0

If one were to accidentally delete one folder from a Time Machine backup, could one salvage at least the older backups? Or would all be lost?

By "folder" I mean the folders corresponding to individual backups named by date. Maybe I am under an illusion that something went wrong. What I found suspicious was that the next backup after the deleted one was finished very quickly. But maybe this was just the file system being too smart for my taste.

Edit: I am running Sequoia.

Improve this question
1
  • It's best to consider Time Machine as a 'black box'. Don't touch anything inside it, because it will not do what you think it may. Commented Nov 14 at 19:07

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

You can't delete individual files from an APFS Time Machine backup. You don't say what version of macOS you're running, but APFS has been the standard for several years. You can, however, delete whole snapshots, and doing so won't damage the others.

Improve this answer
5
  • 2
    But note that if you do delete an individual snapshot, you might not save as much disk space as you expect, as parts are likely to be shared with other snapshots. Commented Nov 14 at 18:51
  • I understand. I was just surprised that I deleted the most recent folder (via the finder) and then did a new backup which was finished almost immediately. This just seemed counterintuitive and I feared that it just saved the difference to the latest (now deleted) backup. If that was how it works, my deletion should have rendered future backups unusable. An alternative explanation would be that "deletion" did not really mean deletion. Commented Nov 14 at 20:07
  • Each snapshot contains only the data that has changed on the source since the last backup. If a snapshot completes quickly, that just means that not much had changed. Anyway, if you have doubts, you can compare the contents of snapshots using the tmutil(8) command-line tool built into macOS, or a third-party app such as "Backup Loupe" (not an endorsement.) Commented Nov 14 at 20:55
  • It is possible to delete all snapshots of an individual file from Time Machine. apple.stackexchange.com/questions/427300/… Commented Nov 14 at 21:11
  • Not from an APFS backup. Try it yourself. Commented Nov 14 at 21:24

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.