Take Control of Mac OS X Backups, Fourth Edition

Delete Files from a Time Machine Backup

Time Machine automatically deletes old backups to make space for new ones (though perhaps not in the way you expect; see The Time Machine Schedule Problem, ahead a few pages, for details). But sometimes you may need to remove files from Time Machine's backup far in advance of when it would automatically be deleted. For example:

• A large file you've already deleted and will never need again (say, a gigantic disk image for a software installer) has been backed up—perhaps multiple times.

• You're concerned about sensitive information being stored in a backup that other people might be able to access.

• You decide to exclude a file from Time Machine (see Exclude Files from Time Machine) after Time Machine has already ...