Time machine

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How do I delete all my old backups and just leave the most recent on my external hd.
 

Slydude

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I'm not sure that's a good idea. When Time Machine creates an initial backup it copies the files. Subsequent backup updates create hard links to a file until that file is modified. It seems like there is a good possibility of deleting an original file that Time Machine is pointing to.If all you want at the moment is the most recent backup you might want to delete the Time Machine files from that drive and initiate a new backup.
 
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Just delete the sparsebundle file off your external drive and allow Time Machine to create a new backup containing only your most recent info.
 
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I thought there was a setting where older backups can be deleted? I keep filling up the time machine drive, and it gets a bit old to have to chronically delete older backups.....bottom line, this is my Newb question, how can I have Time Machine delete 1 month old backups?
 
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I thought there was a setting where older backups can be deleted? I keep filling up the time machine drive, and it gets a bit old to have to chronically delete older backups.....bottom line, this is my Newb question, how can I have Time Machine delete 1 month old backups?

The only option along those lines I see is to have Time Machine notify you when it deletes an old backup. It is my understanding that it just deletes the old ones to make room for new ones without any user intervention once the drive fills up. Of course, i am no expert, but this is the way I read it.
 
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I keep filling up the time machine drive, and it gets a bit old to have to chronically delete older backups.....

This doesn't sound right. How big is your internal drive? How much of it is used? How back is your backup drive? You may have a folder which needs to be excluded from the backup. I been backing up a 100gb of data on the same backup for two years and it has only added up to 200gb.
 
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chas_m

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Time Machine automatically deletes old backups as the drive fills up. No idea why the OP thinks he has to do this manually.
 
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I keep getting a pop up window that says the TM backup drive is full. I checked the settings but nothing there, at least that I have seen, indicating it will delete older backups.

Puzzling.
 

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Trust me it does. I got the message a couple of days ago when the drive had only about 10 GB of free space. TM has continued to backup regularly despite the notice.

@mtbinva

There are some folders that I exclude from Time Machine backups because they tend to explode. Some I exclude because for me they rarely change (Developer Tools for instance). Two folders that can cause TM backups to explode are VM files (Fusion, Parallels, etc) and the drive protection files Tech Tool Pro creates. ATPM 15.03 - How To: Time Travel: Introduction to Time Machine
 

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