How to Delete com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots Folder

[maserluv]

Dear All,

After upgrading from Mojave to Catalina. Everything works except that there is an "com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots" folder residing in the Macintosh HD just beside the Applications, Library, System and Users folders.

& inside the com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots folder, there is Backup.backup folder. The size is zero though.

I tried deleting it but it is only System Read & Write Privilege.

Call me paronoid, it look annoying.

Regards Wayne

 

[rumormiller]

That's created by macOS when you don't have your time machine drive connected. It stores backups on your working disk instead.

 

[maserluv]

Hi rumormiller,

I had backup via time machine drive after the Catalina was installed for a day. Still the folder still appear. Anyway to delete it?

Regards Wayne

 

[weaztek]

Mine is 0 bytes. Why bother deleting it?

 

[Weaselboy]

Same thing happened to me OP. This is not the usual local snapshots, this appears to be some random left over local snapshots from several days before I did the upgrade.

I was able to delete it by doing a command-r boot to recovery then entering csrutil disable in Terminal to disable SIP then reboot to command-r recovery again. Then I was able to remove the folder with rm -rf followed by the folder name.

Then do csrutil enable and reboot to turn SIP back on.

In recovery you can access Terminal in the Utilities menu.

 

[maserluv]

Thank You Weaselboy,

I will try it tonite!

Regards Wayne

Same thing happened to me OP. This is not the usual local snapshots, this appears to be some random left over local snapshots from several days before I did the upgrade.

I was able to delete it by doing a command-r boot to recovery then entering csrutil disable in Terminal to disable SIP then reboot to command-r recovery again. Then I was able to remove the folder with rm -rf followed by the folder name.

Then do csrutil enable and reboot to turn SIP back on.

In recovery you can access Terminal in the Utilities menu.

 

[Rad]

Dear All,

After upgrading from Mojave to Catalina. Everything works except that there is an "com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots" folder residing in the Macintosh HD just beside the Applications, Library, System and Users folders.

& inside the com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots folder, there is Backup.backup folder. The size is zero though.

I tried deleting it but it is only System Read & Write Privilege.

Call me paronoid, it look annoying.

Regards Wayne

Carbon Copy Cloner also lets you clear system snapshots.

 

[maserluv]

Hi Weaselboy,

i tried
1. command-r boot to recovery
2. csrutil disable in Terminal to disable SIP
3. reboot to command-r recovery again
4. rm -rf /com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots
5. "i observed the return command nothing happen though"
6. csrutil enable in Terminal to enable SIP
7. reboot

The file is still there. Is my command "rm-rf /com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots" WRONG?

Regards Wayne

 

[Weaselboy]

I think you have #4 wrong. I remember doing some cd (change directory) commands and ls (list) commands to find the right directory first before I ran the rm -rf command. Once I was in the right folder I was able to run the command without that slash you have there.

 

[maserluv]

Hi Weaselboy,

I tried cd (change directory) commands and ls (list) commands to find the right directory as you suggested.

I couldn't find the right folder in Catalina. Sign. have to give up!

Thanks for the help!

 

[gcarey]

For Catalina the steps should be:

1. command-r boot to recovery
2. csrutil disable in Terminal to disable SIP
3. reboot to command-r recovery again
4. in Terminal cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD (or whatever your normal boot drive is named)
5. rm -rf /com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots
6. csrutil enable in Terminal to enable SIP
7. reboot

 

[razorme]

For Catalina the steps should be:

1. command-r boot to recovery
2. csrutil disable in Terminal to disable SIP
3. reboot to command-r recovery again
4. in Terminal cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD (or whatever your normal boot drive is named)
5. rm -rf /com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots
6. csrutil enable in Terminal to enable SIP
7. reboot

Thanks... this worked great for me, but note that in step #5 you need to omit the slash. Just use:
"rm -rf com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots"

 

[gcarey]

Correct....don't need the slash for current directory. I probably meant rm -rf ./com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots
Thanks for correction!

 

[ssls6]

You can also run the full installer again which will prompt to delete that folder since it doesn’t belong at the root level.

 

[me55]

This can be done much easier:
Open Terminal and run "tmutil listlocalsnapshots /". Then run "tmutil deletelocalsnapshots X" and replace X with the timestamp shown from listlocalsnapshots. Run the delete command for each snapshot.

Ex.: tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2020-04-17-002312

 

[larob]

For Catalina the steps should be:

1. command-r boot to recovery
2. csrutil disable in Terminal to disable SIP
3. reboot to command-r recovery again
4. in Terminal cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD (or whatever your normal boot drive is named)
5. rm -rf /com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots
6. csrutil enable in Terminal to enable SIP
7. reboot

I just tried this and couldn't get command #4 to work from Catalina 10.15.4. When I did a 'ls' on /Volumes/ they only thing in there was the recovery volume, not Macintosh HD. Disk Utility could "see" Macintosh HD, but it was grayed out.

Any help is appreciated as I would like to get rid of this directory.

 

[ric_d]

I just tried this and couldn't get command #4 to work from Catalina 10.15.4. When I did a 'ls' on /Volumes/ they only thing in there was the recovery volume, not Macintosh HD. Disk Utility could "see" Macintosh HD, but it was grayed out.

Any help is appreciated as I would like to get rid of this directory.

I'm in the same boat as you. I followed the directions to the letter and I verified that SIP is disabled (csrutil status), but I still cannot delete 'com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots'. I'm on 10.15.4 -- I wonder if something has changed in Catalina?

 

[ric_d]

I'm in the same boat as you. I followed the directions to the letter and I verified that SIP is disabled (csrutil status), but I still cannot delete 'com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots'. I'm on 10.15.4 -- I wonder if something has changed in Catalina?

I threw in the towel and reinstalled Catalina. The 'com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots' folder is gone now.

 

[porg]

@me55 your proposed solution failed. I used tmutil listlocalsnapshots then tmutil deletelocalsnapshots with all the dates. Until listlocalsnapshots listed no more snapshots. Nevertheless com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/ prevailed.

@gcarey your solution to disable SIP, then remove the leftover com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/ worked. Took me 5min max. Instead of likely 2h of a full re-install.

 

[me55]

Works for me, the list comes back empty and the free disk space shown in Finder increases.

 

[sunef]

I "discovered" today that it is no longer necessary to specify each local snapshot date
when deleting snapshots.

Example

% tmutil deletelocalsnapshots /
Deleted 14 Time Machine local snapshots for volume group containing disk '/'
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-06-09-105417.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-06-09-152010.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-06-08-172112.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-06-09-114856.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-06-09-094043.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-06-09-082305.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-06-08-202127.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-06-09-132512.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-06-08-152138.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-06-09-121833.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-06-08-220743.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-06-08-162240.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-06-09-141936.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-06-08-185002.local

 

[daniel1113]

I just tried this and couldn't get command #4 to work from Catalina 10.15.4. When I did a 'ls' on /Volumes/ they only thing in there was the recovery volume, not Macintosh HD. Disk Utility could "see" Macintosh HD, but it was grayed out.

Any help is appreciated as I would like to get rid of this directory.

I'm in the same boat as you. I followed the directions to the letter and I verified that SIP is disabled (csrutil status), but I still cannot delete 'com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots'. I'm on 10.15.4 -- I wonder if something has changed in Catalina?

You can't see your system volume because it's encrypted with FileVault. After you boot into recovery in step 3, but before you load terminal to execute the command in step 4, run Disk Utility and mount your system volume. You'll need an administrator password. Once the volume is mounted, you can continue with gcarey's instructions.

 

[larob]

You can't see your system volume because it's encrypted with FileVault. After you boot into recovery in step 3, but before you load terminal to execute the command in step 4, run Disk Utility and mount your system volume. You'll need an administrator password. Once the volume is mounted, you can continue with gcarey's instructions.

THANK YOU FOR THIS

As soon as I followed the direction but added the Disk Utility step everything worked (I did have to remove the / from in front of com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots though. Please note that the Disk Utility steps are "very laggy" because of the full disk encryption.

The team at Apple could only suggest reinstalling Catalina. There support has been crap for years now sadly. Too many iPhones.

 

[Kyleleen]

Thank you @gcary, @daniel1113, and @larob! Your combined instructions fixed this for me too -I’m super grateful!

The team at Apple could only suggest reinstalling Catalina. There support has been crap for years now sadly. Too many iPhones

I could not agree with this more!! The number of times they've gone quickly to the nuclear option costing me hours of time re-downloading apps, loosing data, etc. that they would previously have been able to avoid is outrageous - completely lost faith in apple support these days.

 

[Tech198]

everything seems to revolve one way, or another, by disabling SIP...

It's probably becoming easy now. standard practice for those 'issues.'