I setup Time Machine to back up to a 2TB Time Capsule. Why do I have 100GB of backups on my MacBook harddrive and how do I delete them?

Question

I setup Time Machine to back up to a 2TB Time Capsule. Why do I have 100GB of backups on my MacBook harddrive and how do I delete them?

I have a brand new MacBook Air running OSX 10.11.2 backing up to a new Time Capsule.

I have Time Machine properly set to backup to my Time Capsule.

But when I look at my storage on my MacBook, look at how much is devoted to backups. How do I delete these back ups and stop them from taking up so much disk space?

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Jan 22, 2016 5:31 AM

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Answer 1

dwb

Level 7

33,316 points

Jan 22, 2016 7:37 AM in response to benfromla grange park

Since your computer might be far from your backup drive when a scheduled TimeMachine backup is needed, the OS will make a snapshot on your startup drive instead. Later when you connect to your TimeMachine backup these snapshots will be consolidated in TimeMachine. The operating system is ‘smart’ about these back files. When you need the space for applications or data older backups on the computer will be automatically erased.

See this article for more information: About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support

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