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User profile for user: erahi
erahi Author
User level: Level 1
25 points

Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to “Time Machine”

I am having problems backing up to Time Machine. I have not been able to backup since August. I get the following:




I have an internal 4TB SSD with 204.6GB free. The external drive is a 4TB HDD.


From what it says, TM deletes old backups and replaces it with new backups. If that's so why can't it do that? Its confusing since there is 200GB free space it should be able to make a backup with no error, shouldn't?


This has been the case for a long while now and I can only get it to make a backup when I erase the TM drive and start over.



iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 12.6

Posted on Oct 3, 2022 7:20 PM

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User profile for user: Barney-15E
Barney-15E
User level: Level 10
116,680 points

Posted on Oct 3, 2022 7:26 PM

Time Machine doesn't make copies of every file, so there is no single "old backup."

It will only ever remove old backups if those only contain files you have deleted from your Mac.

The backup drive needs to be two to three times the size of the data you are backing up.

So, you would need at least an 8TB backup drive.

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User profile for user: Barney-15E
Barney-15E
User level: Level 10
116,680 points

Oct 3, 2022 7:26 PM in response to erahi

Time Machine doesn't make copies of every file, so there is no single "old backup."

It will only ever remove old backups if those only contain files you have deleted from your Mac.

The backup drive needs to be two to three times the size of the data you are backing up.

So, you would need at least an 8TB backup drive.

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Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to “Time Machine”

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