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Full Time Capsule not Deleting Files

I have my MacPro & iMac backed up to Time Machine. It works great to find a lost file.

BUT, when the 2 TB HD recently filled up, it stopped backing up & I was forced to Erase the HD & start over.

I thought Time Machine would sequentially delete the oldest files once it filled up.

I did verify the disk (Option - TM Menu) & it checked out OK

Is there a setting I have missed?


Thanks for any advice!


...John

Mac Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on May 2, 2016 12:04 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on May 2, 2016 12:20 PM

Time Machine has no problems deleting older incremental files to make room for backups of new incremental files. The key word here is "incremental", which are small files that take up very little space.


But.....and this is a big BUT......if the Time Capsule drive is full, and you try to back up a larger amount of data than normal......which can happen if you have recently updated the operating system on your Mac, or added larger media files or other types of files to the Mac......then Time Machine balks, because it cannot delete enough of the older files to make room for the new, larger than normal backup.


In that case, you have a few options:


1) Add another Time Capsule and start new backups going there

2) Add a USB drive to the current Time Capsule and start new backups going there

3) Erase the Time Capsule drive and start over again with new backups


If you don't mind erasing the backup history on the Time Capsule and starting over again, this is of course the most economical way to continue. If you want to keep your old backups intact, then go with option 1 or 2.

2 replies
Question marked as Best reply

May 2, 2016 12:20 PM in response to John Bonn

Time Machine has no problems deleting older incremental files to make room for backups of new incremental files. The key word here is "incremental", which are small files that take up very little space.


But.....and this is a big BUT......if the Time Capsule drive is full, and you try to back up a larger amount of data than normal......which can happen if you have recently updated the operating system on your Mac, or added larger media files or other types of files to the Mac......then Time Machine balks, because it cannot delete enough of the older files to make room for the new, larger than normal backup.


In that case, you have a few options:


1) Add another Time Capsule and start new backups going there

2) Add a USB drive to the current Time Capsule and start new backups going there

3) Erase the Time Capsule drive and start over again with new backups


If you don't mind erasing the backup history on the Time Capsule and starting over again, this is of course the most economical way to continue. If you want to keep your old backups intact, then go with option 1 or 2.

Full Time Capsule not Deleting Files

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