After using my Passport Ultra for some time, I started getting messages that backups were not being completed. The 500GB storage was full. Is there a simple procedure for deleting older backups I no longer need?
It depends on how you made your old backups. If they were created using WD SmartWare or WD Backup you can delete files within the swstor folder within your hard drive. However, this may cause for the entire backup to be dropped and a new backup may need to be created.
This is because those apps were designed for backups rather than archival or synchronization.
I have the same problem, did you work out how to delete certain files? I was backing up my computer and filled up my 500G passport, now it doesn’t show as a device on my macbook. I used spotlight function on mac to locate it and shows its full. Spotlight only gives me the option to delete the whole lot. I’ve got years of photos on there so only want to delete some files to free up space, not all files.
No, sorry I haven’t been able to resolve the problem yet. I have a PC not a Macbook so things might be different for each of us. I can see the Passport as a separate drive and can see the various files and the backups. I hesitate to just go in and delete things not knowing whether there is a summary file index somewhere that also needs to be cleaned up. As a last resort I may have to purge the Passport and then use the various utilities to set up a new backup schedule.
The solution, of course, is to buy new hardware.
_I recently bought two “My Passport” 1 TB Portable drives. One backs up the other. I noticed that my P drive was almost completely filled up, so I called WD Support today. The tech deleted a huge bunch of history files, which greatly increased my available space. The original files remained intact.
I see that the O drive also has history files, and is approaching full. I’m wondering if I should just delete the history files or call the pros at WD Support again. I googled how to do this, and it appeared a bit tricky and risky.
I have a similar problem with a My Passport Ultra 1TB. It is now 93% full, but I have just discovered that no backups have been stored for the past two weeks. I am assuming that this is 'cos of lack of space?
Anyway, I don’t need all the 2.5 years of backups already on there now, so I’m happy to clear them out. However, there are also several folders on the disc which contain files that I have copied there using Windows Explorer (ie NOT part of the WB Backup process) which I must keep, so I do not want to just format the Passport.
Is it in fact ‘safe’ just to delete the ‘WB Bacskup.swstor’ folder ? I’m happy to create a new Backup Schedule if necessary???
I couldn’t find an answer either so used the Windows backup utility to look at the disk space (manage windows backup disk space) then view backups and delete the oldest ones. This needs to be done on a regular basis.
