Time machine is a great manner to keep your Mac backed up , it ’s also a wide-eyed way to move all your file and software to another Mac , but as the contents of your Mac increase you may find out that your Time Machine ca n’t complete the backup due to lack of space .
Here we will explain what to do if your Time Machine championship failed because there is n’t enough space on your arduous drive . retrieve out what to do if your Time Machine back up is full , let in which Time Machine substitute you’re able to delete , and how to reduce the sizing of your Time Machine patronage .
If you want more data on how to expend Time Machine , we have acomplete guide to Time Machine here .
What to do if your Time Machine backup failed
From time to time you may see the following message when Time Machine attempts to back up your Mac :
Time Machine could not nail the backupThis reliever it too tumid for the backup diskBackup requires X GB but only Y GB are available
If you see that content you may assume that you need to get a unexampled hard drive to apply for accompaniment , but that ’s not necessary . It is possible to delete old fill-in from your Time Machine backup and it ’s possible to switch the information you are backing up so that it does n’t involve as much space .
Before you start – check that you have n’t simulate any other info to the backup drive that you could do without . Especially if it ’s an extra back up of your photograph subroutine library , which is gage up by Time Machine anyway . If there is any data point on the backup thrust that is also in your Time Machine backup you do n’t need to duplicate it .
Another matter to stop is whether there is more than one Mac using the drive as a backup movement , if for example your Mac is backing up to a partake NAS private road ( internet attach storage ) .
How to delete old Time Machine backups
Time Machine should mechanically erase the oldest backups when your disk becomes full , however , there may be circumstances when you call for to delete old reliever yourself , perhaps if you are set about to back up a lot of information ( because you had n’t made a Time Machine back up for a while , for example ) .
Even with Time Machine mechanically deleting old backups , as the amount of files increases on your Mac , finally your back up disk will become full .
If you do ply out of distance , and you do n’t have a new storage machine ready to hand with which to start a new computer backup , deleting some single file from the fill-in is the place to start out .
you may also cancel a support follow these direction :
How to delete a large file from a backup
Deleting a whole backup may save you some space , but what if there is a special filing cabinet or folder that ’s is backed up unnecessarily ? Here ’s how to blue-pencil that :
How to exclude things from the back up
If you want to keep your accompaniment on the slender side , it ’s potential to tell Time Machine what to back up and what to discount .
If you desire to exclude item from your fill-in , stick to these steps :
Tips to keep your backup small
If you are struggling with the size of your backup man , here are some tips .