Why does Time Machine constantly show 570GB of 2TB remaining on my Time Capsule?

[Azzin]

Hi all,

I noticed that TM constantly shows that there's 570GB remaining on my 2TB Time Capsule.

I went into it and manually deleted the backups that were showing (leaving a few days worth), ran it again and it still shows the same.

For info, it's the latest model of Time Capsule and I have a 250GB SSD in my MBP, with the originally installed 750GB drive in a caddy in the optical bay).

Thank you.

 

[simonsi]

Did you empty the trash?

 

[Azzin]

Did you empty the trash?

I had, yes.

 

[ItWasNotMe]

I had, yes.

What does Finder say is available on the drive?

I've found some of the data shown in System preferences to b questionable, e.g. times of backups up to approximately 30 minutes out.

 

[Weaselboy]

Hi all,

I noticed that TM constantly shows that there's 570GB remaining on my 2TB Time Capsule.

I went into it and manually deleted the backups that were showing (leaving a few days worth), ran it again and it still shows the same.

For info, it's the latest model of Time Capsule and I have a 250GB SSD in my MBP, with the originally installed 750GB drive in a caddy in the optical bay).

Thank you.

Here is what is going on and it is normal.

Networked TM backups are stored inside a sparse bundle image. When you delete files from inside a sparse bundle, the sparse bundle does not automatically shrink in size.

There is a Terminal command "hdiutil compact" that will manually shrink the sparse bundle down. Or you can just leave it alone and when the TC drive needs the space, TM will shrink it down on its own.

If you want to do it yourself manually, read the section in the pink box on this page.

http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

 

[Azzin]

Here is what is going on and it is normal.

Networked TM backups are stored inside a sparse bundle image. When you delete files from inside a sparse bundle, the sparse bundle does not automatically shrink in size.

There is a Terminal command "hdiutil compact" that will manually shrink the sparse bundle down. Or you can just leave it alone and when the TC drive needs the space, TM will shrink it down on its own.

If you want to do it yourself manually, read the section in the pink box on this page.

http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

Thanks, that makes sense (kinda!).

My Wife has just got herself a Macbook Pro. It came with a 500GB and what I've done is use the 240 gig SSD from her old laptop as the MBP's main boot drive and put the 500GB in a caddy in the optical bay (so 750GB total).

Her MBP is using the TC as well and this is what it looks like currently:

Now, as you can see, it now shows only 352GB space available...

I did mount the sparse bundle this morning and deleted all of the backups (bar the last one) that showed in my backups, turned Time Machine off and then emptied the Trash.

Emptying the Trash didn't change the 352GB remaining figure, but I guess I should just be ignoring that and letting TM do it's thing when it comes to managing the available space and deleting old backups?

Also, what's weird, is that it appears to be backing up 77GB-I haven't added 77GB of data, so what is it backing up?

 

[Weaselboy]

Emptying the Trash didn't change the 352GB remaining figure, but I guess I should just be ignoring that and letting TM do it's thing when it comes to managing the available space and deleting old backups?

This is still the result of the way sparse bundle images work on a networked TM backup. When you delete data from inside the bundle the bundle image does not shrink.

Let me give you an example. If you make a sparse bundle image in Disk Utility and put it on your desktop with no files inside, the image will be close to zero MB. Then add 100MB of files to the image and the image will be 100MB. Now delete the 100MB of files from inside the image and check and you will see the image is still 100MB. Even though you removed the 100MB of files, the image still uses 100MB of space. You can manually run that hdiutil compact command against the image and it would compress it back down to zero.

So no amount of deleting files and emptying trash is going to make the existing image on your Time Capsule smaller. What you are seeing is normal and it is best to just let Time Machine manage the space on its own.

Also, what's weird, is that it appears to be backing up 77GB-I haven't added 77GB of data, so what is it backing up?

That's because Time Machine backs up everything on the disk, including the OS and all apps, as well as personal data.

 

[wytwolf]

Also is it just me is manually deleting backups in the time machine asking for trouble???

I've never done it as Time Machine will delete where necessary and I'm always afraid to FUBAR my back up.

 

[Weaselboy]

Also is it just me is manually deleting backups in the time machine asking for trouble???

I've never done it as Time Machine will delete where necessary and I'm always afraid to FUBAR my back up.

You are correct.... not a good idea to go poking around in there deleting things. It can break your backup set.