mac won't delete time machine backups from trash

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Level 1

12 points

mac won't delete time machine backups from trash

I'm on a new Mac Studio running Sonoma. My back up drive said it was full so I went into time machine and dragged 6 folders from over a year ago into the trash. I hit empty trash and it was deleting files which took forever but it kept saying some files couldn't be deleted. I tried following a video on how to delete from terminal and that didn't do anything either. I did notice that when i ejected the external hard drive that i use for time machine the trash was empty but as soon as i turned the drive back on the files return to the trash. Any idea what I can do?

Mac Studio (2023)

Posted on Jun 28, 2024 8:27 AM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 10

82,570 points

Jun 28, 2024 8:42 AM in response to drdre74

Time Machine backups should never be manually deleted or moved to the trash using Finder.

The solution, is to erase and re-format the external drive and start new Time Machine backups.

Also keep in mind that the external drive for Time Machine, should be two or three times larger than your internal drive. For example: if your Mac's internal drive is 1T, then your Time Machine backup drive should be 2T or larger.

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