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When I installed arch a few months back I created @, @home, @pkg, @log subvolumes because I intended to use snapper for backups.
Fast forward a few months, I decided to instead use Timeshift since I just wanted a basic setup. Timeshift only wants @ and @home subvolumes, and I re-created those (this is probably the noob mistake) before installing Timeshift. For a while I had duplicate @ and @home subvolumes, but those seem to have disappeared now.
After a couple of paru (pacman -Syu) runs the Timeshift pacman hook (timeshift-autosnap) started complaining about being unable to delete snapshots.
I then at some point tried to do timeshift --delete-all, which managed to delete some, but failed to delete other snapshots.
I now have a subvolume layout of:
ID 257 gen 116644 top level 5 path @home
ID 258 gen 116644 top level 5 path @log
ID 259 gen 116634 top level 5 path @pkg
ID 264 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_14-14-45/@
ID 266 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_16-00-00/@
ID 268 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_17-00-00/@
ID 270 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_17-56-30/@
ID 272 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_17-56-52/@
ID 274 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_19-00-00/@
ID 276 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_20-00-01/@
ID 278 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_21-00-00/@
ID 280 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_22-00-00/@
ID 282 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_23-00-00/@
ID 284 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_00-00-00/@
ID 286 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_01-00-01/@
ID 288 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_02-00-00/@
ID 290 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_03-00-00/@
ID 292 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_04-00-00/@
ID 294 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_05-00-00/@
ID 296 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_06-00-01/@
ID 298 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_07-00-00/@
ID 300 gen 116197 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_08-00-00/@
ID 302 gen 116418 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_09-00-00/@
ID 304 gen 116311 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_10-00-00/@
ID 306 gen 116354 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_10-22-23/@
ID 308 gen 116362 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_10-26-00/@
ID 310 gen 116386 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_10-38-00/@
ID 312 gen 116644 top level 5 path @
ID 313 gen 116431 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_11-17-51/@
ID 315 gen 116449 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_11-27-40/@
ID 316 gen 116450 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_11-27-40/@home
ID 317 gen 116475 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_11-39-55/@
ID 318 gen 116618 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_13-00-00/@
ID 319 gen 116633 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_13-07-30/@During a system upgrade I get the following logs from the timeshift hook:
:: Running pre-transaction hooks...
(1/1) Creating Timeshift snapshot before upgrade...
Using system disk as snapshot device for creating snapshots in BTRFS mode
Mounted '/dev/nvme0n1p2' (subvolid=0) at '/run/timeshift/27534/backup'
btrfs: Quotas are not enabled
Creating new backup...(BTRFS)
Saving to device: /dev/nvme0n1p2, mounted at path: /run/timeshift/27534/backup
Created directory: /run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_13-07-30
Created subvolume snapshot: /run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_13-07-30/@
Created control file: /run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_13-07-30/info.json
BTRFS Snapshot saved successfully (0s)
Tagged snapshot '2025-08-05_13-07-30': ondemand
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshots (un-tagged):
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-04_16-00-00
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:266)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_16-00-00/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-04_16-00-00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-04_17-00-00
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:268)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_17-00-00/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-04_17-00-00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-04_19-00-00
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:274)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_19-00-00/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-04_19-00-00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-04_20-00-01
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:276)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_20-00-01/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-04_20-00-01
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-04_21-00-00
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:278)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_21-00-00/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-04_21-00-00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-04_22-00-00
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:280)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_22-00-00/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-04_22-00-00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-04_23-00-00
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:282)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_23-00-00/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-04_23-00-00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-05_00-00-00
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:284)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_00-00-00/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-05_00-00-00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-05_01-00-01
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:286)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_01-00-01/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-05_01-00-01
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-05_02-00-00
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:288)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_02-00-00/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-05_02-00-00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-05_03-00-00
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:290)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_03-00-00/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-05_03-00-00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-05_04-00-00
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:292)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_04-00-00/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-05_04-00-00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-05_05-00-00
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:294)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_05-00-00/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-05_05-00-00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-05_06-00-01
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:296)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_06-00-01/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-05_06-00-01
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-05_07-00-00
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:298)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27534/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_07-00-00/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-05_07-00-00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mounted '/dev/nvme0n1p2' (subvolid=0) at '/run/timeshift/27675/backup'
btrfs: Quotas are not enabled
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-04_17-56-30
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:270)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27675/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_17-56-30/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-04_17-56-30
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mounted '/dev/nvme0n1p2' (subvolid=0) at '/run/timeshift/27714/backup'
btrfs: Quotas are not enabled
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-04_17-56-52
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:272)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27714/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-04_17-56-52/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-04_17-56-52
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mounted '/dev/nvme0n1p2' (subvolid=0) at '/run/timeshift/27753/backup'
btrfs: Quotas are not enabled
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-05_10-22-23
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:306)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27753/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_10-22-23/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-05_10-22-23
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mounted '/dev/nvme0n1p2' (subvolid=0) at '/run/timeshift/27792/backup'
btrfs: Quotas are not enabled
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-05_10-26-00
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:308)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27792/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-05_10-26-00/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-05_10-26-00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
:: Processing package changes...When I tried to restore a snapshot I had error messages, but I don't think I have those saved. It did successfully restore installed packages to a previous point after a reboot, but I had to recover the boot partition from a usb drive since I use systemd-boot rather than grub.
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so I've managed to manually remove all of the subvolumes generated by timeshift one by one with sudo btrfs subvolume delete -i <ID> /. That allowed me to then run timeshift --delete-all to remove all backups from timeshift.
However, next time Timeshift generated a new backup, it is again unable to delete it. I believe this means that timeshift can't respect the limit I've set up for backups, since it's unable to delete old ones when needed.
I now have 5 backups:
ID 257 gen 120495 top level 5 path @home
ID 258 gen 120495 top level 5 path @log
ID 259 gen 120268 top level 5 path @pkg
ID 312 gen 120494 top level 5 path @
ID 331 gen 120004 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-06_19-00-00/@
ID 332 gen 120168 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-06_20-27-14/@
ID 333 gen 120170 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-06_20-28-07/@
ID 334 gen 120171 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-06_20-28-10/@
ID 335 gen 120328 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-06_21-50-18/@and this is the output if I try to run --delete-all:
~ ❯❯❯ sudo timeshift --delete-all
Mounted '/dev/nvme0n1p2' (subvolid=0) at '/run/timeshift/27122/backup'
btrfs: Quotas are not enabled
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-06_19-00-00
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:331)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27122/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-06_19-00-00/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-06_19-00-00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-06_20-27-14
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:332)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27122/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-06_20-27-14/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-06_20-27-14
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-06_20-28-07
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:333)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27122/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-06_20-28-07/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-06_20-28-07
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-06_20-28-10
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:334)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27122/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-06_20-28-10/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-06_20-28-10
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshot: 2025-08-06_21-50-18
Deleting subvolume: @ (Id:335)
E: ERROR: Not a Btrfs subvolume: Invalid argument
E: Failed to delete snapshot nested subvolume: '/run/timeshift/27122/backup/timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-08-06_21-50-18/@'
E: Failed to remove snapshot: 2025-08-06_21-50-18
------------------------------------------------------------------------------Last edited by atlimar (2025-08-06 21:21:08)
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