Time Machine is a handy macOS feature that creates a backup of your important files, documents, and system settings. It is already integrated with macOS, so if anything happens, your system can easily restore your settings.

Sure, creating MacBook backups to an external drive is easy. But if you have saved plenty of old Time Machine backups on your disk, it is likely that an error message will pop up, telling you there is no sufficient space. This means you need to delete older backups every now and then to make space for new ones.

Mar 28, 2014  MacWorld’s OS X Hints section suggests modifying the default umount script, such that it automatically searches and deletes any traces of Mac-only functionality from drives when they’re ejected or unmounted from the Mac.

1. On your Mac, do one of the following: Select the item to eject, then choose File Eject. In the Finder sidebar, click the Eject button next to the item’s name. On the desktop, drag the item that you want to eject to the Trash. If you can’t eject a storage device, another app or user may be using one or more files on the storage device.
2. Feb 08, 2020  Step 3: Select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” in Format. A new window will pop up asking which file system you’d like to format the external drive to. By default, it’s the Windows NT File System (NTFS). Select the one shown below. Pro tip: If you want to use the external drive for both Mac and PC, you can also select “ExFAT”.

If you are confused about how to delete Time Machine backups from external hard drives, we’ve got your back. We created this article to teach you how to erase a Time Machine backup off an external hard drive.

3 Ways to Remove Time Machine Backups From an External Drive

There are three easy ways to delete old Time Machine backups from an external drive: delete them directly from the disk, remove them using Finder, or use Terminal.

1. Erase Time Machine Backups Directly from the Drive

Time Machine backups do not consume much space, but take note that your hard drive space is not infinite. Sooner or later, you need to delete some of these backup files to make space for new ones.

To delete these backups directly from the drive, follow these steps:

1. Locate the Time Machine icon on the menu bar and click on it.
2. Once Time Machine opens, sort the backups according to your desired date.
3. After that, delete the backups created on those dates by clicking on the gear icon and then selecting the Delete Backup option.
4. You will then be asked to confirm your action and provide your administrator password.
5. After confirmation, the backup/s will be permanently deleted from your drive.

As long as you follow the steps above carefully, then you should be able to delete old Time Machine backups seamlessly.

2. Erase Time Machine Backups Using Finder

Another efficient and easy way to delete Time Machine backups from your external drive is to use Finder. Here’s how to use it:

1. Open the File menu on your Mac.
2. Launch a new window by clicking the New Finder Window option.
3. Using a lightning cable, connect the drive that contains all your Time Machine backups.
4. Wait for a few seconds until your Mac recognizes the external drive. Soon, it’ll be visible on Finder under the Devices section.
5. Select the drive by clicking on it. You will be prompted to provide your administrator password to continue.
6. If you are using Airport Time Capsule, Apple’s wireless router that can be used for storage purposes, you will have to enter your password to access the backups.
7. Once you’ve entered the backup disk, you will immediately find the Backups.backdb folder. Open it.
8. Locate the sub-folder that is named after your Mac. It should have different files and sub-folders in it, too. If you take a closer look, you’ll notice that there are fixed data attached and saved in it. Note that your goal is to delete a specific Time Machine backup file, so look for it among the list of files. Click on it and hit the Move to Trash option.
9. Repeat the process to delete other backup files from the disk.
10. Once you are done, go to your desktop and click the hard disk icon.
11. Click Eject to remove the device from Finder.

Using Finder to erase Time Machine backups is a very effective method, but you can only use it for deleting Time Machine backups and not individual files from the folders.

3. Erase Time Machine Backups Using Terminal

You can also use Terminal to erase Time Machine backups from your external drive. Just be careful with this method because there is no way you can undo your actions.

To erase all Time Machine backups from an external hard drive using the Terminal app, follow these steps:

1. Open the Terminal app. Go to Applications > Utilities and select Terminal.
2. Enter this command in the command line:
   • sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/drive_name/Backups.backupdb/old_mac_name
3. You will be prompted to provide your administrator password to continue.
4. Wait for the process to complete. Depending on the amount of backup files that need to be cleaned up, the process could take hours.

To erase Time Machine backups one at a time using Terminal, follow these steps:

1. Go to Applications > Utilities.
2. Choose Terminal to launch the Terminal app.
3. Enter this command in the command line:
   • sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/drive_name/Backups.backupdb/mac_name/YYYY-MM-DD-hhmmss
4. Enter your administrator password to proceed with the deletion of a specific backup.

Summary

Delete Files On Mac Desktop

Time Machine is a great utility for Macs. It gives macOS users the assurance that their personal settings and data are safe and data loss is one less concern they need to have.

But it is also worth noting that a backup drive space is very limited, which means Mac users need to adjust and get rid of outdated backups to allocate space for new ones. Hopefully, the methods above can help when the time comes that they need to delete Time Machine backups.

If deleting Time Machine backups is too complicated for you, do not hesitate to seek help from experts. Take your MacBook and your external hard drive to the nearest Apple Store and let an Apple Genius do the task for you. Of course, it entails spending some cash, but it’s definitely a wiser action than losing loads of important data.

After you’ve deleted outdated backups, you might want to clean up your Mac even further. Get rid of junk files and system files that are eating up a huge chunk of your Mac’s storage space. For this task, you can simply download and install a reliable Mac cleaning tool.

With the methods we shared above, do you think you can delete outdated Time Machine backups from your external drive on your own? Do you know an easier way to erase old Time Machine backups? We’d love to hear you – comment your thoughts below.

Ad Blocker Detected

Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.

Mac OS X one of the best operating system for Apple computers there are lots of series of computer available in Apple Stores. But sometimes performing several tasks on mac are very difficult in this article we went show you how to migrate folders and files of mac to external hard drive.

So, first of all, you’ve to select the best external hard drives for mac backup from which you can easily restore important documents in case of the reboot of mac. Generate a backup on mac of videos, photos, and files on an external drive.

It was easy to move files from mac to mac but moving files from Mac to external hard drive is kinda hard which also relate to recovering files from the external hard drive.

However, sometimes due to the virus and some other error the data stored in external hard drive corporate and to recover the files from external hard drive recovery software for mac.

Now focus on, given below steps by steps guides let you know how to transfer files from mac to external hard drive.

Move Files To External Hard Drive (Drag and Drop)

Step 1

Connect the external hard drive to your mac using a USB cable and wait until the hard drive successfully connected to your computer. (Name of the drive should appear on your Mac screen).

Step 2 :

Open “Finder”, then locate the files to move to external hard drive.

Step 3 :

Create a New Folder in hard drive, then drag each file you want to backup from Mac system to external hard drive.

Step 4 :

Close the external hard drive once all files moved to from mac to external hard drive.

Sometimes your external hard drive doesn’t allow you to transfer files from Mac. Because it’s your hard drive may be formatted with NTFS which is normal in a windows environment.

While OS X is able to READ from a drive that is formatted at NTFS, it cannot WRITE to one. You will get a warning saying that the drive cannot be modified. To fix this error you’ve to use Disk Utility. Remember to save everything to Mac before formatting the apple external hard drives.

Delete Files Off Mac

Step 1 :

Plug-In external hard drive to Mac using the USB cable. Wait until the hard drive name appears on Mac Desktop screen.

Step 2 :

In Mac OS X disc into your mac and restart your computer. Continue pressing the “C” key when the system is started.

Step 3 :

Choose the language and then select Disk Utility from Utilities menu. Now select the disk which you want to connect to your mac and click on “Verify Disk”.

Step 4 :

Click on “Repair Disk” button to repair the external hard drive. Click on “New Image” and named your hard drive then select “128-bit” or “256-bit AES” from the encryption menu to add security to the backup.

Step 5 :

Click on the “Save” button and type the administration password, Conform it. (Wait till process to begin ).

Step 6 :

Now choose the new backup from the device. After completing the imaging process, select ”Image” and then Click on “Scan Image for Restore”.

Mac Cannot Delete File

Step 7 :

Press “Command Q” when the scan completes and then again press the same key to quit Mac OS X Installer window.

In my research. I’ve found that lots of Mac users how to purchase a new hard drive for mac. When they connected that hard drive to the Mac OS X system. The external Mac hard drive successfully connected to mac but files can’t transfer.

To resolve this issue, you’ve to reformat your external hard drive using Mac OS Extended option.

Step 1 :

Connect hard drive to Mac via USB slots.

Step 2 :

Now go to Utilities Folder > Disk Utility. Select the external hard drive.

Step 3 :

As long as you don’t have any important files in the external hard drive, choose “Ease” Tab and then select “Mac OS Extended(Journaled)”.

Step 4 :

Enter the new named of drive and Click Erase.

Mac Delete File Command

I hope any of these methods will work for you to transfer files from mac to external hard drives with or without formatting the drive. Give your feedback via comment box.