Or maybe you used our tutorial to back up to a Raspberry Pi using Time Machine. Whatever your setup, if you back up your Mac over the network, there’s a built-in option for verifying it. This is a relatively new feature, so it will only work with backups created by macOS 10.12 (Sierra) or Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan).
Time Machine Backups on Mac. Time Machine can be described as an in-built backup tool in macOS, which can be setup to make automatic backups of all the data on your Mac to an external hard drive, connected via USB, FireWire or Thunderbolt Port. Time Machine can also be setup to backup Mac’s data wirelessly to Disks connected over a network.
Do you wish to learn how to delete Time Machine backups as your storage is full? Time Machine saved the backups on the external drive, and there are times when you want it clear. If you do not know how to delete Time Machine backups, here is the solution for you. This blog post covers the simple method explaining how to delete backups from a Time Machine. First, let us find out what it is and how it operates.
All Mac users should have regular backups of their Mac, and Time Machine offers a fantastic and simple backup solution for Mac users. Once setup properly, Time Machine will backup the Mac automatically on an regular basis, as long as the backup drive is connected to the Mac. External drive connected to your Mac. Time Machine can back up to an external drive connected to.
Time Machine won’t just backup your Mac, it will keep hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for each month, so you can recover an earlier.
What Is a Time Machine Backup In Mac?
Time Machine is the in-built feature of Mac, which helps in taking automatic backups. Time Machine backup can help you keep a complete backup of the system files, apps, emails, photos, and other documents. If the Time Machine is turned on, it will automatically take backups of your system. This backup is helpful when you face a system crash or need to look at the old backups. These backups are all saved up in an external device. It can be anything from a USB, Thunderbolt, FireWire drive. Whenever the disk is full, Time Machine deletes the oldest backups. It will regularly keep a backup of the past 24 hours, which is done on an automatic hourly process. It can keep up the backup for each day in a month as well.
How To Delete Backups From Time Machine?
Step 1: Open Menu Bar and then go to the Time Machine icon.
In case you do not see the Time Machine icon on the menu bar, it might not have been added there. No worries, go to the Apple Menu.
Here you can click on the System Preferences.
Now you can easily view the Time Machine icon.
To add a Time Machine icon on the Menu bar, right-click the option to “ Show Time Machine in Menu bar.”
OR
Go to the menu bar; click on GO. Now you will see the multiple options in the drop-down menu.
How To Set Up Time Machine
Click on Applications.
Step 2: As you will view the Time Machine, you need to click on it.
This will instantly open up the Time Machine application for you, and you will be able to see the old backups on Mac.
Step 3: Once you have opened the backup on Time Machine, you can proceed to the next step. This is how to delete the Time Machine backups, using the Finder.
Step 4: Finder will help you clear the Time Machine backup and make space on the external drive. It lets you delete files and folders individually, but they have to be in the Backups.backupdb folder. Other items can not be deleted individually, so you have to delete the backups from Time Machine entirely.
Note: Do not use any other app like Terminal to delete backups from the Backups.backupdb folder.
Remember, if you are trying to make space in the external drive, and that is the reason behind clearing the old backups, you can reduce the storage. This can be done before the backup of Time Machine. One must always clear the junk and duplicates present on the storage. This will help you to keep an organized backup on Time Machine as well.
We suggest using Disk Clean Pro, a Mac cleaning application at the most affordable rate ever. This is a must-have cleaning app for your Mac, which gives you some amazing features to optimize Mac. It runs a complete scan of the disk on Mac and then shows the junk, duplicates, old downloads, and other miscellaneous data like mail downloads. This will help you clear out much space on your Mac, and thus, when the Time Machine backup is formed; it will not be cluttered. Thus, making more space in the external drive to use.
Verdict-
When you are willing to clear the external drive space, you learn how to delete backups from Time Machine. This simple procedure will help you in deleting the unnecessary backups. If you are clearing your Mac for unwanted data, using DiskClean Pro also proves to be a great help. It will reduce the files uploaded in the backup for Time Machine. Download it now on Mac to keep it clutter-free.
We hope that this method helps you understand how to delete Time Machine backups on Mac. We would like to know your views on this post to make it more useful. Your suggestions and comments are welcome in the comment section below. Share the information with your friends and others by sharing the article on social media.
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If you used Time Machine to create a backup of your Mac, you can restore your files from that backup or a local snapshot on your startup disk. You might want to restore your files after the originals were deleted from your Mac, or the hard disk (or SSD) in your Mac was erased or replaced, such as during a repair.
Restore from a Time Machine backup
When you restore from a Time Machine backup, you can choose to restore all your files, or restore both the Mac operating system (macOS) and all your files.
How To Restore From Time Machine
Restore all your files
Make sure that your Time Machine backup disk is connected to your Mac and turned on. Then turn on your Mac.
Open Migration Assistant, which in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
If your Mac starts up to a setup assistant, which asks for details like your country, keyboard, and network, just continue to the next step. The setup assistant includes a migration assistant.
If your Mac doesn't start up all the way, or you also want to restore the macOS you were using when you created the backup, follow the steps to restore both macOS and your files.
When you're asked how you want to transfer your information, select the option to transfer from a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk. Then click Continue.
Select your Time Machine backup, then click Continue.
If you're asked to choose from a list of backups organized by date and time, choose a backup and click Continue.
Select the information to transfer, then click Continue to start the transfer. This screen might look different on your Mac:
If you have a lot of content, the transfer might take several hours to finish. When the transfer is complete, restart your Mac and log in to the migrated account to see its files.
Time Machine Is Read Only
Restore both macOS and your files
These steps erase your hard disk, then use your backup to restore both your files and the specific version of macOS you were using when you created the backup.
Make sure that your Time Machine backup disk is connected and turned on. If your backup disk isn't available, keep going: You might be able to restore from a local snapshot on your startup disk.
Turn on your Mac, then immediately press and hold Command (⌘)-R to start up from macOS Recovery. Release the keys when you see the Apple logo or spinning globe.
When you see the macOS Utilities window, choose the option to restore from a Time Machine Backup.
Click Continue until you're asked to select a restore source, then select your Time Machine backup disk. Or select your startup disk (Macintosh HD), which might have a local snapshot you can restore from.
Click Continue. If your disk is encrypted, you're asked to unlock the disk: Enter the administrator password you used when setting up Time Machine, then click Continue again.
Select a backup, if available, then click Continue.
Select a destination disk, which will receive the contents of your backup. If restoring from a local snapshot, you aren't asked to select a destination.
Click Restore or Continue. If your Mac has FileVault turned on, you're asked to enter your administrator password to unlock the disk.
When done, restart your Mac.
Time Machine For Backup Machines
Restore specific files
Best Time Machine Backup For Mac
Learn how to use Time Machine to restore specific files, including older versions of your files.
Time Machine Backup Mac Icloud
Learn more
Time Machine Apple
What to do if you can't restore with Time Machine. If you need help, contact Apple Support.