Delete Time Machine Local Backups

How to quickly free up disk space by deleting local snapshots

To read this page you are, probably, already using Time Machine. In case you don’t, please do. There will be some point in the future where you’ll thank yourself for doing so. Time Machine is tightly integrated into your macOS and can be enabled with a flick of a button. Flick the button, point it to a USB disk and all your data is now protected from a hard disk failure or accidental deletes.

How Time Machine “eats” your local space

Did you notice the “USB” part above? Well, there are other solutions too involving a network drive, a network-attached drive enclosure, or even routers exposing local media as network drives. But all these solutions have one thing in common: Physical proximity. Unless you are near to where the USB drive lives, or near your home/office router Time Machine can’t backup your data.

Apple 💜 you. So, if you tasked your trustworthy Mac with backing up your data, you can rest assured that it will always do exactly that. Even when your Time Machine drive is not accessible! Enjoying your espresso in a coffee shop while browsing news? Time Machine backups for you. Visiting a friend sharing your latest pictures? Time Machine backups for you. You get the picture…