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Time machine space issue

My SSD is 780 GB with 330 GB used and 450 GB free space.


My Time machine backup disk is 770 GB with 246 GB free space.


TM back up has failed because it needs 341 GB. This is slightly larger than the total amount of files in the SSD, so it appears that TM wants to backup everything. Why does it want to do that and how can I fix the glitch? Also, why does it not just free up space by deleting old backups?


The only clue I can provide about the potential cause of the problem is that yesterday I used the TM backup to restore to a different computer. Essentially I made a clone of the backup.


Thanks for your help.

Posted on Oct 18, 2018 6:33 AM

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Question marked as Best answer

You are welcome. I apologize for my poor wording. You can't delete an entire backup. You have to delete unneeded data. You can control - click on the item and select Delete all backups of.

Posted on Oct 19, 2018 4:59 AM

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Question marked as Helpful

Oct 19, 2018 1:46 AM in response to oxcart

By using the backup to restore another computer and then returning it to the original computer, Time Machine wants to make a full backup to ensure the current computer is fully backed up.


You backup drive is adequate, but on the edge of being too small for the amount of data you have.


Start with C4 and D3 in the 1st linked article.


Time Machine Troubleshooting second source Time Machine Troubleshooting


Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems



Troubleshooting backup issues

Question marked as Helpful

Oct 19, 2018 1:46 AM in response to oxcart

You are welcome. Deleting backups except when in the Time Machine application can corrupt the backup and render it useless. I don't know of a way to safely delete backups by accessing the drive in Finder. If you have recovered all the desired data, you might consider erasing the drive and then make a new backup from the new computer.

7 replies
Question marked as Helpful

Oct 19, 2018 1:46 AM in response to oxcart

By using the backup to restore another computer and then returning it to the original computer, Time Machine wants to make a full backup to ensure the current computer is fully backed up.


You backup drive is adequate, but on the edge of being too small for the amount of data you have.


Start with C4 and D3 in the 1st linked article.


Time Machine Troubleshooting second source Time Machine Troubleshooting


Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems



Troubleshooting backup issues

Oct 18, 2018 11:57 AM in response to Eric Root

Hi Eric,


Thanks for the info. It has been so long since I had any trouble that I had forgotten about the excellent TM Troubleshooting guide.


I have a vague idea of why TM might be set up to make a full backup after cloning. Also, it would not "know" that I had no intention of backing up the clone to the same place. I was just testing whether TM could make a clone, as I keep a spare identical laptop for emergency use.


My reading of the situation is that I will loose my incremental backups, since the only way I can free up enough space is to delete all the backups except the latest. I just spent 20 minutes googling for a method to delete backups, and although there are some solutions described they don't work for me.


Can you tell me how to delete a particular backup? Or even delete all the backups except the last one.


Thanks, Ronnie.

Question marked as Helpful

Oct 19, 2018 1:46 AM in response to oxcart

You are welcome. Deleting backups except when in the Time Machine application can corrupt the backup and render it useless. I don't know of a way to safely delete backups by accessing the drive in Finder. If you have recovered all the desired data, you might consider erasing the drive and then make a new backup from the new computer.

Time machine space issue

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