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doingitlive

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 20, 2011
53
6
Ok I only use TM to backup on an external HD but it seems that OSX is backing up on a local drive as well because I saw that I have 48 GB of Backups and I only have a 256 GB SSD so I need to delete those files. I went into finder and typed in Backups.backupdb but nothing is showing up. I really need to find this folder and delete these files. I tried searching the website but nothing specific to my problem. Thanks for reading, I hope someone can help....
 

stiligFox

macrumors 68000
Apr 24, 2009
1,565
1,647
10.0.1.3
The local backups will be deleted automatically by the OS should your system need them.

They are very important for the way Time Machince functions. There is a way to disable it via Terminal, but as I said, it will start messing with Time Machine. The local backups are used for reverting documents to times between your external backups -- and then the next time you use the external drive it copies the local backups to the external drive. (And yet for some reason it still keeps them locally.)

The reason, by the way, you are not seeing them is they are hidden in a system folder, and if I'm not mistaken, are hidden from view.

Again, those backups will be deleted by the OS if you need the stuff. I would just ignore it, and carry on. :)

Hope that helps!
 

benthewraith

macrumors 68040
May 27, 2006
3,140
143
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Ok I only use TM to backup on an external HD but it seems that OSX is backing up on a local drive as well because I saw that I have 48 GB of Backups and I only have a 256 GB SSD so I need to delete those files. I went into finder and typed in Backups.backupdb but nothing is showing up. I really need to find this folder and delete these files. I tried searching the website but nothing specific to my problem. Thanks for reading, I hope someone can help....

This code in Terminal will disable local backups:
Code:
tmutil disablelocal

Just restart and the OS should delete them. If you were on a larger HDD, I would tell you to just leave them on. But being on a small SSD, real estate is valuable.
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,484
16,201
California
The local backups will be deleted automatically by the OS should your system need them.

They are very important for the way Time Machince functions. There is a way to disable it via Terminal, but as I said, it will start messing with Time Machine. The local backups are used for reverting documents to times between your external backups -- and then the next time you use the external drive it copies the local backups to the external drive. (And yet for some reason it still keeps them locally.)

The reason, by the way, you are not seeing them is they are hidden in a system folder, and if I'm not mistaken, are hidden from view.

Again, those backups will be deleted by the OS if you need the stuff. I would just ignore it, and carry on. :)

Hope that helps!

stilgFox is right on target here. Just leave it on and OS X will manage the space.

If it bothering you, you can turn Time Machine off then back on and it will zero out that space and start fresh.
 
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