Time Machine Local Snapshot won't delete

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Level 1

8 points

Time Machine Local Snapshot won't delete

Help I can't delete a local Time Machine snapshot?

Half my M2 Air disk is taken up with "system data" (230GB) Tahoe 26.1

I have cleaned cache and removed apps I don't use, but still 230GB being used. I tried clearing the local Time Machine backups but get this "Stale NFS file handle" error

% tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
Snapshots for disk /:
com.apple.TimeMachine.2025-11-11-041945.backup

% sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2025-11-11-041945
Failed to delete local snapshot '2025-11-11-041945'
POSIXError(_nsError: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=70 "Stale NFS file handle")

Any bright ideas?

Thanks

MacBook Air (M2, 2023)

Posted on Nov 14, 2025 6:09 AM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

68,426 points

Nov 14, 2025 9:59 AM in response to nebdy

Have you tried deleting that snapshot using Disk Utility GUI app instead?

View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

Since you only have the one snapshot there, have you tried just using the mount point instead of the date option?

Try running Disk Utility First Aid on the hidden Container. Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Disks" before the hidden Container appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Even if the First Aid summary says everything is "Ok", click "Show Details" and scroll back through the report to see if there are any unfixed errors or warnings. Run the scan until there are no errors or warnings listed

Have you tried rebooting the computer?

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