Setting to tell Time Machine to delete older backup?

[kat.hayes]

Running Catalina 10.15.7

Put my external drive into a dock to back up my iMac Pro and after maybe 30 minutes I get a message that there is not enough space. This is the same drive that I have been using for at least a year - two years....so, before I go a buy a larger drive

1. Is there a setting to just have it delete an older backup to free up space?

Looking at the Backups folder it shows only two folders, as long as I have one backup I am ok.

Thanks

 

[Apple_Robert]

Unless you changed the default setting, TM should automatically delete (prune) older backups. The problem is that that doesn't always happen. You can try manually deleting one of your older backups. If I am not mistaken, it is supposed to prune an older backup once a new backup is made.

In doing a quick search, I see several posts in Apple Community from people running Catalina with the same problem.