how can I delete multiple backups from my Time Machine Drive

I have used the wildcard (*) so if i want to delete all backups from 2015

I insert the following at the end of the tmutil command line /2015-**-**-******

This deleted all backup files from 2015 in one go albeit it took some time.

A) it is a really bad idea to keep other stuff on the Time Machine drive, and also

B) where do you put the backups of the stuff you crammed in there?

I recommend you leave the Time Machine backups alone, and find another drive to put your miscellaneous files on.

I ran into the exact same issue earlier this year. The best answer I found was here: thegreyblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/shrink-your-time-machine-backups-and.html In summary, Time Machine always creates a full backup, not an incremental backup. So, no you won't cause any harm by deleting the first one. I've done so with no adverse consequences. Second, use the tmutil command to remove old backups. sudo tumtil gives you the full list. I wrote a bash script from the command line, as the author suggests. I deleted everything I had from last year, starting with the first backup that was made in October, with:

$ sudo tmutil listbackups

Password:

/Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb/mkauffmanmbp/2016-01-01-003303

/Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb/mkauffmanmbp/2016-01-02-005714

There were a lot more lines, what we're after here is the location to use in the next line. In my case it's /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb/mkauffmanmbp/ You will need to do the same, and use the \ before any spaces in the path as shown below. Below I used 2015-1* because mine started in October of 2015. So I had 2015-10, 11, and 12. If you want to get rid of all of 2015 you can use 2015-*. If you wanted to get rid of everything before October you could use 2015-0* which would remove 01,02,03,...09 of 2015.

$ sudo tmutil disable local

(The following is all one line.)

$ for i in /Volumes/Seagate\ Backup\ Plus\ Drive/Backups.backupdb/mkauffmanmbp/2015-1* ; do tmutil delete "$i" ; done

$ sudo tmutil enable local

Hope this helps!

Happy New Year!

A few updates.

0. I did this because I wanted some extra space on the Time Machine drive to keep my Dropbox. Time machine will delete its backups automatically, but only after your drive gets near being full. Do this if you would like to have more control over the drive space.

1. Use sudo before the tmutil on the for line as in:

$ for i in /Volumes/Seagate\ Backup\ Plus\ Drive/Backups.backupdb/mkauffmanmbp/2016-01-0* ; do sudo tmutil delete "$i" ; done

2. The GUI will not let you delete multiple backups, only one at a time. The only way to delete more than one at a time is to use the terminal and run a small script from the command line.

You should not have to delete any Time Machine backups. It does it automatically. Look at these two links for details:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html

Ciao.