Difference Between EXPIRED and OBSOLETE backups in Oracle

Nice and simple but so much harder to remember.

EXPIRED is where Oracle think is has a backup but the file is no longer available, ie deleted.

OBSOLETE is where backups exist but are no longer required for a complete recovery. If you're using a FRA then the space occupied by the obsolete backups is available to be overwritten. OBSOLETE backups depend upon several things in the CONFIGURE settings such as the retention policy.

CROSSCHECK is used to identify EXPIRED backups and they can be deleted using the DELETE EXPIRED command.

Happyjohn