Time Machine Backups

[bob_stan]

My Time Machine drive only has enough room for three or four days of backups- which is fine for me. However, since installing Catalina, it is no longer deleting previous files when it runs out of space. It simply stops with the message that the drive is out of space. Has something changed?

 

[junkw]

what version of Catalina?

I got this problem too and I don't remember what fixed it, maybe just getting the last Catalina fixed it?

 

[bob_stan]

No, I am running 10.15.2

 

[mgroot]

Same thing happening for me, also on 10.15.2

 

[honestone33]

Definitely a serious issue. Have not seen anything in the upcoming version, V10.15.3, that mentions a fix for this issue.

Would be interesting to see how many folks are experiencing this issue. I myself use SuperDuper!, and just replace each backup with another, full one (do it once a week).

 

[HDFan]

My Time Machine drive only has enough room for three or four days of backups- which is fine for me.

How big is the TM disk? When you get this message how much TM disk space is free? What size disk are you backing up?

 

[mgroot]

I'm not OP, but I have a nearly 2TB partition for my Time Machine backup and it started complaining a few days ago. I get a notification saying the backup failed and that it's because there's not enough space

 

[Ifti]

Is it a Time Machine backup that was originally initiated from a previous OSX and carried across to Catalina?

If so, Im wondering whether you may need to start Time Machine from afresh - so a full backup from within Catalina, before allowing the incremental backups to build again.....

 

[mgroot]

Is it a Time Machine backup that was originally initiated from a previous OSX and carried across to Catalina?

If so, Im wondering whether you may need to start Time Machine from afresh - so a full backup from within Catalina, before allowing the incremental backups to build again.....

Nope, it had the same issue when I moved to Catalina when it couldn't delete the old non-Catalina backups. I then switched TM off, wiped the TM drive and started fresh

 

[slickwilly]

I've been dealing with this ever since I upgraded to Catalina. 2019 15" MBP. I have a 1tb internal drive on the mac and a 2tb external ssd that I use for backups. It lasts about a week and then tells me the drive is full and can no longer backup. I've currently got a senior guy w/apple care working on this, sent details to the engineers, etc. Been working on it for weeks with no resolution as of yet.

I've actually done a couple complete reinstalls, including one with the current 10.15.2. I'll usually clear out the time machine backup in the settings and wipe the external and start over. Get the same result every time after a week or so.

 

[mgroot]

At least it happens to more people, hopefully it'll get fixed soon

 

[honestone33]

That sure would bother me. Glad I use SuperDuper! for my backups.

 

[mgroot]

Just been tweeting with Apple Support and their 'solution' is just to add more hardware, despite it working fine for well over a year in Mojave with the exact same setup.

 

[honestone33]

Just been tweeting with Apple Support and their 'solution' is just to add more hardware, despite it working fine for well over a year in Mojave with the exact same setup.

What an "innovative" solution!

 

[mgroot]

I know right?!

 

[mgroot]

Ok, discovered something new.. Despite my TM folder showing backups going back to October, TM itself thinks there are only backups from January 6 onwards... No wonder it's running out of space

 

[400]

Mine has done something similar (Jan onwards despite a greyed out record back to October). Related to Photos for me, I am convinced of it, every time photos messes up, all my backup option do a massive backup. My online non Apple de duplicates but it chews up time and drive doing it (unlimited with my ISP, no issue for that). But time machine will not erase older stuff despite indicating it is trying to. Days at it in one instance. A 4TB hard drive.

I have excluded most non essential big stuff, no applications, library containers, garage band etc, no external hard drives apart from the photos library. Feedback has been submitted every time it fails with logs.

Yesterday it decided to stop working, reformatted, removed the drive from a slow housing and fitted to a faster caddy and it has an initial 728 gb backup on a 4tb drive. (I have a comprehensive back up, Time Machine is a small part and I can afford it to fail on its own!)

I rolled back to one Catalina version and the Photos would not work with it (suspected that may happen). Back to the latest beta and see how this goes.