Time Machine can be a great tool for most people out there, mainly because it’s excellent to use, very dependable and truly high quality. The downside that comes from Time Machine is that it will have its issues when it comes to storing content and backups can take quite a lot of space. It’s very easy for people to forget about deleting Time Machine backups. But if you know how to manage the situation rightfully, you can have some great results.
Is it ok to delete Time Machine backups?
The short answer is yes, you can delete Time Machine backups if you don’t need them anymore. The truth here is that you will have all kinds of challenges regarding backups, and you want to address those in a way that’s very effective. It is a good idea to make a backup here and there. However, the downside here is that a lot of the time, you will have dozens of backups remaining there. Your focus is to try and remove those backups that are old and not usable. Keeping one is fine, keeping dozens is only going to eat up a lot of your space.
Deleting backups using Time Machine
Some of the best how to clean and optimize tips would be to use Time Machine itself for removing any backups. Since those are made by Time Machine, using the same app to remove the backups is actually a very good idea to consider. You need to connect the spot where you stored the backups, and then find the backup that you want to remove. Select it, click the gear and then choose Delete Backup. Time Machine will require you to confirm with your password. Once you do that, you will be able to complete the removal, and that’s very much it.
Removing backups using Finder
Again, in order to do this you want to connect the external storage device to the Mac. Then, you open Finder and you locate the external drive. On there, you want to Backups.dabckupdb. There you will find a folder which has the same name as your device name. Check the backups and see when they were created, and then all you have to do is to remove the backups that you don’t need anymore. It’s a very nifty approach to have and the cool thing is that you can keep only the backups that you want. In the end, you’ll find this to be great, so keep that in mind.
Are there risks here if you delete via the Finder? There can be some problems if you delete Time Machine backups via Finder and not the app itself. One of them is the fact that you can have incomplete restores and corrupted backups. Then again, that is an issue of the trade, which is something you have to expect. And then, there can be data loss, or issues with the Trash. That’s why you do want to start using Time Machine for removing, or a dedicated tool. Sure, removing backups via Finder does come in handy, but it’s far from ideal.
Using the Terminal
Of course, you also have the option to use the Terminal if you can, and it will be handy. You can enter the Terminal and then write “tmutil listbackups” which will give you an entire list of backups. Then, you will need to delete the desired backup. You write the command “sudo tmutil delete” followed by the path of that backup. It’s actually a very good approach because it saves time, and it gives you the opportunity to push the boundaries in a way that’s consistent and distinct.
Is it possible to turn off the automatic backup creation?
Yes, you can do that if you want. And honestly, it’s a very good idea because it will allow you to better control what backups you have. You can enter the System Settings/General/Time Machine and connect to the external hard drive. From there, you select Options and go to the Backup Frequency. You can choose to just disable the creation of backups. And it totally works, it conveys excellent results, and you will find yourself enjoying a great way of managing space on your device. Plus, if you still need to create backups, you can do them manually.
Conclusion
Clearly, it does make a lot of sense to have backups for Time Machine, just to be safe. But at the same time, it will also be a problem if you have too many of those backups. You will have issues managing them and not a lot of free space. So yes, the best approach here is to figure out how to manage your Time Machine backups, which is where a Mac cleanup tool might come in handy. We recommend using all the tips shown above, and we guarantee that the results will be excellent in the end!
