Isn't Time Machine supposed to manage HD space?

[NunoBerny]

Hello.

My Time Machine external disc has become full. I thought Time Machine would start deleting old stuff to make room, but it simply spouts an erro, saying the disc is full.
Manually deleting things seems to be a recipe for problems, so I'm a bit lost what to do.

Maybe wait for the new version of MacOS and hope this improve the temperamental Time Machine tool?

 

[MacDawg]

Mine tells me it is full and is going to start deleting the oldest back ups
I click to confirm that I understand what is happening and move on
Have you checked the preferences?

 

[NunoBerny]

Mine tells me it is full and is going to start deleting the oldest back ups
I click to confirm that I understand what is happening and move on
Have you checked the preferences?

Mine said that,too, at first, and it continued to work fine.
But after a while (about 3 or 4GB free), it simply fails to backup.
My preferences are set for TM to ask before deleting data.

IMHO, it would be better to be able to easily delete older backups.
For example: delete every backup older than X days.
As it works, unless I'm really missing something, you have to enter TM and then delete on a file/folder basis.

 

[MacDawg]

Mine said that,too, at first, and it continued to work fine.
But after a while (about 3 or 4GB free), it simply fails to backup.
My preferences are set for TM to ask before deleting data.

IMHO, it would be better to be able to easily delete older backups.
For example: delete every backup older than X days.
As it works, unless I'm really missing something, you have to enter TM and then delete on a file/folder basis.

I have never had to do that and my TM is still deleting the oldest backups automagically

 

[scaredpoet]

How large is the Time Machine Backup volume? And, how large is the used space on the volumes being backed up?

I'm wondering if the space available for even one backup on the time machine drive is too small for everything you're trying to back up.

 

[NunoBerny]

How large is the Time Machine Backup volume? And, how large is the used space on the volumes being backed up?

I'm wondering if the space available for even one backup on the time machine drive is too small for everything you're trying to back up.

My backup disc is 1TB. The discs it's backing up are both 500GB, but each has more than 100GB free.
That shouldn't be a problem, I'd assume.

I've decided to start a backup from scratch and will probably buy a 2TB unit later, but it's still annoying that all is not working as it should, really.

TM is a nice tool, but I'd like some more control...