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User profile for user: zoo bink
zoo bink Author
User level: Level 1
12 points

Time Machine seems to be have double backups

Hi,

I was just checking why my Time Machine backups recently purged a lot of aged backups.

One of the things found, as you can see in the screenshot is that for each backup, there is a backup of 2 drives. "Macintosh HD", last modified 5 December 2020 and "Macintosh HD - Data" which is continually updating with each backup.

You will also note, that they each appear to contain almost the same directory structure.

But on the Top Folder directory, I can only see "Macintosh HD", last modified 8 December 2020

I'm guessing that around the 5th-8th December, was when I upgraded to macOS Monterey.

Is TM wasting space on my backups? If yes, can I reclaim the space without deleting all my old backups and starting fresh.

TIA


iMac 27″, macOS 12.1

Posted on Jan 30, 2022 1:41 AM

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User profile for user: ryane77
ryane77
User level: Community Specialist

Posted on Jan 31, 2022 8:27 AM

Hi zoo bink,


​Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities. We see you have a question about what you're seeing in your Time Machine backups, and we're happy to provide an answer.


What you're seeing regarding the Macintosh HD - Data drive is normal as covered here: About the read-only system volume in macOS Catalina


"macOS Catalina runs on a dedicated, read-only system volume called Macintosh HD. This volume is completely separate from all other data to help prevent the accidental overwriting of critical operating system files. Your files and data are stored in another volume named Macintosh HD - Data. In the Finder, both volumes appear as Macintosh HD."


Based on this, if your external drive is low on storage, it sounds like overall it is behaving normally as Time Machine does thin older backups when it needs more room. Let us know if you have any questions.


Take care.

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User profile for user: ryane77
ryane77
User level: Community Specialist

Jan 31, 2022 8:27 AM in response to zoo bink

Hi zoo bink,


​Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities. We see you have a question about what you're seeing in your Time Machine backups, and we're happy to provide an answer.


What you're seeing regarding the Macintosh HD - Data drive is normal as covered here: About the read-only system volume in macOS Catalina


"macOS Catalina runs on a dedicated, read-only system volume called Macintosh HD. This volume is completely separate from all other data to help prevent the accidental overwriting of critical operating system files. Your files and data are stored in another volume named Macintosh HD - Data. In the Finder, both volumes appear as Macintosh HD."


Based on this, if your external drive is low on storage, it sounds like overall it is behaving normally as Time Machine does thin older backups when it needs more room. Let us know if you have any questions.


Take care.

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Time Machine seems to be have double backups

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