Freeing Space on a Time Capsule? Remove backups?

[BobHas]

I have a Time Capsule that has been receiving Time Machine backups from two machines. I have noted the advice to not do that, and in any case I need to free space to be able to back up the more important one. What I am unclear about is how to remove the other backup files to free the space they are using.

 

[Rod]

You can remove the unwanted backups using the method described below from; How to Delete Time Machine Backups

How Do I Delete My Time Machine Backups Via a Network Drive?​

If your backups are stored on an external drive which you connect to via Wi-Fi, the process is slightly different as the files are stored as a sparsebundle file. Here's how to access it.

1. Find the file on the external hard drive.
   
   
2. Double click the sparsebundle file and wait for it to mount onto your Mac.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Double click the new location under Locations.
   
   
4. Browse the location to find the files you wish to delete.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Right-click the file or subfolder of the date you wish to delete, and click Delete.

You may not wish to keep the sparsebundle for the unwanted backup at all but I'd recommend deleting it's contents before attempting to remove the sparsebundle itself. If you cannot remove it after emptying it will take up no space so long as he other device is not set to backup to that location again.

 

[BobHas]

Thanks. Were did you find that? I did do some looking but did not find anything that good. It gives me more confidence it will be OK.

In fact, yes I am looking to delete the whole thing. In this particular case it is a backupbundle from a Catalina 10.15.7 machine. Do I recall correctly that it does not make a difference from the sparsebundle as mentioned?

I am curious about the idea I think I see of deleting all the individual date files before deleting the top level.

In fact, yes I am looking to delete the whole thing. In this particular case it is a backupbundle from a Catalina 10.15.7 machine.

 

[Rod]

The link is the bottom line of my first paragraph post #2. There are other methods described but the one I posted seems the most appropriate.