bizlaw

Q: How to delete time machine local backup?

My MacBook Pro is running out of hard drive space, and the culprit is Time Machine. Apparently Time Machine stores local backups on the hard drive when it is not connected to the backup drive, and then is supposed to delete them when it does backup. However, this causes huge problems because I'm running out of hard drive space. I ran the following in Terminal to turn off the local backups:

 

sudo tmutil disablelocal

 

However, that has not freed up the hard drive space taken by the local backups. Any ideas on how to reclaim that space?

Posted on Mar 23, 2012 4:48 PM

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Q: How to delete time machine local backup?

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  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jul 1, 2013 8:56 AM in response to Ivan H
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jul 1, 2013 8:56 AM in response to Ivan H

    Again, I'm not familiar with that app.

     

    What does the Storage display show for Backups when that app shows 54.7 GB for "Time Machine" (earlier you said it showed MBs, not GBs -- are we talking about the same time)?

     

    If it's considerably different, either:

     

    • That app is showing something wrong or outdated, or,

     

    • The Spotlight index is damaged or outdated (that's what drives the Storage display).

     

    And/or, what's the difference between free space as shown by the Finder or Get Info and Disk Utility?

  • by Ivan H,

    Ivan H Ivan H Jul 1, 2013 4:34 PM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 1, 2013 4:34 PM in response to Pondini

    Pondini,

     

    The Space Gremlin disk usage maps are generated when I responded to your questions.  It's not the exact data during my test.  So, there will be some small discrepancy.

     

    Finder won't give the free space info.  The Availability of Disk as revealed by Disk Utiltiy is the same as that revealed by Space Gremlin app and the same as the free space revealed by About This Mac > Storage. So I know what I am reading.

     

    However, the disk space occupied by Time Machine (and later released to free space) as revealed by Space Gremlin is grouped into "Other" category on About This Mac > Storage. 

     

    The "Backups" category as shown at About This Mac > Storage is much smaller than that detected by Space Gremlin.

     

    My guess is:

    1. The space occupied, as shown in About This Mac > Storage, is the space occupied by Time Machine Local Backup (Snapshots) and theoretically this space will not grow when the Mac's disk has over 80% occupancy (managed by mtmfs process);

    2. The space occupied, as shown by Space Gremlin, is the Time Machine's working area not releasing back as free space until the TM turns OFF.  This is the part that I consider a bug, or a programming omission to release unused disk space when not using.

     

    Further information in response to your questions:

     

    The Space Gremlin app is the latest update and it gives correct disk space information on 4 Macs (including the MBA in testing) of different models around me.  The disk space information can be reconciled from Finder, Get Info and Disk Utility.

     

    The Sportlight index (as you were doubt about it) has been re-indexed on that MBA. No program.

     

    Conclusion:

    Stopping Time Machine Local Backup may not give you back a lot of the free disk space because the working space is not released.  To release the Time Machine working space (in my test, about 50 GB), the Time Machine (OS X 10.8.4) ver 1.2 must be turned OFF manually. (Of course, you need to turn TM back to ON to use it.)

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jul 1, 2013 4:46 PM in response to Ivan H
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jul 1, 2013 4:46 PM in response to Ivan H

    Ivan H wrote:

    . . .

    Finder won't give the free space info. 

    Huh?  It's  the bottom of every Finder window, if you have View > Show Status Bar enabled;  you'll get the same figures via Get Info.  

     

    However, the disk space occupied by Time Machine (and later released to free space) as revealed by Space Gremlin is grouped into "Other" category on About This Mac > Storage.

     

    The "Backups" category as shown at About This Mac > Storage is much smaller than that detected by Space Gremlin.

    Then one of them is either wrong or not up to date.  Local snapshots are shown in the Backups category.

     

     

    1. The space occupied, as shown in About This Mac > Storage, is the space occupied by Time Machine Local Backup (Snapshots) and theoretically this space will not grow when the Mac's disk has over 80% occupancy (managed by mtmfs process);

    Correct.

     

     

    2. The space occupied, as shown by Space Gremlin, is the Time Machine's working area

    What "working area" is that?  I know of no such thing, and have seen no other such threads. 

     

    Plus, I find nothing on that app's website that explains what's included in its "Time Machine" category.   Time Machine backups and local snapshots are difficult to deal with -- some apps report very odd figures.

     

    It costs $13, but try the WhatSize app (from the developer, not the AppStore), per the green box in Where did my Disk Space go?

  • by Ivan H,

    Ivan H Ivan H Jul 1, 2013 4:58 PM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 1, 2013 4:58 PM in response to Pondini

    Thank you Pondini.  A programmer may give you a better idea what a working area is for a program / app.  They may use different name. 

     

    I don't find adequate technical documentation about Time Machine from Apple.  If you know any source available, you're welcome to tell.

     

    I am very satisfy with Space Gremlin for its accuracy, convenience and speed.  I don't see I have the need to try the WhatSize app at this stage.  But thank you.

     

    I'll stop following this thread because I already shared my experience to get back free disk space from the Time Machine (which is effective and fast and do not need to use Console) and no further supplement.

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jul 1, 2013 5:24 PM in response to Ivan H
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jul 1, 2013 5:24 PM in response to Ivan H

    Ivan H wrote:

    . . .

    I am very satisfy with Space Gremlin for its accuracy

    It doesn't seem accurate in this case. 

  • by Ivan H,

    Ivan H Ivan H Jul 1, 2013 7:41 PM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 1, 2013 7:41 PM in response to Pondini

    Hi Pondini,

     

    I respect your long term experience in Time Capsule.   So, there could be something I didn't make clear to you or confused you, so it didn't seem accurate to you. 

     

    The result is adequately clear to me and the data is adequately accurate to me in an uncontrolled testing environment.  If my test and later revisiting the process giving data not exactly matching the original test, I am sorry to say that It is the limitation of a by-trial-and-error simple test in an uncontrolled testing environment under limited resources and time that I cannot help to improve.

     

    However, I revealed a simple technique to recover about 50 GB of disk space for a 256 GB SSD Hard Disk MacBook Air.  Just turn the Time Machine OFF and back ON. 5 seconds, and a quantified and traceable 50 GB of disk space recovered.  I am happy, and I am happy to share in this thread.

     

    P.s. I opted out email notification of this thread but not sure why I'm still receiving email.

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jul 2, 2013 6:35 AM in response to Ivan H
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jul 2, 2013 6:35 AM in response to Ivan H

    All I'm saying is, there is no additional space for backups.

     

    The next time your app shows a large amount for "Time Machine," before turning TM off, look at the Storage display.  If it's substantially the same, then yes, all that space is taken up by Local Snapshots.

     

    And/or, compare what the Finder/Get Info show vs. what Disk Utility shows; the difference should be Local Snapshots.

     

    If not, something else is going on -- something we haven't seen elsewhere.  If that's the case, you/we really should dig a big deeper.

  • by gavincmurphy,

    gavincmurphy gavincmurphy Oct 23, 2013 6:25 AM in response to bizlaw
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2013 6:25 AM in response to bizlaw

    Okay so I finally found the solution! First, make a Time Machine backup of your Mac. Then restore your Mac from that latest backup - and once it's done restoring it will have cleared out your local backups.  As soon as it finishes loading, turn off Time Machine (but make a reminder to weekly manually backup your Mac on Reminders :-))

     

    You are good to go. I have done this 2 or three times and it has worked every time! Enjoy.

  • by agiannekas,

    agiannekas agiannekas Oct 25, 2013 2:55 AM in response to gavincmurphy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 25, 2013 2:55 AM in response to gavincmurphy

    excuse my ignorance here as i am a new mac user so i still learning, but i'm trying to remove locla snapshots as it's been using too much space So i have done a time machine back up and you recommend to restore from this last back up. So will i need to completely wipe my macbook and restore to factory settings first before i do this?

  • by gavincmurphy,

    gavincmurphy gavincmurphy Oct 25, 2013 5:24 AM in response to agiannekas
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 25, 2013 5:24 AM in response to agiannekas

    Hi. No, you don't need to wipe the hard drive first.

     

    -Restart the computer and hold down "option" before the noise plays. Keep holding it down until the hard drive icons appear in the middle of the screen. 

     

    -One will say Recovery 10.7 (if you have Lion) or 10.8 (if you have Mountain Lion) and the other will probably say Macintosh HD.  Double click on the one that says Recovery.

     

    -After that, a window will pop up and you will choose "Restore From Backup" (the first selection in the box.)

     

    -From there just follow the directions and choose to restore from the latest backup.

     

    -Once it is fully restored it will have cleared automatic backups.

     

    Quick question...which operating system are you running? What laptop do you have? I had Mountain Lion on a MacBook Pro Mid-2010 and just upgraded to Mavericks. Just doing this cleared out my backups so that's an option too.

  • by agiannekas,

    agiannekas agiannekas Oct 25, 2013 5:38 AM in response to gavincmurphy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 25, 2013 5:38 AM in response to gavincmurphy

    I have a Macbook Air 11" which is the latest one so I have only had it since June this year and just installed Mavericks whichis OS X 10.9.

    I will try the restore and hopefully this works thanks for the detailed explenation on how to do this as i'm still learning how to use this little wonder

  • by gavincmurphy,

    gavincmurphy gavincmurphy Oct 25, 2013 5:48 AM in response to agiannekas
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 25, 2013 5:48 AM in response to agiannekas

    When did you install Mavericks? If you haven't checked auto backups since then, do so now. It should have wiped those out during the installation on Mavericks.  It did for me 2 days ago when I installed it.  Check the storage place again.

  • by agiannekas,

    agiannekas agiannekas Oct 25, 2013 5:56 AM in response to gavincmurphy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 25, 2013 5:56 AM in response to gavincmurphy

    I installed it yesterday and sadly it dodn't delete anything I am going to try the restore and hopefully that works in the meantime I have switched off the Time Machine form auto updating on my hard drive and will only do a back up on the external drive... Thanks for the advise

  • by gavincmurphy,

    gavincmurphy gavincmurphy Oct 25, 2013 6:01 AM in response to agiannekas
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 25, 2013 6:01 AM in response to agiannekas

    Cool. Okay let me know how it goes.

  • by agiannekas,

    agiannekas agiannekas Oct 25, 2013 8:23 AM in response to gavincmurphy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 25, 2013 8:23 AM in response to gavincmurphy

    Have done a restore and sadly Other is still showing up as using 69.29GB of my hard drive

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