xtoothdr

Thus far Apple has left me confused concerning the following:
Eventually I get the message that my external drive for t/m backups is full & will begin deleting earlier backups. Accordingly I assume that if I export any image files, albums, or libraries to a different drive, disk or whatever, unluckily have desktop/macbook crash, those removed items could very possibly no longer be on my T/M backup drive? So is the best solution not to permit your T/M backup drive to be overwritten...changing the b/u drive instead? Your thoughts/remedies appreciated...

TonyBot

Mine is about 90% full and I plan to replace it. The cost of the B/U drive is nearly minimal now, you won't lose anything at all (and maybe save your start-up info in the case of a crash), and you will have another backup of your photos/data (assuming you already have at least one). I definitely wouldn't let it be overwritten, and I may be too cautious, but ...
IMHO

MichaelH Loc: NorCal via Lansing, MI

I think the way TimeMachine works is that the first time you do a backup, TimeMachine backs up everything on the Mac (unless you tell it to skip some parts). Then every time it runs after the initial backup, TimeMachine makes backups of EVERYTHING that has CHANGED from the last time it backed up - which in this case is the FIRST backup.

Each additional time it runs TimeMachine again backs up only everything that has changed from the last time it ran. In this way you can restore your Mac to any point in time or restore any version of a file that TimeMachine has backed up.

But as time goes on you fill up the drive with these "extra" versions of your files that have changed. And I am not sure if TimeMachine deletes from your backups any files that you delete from your Mac. So if you run TimeMachine while some big files are on your Mac and then put those files in the Trash on your Mac they do not get removed from the TimeMachine backup drive.

If (and this is a big if) you believe you no longer need any of the older backups that are on the TimeMachine drive you can just erase the TimeMachine drive and start from scratch. TimeMachine will make a backup of your Mac as it is right now.

A more conservative approach would be to get a second bigger hard drive as a primary TimeMachine backup drive and do a backup to it and THEN erase your older drive and use it as a secondary TimeMachine drive.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

TM is a backup system. The purpose of a backup system is to restore the state of the system in the event of a crash; to migrate the system to a new machine; or to restore data that has been lost due to user error etc. TM also allows you to retrieve older versions of files etc which is a nice archival feature. But TM is not a photo library.

If you need to preserve what is on the TM now that it is full, the best thing is to get a new drive and stop backing up to the old TM drive. But I would ask you to think about what you are expecting from TM. It is not a photo library. Better to get a new drive and start your own photo library, (and back that up as well).

hj Loc: Florida

Why do you say TM is not a photo library? It backs up all item on your computer including your photo library. Please explain your thoughts.

tgshoe Loc: North Texas

Maybe the easiest thing for you would be to let Time Machine operate as it should, thus deleting the oldest backup as needed, and attach a separate usb external hard drive to a usb port, for photo archival purpose.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

TM does not delete files from backup that you have removed from your drive.

I have a 4 TB TM backup disk that runs 24x7, I have about 1.5 year’s worth of backups on it. Basically the initial full backup, plus the incremental’s hourly. Even though I had deleted a set of ISO’s a year ago, I was able to go back and restore them easily with Time Machine in a matter of minutes. TM uses the initial backup plus incremental to provide an hourly, daily, weekly & monthly point in time backup, so you can easily restore to any point in time between the original full backup and the most recent incremental.

I have been running TM since 2011, and have yet to have been unable to recover any data from it when needed.

Not only do I keep 1.4 TB of images on my TM backup, but the rest of my operating system and data files.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That's the way I understand it. If I delete something from my computer, it's because I don't want it any more. A backup isn't necessary. Every so often, I'll go in and delete the old T/M backups.

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

From the Apple's mouth ( https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250 )
"Time Machine automatically makes hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months. The oldest backups are deleted when your backup disk is full."

Bottom line: If a deleted file is contained only in your oldest TM backup, it will be gone forever when that backup is deleted. TM is not an archiving system.

For Mac users, Time Machine is low-cost "insurance" that will help you recover, almost pain-free, from your computer's primary hard drive failure.

FredCM Loc: Central Illinois

I think I had the exact problem you're describing. Talked to a friend, he and his 3 sons are extreme Apple aficionados. Didn't know why this happens, but it does. Might have something to do with several devices using the Time Machine, I have 2. The error only occurred on this laptop, not the desk top. He suggested finding the routine to reformat the TM (yes, wipe out everything, all backups). I did, and TM started backing up this computer. I reformatted TM from this computer. Then the other computer started getting the same message. Ay-yi-yi, now what? Reformat the TM from the desktop. Ugh. Ok, did that and now everything is fine. Scary at first, throwing away all backups but it turned out ok.

I don't see how I did the reformatting, Google it and you'll find it. Not an uncommon situation.

artBob Loc: Near Chicago

I do not worry now when I get the message that Time Machine will have to delete some backups. After looking at how far back the backups were (/[drivename]/Backups.backupdb/[name of computer]), I saw that the earliest backups were way beyond what I had needed previously, which was a few months. I may have used Time Machine 10-20 times, almost always for a next-day or nest-week discovery of a screwup. I could not think of a way I'd need those oldest backups.

So, I suggest you take a look at how far back the backups go: /[drivename]/Backups.backupdb/[name of computer]. The backup folders there have the dates of the backups. If you don't think you will need the oldest, don't worry--let Time Machine do what it needs to.

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

1. You can have more than a single Time Machine drive. Example: If you have two drives, TM will alternate hourly between them.

2. A handy utility to retrieve files from one or more Time Machine drives is "Back-In-Time".
https://www.tri-edre.fr/english/backintime.html

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Another handy utility is MacOS. 😲

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

I lost a few files unrecoverable with Time Machine this way. I downloaded files to my computer, then I culled some of them out right away and sent them to the trash. I didn't empty the trash right away but maybe a week later. When I figured out I had made a mistake two weeks later and went back in they couldn't be found. It seems TM doesn't back up the trash.

tommystrat Loc: Bigfork, Montana

That's the ticket...I use Time Machine to back up the essential parts of my hard drive, as it is designed to do, and have 2 external USB drives to double-backup all my images. So far, so good...