February 18th, 2009 by John Williams

How to delete backups from Time Machine

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John Williams breaks down the real process for deleting old backups from Time Machine. Hint: It ain't as easy as dropping them in the trash can.

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A few weeks ago I tried to use my Time Machine-managed backup hard drive for manually backing up a hard drive that was dying on me. But to copy those files over, I needed more space. So I grabbed a handful of months-old backups and deleted them. You know, via the "Trash Can -> Empty Trash" method.

Turns out that this was entirely the wrong thing to do. Don't do this. It's bad. I had to format my Time Machine backup drive completely and start all over. Time Machine and the Trash Can don't cooperate.

The right way to do it is a little complicated, so I made a screencast to explain how it works:


Deleting backups from Time Machine without getting screwed from John Williams on Vimeo.

  • Thanks for the tip.  Saved me a lot of frustration.  Good job.

    Posted by John on 01/31/10 at 9:47AM

  • How come no one else could make it this simple? Wish I had known before I’d moved those backups to the trash can.

    Posted by Paul Gilchrist on 08/05/10 at 11:34AM

  • Thanks John, sure glad I found this post. I couldn’t find this answer on Apple’s website if it had bite me on the shin.

    Posted by Jedi4gvn on 11/11/10 at 7:01PM

  • Hannah, Euphorism—when I dragged everything to the trash, I ended up having to format my backup drive and start over. Fortunately I had nothing but backups on that partition. But it was still a pain.

    Posted by John Williams on 01/07/11 at 6:29PM

  • John,

    Incredibly helpful info!  Trouble is, I did the same thing you did.  How do I format my Time Machine now??  Thanks!

    Mike

    Posted by Mike on 01/19/11 at 1:38PM

  • John, a million thanks, this is a real public service announcement.

    Posted by Merluza on 05/07/11 at 2:06PM

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