Time Machine question

[csrr70]

Folks,
I have a 2017 MacBook Air and my back up is failing. I have the Time Machine settings automatically B/U the machine either on power or battery.
The error that I see says the back up device is full.

If I understand correctly, Time Machine should automatically delete the oldest B/U when the device becomes full.

Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Keith

 

[TonyAguila]

Folks,
I have a 2017 MacBook Air and my back up is failing. I have the Time Machine settings automatically B/U the machine either on power or battery.
The error that I see says the back up device is full.

If I understand correctly, Time Machine should automatically delete the oldest B/U when the device becomes full.

Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Keith

What version of macOS are you running? What’s the size of your startup disk, and do you have any other external drives aside from Time Machine? And what’s the capacity of the Time Machine drive?

Based on your MacBook air model, a 2-TB external drive should suffice for your TM drive if you are not backing up any other external devices. Compared to the value of your data, an investment in a new Time Machine drive should not be too much. I would leave your present TM drive as it is for now. It may be salvageable.

The problem could also come from system software corruption. Have you tried reinstalling macOS?