Hi Ronni, thanks for that, I think I read this some years ago and will use this when I do at some point go for a larger TM backup disc. Late yesterday I looked at the status and it had in fact moved to the backing up phase - so it had purged sufficient space from old backups to permit the new backup to run. When I glanced at it, it had backed up ~30GB of 230GB - so it is a substantial backup resulting from the MS Office update and the Big Sur update combined. This confirms my confidence in TM as patience is important. When it says it is doing something - it probably is doing something and to leave it be to allow it to complete what it is doing. Around the time of my earlier email here, I thought it might accelerate the process if I plugged in my ethernet connection to the Time Capsule directly as WiFi would probably have been slower than with an ethernet connection. I watched the Network connection panel as I connected the ethernet and it did connect so I assume the data processes between the MBP and the TM backup disc (a 2TB portable drive attached via hub to the USB of the TC).
Kind Regards Peter Crisp ----- Original Message ----- From: wamug@wamug.org.au To: Cc: Sent:Mon, 12 Apr 2021 17:43:41 +0800 Subject:Re: [WAMUG} Time Machine Backup - post Big Sur and full backup drive Hi Peter,Have a read of my Tutorial http://www.ronnibrown.net/tutorials/migrate-to-a-larger-time/index.html [1] Kind Regards, Ronni Ronni Brown’s iPad Pro 12.9-inch 256GB On 12 Apr 2021, at 12:31 pm, Peter Crisp wrote: Hi folks, during last week following my plunge into getting my MS Office 365 subscription in order - which was an inhibitor for moving to Big Sur (as my MS Office 2011 was not compatible with Big Sur) - I then have done the Big Sur update. I am pretty happy with it and no gotchas for me yet with anything. However, during all these significant updates I turn off my TM backup so I can manage the timing for when the next TM Backup takes place - as I knew it would be a substantial backup. So on Sunday morning I turned it on, whereupon it goes searching for the drive - found no problem, then “Preparing Backup” this took a number of hours, then it starts the process of “Freeing space” as my 2TB backup drive (dedicated to my Macbook) is full. No problem, this has been the case for the last few months and while it has taken some time to purge the oldest backups to make space for the new backup, I thought it will take a good deal of time. But this has been 24 hours+ now. Does anyone else have this same set of circumstances I have and timing. I am inclined to allow it to continue like this for days if needed as it doesn’t really bother me. Keen to hear others experiences or could this be in an endless Big Sur loop I need to intervene? Pete. -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - Guidelines - Settings & Unsubscribe - Links: ------ [1] http://www.ronnibrown.net/tutorials/migrate-to-a-larger-time/index.html
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