macOS 12.6 Time Machine - Not Enough Space Error

[southerndoc]

Since upgrading to 12.6, I'm getting Time Machine errors that there is no more room for backups. ("There isn't enough space on ...") My TM backup is attached to a network drive that has about 30 TB of free space.

Is anyone else seeing this? My Mac Studio did it first, and my MacBook Air kept backing up without problems for another day until this morning (it updated to 12.6 overnight).

 

[rehkram]

I just forced a TM backup from an intel 2012 rMBP 10,1 running Monterey 12.6 to Synology NAS, it completed normally. The NAS has about 4 TB available space.

 

[southerndoc]

Come to find out it was my fault after all. I had only provisioned 3TB to the Time Machine folder on my Synology NAS.

I thought Time Machine automatically deleted older backups when full?

 

[rehkram]

Come to find out it was my fault after all. I had only provisioned 3TB to the Time Machine folder on my Synology NAS.

I thought Time Machine automatically deleted older backups when full?

I don't know the answer to that. Given the history of Synology <-> Mac connections varying over time & releases I keep it as simple as possible and don't rely on the two systems to successfully negotiate handling edge cases like hitting a 'soft' size limit.

Who's to blame, Apple or Synology? Both, in my opinion. It's a communications breakdown because of an imperfect standard for a protocol that crosses a system boundary where many dragons live. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[kibepo73]

Here are few DIY fixes to resolve the time machine backup failure issues:

1. Check the external hard drive’s file system.
2. Check free disk space on an external hard drive.
3. Check for junk files or other unwanted data as it might be causing problems.
4. Check if the Mac software is updated.
5. Try restarting your Mac.
6. Check if the mac and the backup drive are connected to the same network.

Hope it helps!

 

[Tanuki2001]

Well, I keep it very simple - a 14TB drive connect to my MacBook Pro through a USB hub. The settings say older backups will be deleted, but that isn't happening as I am now getting this error all the time. Is there a way to delete older files manually to free up space?