Time Machine 'cleaning up old backups' takes too long

Question

Time Machine 'cleaning up old backups' takes too long

I'm seeing that Time machine for my iMac is doing daily backups. Recently it completes a backup within an hour or so. Then it does 'cleaning up old backups...'. Unexpectedly this takes a long time, up to 6 hours. Sometimes I need to shut down and just shut down without the cleanup completing.

Syslog says:

7/5/16 9:32:35.518 AM com.apple.backupd[207]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/dk/2016-03-07-072332 containing 6.51 GB; 251.2 GB now available, 529.85 GB required

7/5/16 9:32:35.537 AM com.apple.backupd[207]: Removed 11 expired backups so far, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room

When I run diagnostic tool EtreCheck it says:

myData [Network]

Total size: 997.71 GB

Total number of backups: 25

Oldest backup: 2/8/16, 8:50 AM

Last backup: 6/29/16, 9:50 AM

Size of backup disk: Too small

Backup size 997.71 GB < (Disk used 664.27 GB X 3)

The questions to the community are:

why is cleanup taking so long?

and

if it is trying to delete old backups can I just go in there (/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/) myself to delete the older archives?

Posted on Jul 5, 2016 11:53 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Esquared

Level 6

12,385 points

Jul 5, 2016 9:29 PM in response to davidfrombrookdale

NO, stay away from the Time Machine database. Cleaning up files can take quite some time, but you don't have to wait for it to finish. Simply shut down your Mac when you want, it can continue cleaning later.

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Answer 2

Jul 7, 2016 8:54 AM in response to Esquared

Time machine does not seem to cleaning up of old archive files efficiently. Now TM backups are failing due to 'not enough space'. Time machine is not deleting the oldest backups in order to make room for a new backup. That is why I considered doing removing the oldest backups manually.

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Jul 7, 2016 2:34 PM in response to davidfrombrookdale

Try getting a larger external drive for your backups. See item 1,

Time Machine FAQ

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Answer 4

Jul 7, 2016 9:02 PM in response to Eric Root

I already have a larger drive and TM has done backup to that drive. But it keeps defaulting to try to do newer backups to the drive with insufficient space. And TM has not trimmed out the oldest backups on that older drive to make space to do new backup.

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Answer 5

John Galt

Level 10

141,162 points

Jul 8, 2016 7:00 AM in response to davidfrombrookdale

What network device hosts that Time Machine backup?

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Answer 6

Jul 10, 2016 8:19 AM in response to John Galt

That drive with insufficient space is the disk in the time capsule.

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Answer 7

John Galt

Level 10

141,162 points

Jul 17, 2016 7:51 AM in response to davidfrombrookdale

It can take a very long time, perhaps a couple of days, to reclaim hundreds of gigabytes of space even under ideal network conditions. That is if you are using Gigabit Ethernet, and if you leave your Mac running constantly during that time.

If you're using wireless, the amount of time it will take is literally impossible to estimate due to the vagaries of wireless communication.

Let it finish, unless of course you are willing to erase the TC contents completely. Even then, backing up half a terabyte will take days anyway.

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Answer 8

Jul 17, 2016 7:53 AM in response to John Galt

I finally ended up erasing all data on both of my TM disks and starting over. Now TM is doing backups and cleanups properly again without issues.

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Answer 9

John Galt

Level 10

141,162 points

Jul 17, 2016 8:04 AM in response to davidfrombrookdale

Great! Thanks for the update.

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