Here’s the primary concern: Time Machine automatically deletes older snapshots as it adds new ones. Files that have been deleted from your Mac are only retained as long as the oldest snapshot.
- Time machine is a great way to keep your Mac backed up, it’s also a simple way to move all your files and software to another Mac, but as the contents of your Mac increases you may find that your.
- A whole lot about Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for 'time machine' to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.
Use Time Machine, the built-in backup feature of your Mac, to automatically back up your personal data, including apps, music, photos, email, and documents. Having a backup allows you to recover files that were deleted, or that were lost because the hard disk (or SSD) in your Mac needed to be erased or replaced. Learn how to restore your Mac from a backup.
Create a Time Machine backup
To create backups with Time Machine, all you need is an external storage device. After you connect the storage device and select it as your backup disk, Time Machine automatically makes hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months. The oldest backups are deleted when your backup disk is full.
Connect an external storage device
Connect one of the following external storage devices, sold separately. Learn more about backup disks that you can use with Time Machine.
- External drive connected to your Mac, such as a USB or Thunderbolt drive
- Network-attached storage (NAS) device that supports Time Machine over SMB
- Mac shared as a Time Machine backup destination
- AirPort Time Capsule, or external drive connected to an AirPort Time capsule or AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac)
Select your storage device as the backup disk
- Open Time Machine preferences from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Or choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Time Machine.
- Click Select Backup Disk.
- Select your backup disk from the list of available disks. To make your backup accessible only to users who have the backup password, you can select “Encrypt backups”. Then click Use Disk:
If the disk you selected isn't formatted as required by Time Machine, you're prompted to erase the disk first. Click Erase to proceed. This erases all information on the backup disk.
Enjoy the convenience of automatic backups
After you select a backup disk, Time Machine immediately begins making periodic backups—automatically and without further action by you. The first backup may take a long time, but you can continue using your Mac while a backup is underway. Time Machine backs up only the files that changed since the previous backup, so future backups will be faster.
To start a backup manually, choose Back Up Now from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Use the same menu to check the status of a backup or skip a backup in progress.
Time Machine App On Mac
Learn more
- Learn about other ways to back up and restore files
- If you back up to multiple disks, you can press and hold the Option key, then choose Browse Other Backup Disks from the Time Machine menu.
- To exclude items from your backup, open Time Machine preferences, click Options, then click the add (+) button to add an item to be excluded. To stop excluding an item, such as an external hard drive, select the item and click the remove (–) button.
- If using Time Machine to back up to a network disk, you can verify those backups to make sure they're in good condition. Press and hold Option, then choose Verify Backups from the Time Machine menu.
When your computer hard-disk is brimming with data, it’s time to spring-clean what is unnecessary on your system. If you are using Time Machine to take backup of your data, you probably like to manually delete the old files which are of no use. Your cleaning drive can be inspired by the simple idea of deleting old backups or you are running short of space, and therefore decided to delete the old backup.
In the second case, Time Machine would send an error message, which reads, “Time Machine could not complete the backup. This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires AA GB but only BB GB are available.”
The reason could be anything, but the fact is that you can remove old files (backup) from Time Machine to enjoy some more space on that drive (of course, to create new backup).
How To Use Mac Time Machine
How to Delete Old Backups from Time Machine on Mac
Step #1. Connect your Mac with Time Machine Drive.
Step #2. Bring down the icon of Time Machine to Menu bar.
Step #3. Select “Enter Time Machine.”
Step #4. Scroll down until you reach the time you want to delete backup.
Step #5. Now, right click on the backup in Time Machine’s Finder window (or you can click on the cog wheel icon in the Finder window.)
Step #6. Now select “Delete All Backups of (name.)”
Step #7. Type in the admin password when prompted.
How to Delete Old Backups from Time Machine with tmutil on Mac
For some tech savvy users, tmutil can help remove backup quickly.
If you’re savvy with the command line, the tmutil utility can also remove backups of any age immediately. Unlike the above method, which helps you delete old backup with Graphical User Interface presentation, tmutil is meant for those who have some knowledge of command line and exact syntax.
Following is the method to use tmutil syntax:
tmutil delete /TimeMachine/Drive/Path/To/OldBackup/
You probably would like to make a list of directories by date to check which backup to remove; this will ensure you of proper path. If you don’t want to go with this method, you can use ls to see a list of dates:
ls /Volumes/TimeMachineDrive/Backups.backupdb/MacName/
The list of files to be deleted can be long and specific. If there are old files, for example, which have been stored for a few years, you would like to delete the same on a precise date:
Apple Time Machine Download Free
tmutil delete /Volumes/BackupDriveName/Backups.backupdb/MacComputerName/YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS/
Don’t forget to alter “BackupDriveName” to the drive name of the Time Machine volume, “MacComputerName” to the name of Mac you want to remove the backups from, and the specific date in Year/Month/Date/Time format by replacing “YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS”.
This is how the syntax would be:
sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/MacBook Pro/2015-06-15-172025/
While following the above method, make sure that you don’t lose data by losing your concentration.
Jignesh Padhiyar is the co-founder of iGeeksBlog.com who has a keen eye for news, rumors and all the unusual stuff that happens around Apple products. During his tight schedule, Jignesh finds some moments of respite to share side-splitting contents on social media.
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