Extremely slow time machine backup

Hi,
I tried my first backup on snow leopard and I found it extremely slow compared to leopard. What used to take 20 minutes in leopard now takes 3 to 4 hours.
This was my first backup on snow leopard.
Is there any known issue for slow TM backup? If not, this must be a bug in this new OS.
If there is any assistance needed (i.e. logs etc) do let me know.
Thanks,
Apurva

Hi every one had the same problem for a while and had tried everything but discovered a solution that has helped me out and hope that it helps others as hours have been burnt trying to get this running.
so here we go.
Restart your Mac with the boot up media/ CD/ DVD
open disk utility
repair back up drive
repair local disk
repair permission local disk
boot back in to SL
go to your back up drive
open Backups.backupdb folder
find your back up folder (it will be named the same as your machine)
locate your current backup temporary file (this is not a folder but a file that is used to store and create your latest backup of your system it will look different so don't remove the wrong one)
move it to the trash
empty the trash (this will take a while depending on the size of temp file)
once completed run time machine again.
this time time machine will run a lot faster in determining the backup required, the the actual back up process will be a lot quicker once the first back up is created.
I went from waiting over 24 hours for a backup which ended up either failing or crashing my system to a 1st time complete back up in less than an hour and the incremental backups are much quicker.
for some reason the temp file gets corrupted no idea why but this has seemed to fix it for me.
I am backing up over 150 GB on my local disk and about 350GB on another external disk drive to my back up drive.
Drives is connected by Firewire 800
let me know if I can b of further assistance.
""Cheers

Similar Messages

Extremely Slow Time Machine Backup after upgrading to 10.8.3

Time machine backups are taking an extremely long time on my retina MacBook Pro 13 inch after upgrading to 10.8.3. It's taking many minutes just for a kilobyte to be backed up. I've tested transferring something to the disk and it's lightening fast so there's nothing wrong with the disk.
Is anyone having similar issues or know of a fix?

I had the same problem with slow backups. Called Apple 5 times and went through all the hoops checking plists, airport, and then erasing using my airport utility and the first backup of about 25-30 gigs went fine, but the second backup would take between 1-2 hours. By the time it was finished it was ready to do another backup.
After looking at community fixes I found that my Comcast Norton Anti Virus was the problem. Upon speaking for the 6th time to Apple I was told that should have been the first thing they asked, since antivirus programs check each file going to the time capsule. Even unchecking the scan external drives did not help.
I removed the Norton AV from my system and replaced it with the IAV from apple store (free) and my backups are back to normal. I timed a 100 meg using Ethernet/LAN and it took 9 minutes 32 seconds from clicking backup now, searching for backups, preparing backup, backingup, and cleanup. My Wifi connection on 10 megs took only 1 minute 29 seconds.
Now my backups run so fast I don't even see them working. Also the constant updates to Norton were casuing my backups to be 100 megs or more each time due to daily Norton updates. Now I get backups in the order of 10-20 megs - depending up what I have put on the machine. If I put music on it increases the size of the files installed.
I recommend anyone having this slow time capsule problem to turn off your full antivirus program no matter what you are using and watch the difference in speed. I am so happy! No more 2 hour backups and 45 minutes to 1 hour preparing backup! good luck

Suddenly extremely slow Time Machine backups on Time Capsule

My Time Machine backups on Time Capsule have been pretty good in the last few months. In the last week or so I am seeing painfully slow backups. It's not the preparing or the finishing phase, it's the backup itself. Data transfer for other apps is fine. The backup transfers about 50 Kb per second. In more than 3 hours it backed up about 600 Mb. Here's what I get from the Console:
11/26/08 4:22:07 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.28 GB requested (including padding), 730.31 GB available
11/26/08 5:50:47 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
11/26/08 6:12:40 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
11/26/08 6:51:37 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
11/26/08 7:05:44 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:05:46 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:05:46 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:07:05 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:07:05 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:09:06 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:09:13 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Error: (-39) SrcErr:YES Copying (null) to (null)
11/26/08 7:09:14 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:09:14 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/26/08 7:12:15 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1281] Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
Any clue? What happened? (I did an Airport-related upgrade recently)
My set up is a Time Capsule and an Airport Extreme.

Well, this link has a video describing a downgrade:
http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/airport-extreme-and-time-capsule-firmware-downgrad ing/11537477/
It has been mentioned in apple discussions here as well, but with no other information than that it has helped some people.
Message was edited by: Karl Ivar Dahl

Extremely slow time machine backups

I have problem that prevents me from making Time Machine backup at all. First, some information about my environment:
- MacBook MB404 (late 2008)
- Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
- External USB hard disk drive (Samsung)
I'm using this configuration for years, before Lion everything was working pretty well. Unfortunately, on Lion from time to time I have to erase my external disc drive which contains Time Machine backups and start taking a new backup. Otherwise backups are extremely slow and taking couple hours just to save about 100MB on external drive. That's not a big problem for me, so every two or three months I'm erasing my external drive using Disk Utility, configuring TM from scratch and taking first backup again.
Yesterday was the day TM starts working very slow, so I decided to repeat mentioned process. Everything went good to the moment Time Machine started making a new, first backup on a erased drive. It is still so slow, it wont be done in a week or more. I know, that this is the fist and clean backup, and TM have to copy over 60GB of data from MacBook's hard disk drive to external disk drive, connected by USB, so it have to be time-consuming, but it wasn't take more than 6-8 hours before for the same amount of data! I have already fixed permissions on the disk using Recovery HD partition, but I didn't help, TM is still so slow it almost impossible to make a backup. I have checked MacBook's disk and external Samsung disk - both seams to be in good shape, there are no errors in S.M.A.R.T, Disk Utility says that everything is OK. What else can I do to fix this issue?

I just added a TM backup disk and TM says it will take about 7 DAYS to backup.
iMac Intel i5 mid-2011, Mac OS 10.7.5 (1163), FW800 connection
It looks like the 1163 build of 10.7.5 didn't fix the problem of Spotlight slowing down TM backups. I'm going to dl the supplement (even though Apple says it isn't needed) and see if it will fix it.

Extremely slow Time Machine backup for only 4 Gb

I have a WD Passport for Mac, which is only a month old, so is in prestine condition. This is not the first backup, but the past few times I have tried to back up my data it takes hours for just a few megabytes. I am running a late 2013 model of the RD Macbook Pro, with OSX 10.9, obviously.
I have tried restarting in Safe Mode and trying again, but that does not fix it. I have also Verified the disk in Disk Utility and it came out clean. I believe the issue is related to this constant message I get in Console: "mdworker: (Warning) Import: Bad path"

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message that corresponds to an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included—anonymize before posting.

I'm having a hard time setting up my external hard from with my AirPort Extreme and Time Machine Backups.

I have been using a Mac Mini with an external hard and Time Machine. I bought an Airport Extreme and have had problem setting up the hard drive using the USB port on the Airport Extreme. I also just recently bought a Mac Book Air and hope to have both computers back up to the external hard drive using Time Machine and Airport Extreme. I have been using the optical drive from the Mac mini to load programs into the Mac Book Air. I think I'm just getting confused in Finder. I am just not seeing the hard drive. I ended up plugging the hard drive back into the Mac Mini and that is work fine again. How do I setting the external hard drive up to the AirPort Extreme and use for both computers? Or at least to start with the Mac mini.

It's critical to understand that Time Machine (TM) stores backups differently between local and network drives. That would mean the TM backup on your locally attached USB hard drive will not be directly useable when it is connected to the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS). There is a way to copy a local version to a network version, but it is not fool-proof. When you do connect this drive and point TM to it, TM will start a brand new backup, leaving your existing backup as is.
If your current backup is critical to you, you may want to consider getting a second USB drive to attach to the Extreme and use your existing one as a backup ... or use TM's multi-backup process to backup to more than one destination drive alternatively.
So, at this point, you may want to make a decision on how you want to go forward to help provide a solution for you.
To directly answer your question, when you go to select a destination for a Time Machine backup, the drive(s) that show up under "Backup Disks" are those that TM already recognizes and has backed up to. Those listed under "Available Disks" are drives (either local or on the network) that TM can back up to.

When is Apple going to fix the problem with slow Time Machine backups with Mavericks?

I have been with Apple tech support and they got my Time Machine working by doing a spotlight re-indexing and a safe boot. This worked for about three days and I am back to very slow backups. It is impossible for Time Machine to back up every hour when it takes six hours to do the back up. I don't want to take hours to re-index with spotlight all the time. I think taking six hours to do an incremental backup is a bit much. I see that there are many people that have this trouble and it all started with an upgrade to Mavericks. The question is when is Apple going to fix this problem of slow backups with Time Machine for Mavericks. I have wasted more time than I care to. I am think of going back to Windows. I need good solid backups of my machine and Apple has taken it away with the new Mavericks. Oh, I am using the UBS 3.0 connection so the drive should not be the problem. Also this has occurred in about the last five months, so I am not sure this problem was in the original Marvericks.

Allen Thanks for your reply. All I can say is several months ago Time Machine quit working in a reasonable manner. Right now I have a Time Machine backup that has been running all night and still has three hours to go to backup 6 GB of data. I am using a OWC 1.5 TB drive connected directly to my MacBook with a USB 3.0 connection. In the resent past I have added Dropbox, GoogleDrive and a MAMP server on which I am using a program called Learning With Text from Sourceforge. There have been a lot of questions on the forum about people having very slow Time Machine back ups, so it appears to be a general problem. I should also state I am getting this very slow backup after doing the Spotlight re-indexing and the Safe Restart procedure that was told to me by apple support. I have a 750 GB drive in my MacBook Pro which I am constantly trying to keep at a 5% level of free space. This might be a problem also. However, I am working on a lot of things and like to have a lot of things on my drive. Also the heavily loaded drive has not be a problem in the past. This slow backup business started about three months ago, so something has happen in a very short time period. Now it seems even the procedure that Apple support gave me is not working. Currently I am in China and it is difficult to interact with Apple support to solve this problem, but because I am in China having my computer backed up is critical. I have run the EtreCheck and am attaching the results below. I would appreciate any suggestions. If necessary I will clear out more of my hard drive if that appears to be a solution. The Time Machine drive was recently reformed so I only have a few backups on it. I also don't run the Time Machine all the time as I don't want multi-hour backups running all the time. I run it every few days.
Here is the info from EtreCheck:
Hardware Information:
          MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012)
          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,1
          1 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores
          8 GB RAM
Video Information:
          Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 1024 MB
          NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M - VRAM: 1024 MB
System Software:
          OS X 10.9.2 (13C1021) - Uptime: 0 days 10:18:59
Disk Information:
          APPLE HDD HTS727575A9E362 disk0 : (750.16 GB)
                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                    Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 749.3 GB (54.06 GB free)
                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
          HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS31N
USB Information:
          VIA Labs, Inc.    USB3.0 Hub
                    OWC Elite Pro mini C 1.5 TB
                              EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                              NewMBP-TimeMachine-1.1 (disk1s2) /Volumes/NewMBP-TimeMachine-1.1: 1.5 TB (691.6 GB free)
          Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
          Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
          Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
          Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
          Logitech USB Receiver
Thunderbolt Information:
          Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper:
          Mac App Store and identified developers
Kernel Extensions:
          [not loaded] com.LaCie.ScsiType00 (1.2.2) Support
          [not loaded] com.lacie.driver.LaCie_RemoteComms (1.0.1) Support
          [not loaded] com.oxsemi.driver.OxsemiDeviceType00 (1.28.0) Support
          [not loaded] com.roxio.BluRaySupport (1.1.6) Support
          [not loaded] com.roxio.TDIXController (2.0) Support
          [not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecDriverCore (5.0.1) Support
          [not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecLeafDriver_10_4 (5.0.1) Support
          [not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecLeafDriver_10_5 (5.0.1) Support
          [not loaded] com.seagate.driver.SeagateDriveIcons (5.0.1) Support
          [kext loaded] com.symantec.kext.SymAPComm (11.2.2f3) Support
          [not loaded] com.symantec.kext.confidentialData (1.4f5) Support
          [not loaded] com.symantec.kext.filesecurity (1.4.3f19) Support
          [kext loaded] com.symantec.kext.fw (1.0.3f5) Support
          [kext loaded] com.symantec.kext.internetSecurity (1.3.2f5) Support
          [kext loaded] com.symantec.kext.ips (1.3.1f7) Support
          [kext loaded] com.symantec.kext.pf (4.2.1f7) Support
          [not loaded] com.wacom.driver.HIDTablet (5.0.1) Support
Startup Items:
          cma: Path: /Library/StartupItems/cma
          MySQLCOM: Path: /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM
          ParallelsDesktopTransporter: Path: /Library/StartupItems/ParallelsDesktopTransporter
          ParallelsTransporter: Path: /Library/StartupItems/ParallelsTransporter
          Tablet: Path: /Library/StartupItems/Tablet
Launch Daemons:
          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
          [loaded] com.adobe.versioncueCS4.plist Support
          [loaded] com.barebones.authd.plist Support
          [not loaded] com.barebones.textwrangler.plist Support
          [loaded] com.bombich.ccc.plist Support
          [loaded] com.mcafee.virusscan.eupdate.plist Support
          [running] com.micromat.TechToolProDaemon.plist Support
          [loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support
          [loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist Support
          [loaded] com.prosofteng.DriveGenius.locum.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.avscandaemon.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.deepsight-extractor.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.diskMountNotify.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.MissedTasks.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.navapd.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.navapdaemonsl.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.Sched501-1.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.Sched501-2.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.Sched503-3.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.Sched503-4.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.sharedsettings.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.symdaemon.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.symSchedDaemon.plist Support
          [loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist Support
Launch Agents:
          [loaded] com.adobe.CS4ServiceManager.plist Support
          [running] com.lacie.safemanager.daemon.plist Support
          [running] com.micromat.TechToolProAgent.plist Support
          [loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support
          [running] com.seagate.SeagateStorageGauge.plist Support
          [failed] com.sogou.SogouServices.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.uiagent.application.plist Support
          [running] net.culater.SIMBL.Agent.plist Support
          [loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist Support
User Launch Agents:
          [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support
          [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support
          [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
          [running] com.wondershare.mobilegodaemon.plist Support
User Login Items:
          GeekTool
          SIMBL Agent
          QQ
          Safari
          Calendar
          Google Drive
          Dropbox
          Day One
          Dictionary
          SymSecondaryLaunch
Internet Plug-ins:
          Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 2.2.1.11 Support
          FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 13.0.0.182 - SDK 10.6 Support
          iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0
          Flash Player: Version: 13.0.0.182 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update
          AdobePDFViewer: Version: 9.5.5 Support
          Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
          OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: Version: 12.3.6 Support
          RealPlayer Plugin: Version: (null) Support
          Silverlight: Version: 4.0.51204.0 Support
          JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 55 Check version
Safari Extensions:
          Video Converter: Version: 4.0.0
          AllMyTube: Version: 4.1.0.0
          Open in Internet Explorer: Version: 1.0
Audio Plug-ins:
          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
          AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9
          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9
          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9
iTunes Plug-ins:
          Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9
User Internet Plug-ins:
          QQMail: Version: 1.0.2.0 - SDK 10.7 Support
          txftn: Version: 1.0.0.6 Support
3rd Party Preference Panes:
          Adobe Version Cue CS4 Support
          Flash Player Support
          GeekTool Support
          Growl Support
          Java Support
          MacFUSE Support
          MenuMeters Support
          MySQL Support
          Norton\nQuickMenu Support
          Paragon NTFS for Mac ® OS X Support
          Pen Tablet Support
          Perian Support
          TechTool Protection Support
Time Machine:
          Skip System Files: NO
          Mobile backups: OFF
          Auto backup: YES
          Volumes being backed up:
                    Macintosh HD: Disk size: 697.84 GB Disk used: 647.49 GB
          Destinations:
                    NewMBP-TimeMachine-1.1 [Local] (Last used)
                    Total size: 1
                    Total number of backups: 11
                    Oldest backup: 2014-03-18 15:09:46 +0000
                    Last backup: 2014-04-29 23:24:28 +0000
                    Size of backup disk: Too small
                              Backup size 1 < (Disk used 647.49 GB X 3)
          Time Machine details may not be accurate.
          All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
Top Processes by CPU:
              47%          SymAVScanDaemon
               7%          Finder
               7%          WindowServer
               2%          mds
               1%          NortonAutoProtect
Top Processes by Memory:
          385 MB          NortonAutoProtect
          262 MB          mds_stores
          180 MB          Safari
          139 MB          WindowServer
          115 MB          Finder
Virtual Memory Information:
          1.15 GB          Free RAM
          2.87 GB          Active RAM
          1.83 GB          Inactive RAM
          1.05 GB          Wired RAM
          1.02 GB          Page-ins
          380 MB          Page-outs
I hope you can see something that can be fixed.

Add'l ideas to cure slow Time Machine backup

Over the past 10 days, the average duration of my Time Machine backups has gone from 1 minute to :42-:45 minutes. There's been no significant shift in my computing behavior during that time. To fix, I've tried nearly everything recommended in Pondini's terrific site -- can you see something that I've overlooked?
* iMac8,1 4GB, running OS X 10.6.8
* TM drive: Seagate GoFlex 1TB, 30 days old, was freshly formatted and 100% dedicated to TM; have tested both Firewire and USB; 356GB used
* Fusion virtual machines excluded from TM via Preferences
* no virus program running
Review of backupd items in system.log shows, after the first few weeks of speedy TM backups, a gradual decay -- can't pinpoint a cliff (that could be blamed on an installation, etc.) And there's no other TM-related messages ("deep traversal," etc) in the log. When I watch Activity Monitor during a TM cycle, I see low CPU usage by TM, and slow read/write speeds for disk activity.
Yes, I have:
* repaired permissions (frequently)
* done disk verify and repair on both internal and TM drives (nothing found)
* set drives to "no sleep"
* disabled Spotlight
* relaunched Finder (and, of course, rebooted the whole system)
* tested in Safe Mode (no improvement)
* run daily/weekly/monthly maintenance scripts and purged caches, using Cocktail (Ironically, it got dramatically worse yesterday after I did this!)
No, I have not yet reformatted the TM drive, nor reinstalled 10.6.8. Am I forgetting something else?
thx

Hi there
The same problem here:
17.07.12 17:17:17          com.apple.backupd[12749]          Starting standard backup
*means: com.apple.backupd[12749]
17.07.12 17:17:17          *          Starting standard backup
17.07.12 17:17:17          *          Backing up to: /Volumes/TIME MACHINE/Backups.backupdb
17.07.12 17:17:48          *          No pre-backup thinning needed: 703.6 MB requested
                                                  (including padding), 1.37 TB available
17.07.12 17:22:43          *          Copied 34006 files (639 bytes) from volume DATEN.
17.07.12 17:23:54          *          No pre-backup thinning needed: 704.0 MB requested
                                                  (including padding),1.37 TB available
17.07.12 17:27:14          *          Copied 10482 files (639 bytes) from volume DATEN.
17.07.12 17:29:47          *          Starting post-backup thinning
17.07.12 17:33:29          *          Deleted backup /Volumes/TIME MACHINE/Backups.backupdb/
                                                  pmg5/2012-07-03-121520: 1.37 TB now available
17.07.12 17:37:05          *          Deleted backup /Volumes/TIME MACHINE/Backups.backupdb/
                                                   pmg5/2012-07-03-114951: 1.37 TB now available
17.07.12 17:37:05          *          Post-back up thinning complete: 2 expired backups removed
17.07.12 17:37:06          *          Backup completed successfully.
Many years everything with TimeMachine was fine. No problems, no effort. Works quiet and effectiv in the background.
2 months ago I recognised first changes. TM needs long and longer. Thousands of files - big number with low volume - TM copied to my external HDD. "Preparation" and "reworking" take a long time.
I controlled the backup with TimeTracker - a much smaller number of files was listed.
I read other threads:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3144862?start=15&tstart=0
and jump to Pandinis website. No success with this.
So long
iPille

Slow Time Machine Backups?

Hi there
I'm doing my first Time Machine backup after upgrading from 10.4 to 10.6, backing up to a partitioned Freecom USB2 external drive directly connected to my Mac Mini. The data rate of the backup seems very slow (approx 1GB per 35 minutes compared to 1GB per 45 seconds when doing a copy / paste to the drive). Is this normal for Time Machine to transfer data at this slower speed or is there a possible problem causing this slow transfer?
Thanks in advance
John

jonty1512 wrote:
will subsequent backups be complete (ie 23GB)
no. you are doing your initial backup hardwired, right ? backing up large amounts of files via wi-fi is neither recommended nor very reliable. plus, an ethernet connection will increase throughput
or will they be small incremental backups?
yes. and they can be done wirelessly.
JGG

Airport Extreme and Time Machine backups using a USB drive

Hi there,
I checked through the threads/FAQ's for an answer to this but couldn't find anything...
I have an AE set up with a USB drive attached as my Time Machine backup drive. When I start my MBP up and initiate a forced backup, Time Machine will go and find my drive (via the AE), mount it and carry out the backup without a problem. However, if I start my MBP up and wait for the scheduled hourly backup, TM doesn't see the drive (or perform the backup) unless I go and manually mount the drive first.
I realise I can put the drive in my login items to auto mount on boot but I wondered if there was a way to get the scheduled backups to work without doing this (as with the forced backups).
Thanks

mattschenker wrote:
Pondini,
Actually, I wasn't thinking about theft. I was just thinking that for security in a possible data-loss "event," it was better to have the backup drive physically separated from the main computer. But maybe that's not necessary.
That's unlikely. A power surge could take out both your Mac and connected external HD. You do have your Macs on good surge protectors or, better yet, U.P.S. systems, right? If not, see [Using a U.P.S. System with a Mac|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/UPS.html].
But wherever the external HD is, unless it's on a surge protector or U.P.S., it's still exposed.
Other things causing data loss are even less likely to affect your Time Machine drive (especially if there's no other data on it).
Yes, I could hook something up to my Mac Mini. Good point! And that would really keep it separated, since it would be in an entirely different floor. But then again, Time Machine backups done wirelessly would probably take forever.
The first one, yes. But if you have a good WIFI connection, subsequent ones shouldn't take too long or be too obtrusive, except when you've updated a lot of data (like installing an OSX update).
See #22 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for setup instructions.
But this just shows that there are a lot of options.
Yes.
I do wish Apple would solve the problem of Time Machine working via the Airport Extreme. That would be my favorite option.
Not likely. Time Machine's been out since Leopard, about 3 years, and backups via an Extreme have never been reliable or supported. Just why they work well on a Time Capsule, or even a USB drive connected to a TC, but not an Airport, is a mystery, but that's the way it is.
But it's always a good idea to keep secondary backups. See #27 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for some suggestions.

Extremely slow time machine in Lion

I bumped my 2TB Seagate USB hard drive which I had been very successfully using as a Time Machine backup drive. It is partitioned to 2 equal size partitions and it all worked very well until Lion. When I recently bumped the drive during a backup session it corrupted the partition. I erased the corrupted partition and reformatted the partition. Now when I try to use that backup drive partition as a backup it is taking forever. I have had my Macbook laptop computer tethered to the backup hard drive for two days now and it only has 7.76 GB out of 115 GB backed up. What's up with that?

Did you happen to update early in the piece.. there is a supplement.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1599
Test regime for software patches is now left to end users it seems.

Slow Time Machine backup

I am running OSX Maverics version 10.9 on my mid 2009 15" MBP. I've noticed lately that my backups are taking longer than usual, even before the upgrade to the new OS. I've even hard wired my MBP into my Time Casule A1355 which seemed to help the first few backups, but now it's running slow again. Right now it says backing up 1.1 MB of 1.2 MB with no calculated time. I have over 300 GB remaining on my Time Capsule that started as 1 TB. Just wondering what's going on and if anyone had any insight or the same problem. Thanks

I did a simple Google search for "time machine slow backups" an dthis is the site I found which explained what to do. It worked for me.
http://www.vitarara.org/cms/node/149

Slow Time Machine backup with seemingly unnecessary files being processed

Here are logs from three consecutive hourly backups during which my machine was not being used. Note that it takes 8 minutes to complete the backup, even though very few files have been added to the disk (I do webcam captures every 15 minutes via a cron job, that's it). What I find bizarre is that the backups appear to be performed twice, and the first time, it says it's copying a large number of files, though the total file size is very small.
I've looked on the board here and tried various solutions, e.g., I've reindexed Spotlight, checked my disk (no problems), removed the apostrophe from my computer's share name, and applied the 10.5.6 Combo Update.
Anyone have any other suggestions?
Thanks!
Feb 19 08:03:08 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Starting standard backup
Feb 19 08:03:17 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Backing up to: /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb
Feb 19 08:03:45 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.45 GB requested (including padding), 214.67 GB available
Feb 19 08:07:11 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Copied 58667 files (46 KB) from volume gb.
Feb 19 08:07:35 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Copied 59139 files (448 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Feb 19 08:07:36 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.45 GB requested (including padding), 214.67 GB available
Feb 19 08:07:42 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Copied 27 files (20 bytes) from volume gb.
Feb 19 08:07:51 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Copied 364 files (229 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Feb 19 08:07:54 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Starting post-backup thinning
Feb 19 08:11:17 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Deleted backup /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/My iMac/2009-02-18-070723: 214.67 GB now available
Feb 19 08:11:17 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
Feb 19 08:11:17 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86068]: Backup completed successfully.
Feb 19 09:03:08 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Starting standard backup
Feb 19 09:03:17 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Backing up to: /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb
Feb 19 09:03:45 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.45 GB requested (including padding), 214.67 GB available
Feb 19 09:06:55 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Copied 58675 files (47 KB) from volume gb.
Feb 19 09:07:18 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Copied 59142 files (449 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Feb 19 09:07:19 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.45 GB requested (including padding), 214.67 GB available
Feb 19 09:07:26 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Copied 27 files (20 bytes) from volume gb.
Feb 19 09:07:34 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Copied 364 files (229 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Feb 19 09:07:38 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Starting post-backup thinning
Feb 19 09:11:01 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Deleted backup /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/My iMac/2009-02-18-080738: 214.67 GB now available
Feb 19 09:11:01 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
Feb 19 09:11:02 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86218]: Backup completed successfully.
Feb 19 10:03:08 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Starting standard backup
Feb 19 10:03:17 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Backing up to: /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb
Feb 19 10:03:48 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.45 GB requested (including padding), 214.67 GB available
Feb 19 10:07:14 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Copied 58683 files (36 KB) from volume gb.
Feb 19 10:07:52 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Copied 66813 files (522 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Feb 19 10:07:53 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.45 GB requested (including padding), 214.67 GB available
Feb 19 10:08:00 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Copied 27 files (20 bytes) from volume gb.
Feb 19 10:08:08 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Copied 369 files (229 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Feb 19 10:08:11 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Starting post-backup thinning
Feb 19 10:11:52 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Deleted backup /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/My iMac/2009-02-18-090731: 214.67 GB now available
Feb 19 10:11:52 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
Feb 19 10:11:53 My-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[86374]: Backup completed successfully.

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
First, it's easier to monitor backups via the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window.
It's not unusual for TM to do what seem to be double backups. When it first starts, TM looks at the +File System Event Store,+ a log kept by OSX of all changes to the file system on your disk. It then estimates the size needed, and begins the process. When it finishes it's pre-backup "thinning," if any, and copying of changed items, it then checks again for any changes made during the backup, and does a quick copy of those items.
TM does occasionally get something wildly wrong about counts and file sizes, as it clearly has for you. Sometimes this seems to be a problem in the File System itself, so I'd suggest you use Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) to do a +Verify Disk+ on your internal HD. If it shows any errors, post back if you don't know how to use your Leopard install disk to fix them.
While you're at it, a +Repair Permissions+ wouldn't be a bad idea (takes quite a while -- at least 20 minutes).
You might also want to download the TimeTracker app, from www.charlessoft.com.
It shows most of the files saved by TM for each backup (excluding some hidden/system files, etc.). This may give you some clues as to what's actually being backed-up on each run.
Give those things a shot and let us know the results.

Slow Time Machine Backup to USB

Yes, I know I am not the only one having this problem, but I figured I would add my question in hopes that Apple would address the problem sooner than later.
I'm backing up my Time Machine to a LaCie USB 500GB external hard drive. The current backup (running now) is 9.76GB and the hard drive has 81GB available, so that is not the issue. I'm running Lion 10.7.5 and didn't have this issue until I upgraded. Since the hard drive is sitting right here, I can audibly hear that its only writing data every couple of minutes, so I'm not sure what it is doing between these writings.
I know have read some solutions, but I'm hesitant. I can't upgrade to Mountain Lion because my MacBook is too old and isn't compatible. I'm hesitant to do any changes to Spotlight without a recent backup, because if I screw something up and have to re-install OSX, I will lose weeks of info going back to my last backup.
I'm going to let this back-up continue in hopes of getting through it within the next few days. If I can, I will try the Spotlight fix. If not, I'm going to be waiting for Apple to fix the issue.

I'm also face the same problem. What I do just now is disable spotlight and backup again. I found it much faster. then, after backup completed I will enable spotlight back because I really using spotlight for faster searching files..
for enable or disable spotlight in Mac OSX Lion
http://osxdaily.com/2011/12/10/disable-or-enable-spotlight-in-mac-os-x-lion/

Is there a fix for slow time machine backups?

i upgraded to OS 10.10.2, everything seems to be working fine except that time machine takes an unbelievable amount of time to backup. I have a macbook pro late 2011 build. I am backing up to an external drive via thunderbolt and have a 256GB SSD. I erased and reformatted the external drive, but that did nothing to help. I saw that this problem has been on going does anyone know how to correct this?
Message was edited by: tryin hard

I'm sorry that it has taken so long to get back online, I'm out of town and this has been my first chance. to get on. It has been very frustrating getting back on...
Suddenly I couldn't connect, it seemed that Safari had hung up. After 15 min it began to work just fine, I hope this is not a harbinger of troubles to come.
I am using a 1 TB Buffalo drive as my BU for Time Machine through Thunderbolt. After 10 min I had only backed up 40 mb of 82 gigs, I don't have a lot on this macbook pro... Tried the suggestions given but to no avail. I have been a Carbon Copy Cloner user on my iMac, and I think that I will just give up on TM and use CCC on this macbook...

Extremely slow time machine backup

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