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I am cleaning up old Time Machine backups, which slows stuff down to a grind. I want to tell Time Machine to delete all backups older than 3 months. I'd also like for Time Machine to keep that as a default rather than having to do that by hand myself each time. How do I do that?

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I was able to find this app, but I've never used it, I don't know if it works: Time Machine Editor

It purports to edit the frequency rules .plist for you.

Otherwise: enter image description here

These are the rules. If you don't like them, use a different backup solution.

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    None of these options seems to be 'always delete backups older than X days' to avoid filling up the backup disks and having tmutil delete run in the background.
    – user1256923
    Commented Apr 25, 2017 at 14:36
  • yeah... I didn't read down to the: "How does TimeMachineEditor preserve/discard backups? TimeMachineEditor does not change that, it is handled by Time Machine. Time Machine will coalesce and discard backups as described in System Preferences > Time Machine." in the faq
    – dwightk
    Commented Apr 25, 2017 at 14:49
  • a workaround might be to use the "when inactive" mode of operation in TimeMachineEditor so that it is running tmutil when you aren't around.
    – dwightk
    Commented Apr 25, 2017 at 14:50
  • I really suspect I might have to write a bash script so that tmutil prunes out old backups in the background, hopefully speeding the whole exercise up.
    – user1256923
    Commented Apr 25, 2017 at 21:59

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