How do I delete Time Machine backups of my Trash?

Solution 1:

Time Machine shouldn't be backing up the trash folder(s) under normal circumstances.

In any case, you might want to use Terminal command tmutil delete command to delete the offending files.

tmutil delete /Volumes/DISK/Backups.backupdb/HOST/DATE/Macintosh HD/.Trashes

Solution 2:

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but Time Machine does not backup the Trash folder by default. Did you modify the exclusions property list to include these folders?

Solution 3:

The fix to the problem is… it fixed itself. Really. Between posting this problem and trying a solution I had disconnected my backup drive and put my laptop to sleep.

When I reconnected the backup drive later to try @icondaemon's solution, it turned out then that I couldn't find the files in the backup. I was very thorough in checking. Moreover, the Finder/Time Machine was now letting me delete backups of dot files and hidden flag files.

So I'm happy now that it's taken care of, but a bit tired and confused since there is no obvious solution.