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I used this Terminal command in Lion & Mountain Lion to stop local backups by TM and free much space:
sudo tmutil disable local
Is it safe (and effective) in Yosemite 10.10.2?
MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), 8GB SDRAM; 750GB HD
Yes. See:
Time Machine Snapshots
Open the Terminal in the Utilities folder and enter or paste the appropriate command line. Press RETURN and enter your admin password when prompted. It will not be echoed. Press RETURN again.
To turn them ON: sudo tmutil enablelocal
To turn them OFF: sudo tmutil disablelocal
Note that turning them OFF will also delete all existing snapshots.
For more about snapshots see: About Time Machine local snapshots
If the local snapshots are causing problems, there is something wrong. The system will delete them as needed.
Disabling them will delete them which may fix whatever problem the OS is having with managing them effectively
However, running the correct commands won't cause any problems.
Huh? When I entered the command etc., Terminal responded: "command not found" and nothing happened.
Last login: Sat Mar 7 15:48:17 on ttys000
pwwMBP-2:~ pwwmini$ sudo tmutil disablelocal
pwwMBP-2:~ pwwmini$ pww
-bash: pww: command not found
pwwMBP-2:~ pwwmini$
No, it's not safe, and you followed some of the worst of all the fake advice that circulates on this site. Local snapshots are deleted automatically when necessary. Disabling local snapshots does not save any space, and may result in data loss when files are unintentionally deleted between Time Machine snapshots.
Wow! 2 Level 10's and 1 Level 8!
I've given up on our gummint (Congress) -- and now I can't rely on Apple Support Community . . . .😉
OK, I will live with the local backups.
Did you enter your password when prompted? What was with the "pww?"
Please ignore the "No, it's not safe" remarks. He thinks anything done by way of the Terminal is bad. It's also his way of making those who disagree with him seem stupid. The advice is not fake but his criticism of it is fake.
I am glad I checked back!
When I wrote "nothing happened" I was wrong; I just didn't see the computer do anything visible.
Then I serendipitously checked Storage and found that there are now 225GB of Free space and (local) backups now only 44MB!
The pww is my password for the MBP (I am only user).
Is it safe entering command sudo tmutil disable local into Terminal?
