How can I manually delete old backups to free space for Time Machine?

Question

I use a Time Capsule for backup and now I want the drive to back up data from an extra Mac. But the drive is filled up with old backups from Mac 1. There simply is not enough space available for the backup for Mac 2.

I get this error message when running Time Machine backup:

Time Machine could not complete the backup. This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 28.68 GB but only 626.2 MB are available.

Time Machine needs work space on the backup disk, in addition to the space required to store backups. Open Time Machine preferences to select a larger backup disk or make the backup smaller by excluding files.

I know Time Machine itself is able to remove old backups when it needs more space. But in this case it does not remove any Mac 1 backups to make space for Mac 2.

Question is, how do I do it manually?

Answer 1

The easiest way is to:

1. Enter time machine (on the Mac whose backup you want to delete)
2. Go to the point in time you want to delete
3. Select the icon that looks like a cog in the finder and choose 'Delete Backup'

This ensures the backup catalog remains accurate and the integrity of your data stays intact.

Answer 2

Be careful with sudo and making sure you pick the correct Mac's files since there is no undo or confirmation of the following command:

sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/drive_name/Backups.backupdb/old_mac_name

The sudo command needs your password (and it won't echo to the screen, so just type it and pause to be sure you're dating the correct files before pressing enter). If you want to be safer, you can pick one snapshot to delete first to be sure the command works as intended. This is nice since it could take hours to clean up some larger backup sets and you want to leave the Mac confident it's deleting the correct information store.

You can use the tmutil tool to delete backups one by one.

sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/drive_name/Backups.backupdb/mac_name/YYYY-MM-DD-hhmmss

Since tmutil was introduced with Lion, this will not work on earlier OS version.

Answer 3

bash script:

COMPUTER_NAME=$(/usr/sbin/scutil --get ComputerName)
NBACKUPS=$(/usr/bin/tmutil listbackups |
  /usr/bin/grep "$COMPUTER_NAME" |
  /usr/bin/wc -l)
OLDEST_BACKUP=$(/usr/bin/tmutil listbackups |
  /usr/bin/grep "$COMPUTER_NAME" |
  /usr/bin/head -n1)
LATEST_BACKUP=$(/usr/bin/tmutil latestbackup)
echo Latest backup: $LATEST_BACKUP
if [[ -n "$LATEST_BACKUP" && "$LATEST_BACKUP" != "$OLDEST_BACKUP" ]]
then
 echo -n "$NBACKUPS backups. Delete oldest: ${OLDEST_BACKUP##*/} [y/N]? "
read answer
 case $answer in
  y*)
echo Running: /usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/tmutil delete "$OLDEST_BACKUP"
/usr/bin/sudo time /usr/bin/tmutil delete "$OLDEST_BACKUP"
;;
*)
 echo No change
 ;;
 esac
 else
 echo "No backup available for deletion"
 fi

Answer 4

just open up a terminal,

#sudo tmutil disablelocal

this should free up space without deleting TM backups

Answer 5

see: http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

very helpful site for all kinds of TM solution!

Answer 6

Here is step-by-step what I did to delete my old backup

1. Open Time Machine Disk
2. Locate and open the folder Backups.backupdb
3. Go to view by date and choose oldest on top
4. Select the backup you want to delete
5. Open Teminal and type sudo rm -rvf
6. Drag and drop the old folders you want to delete in the Terminal Window
7. Enter you user password at the prompt

Go take a coffee or watch a movie, when the process is done you may have to repeat it again for some folders that don't want to delete.

When all your old folders are gone, Time Machine needs to update its database. Here is a way to force Time Machine to update.

1. Enter Time Machine and go to the oldest Backup which is still listed
2. Select it and click on the little gear and then choose Delete Backup
3. Enter your password and wait a few minutes
4. Quit Time Machine interface and come back again. Now you should have your Time Machine listing the correct backup.