Time machine saving too many hourly backups

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Time machine saving too many hourly backups

I set up a new Time Machine backup disk when I upgraded my iMac to Ventura macOS 13. Now Time Machine is saving too many backups and it takes a LOOOONG time to display the time scale on the right side of the screen when I browse Time Machine backups. The browser shows daily backups for Nov 11 through Nov 16. Then 4 backups for Nov 17. Then hourly backups for Nov 18 through today: 5 Dec. My expectation is hourly backups for 24 hours, daily backups for a month, then weekly backups after that.

Anyone else seeing this problem? Or offer any clues how to fix it so it only keeps daily backups after 24 hours?

Hardware: iMac Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017

macOS Ventura 13.0.01

Posted on Dec 5, 2022 08:11 PM

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Answer 1

Matthew_J5

Community Specialist

Dec 7, 2022 06:06 PM in response to jppowers

Hi there jppowers,

Thank you for posting to Apple Support Communities.

We're happy to help.

Time Machine should make hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all the previous months. The oldest backups are deleted when your backup disk is full under the "Backup frequency and duration" section here: Back up your Mac with Time Machine

This article can help as well: Time Machine troubleshooting on Mac

If the issue continues, we recommend contacting Apple Support for additional help: Contact Apple Support

Take care.

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Time machine saving too many hourly backups

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