How to Delete Time Machine Backups to Free Up Disk Space

Time Machine is the best backup solution for your Mac. Once set up, this built-in software automatically creates incremental backups whenever the external hard drive is connected to your Mac. These incremental backups make it easy to undo changes, recover deleted files or folders, or even restore the system to a previous state.

However, these backups can use a lot of storage over time. If your Time Machine hard drive is getting full or you need to delete some old backups to free up space, there are several ways to do it. This article will detail how to delete Time Machine backups on Mac.

Can I Delete Old Time Machine Backups?

Time Machine automatically creates hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months. When your backup disk is full, the oldest backups are automatically deleted by Time Machine to make room for new ones, so you don't have to manually manage your backups.

However, there are times when you may need to delete old Time Machine backups yourself to free up space:

• Your Time Machine hard drive is running out of storage and prompts you to delete some files. For example, you might see the error message: "Time Machine could not back up the disk because it is nearly full. Delete some files on this disk and try again."
• You need to delete Time Machine backups from an old computer because you no longer have the computer and want to remove its backups.
• You want to create space on your external drive for non-backup files (though we don't recommend using your Time Machine backup drive for personal data).

You can delete all Time Machine backups by erasing the backup drive and starting over. Alternatively, you can selectively delete Time Machine backups using the Time Machine app, Finder, or Terminal.

How to Delete Time Machine Backups in the Time Machine App

The Mac Time Machine app provides various features to help you set up and manage your backups, including deleting old ones. This is the quickest way to delete a specific file or all versions of a file in your Time Machine backups.

Steps to delete Time Machine backups on Mac

Step 1. Connect your external Time Machine backup drive to your Mac.

Step 2. Launch the Time Machine app. You can do this by:

• Opening Launchpad, going to Other, and clicking on Time Machine.
• Pressing Command + Space bar to open Spotlight, searching for Time Machine, and clicking on the search result.
• Opening Finder, navigating to the Applications folder, and double-clicking on Time Machine.
• Clicking the Time Machine icon in the menu bar and selecting Enter Time Machine from the menu.

Step 3. Find the Time Machine backup you want to delete.

Step 4. Select the backup date or file you want to delete.

Step 5. On macOS Ventura, Sonoma, or later, click the ellipsis (…) button; on macOS Monterey or earlier, click the gear icon in the Finder window.

Step 6. Choose either Delete Backup or Delete All Backups of [Your File].

Step 7. Confirm you want to delete the backup, then enter your Mac administrator’s password.

How to Remove Time Machine Backups Using Finder

If you need to erase many Time Machine backups, using the Time Machine app to locate each one can be daunting. Instead, use Finder to quickly locate and delete multiple Time Machine backups, which is especially helpful for deleting backups for a specific Mac.

How to delete Time Machine backups from an old computer in Finder

Step 1. Connect your Time Machine hard drive to your Mac.

Step 2. Open Finder and select your backup drive from the sidebar.

Step 3. Go to the Backups.backupdb folder and open the folder matching your Mac’s name.

Step 4. Locate the folder for the backup you want to delete. All your backups are listed in separate folders named after the dates they were created, in the format YYYY-MM-DD.

Step 5. To delete a backup, drag that folder to the Trash.

Step 6. Right-click on the Trash and select Empty Trash.

How to Clear Time Machine Backups with Terminal

If you are an advanced user and familiar with Terminal, you can use it to delete Time Machine backups. This method allows for the complete removal of old Time Machine backups, bypassing the Trash.

Tutorial for how to get rid of Time Machine backups via Terminal

Step 1. Keep your Time Machine backup drive on your Mac computer.

Step 2. Launch the Terminal app. You can do this by searching Terminal in the Spotlight search or going to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal.

Step 3. In the Terminal window, type in this command and press enter.

tmutil listbackups

Step 4. Backups are displayed by date. Once you locate the backup you want to delete, make a note of its directory path.

Step 5. Enter the below command followed by its path:

sudo tmutil delete [Time Machine backup path]

Step 6. Press Return to delete it.

Free Up Time Machine Hard Drive Space By Reducing Backup Size

Your Time Machine hard drive can quickly fill up if you have a lot of data to back up on your Mac. While Time Machine allows you to exclude items from the backup to save space, adding each file or folder individually can be time-consuming. A more efficient way is to use BuhoCleaner to delete the data that are generally not necessary to back up with just a few clicks.

BuhoCleaner reduces Time Machine backup size by:

• Completely removing unwanted applications
• Clearing unnecessary system junk, caches, and temporary files
• Finding and deleting non-essential large files or folders
• Removing duplicate photos, videos, files, or folders

In addition to freeing up disk space on your Mac, BuhoCleaner helps you manage your computer's disk more efficiently and maintain peak performance. Give it a try on your Mac.

Final Words

Now you know how to delete old Time Machine backups on your Mac. Each method mentioned in this article can help you save valuable storage space on your Mac and external hard drive, with using the Time Machine app being the most advisable.

If you find yourself spending too much time manually cleaning and removing backups, consider turning off automatic Time Machine backups. This allows you to control the backup frequency manually and save space on your external device. Additionally, using BuhoCleaner for thorough file and app removal can reduce the data size that needs to be backed up in Time Machine, providing another effective way to save space.