We all have a limited amount of space on our Macs, and that’s why it’s very important to avoid wasting it with unnecessary snapshots or backups.
A backup is great if you want to keep your data safe. But keeping dozens of backups is just wasting your space, which you could use for something else. The best thing that you can do is to figure out how to delete unnecessary Time Machine backups, because that can give you a lot of space back.
What Is The Difference Between a Snapshot and a Backup?
Time Machine will allow you to create both snapshots and backups. However, they are not the same thing. A backup stores all the files and folders that aren’t a part of the Mac OS installation. Basically, it covers photos, documents, apps and music.
A snapshot, on the other hand, it’s a complete image of your Mac OS installation. The snapshot is great because it allows you to speed up the recovery process, and it can also help you if your hardware stops working or if system data gets corrupted. Both of them are great, but it’s up to you to figure out when you need them.
How Can You Create a Time Machine Backup?
- First, you must connect the desired external storage where you create your backup
- Then, you go to the Apple Menu, choose System Settings/General. Here you can select the Time Machine option
- Press “Add Backup Disk” and choose the external storage device.
- Set Up Disk and follow the necessary instructions
Is It Ok To Delete Time Machine Snapshots or Backups?
Naturally, it’s always a very good idea to create a backup or a snapshot for your device. After all, data can get corrupted randomly, and you can easily lose access to important info without having a copy of it. However, having too many backups or snapshots isn’t going to help.
You can always keep the latest one, maybe 2 backups at most. Delete those you never plan on using anyway, as it just wastes space and it won’t help with anything. You can also move Time Machine snapshots or backups to the Cloud or store them on a separate device.
Ways To Delete Your Time Machine Backups
- As you enter the Time Machine app, you can see a list of backups, select the one you want to delete, click on the gear and then press Delete Backup. You have to confirm your identity before deletion
- You can open the Terminal, enter the command “tmutil listbackups,” write down the directory path of the backup and then write “sudo tmutil delete” followed by the directory path. Pressing Return will delete those backups
- Enter the Finder, check the external drive and find “Backups.backupdb.” Now you will see a list of individual backups, and you can manually delete each one of them
Can You Delete Time Machine Snapshots?
Yes, you can also choose to delete Time Machine snapshots as well. Thankfully, a Mac cleanup tool can help with that, since it allows you to identify the right means to delete these snapshots automatically. In fact, you can perform regular maintenance tasks by entering the Mac cleanup tool and choosing to thin any Time Machine snapshots.
You can also use the Terminal to delete Time Machine snapshots, but this is a more challenging, manual process:
- Open the Terminal and write “tmutil listlocalsnapshots”
- You will now see various snapshots, their format is similar to this “com.apple.TimeMachine.2025-01-20-231545”
- Pick the snapshot that you want to remove, and create a list if you need multiple snapshots
- After that, you want to delete every snapshot by using the command “tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2025-01-20-231545, where the numbers need to be replaced by the snapshot’s information
Is It Safe To Delete Snapshots or Backups?
A lot of people are worried that deleting snapshots could lead to certain issues or problems. But the truth is, you don’t really need to worry. You just need to keep the desired backups or snapshots, and the rest can be deleted without a problem. However, the more you keep, the more space will be required. That’s why you always want to have a very good insight into the process,
It’s never easy to save space on your device, and that’s why creating a Time Machine backup is of the utmost importance.
Safely deleting these backups or snapshots is a great idea, because it will help you save space and prevent any problems. Rest assured that immediate, quick deletion always comes in handy and it will eliminate concerns. Plus, it can help you save a lot of space, without having to worry that there’s no copy of your data.
