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ime Machine not bumping files off when full

Avatar Michael Corgan
Not only is Time Machine not behaving as it should by deleting files as it fills up, the Time Machine hard drive is now unmounting itself from time to time. Turning the drive off and on again remounts it, and its icon on the iMac Desktop shows that 473GB is free on a 2TB drive. However Disk Utility shows it as completely full.

What can be done apart from reformatting the whole drive and reuising it?

Re: ime Machine not bumping files off when full

Avatar Mick Burrell
How old is the drive? How old is the iMac? What operating system?

I'd go by DU rather than what shows on the desktop. My 2010 machine running Mojave has righted itself now but the desktop figure used to show a part used 4GB flash drive as having 7GB+ free!

Re: ime Machine not bumping files off when full

Avatar Michael Corgan
Not sure how old the drive is - the earliest file showing on TM is December 2018. The iMac is an old one - mid-2007 and running el Capitan.

Re: ime Machine not bumping files off when full

Avatar Mick Burrell
With a machine fast approaching 13 years old, I'd suggest trying another port to connect the drive. If you're lucky enough for both drive and Mac to have a choice of interfaces, try the other one i.e swap USB to FireWire or vice versa. If only USB, at least try a different socket and make sure the drive is direct into the Mac not through a multi-port hub.

Shame you're not sure about the drive's age. I'd suggest that if it's five years old you sideline it and start again. You could do that anyway if a replacement of similar size is an acceptable price.

Re: ime Machine not bumping files off when full

Avatar Michael Corgan
Well, I was contemplating getting another drive - they aren't so expensive now. Before dashing off to the virtual shop to do that I tried your suggestion of connecting the TM drive direct to the iMac, but it did not appear, whereas it is still on the desktop now it is plugged in to the hub again. All this doesn't give a clue as to why TM isn't kicking off old back-ups -and the TM pane shows the free space now as down from 473 GB to 462GB and that a back-up succeeded last evening! Much head scratching.

Re: ime Machine not bumping files off when full

Avatar Mick Burrell
Did you plug the drive into the iMac using the same socket the hub had been plugged in to? Were you able to test the socket used? Could Disc Utility see it?

If the iMac can see it through the hub but not plugged in direct I'm guessing two different sockets, one of which may be playing up and perhaps the other is beginning to go.

Re: ime Machine not bumping files off when full

Avatar Michael Corgan
The drive was plugged back into the same socket on the hub.The socket on the iMac was in use for another purpose, and works fine.

Re: ime Machine not bumping files off when full

Avatar Mick Burrell
Does the other purpose draw the same current and data transfer as the drive (assuming the drive does not have its own power supply)? Is it a powered hub?

I was hoping you'd unplug the hub and plug the drive into the socket just vacated. If it works from there then suspect the hub but I'm guessing it won't in which case I'd suspect the drive.

Re: ime Machine not bumping files off when full

Avatar Tony Still
And presumably you remembered to Eject the disk (in the Finder) before disconnecting and reconnecting?

There are several reasons for following Mick's advice to connect an external disk drive directly rather than through a USB hub if at all possible.

Re: ime Machine not bumping files off when full

Avatar Michael Corgan
The disk was ejected whenever it was removed to another socket. The two problems however were first that TM didn't kick the oldest back-up off the drive,as it is supposed to, and that the drive itself kept dismounting for no apparent reason. And I still don't know the answers?

Anyway all this is now hypothetical as I bought a new 4TB drive and am now using that.
 
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