System hard drive filling up with backups

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System hard drive filling up with backups

I recently discovered that my mba (mid 2011, OS X 10.7.5) is filling up with something called "backups" and I don't understand where these files are coming from or where I can find them to delete them.

I have configured Time Machine to make backups whenever I connect my external harddrive I keep my backups on but now I am suspecting Time Machine of making local copies on my system drive as well. How do I stop this and how do I delete the files it has created

 -> about this mac -> more info -> storage

I really apreciate it if someone can help me quickly with this as I am in a bit of a hurry as I'm going travelling for the next month and I really need all the disk space I can to keep my photographs on. Thanks in advance!

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.5), i7, 256 GB

Posted on Sep 23, 2012 3:47 PM

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Answer 1

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emeacham

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Sep 25, 2012 12:42 PM in response to Solaar

From the reading I've done, Time Machine does make and keep local backups so they are readily available should you not have access to the "external" backup drive.

I'm sure in the future the Time Machine preferences will include more configuration options, so until then I have chosen to disable the local instance of the backup. Since it looks like you backup to an external drive that is connected directly to your machine, you can probably get by with this as well. Myself, I rarely need to do restores and the connection to our time capsule server is very fast, so I think it will be the solution I stick with.

Here is the article explaining how to disable and re-enable the local backups on OS X Lion: http://osxdaily.com/2011/09/28/disable-time-machine-local-backups-in-mac-os-x-li on/

Good luck, Solaar!

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Answer 2

Solaar Author

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Sep 25, 2012 2:04 PM in response to emeacham

Yes, luckily I was able to figure that out as well and I logged back on here to see if someone had posted it and if not I would have posted it myself.

But thankyou very much for taking the time to write down that explanation, I am sure it will help others also!

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Answer 3

ttc_08

Level 1

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Jan 23, 2013 9:53 AM in response to emeacham

I'm having the same problem in OS 10.7.5. After I disable the local backup, how do I delete the backup files to recover storage?

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Answer 4

emeacham

Level 1

10 points

Jan 23, 2013 11:53 AM in response to ttc_08

I believe that once the service is disabled, they expire and purge on their own...

[edit]

Looks like they should be removed automatically: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4878

Specifically:

Local snapshots are periodically condensed into daily or weekly snapshots to minimize the space used on your disk. If your disk is low on space, Time Machine stops creating new snapshots, and some or all existing snapshots may be removed to make space available for applications to use. If sufficient disk space becomes available again, Time Machine resumes creating local snapshots. This means your disk will have the same amount of available space as it would if Time Machine were not enabled.

Message was edited by: emeacham

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