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Time Machine: deleting backups from Today window

As I understand it, the Today window in Time Machine simply shows all the items on your Mac - the same you'd see in Finder.

I'd like to delete all backups of a folder from the Today window. Can anyone confirm that, when I select this action, the folder on my Mac, i.e. the folder that I select in the Today window, will NOT be deleted? Or more generally, that is impossible to delete files on your Mac from the Time Machine interface? Thanks in advance!

Time Machine is designed to erase backups if need be. It's usually not the best idea to circumvent its normal operation.

Not sure what you're trying to accomplish but removing a folder from a Time Machine backup will not affect the folder on your Mac. Of course Time Machine will just re-backup the folder in question.

You would be much better off not messing with your backup. You are liable to damage it. Let Time Machine take care of the backup.

Thanks. Those backups are quite massive, so I'm just trying to gain some free space on my Time Capsule.

Time Machine is designed to erase backups if need be. It's usually not the best idea to circumvent its normal operation.

Sure, but why then does Apple offer this as a feature? But I take your point, and try not to mess with Time Machine too much; though in some cases it's hard to resist.

I woudn't call it a feature exactly. I've used Time Machine for nearly ten years and have never deleted anything manually. As far as why Apple allows it? I can't answer that.

KeyMs92 wrote:

 

Sure, but why then does Apple offer this as a feature? But I take your point, and try not to mess with Time Machine too much; though in some cases it's hard to resist.

Time Machine is not an Archival backup solution. In other words, it maintains the current state of the files on your Mac. If you delete a file from your Mac, the backup may eventually be deleted from the backup. When it starts to run out of space, it gets rid of older changes that were backed up and any backups of files that are no longer on your Mac.

However, it doesn't delete those until it needs the space.

If you delete a file from you Mac and you don't want to maintain the backups of that file, you can get rid of them in the TM interface.

最后更新：2017-08-28 09:16:30

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