delete "old" backups on the destination drive.
The three biggest contributors are:
Oh yes, you have to erase the TM Drive & start over, then only use TM to delete TM backups, sorry to report that.
Yeah, you have to max out the new Macs at time of purchase, there is no internally upgrading anymore.
Best to get a fast external SSD & move User's folder there, some do not redcommend thewhole home folder...
https://appleinsider.com/inside/macos-ventura/tips/how-to-move-your-home-directory-in-macos-ventura
Or move Photos or Music folder...
Sonoma upgrade and iPhoto storage? - Apple Community
Or install to & boot from external SSD...
I've tried to get TM to delete backups but it stubbornly only shows a few, going back a few weeks, and won't delete anything at all. Finder shows the backup dates from 2022, and that TM has not backed up for 351 days. As I said, it fails to back up because 'the backup drive is full'. My failures with TM stretch back a few years and I think it's time to leave it behind. I certainly don't want these problems replicated on my new Mac mini by restoring the current TM backup. In my long gone Windows days I used EaseUs third party back-up software after Windows 10 arrived as the proprietary backup was very odd indeed. I wonder if anyone can recommend a suitable third party back for Mac? Thanks.
Thanks for the advice on dealing with TM. I've opted to erase the backup disk and start again - that's in progress now. It took a while to get the erase settings sorted, but my old mini is now creating a new TM backup. I found it helpful to think about what I wanted/needed backups for and I've opted to exclude all of my music and video files from the new TM and will simply copy these to an additional second location. This limited backup will install on my new mini - I hope. The M2 chip is very quick, but sadly the more recent minis do not permit any upgrades. I upgraded the memory to 16GB, swopped the boot disk for an SSD, and added a second largish hard drive, which gave it nearly a terrabyte of internal storage. So a bit more thought is needed for my M2 - where exactly to keep stuff. I've tended to keep way form the Cloud, but maybe I revisit that and see if it can do anything useful.
How are you deleting the backups, in the Finder or within TM?
With Finder - is that my problem?
+1
Time machine back up as it says the disk is full backup
