How to delete Mac Time machine backups?

Comfy Old Boots

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Why you ask? Well I'm happy with my old mac book pro as it is NOW. I don't need the old backups.

Problem is, I have put them in the trash and now I just can't delete them. FInder spent all night trying to delete them and was still churning when I got up. I can't seem to restore them to their origional location either :blast. Quite a bit on the web about how difficult it is to delete time machine files :blast

I'm at the point now where I think I'll have to buy a new drive to copy all the files I have on the time machine drive, so that I can then format the time machine drive and turn it into a normal drive.

All I want is to delete the time machine files!!!! ANyone any suggestions? I'm not adverse to buying a new ssd but I don't need one :blast
 
To delete the files using the Time Machine app:

Click on the Time Machine icon on the Menu Bar and select Enter Time Machine.
Scroll through your backups and find the one you want to delete.
Click on the Gear icon.
Select Delete Backup.
If requested, enter your password.

Or, if you want to roll the dice you could just erase the time machine and do a new full backup (if you don't need anything from the old backups).
 
Thanks Img. I've managed to erase the backups on the hard drive in question using your method but can't get rid of the ones in the trash. I can't 'put back' either. It's rather frustrating.
 
Try holding down the option key while selecting "empty bin".
 
Tried to do the terminal option. I’m the admin on the computer. But it says I don’t have permission. Tried to add myself to have permission but it’s not letting me
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Thanks Bob. I used the link Img posted and it worked fine except for the fact that it says I don't have permission to remove the files that way. Checked my drive permissions and it will not let me add myself to the list of people able to have admin. I am the admin! I installed the OS!!! I've also used terminal a few times before. Running first aid on the drive now. It's been checking multi linked directories for an absolute age now. I think I'm just going to buy another drive on amazon and get it delivered asap. COpy my photos across and reformat this external drive.

ANy recomend a 2 TB drive that will run fast on USB 2 on my old 2014 macbook pro? Thanks.
 
I've been searching and it'll probably take a week for disk utility to sift through the time machine files in the trash...
 
Tried to do the terminal option. I’m the admin on the computer. But it says I don’t have permission. Tried to add myself to have permission but it’s not letting me

The process is not the one you are showing in your screenshots.

You can get permission with the sudo command, but if you are not experienced I wouldn't go around invoking "sudo rm whatever" on your terminal.
MacOS still has an integrity protection, but you could risk erasing things you don't want to.

If you manually moved the backup disk image in the trash, it should be located in:

HTML:
/Volumes/YourExternalDriveName/.Trashes/NameOfTheDiskImage

the full command would be:

HTML:
sudo rm /Volumes/YourExternalDriveName/.Trashes/NameOfTheDiskImage

(it will ask your admin password)

if what you are deleting is included within folders, you can use the -r flag (recursive): sudo rm -r


By the way, haven't used TimeMachine in quite a while, but you should be able to remove previous backups directly from the TimeMachine panel if I remember correctly.
 
I get that. The screen shots show my attempts to allow myself full read and write access on the internal drive. Posted a photo just there to show the difference between my permissions on the drives.
 
'sudo' will do it for you. Just prefix the 'rm' command with 'sudo' and provide the required passwords. The subsequent command will be executed with root privileges.

Be careful though, combining 'sudo' with 'rm -vfr' will delete everything it finds without recourse to any undo possibilities.
 
'sudo' will do it for you. Just prefix the 'rm' command with 'sudo' and provide the required passwords. The subsequent command will be executed with root privileges.

Be careful though, combining 'sudo' with 'rm -vfr' will delete everything it finds without recourse to any undo possibilities.

I did that. It then said I didn't have sufficient privileges to carry out the operation. The drive I'm trying to clean the timemachine files (in the trash) is read write enabled. My internal system drive is not and I'm wondering does that have anything to do with anything?!
 
THis is what i'm trying


Open Terminal on your Mac by going to Applications > Utilities > Terminal or using spotlight at the top right corner.open terminal on mac
Now type “cd ~/.Trash” and hit the “Return” key. Now type “sudo rm –R” followed by space. Leaving a space is mandatory, and don’t hit the “Return” button here. Then open the Trash folder from the Dock.
Select all the files from Trash folder, drag and drop them into the Terminal window. This step will add the path of each file to the “Remove” command we entered above.
Now you can hit the “Return” button and then enter your administrator password when prompted to continue the deleting operation. And this process will take you some time which depends on the size of the files you are deleting.
This ultimate solution will delete files permanently from Trash beyond recovery, that means the files once deleted will not be recovered, so make sure you do it extactly during the process.




I must be doing something wrong

Owens-MacBook-Pro:.Trash owen$ cd ~/.Trash
Owens-MacBook-Pro:.Trash owen$ sudo rm –R /Volumes/Owen\ photography\ drive\ 1/.Trashes/501/Backups.backupdb
rm: –R: No such file or directory
rm: /Volumes/Owen photography drive 1/.Trashes/501/Backups.backupdb: is a directory
Owens-MacBook-Pro:.Trash owen$
 
The process is not the one you are showing in your screenshots.

You can get permission with the sudo command, but if you are not experienced I wouldn't go around invoking "sudo rm whatever" on your terminal.
MacOS still has an integrity protection, but you could risk erasing things you don't want to.

If you manually moved the backup disk image in the trash, it should be located in:

HTML:
/Volumes/YourExternalDriveName/.Trashes/NameOfTheDiskImage

the full command would be:

HTML:
sudo rm /Volumes/YourExternalDriveName/.Trashes/NameOfTheDiskImage

(it will ask your admin password)

if what you are deleting is included within folders, you can use the -r flag (recursive): sudo rm -r


By the way, haven't used TimeMachine in quite a while, but you should be able to remove previous backups directly from the TimeMachine panel if I remember correctly.

TO be honest, I'm totally out of my depth here!!!!

Think I'll just buy another drive and transfer all the stuff and reformat!!!!!
 
Easy.

Take out the -R

open Terminal and type:
sudo rm /Volumes/Owen\ photography\ drive\ 1/.Trashes/501/Backups.backupdb

tell me if it complains it is a directory or not.
 
Yes, it's saying it's a directory and terminal is sitting looking at me. WIth contempt.


Last login: Mon Nov 29 19:16:59 on ttys000

The default interactive shell is now zsh.
To update your account to use zsh, please run `chsh -s /bin/zsh`.
For more details, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT208050.
Owens-MacBook-Pro:~ owen$ cd ~/.Trash
Owens-MacBook-Pro:.Trash owen$ sudo rm /Volumes/Owen\ photography\ drive\ 1/.Trashes/501/Backups.backupdb
Password:
rm: /Volumes/Owen photography drive 1/.Trashes/501/Backups.backupdb: is a directory
Owens-MacBook-Pro:.Trash owen$
 
And while I have your ear, how do I get full permissions over the computer?!! I seem to have to put my password in an AWFUL lot! It wasn't like this on a different mac. I managed to have FULL access to everything
:blast
 


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