Time Machine "Delete all backups of" not working

[DaveP]

I'm trying to remove some old backup folders from Time Machine. Within Time Machine I select the folder I wish to remove, select the Action-Gear button and then "Remove all backups of (Name)". It asks me to confirm as this cannot be undone and then doesn't do anything when I hit ok. In the past I believe it then asked me to enter my password, but now doesn't do anything.

Any one have any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[macuser154]

If you want to delete the backup, navigate to the "Backups" folder on your Time Machine disk and delete the backup folder that you want.

 

[Nero Wolfe]

I'm trying to remove some old backup folders from Time Machine. Within Time Machine I select the folder I wish to remove, select the Action-Gear button and then "Remove all backups of (Name)". It asks me to confirm as this cannot be undone and then doesn't do anything when I hit ok. In the past I believe it then asked me to enter my password, but now doesn't do anything.

Any one have any ideas?

Thanks.

If you have a lot of backups, this can take a while. I did this recently (with about 7 months worth of backups and it took around 6 minutes or so, and I seem to remember thinking what you did, that it wasn't doing anything. But it's just that there was no progress indicator or anything. Did you check to see if the files are still there?

 

[isaaclimdc]

I remember I had the same problem awhile ago. Maybe this might be a Leopard bug gone astray for too long?

 

[DaveP]

The files are definitely still there. I do recall in the past that it did take a while (though I did get a progress indicator in the regular finder and not time machine weird?). But I let it sit for 30 minutes just in case it was doing something in the background and the file don't get removed. I also tried with a single small file in case it was related to the fact that it was large or something.

I really don't want to have to restart my backups, but I'm running out of room because of music/movie files that I no longer want saved (I have already added them to my don't backup list but there are copies from before that point). In theory, if I just wait they will eventually be deleted when the backup is deleted due to space issues... But that obviously isn't an ideal solution either.

Thanks for the replies.