I am reaching the capacity limit of my Time Machine drive.
Instead of purging snapshots from way back when, I'd like to just delete the backups of large files that I definitely do not need (such as the contents of the Downloads folder).
It seems that the "Delete all backups of selected files" would work here.
I am just a little worried that this could do such additional "magic" under the hood, rather than just deleting the old backups. For example: Prevent future versions of the file from being backed up, or causing the files to be also deleted from other Time Machine drives that I attach later.
Can someone confirm that none of this happens?
Best Answer
The "Delete all backups of selected files" will work for the old files, but I'm not sure it will do the magic you want. Time machine keeps only one copy of an unchanged file -- regardless of how many times you've run Time Machine.
I don't think deleting this will prevent future backups.
You should, however, exclude your Downloads folder and other piggy folders from the Time Machine backups. Go to Time Machine preferences and click the "Options..." button. Things I exclude from my backups include: