Time machine backup taking too long

I am trying to use timemachine to backup on a new 2 tb 'passport for mac' but after running it for 2days it has only backed up 16gb of 290 gb so i have had to stop it. Anyone know how i can speed this up?

That's about two days too many. Have you run Software Update? A fix for Lion's slow TM performance was released a week or so ago.
You really ought to post this question in the iMac (Intel) or OS X Lion discussions area.

Similar Messages

  • Initial Time Machine Backup Taking Too Long

    I have 184 GB of data to backup. Time Machine is backing up about 1 MB of data every 30 secs. At that rate, it will take 64 days for the initial full backup to complete. That can't be right. Has anyone run into similar problems? Any advice?
    Thanks...

    ixian98 wrote:
    That can't be right. Has anyone run into similar problems? Any advice?
    Hi check out [this thread|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1712437&tstart=0] which explains how best to format a disk for TM use.

  • HT201250 Is my first time machine backup taking too long?

    I'm running my first ever back up to Time Machine which was set up for me in the apple store yesterday.  It's been going for around 20 hours and has only done 11.3 GB of the 112GB it needs to do.  Is it normal for it to take this long?
    Any help much appreciated.

    Have now stopped and restarted and it's complete.

  • Time Machine backup taking too long (91 days)

    I'm doing the initial TM backup to a partitioned EHD... TM has been running for 3 hours and it has made almost no progress.  It even has the estimated time as 91 days (!!!) to complete the backup.  Is this normal?  The very first time I did TM (on another drive) I remember it took a while but surely not 91 days.  Am I doing something wrong?  Or do I just need to wait it out and let this take its sweet time? 

    Hello Jossydtaylor
    Check out the article below to see if you match any of the criteria for Times Machine running slow. There are also some other link by the related articles that may provide more assistance as well.
    OS X Mountain Lion: If Time Machine is slow
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11172
    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
    Regards,
    -Norm G.

  • Time Machine backups taking extremely long time and disrupting other computing activity

    I have an iMac running the latest version of Lion (10.7.4) and which I have upgraded to a one terabyte hard drive and full memory capability. I back up to a My Book 2 terabyte external hard drive using Time Machine. My iMac is often very sticky, though I've done most of the diagnostics I know of and preferences etc. are seemingly all OK and fcuk -fs gives a positive result! The Mac is often hard to wake from sleep and in particular seems to spend a lot of time backing up very-very slowly, with the result that it frustratingly seems to be backing up most of the time with the consequent effercts on using other programmes. Also the whole thing seems to grind to a halt after a hard days work with quite a few applications open. I'm wondering what can be causing this and what I can do to overcome this very frustrating and debilitating problem?

    Hi
    I would try the following for now and I am sorry, yes you were clear that it's an external drive.
    Rebuild Spotlight
    -Rebuild the spotlight index as per http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409 as a first step. Spotlight indexes play a role in healthy backups so this is why this could be a good thing to do.
    - When conducting the next backup, after the spotlight re-index, consider connecting to your mac only the external hard drive and disconnect all other devices to rule out other devices affecting things. I suggest connecting devices back one at a time followed by a triggered backup until the issue fails to reproduce itself.
    General Performance Issues
    - Some performance issues can also be cured through an SMC reset. This article can help in this regard, note that the steps differ depending on the model mac you use: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
    --In terms of the mac's general sluggishness
    - SMC can help
    - open Activity Monitor and check to see if CPU usage is abnormally high or any particular process is consuming an elevated amount of CPU cycles, see http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5146
    Check External HD (backup drive)
    - If you've run disk utility and have done a repair permissions and repair disk as per user "Radiation Mac" then there is no point doing it again but this should just be a reminder incase you missed it.
    -- on a related note to disk utility try;
    1) Mount your external hard drive.
    2) In Disk Utility, locate your external backup drive. Your backup drive should mount in the Disk Utility sidebar when attached to your Mac.
    3) Select your external backup drive.
    4) Click Repair.
    Test Time Machine backups against a different drive
    --If you have a spare hard drive or even a small USB stick, you could back up only a very small amount of data to this second hard drive or USB stick as a test. This article outlines how to exclude from backups, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
    Further Ideas
    Seeing the logs would be useful if the issue persists. There maybe a reason for the issue but it appears only in the logs which we may eventually need.
    I almost forgot
    -make sure everything is uptodate with Apple software/firmware and any firmware for your drive if applicable.
    If anything is unclear, feel free to let me know, I will provide more details.

  • Backups taking too long

    My Time Capsule backups are taking too long. Time Machine says it is indexing. However, I have had my Time Machine configured since I installed Lion last year and it has been making automatic backups every hour since. Why is it 'indexing' now, and why is it taking so long?
    Thank you

    Visit pondini.org for all things Time Machine.

  • Time Machine Backups Taking 20 Minutes

    Hi everyone.
    Starting yesterday, my time machine backups are taking 20 minutes, when they used to only take 5.  I'm backing up to an AirPort Extreme, via a wireless home network.  Here's the latest code from the Console.
    3/10/12 10:26:11.581 AM com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup
    3/10/12 10:26:11.600 AM com.apple.backupd: Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://Michael%20Payne@Extreme%20Pleasantville._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Time%20Mac hine%20Backups
    3/10/12 10:26:20.103 AM com.apple.backupd: Mounted network destination at mountpoint: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups using URL: afp://Michael%20Payne@Extreme%20Pleasantville._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Time%20Mac hine%20Backups
    3/10/12 10:26:25.308 AM com.apple.backupd: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
    3/10/12 10:26:28.358 AM com.apple.backupd: Disk image /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Michael’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1
    3/10/12 10:26:28.366 AM com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/Backups.backupdb
    3/10/12 10:29:15.785 AM com.apple.backupd: 328.7 MB required (including padding), 11.01 GB available
    3/10/12 10:29:15.786 AM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    3/10/12 10:30:15.939 AM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    3/10/12 10:31:16.045 AM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    3/10/12 10:32:16.319 AM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    3/10/12 10:33:25.124 AM com.apple.backupd: Copied 2103 files (4.0 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    3/10/12 10:33:25.490 AM com.apple.backupd: 326.2 MB required (including padding), 11.01 GB available
    3/10/12 10:33:25.491 AM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    3/10/12 10:34:27.545 AM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    3/10/12 10:35:28.849 AM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    3/10/12 10:36:30.823 AM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    3/10/12 10:37:32.956 AM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    3/10/12 10:38:34.958 AM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    3/10/12 10:39:36.563 AM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    3/10/12 10:40:37.309 AM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    3/10/12 10:41:38.786 AM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    3/10/12 10:42:57.782 AM com.apple.backupd: Copied 740 files (1.3 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    3/10/12 10:43:02.358 AM com.apple.backupd: Starting post-backup thinning
    3/10/12 10:44:05.835 AM com.apple.backupd: Deleted /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/Backups.backupdb/Michael’s MacBook Pro/2012-03-08-223328 (1.8 MB)
    3/10/12 10:44:05.835 AM com.apple.backupd: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
    3/10/12 10:44:06.002 AM com.apple.backupd: Backup completed successfully.
    3/10/12 10:44:21.968 AM com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    3/10/12 10:44:22.204 AM com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
    It looks like it's a problem with the Indexing.  I'm in the process of doing a verification now, but is there anything else I can do to get it back to the 5 minutes or so it takes?  If you care, here is a code from a more successful backup that didn't take nearly as long.
    3/8/12 10:27:07.728 PM com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup
    3/8/12 10:27:08.081 PM com.apple.backupd: Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://Michael%20Payne@Extreme%20Pleasantville._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Time%20Mac hine%20Backups
    3/8/12 10:27:08.643 PM com.apple.backupd: Mounted network destination at mountpoint: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups using URL: afp://Michael%20Payne@Extreme%20Pleasantville._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Time%20Mac hine%20Backups
    3/8/12 10:27:15.446 PM com.apple.backupd: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
    3/8/12 10:27:19.348 PM com.apple.backupd: Disk image /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Michael’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1
    3/8/12 10:27:19.480 PM com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/Backups.backupdb
    3/8/12 10:29:02.025 PM com.apple.backupd: 435.2 MB required (including padding), 19.03 GB available
    3/8/12 10:31:53.585 PM com.apple.backupd: Copied 1312 files (1.4 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    3/8/12 10:32:06.643 PM com.apple.backupd: 434.6 MB required (including padding), 19.03 GB available
    3/8/12 10:33:28.056 PM com.apple.backupd: Copied 983 files (943 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    3/8/12 10:33:33.364 PM com.apple.backupd: Starting post-backup thinning
    3/8/12 10:35:09.074 PM com.apple.backupd: Deleted /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/Backups.backupdb/Michael’s MacBook Pro/2012-03-07-213931 (2.9 MB)
    3/8/12 10:35:09.074 PM com.apple.backupd: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
    3/8/12 10:35:09.363 PM com.apple.backupd: Backup completed successfully.
    3/8/12 10:35:27.460 PM com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    3/8/12 10:35:27.698 PM com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
    It looks like starting on March 9 is when the problem started happening.  I'm using a MacBook Pro with Mac OS X Version 10.7.3.

    As an update, the Backup Verification passed.
    3/10/12 10:56:09.005 AM com.apple.backupd: Backup verification requested by user.
    3/10/12 10:56:09.024 AM com.apple.backupd: Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://Michael%20Payne@Extreme%20Pleasantville._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Time%20Mac hine%20Backups
    3/10/12 10:56:09.715 AM com.apple.backupd: Mounted network destination at mountpoint: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups using URL: afp://Michael%20Payne@Extreme%20Pleasantville._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Time%20Mac hine%20Backups
    3/10/12 10:56:10.225 AM com.apple.backupd: Running backup verification
    3/10/12 10:56:13.381 AM com.apple.backupd: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
    3/10/12 11:07:43.912 AM com.apple.backupd: Backup verification passed!
    3/10/12 11:07:44.483 AM com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine network volume.

  • Time Machine backup taking forever after 10.6.2

    After installing 10.6.2, Time Machine is taking ages to back up 3.2GB to my USB external drive. It is taking so long, in fact, that it has not done a single backup since I installed the latest update on November 9 — my computer did not stay up and on long enough for it to complete one back up. Today, it has been running non-stop for some ten hours and has so far done 104 MB of the 3.2GB. This is crazy. It did happen in the past that backups took a long time after a major update, but never this long.
    Everything worked fine before the 10.6.2 update. Is anyone else having similar problems?

    Ok, so here’s what happened since the last post.
    I did what you recommended: had the external hard drive “repaired” (the disk utility said it was ok), and started the backup again, and again it was excruciatingly slow (it had backed up 40MB after five hours or so).
    At that point I decided to erase the backup volume and start anew (after formatting etc). But again it got stuck after backing up 3.5GB out of 180GB. The Time Machine widget said “Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed” and “Waiting for index to be ready”. I again stopped the backup and did what your guide recommended. I excluded the backup volume from Spotlight and restarted the process. This time it worked. The backup was complete in reasonable time and has been working fine since.
    The only problem is Spotlight. After the backup, I removed the Time Machine volume from the “do not index list”, but Spotlight does not seem to have responded. It either has not indexed the backup volume or is not admitting it: searching for anything inside Time Machine always returns “no results”.
    Thanx a lot for your help. If you can give me a hint on how to get Spotlight working again, I’d be really, really grateful.

  • TIme Machine  backup grows too large during backup process

    I have been using Time Machine without a problem for several months, backing up my imac - 500GB drive with 350g used. Recently TM failed because the backups had finally filled the external drive - 500GB USB. Since I did not need the older backups, I reformatted the external drive to start from scratch. Now TM tries to do an initial full backup but the size keeps growing as it is backing up, eventually becoming too large for the external drive and TM fails. It will report, say, 200G to back up, then it reaches that point and the "Backing up XXXGB of XXXGB" just keeps getting larger. I have tried excluding more than 100GB of files to get the backup set very small, but it still grows during the backup process. I have deleted plist and cache files as some discussions have suggested, but the same issue occurs each time. What is going on???

    Michael Birtel wrote:
    Here is the log for the last failure. As you see it indicates there is enough room 345g needed, 464G available, but then it fails. I can watch the backup progress, it reaches 345G and then keeps growing till it give out of disk space error. I don't know what "Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD" implies, maybe this is a clue?
    No. It's sort of a warning, indicating that TM isn't sure what's changed on your internal HD since the previous backup, usually as a result of an abnormal shutdown. But since you just erased your TM disk, it's perfectly normal.
    Starting standard backup
    Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
    2009-07-08 19:37:53.659 FindSystemFiles[254:713] Querying receipt database for system packages
    2009-07-08 19:37:55.582 FindSystemFiles[254:713] Using system path cache.
    Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
    Backup content size: 309.5 GB excluded items size: 22.3 GB for volume Macintosh HD
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 345.01 GB requested (including padding), 464.53 GB available
    This is a completely normal start to a backup. Just after that last message is when the actual copying begins. Apparently whatever's happening, no messages are being sent to the log, so this may not be an easy one to figure out.
    First, let's use Disk Utility to confirm that the disk really is set up properly.
    First, select the second line for your internal HD (usually named "Macintosh HD"). Towards the bottom, the Format should be +Mac OS Extended (Journaled),+ although it might be +Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled).+
    Next, select the line for your TM partition (indented, with the name). Towards the bottom, the Format must be the same as your internal HD (above). If it isn't, you must erase the partition (not necessarily the whole drive) and reformat it with Disk Utility.
    Sometimes when TM formats a drive for you automatically, it sets it to +Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled).+ Do not use this unless your internal HD is also case-sensitive. All drives being backed-up, and your TM volume, should be the same. TM may do backups this way, but you could be in for major problems trying to restore to a mis-matched drive.
    Last, select the top line of the TM drive (with the make and size). Towards the bottom, the *Partition Map Scheme* should be GUID (preferred) or +Apple Partition Map+ for an Intel Mac. It must be +Apple Partition Map+ for a PPC Mac.
    If any of this is incorrect, that's likely the source of the problem. See item #5 of the Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum for instructions, then try again.
    If it's all correct, perhaps there's something else in your logs.
    Use the Console app (in your Applications/Utilities folder).
    When it starts, click +Show Log List+ in the toolbar, then navigate in the sidebar that opens up to your system.log and select it. Navigate to the +Starting standard backup+ message that you noted above, then see what follows that might indicate some sort of error, failure, termination, exit, etc. (many of the messages there are info for developers, etc.). If in doubt post (a reasonable amount of) the log here.

  • Time Machine: Backup is too large and I have space on my Time Capsule !

    Hi Everybody,
    I am using Time Machine with my 1T Time Capsule. Everything was running nice till I get message telling that backup could not complete because there was an error copying backup files. I searched for solutions, erased TM disk, reset TM, and reset TC too. Now I have 937g available on TC, I tried to backup 63g but a message came out telling that backup is too large !
    Any ideas please !?

    Hi
    The backup failed too !
    These are the messages from the console:
    Apr 2 11:53:12 hussain-almarshoods-macbook kernel[0]:
    Apr 2 11:53:42: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
    Apr 2 11:54:10 hussain-almarshoods-macbook com.apple.backupd[413]: Stopping backup.
    Apr 2 11:54:10 hussain-almarshoods-macbook kernel[0]:
    Apr 2 11:54:27: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
    Apr 2 11:54:27 hussain-almarshoods-macbook com.apple.backupd[413]: Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/s9am8/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2010/2010-03-272/IMG0687.JPG to (null)
    Apr 2 11:54:31 hussain-almarshoods-macbook com.apple.backupd[413]: Copied 168977 files (58.2 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    Apr 2 11:54:31 hussain-almarshoods-macbook com.apple.backupd[413]: Copy stage failed with error:11
    Apr 2 11:54:37 hussain-almarshoods-macbook com.apple.backupd[413]: Backup failed with error: 11
    Apr 2 11:54:40 hussain-almarshoods-macbook [0x0-0x11011].com.tomtom.HOMERunnerApp[135]: Notifying device changed
    Apr 2 11:54:42 hussain-almarshoods-macbook com.apple.backupd[413]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    Apr 2 11:54:42 hussain-almarshoods-macbook [0x0-0x11011].com.tomtom.HOMERunnerApp[135]: Notifying device changed
    Apr 2 11:54:42 hussain-almarshoods-macbook com.apple.backupd[413]: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
    These are from TM buddy:
    Starting standard backup
    Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Hussain%[email protected]/Hussainz
    Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Hussain%[email protected]/Hussainz
    Disk image /Volumes/Hussainz-1/Hussain Almarshood’s MacBook.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
    Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Backup content size: 67.9 GB excluded items size: 3.8 GB for volume Macintosh HD
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 76.92 GB requested (including padding), 874.08 GB available
    Copied 3.6 GB of 64.1 GB, 152 of 620764 items
    Copied 7.3 GB of 64.1 GB, 31990 of 620764 items
    Copied 9.7 GB of 64.1 GB, 143329 of 620764 items
    Copied 13.3 GB of 64.1 GB, 151861 of 620764 items
    Copied 17.3 GB of 64.1 GB, 153066 of 620764 items
    Copied 20.9 GB of 64.1 GB, 154141 of 620764 items
    Copied 25.0 GB of 64.1 GB, 154854 of 620764 items
    Copied 29.3 GB of 64.1 GB, 155711 of 620764 items
    Copied 33.7 GB of 64.1 GB, 156613 of 620764 items
    Copied 38.0 GB of 64.1 GB, 157522 of 620764 items
    Copied 42.2 GB of 64.1 GB, 159199 of 620764 items
    Copied 46.3 GB of 64.1 GB, 160927 of 620764 items
    Copied 50.7 GB of 64.1 GB, 161025 of 620764 items
    Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/s9am8/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Data/2010/2010-03-273/IMG0128.jpg to (null)
    Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/s9am8/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Modified/2010/2010-03-273/IMG0112.JPG to (null)
    Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/s9am8/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Modified/2010/2010-03-273/IMG0115.JPG to (null)
    Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/s9am8/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Modified/2010/2010-03-273/IMG0123.JPG to (null)
    Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/s9am8/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Modified/2010/2010-03-273/IMG0125.JPG to (null)
    Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/s9am8/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Modified/2010/2010-03-273/IMG0136.JPG to (null)
    Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/s9am8/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Modified/2010/2010-03-273/IMG0137.JPG to (null)
    Copied 54.6 GB of 64.1 GB, 168977 of 620764 items
    This is the TM message:
    http://img.skitch.com/20100402-mmjqp1ecca6f1mukn1aggp4uw6.jpg
    I this the problem is that there are still some corrupted(damaged) photos in the iPhoto library? Is that right?
    Do I have to verify the internal HD ? or find a way to delete the iPhotos files "which I do not want them thou"?
    OR you have other method?
    Thanks

  • Time Machine backup disk no longer available since upgrade to Mountain Lion

    He everyone,
       I've been using Time Machine for years to backup my iMac to an external USB harddrive (Samsung HD103Sl), and everything used to work just fine up until I installed Mountain Lion.
    Now Finder nor Time Machine can see my external harddrive. If I go to DIsk Utility, the harddrive is listed there, and everything seem to be just fine. I tried to run a disk verification and a repair, but Disk Utility tell me everything is OK.
    Is it a Mountain Lion bug? Can someone help me with that?
    TIA
    Charles

    I'm not sure if I have exactly the same case as yours....
    I got the problem with my external HDD (with 2 partitions) while I was using one of the encrypted partition as Time Machine backup. I could not erase it after I upgrade to Mountain Lion, and it shown "this patition contain a locked disk and can not be resized until it is unlocked" in Disk Utility.
    You may have a look if that's the same in Disk Utility.
    Finally I get it fixed by the "diskutil" command in "Terminal" in "OSX > Applications > Utilities".
    I used the command "diskutil" to verify the UUID of the "Logical Volume Group (LVG)" of the locked partition.
    Then use the command to delete the LVG.
    ** All logical volume under this groiup will be deleted!!
    Once the operation finished, I am able to recreate the partition in Disk Utility.
    Hope this help!!

  • Why is my Time Machine Backup Taking More Space then my Hard Drive?

    I have a Late-2009 MacBook model with a 250GB hard drive.  My external drive is 1TB.  I use it for Time Machine backups as well as other storage.  My backups on that drive are a bit less then 900GB, which is 90% of that disk.  My hard drive is only 250GB so how is it over 3 times as large?  I would like to have more storage for other files.  What would you recomend doing?  Can I partition the external disk?

    How time machine works is that it makes an initial back up and from there it scans your system for changes.  When it finds a change it adds the changes on top of your current backup. So if you have a folder full of pictures then rename them or change them, etc it'll resave/archive the pictures ontop of what it already backed up.  It doesn't keep a single "state" of backup.  This allows you to "look back in time" and see if you can find something you might have accidentally changed or deleted or etc.  Once the disk becomes full it will delete the oldest backups to keep archiving newer files.
    I would suggest that you partition your external drive to a size that allows you to keep free the desired extra storage space you're looking to use.  For example partition the drive to two 500GB partitions one for storage one for time machine.

  • Time Machine backup takes so long

    Hello
    Normally my backups take about 10 minutes, but since last week they take up to 5 hours.
    I have this little app "LogViewer for Time Machine" which extracts relevant information
    from the log. On 7/12 I got this report:
    04:28:36 - Starting manual backup
    04:28:37 - Backing up to: /Volumes/MyBook/Backups.backupdb
    04:28:41 - Using file event preflight for Macintosh HD
    04:28:43 - Will copy (391.8 MB) from Macintosh HD
    04:28:43 - Found 585 files (391.8 MB) needing backup
    04:28:44 - 2.02 GB required (including padding), 301.13 GB available
    04:34:20 - Copied 20899 files (359.7 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    04:34:20 - Using file event preflight for Macintosh HD
    04:34:20 - Will copy (Zero KB) from Macintosh HD
    04:34:20 - Found 9 files (Zero KB) needing backup
    04:34:20 - 1.55 GB required (including padding), 300.81 GB available
    04:34:23 - Copied 260 files (143 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
    04:34:26 - Created new backup: 2013-12-07-043424
    04:34:27 - Starting post-backup thinning
    04:36:51 - Deleted /Volumes/MyBook/Backups.backupdb/uome’s iMac/2013-11-07-014345 (186.9 MB)
    04:36:51 - Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
    04:36:51 - Backup completed successfully.
    Everything looks normal. A few days later I got the following report:
    02:01:14 - Starting manual backup
    02:01:20 - Backing up to: /Volumes/MyBook/Backups.backupdb
    02:01:43 - Using file event preflight for Macintosh HD
    02:03:50 - Will copy (332.1 MB) from Macintosh HD
    02:03:50 - Found 699 files (332.1 MB) needing backup
    02:03:50 - 1.95 GB required (including padding), 299.78 GB available
    03:23:12 - Copied 238.1 MB of 332.1 MB, 1622 of 1622 items
    04:23:13 - Copied 295.7 MB of 332.1 MB, 17541 of 17541 items
    04:41:06 - Copied 20395 files (308.1 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    04:41:08 - Using file event preflight for Macintosh HD
    04:41:08 - Will copy (7 bytes) from Macintosh HD
    04:41:08 - Found 21 files (7 bytes) needing backup
    04:41:08 - 1.55 GB required (including padding), 299.5 GB available
    04:42:26 - Copied 791 files (2 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    04:42:40 - Created new backup: 2013-12-12-044227
    04:42:43 - Starting post-backup thinning
    04:57:40 - Deleted /Volumes/MyBook/Backups.backupdb/uome’s iMac/2013-11-12-030726 (375.1 MB)
    04:57:40 - Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
    04:57:55 - Backup completed successfully.
    It took three hours.
    - How can 21 files have a size of 7 bytes?
    - How can 791 files have a size of 2KB?
    Is this OK? Or what is happening here?
    Many thanks.

    Thank you for your answers and questions.
    LexSchellings wrote:
    Did you update or upgrade OS lately?
    Did you install any scheduler for TimeMachine (like TimeMachineScheduler) or did you change the TM schedule with Terminal commands?
    Did you change the TM disk?
    3 x No.
    EtreCheck reports: (my notes in blue)
    Hardware Information:
              iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010)
              iMac - model: iMac11,3
              1 3.2 GHz Intel Core i3 CPU: 2 cores
              4 GB RAM
    Video Information:
              ATI Radeon HD 5670 - VRAM: 512 MB
    Audio Plug-ins:
              AirPlay: Version: 1.4.5 - SDK 10.8
              iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.1 - SDK 10.8
    Startup Items:
              HP Trap Monitor: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HP Trap Monitor
    Strange - I'm using an Epson printer for many years
    - used HP in 2008. Can I simply delete this folder?
    System Software:
              OS X 10.8.2 (12C60) - Uptime: 30 days 15:41:52
    Disk Information:
              WDC WD1001FALS-40Y6A0 disk0 : (1 TB)
                        disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                        Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 919.06 GB (377.27 GB free)
                        Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
                        BOOTCAMP (disk0s4) /Volumes/BOOTCAMP: 80.28 GB (38.15 GB free)
              HL-DT-STDVDRW  GA32N 
    USB Information:
              Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
              Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
                        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
              Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub
                        Kensington      Kensington Expert Mouse
                        Apple, Inc Apple Keyboard
              TSSTcorp USB Mass Storage Device  6.71 GB
              Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
              Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
    FireWire Information:
    Thunderbolt Information:
    Kernel Extensions:
              com.kensington.trackballworks.driver          (1.1.0)
    Problem System Launch Daemons:
              [failed] com.apple.coresymbolicationd.plist
    What does this mean?
    Problem System Launch Agents:
         [failed] com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication.plist
         [failed] com.apple.lookupd.plist
         [failed] com.apple.rcd.plist
         [failed] com.apple.scopedbookmarkagent.xpc.plist
    What does this mean?
    Launch Daemons:
              [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist
              [loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist
              [loaded] com.wdc.drivemanagerservice.plist
              [loaded] com.westerndigital.WD-Drive-Manager-Installer.plist
              [loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist
    Launch Agents:
              [loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist
              [loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist
    User Launch Agents:
              [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist
         [failed] com.google.keystone.agent.plist
    What is this? I thought that I had removed everything
    from Google. How can I remove this?
    User Login Items:
              MenuBar ReArranger
              TrackballWorksHelper
              Mac Game Store Helper
              WDDriveManagerStatusMenu
    3rd Party Preference Panes:
              Flash Player
              Java
              TrackballWorks
    Internet Plug-ins::
              JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 45
              FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 11.9.900.152 - SDK 10.6
              QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.1
              AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 10.1.8
              AdobePDFViewer: Version: 10.1.8
              Flash Player: Version: 11.9.900.152 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update
              Unity Web Player: Version: UnityPlayer version 4.2.0f4 - SDK 10.6
              DirectorShockwave: Version: 11.6.4r634
              iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0 - SDK 10.8
    (I will update Flash soon.) Is it OK that Flash appears two times?
    Is Shockwave still used nowadays...?
    Bad Fonts:
              None
    Old applications:
              AVCCAM Restorer:          Version: 2.3.0 - SDK 10.4
                        /Applications/AVCCAM_Restore_Mac (Panasonic)/AVCCAM Restorer.app
         FocusMask:          Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.0
                        /Applications/FocusMask.app
              Font-Wizard:          Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.0
                        /Applications/Font-Wizard.app
         WDDriveManagerStatusMenu:          Version: 2.2.7 - SDK 10.4
                        /Library/Application Support/WesternDigital/WDDriveManager/WDDriveManagerStatusMenu.app
              WDDriveManagerStatusMenu:          Version: 2.2.7 - SDK 10.4
                        /Library/Application Support/WDDriveManagerInstallerItems/WDDriveManager/WDDriveManagerStatusMenu.ap p
    [... longer list of old apps deleted...]
    Time Machine:
              Skip System Files: NO
              Mobile backups: OFF
              Auto backup: NO
              Volumes being backed up:
                        Macintosh HD: Disk size: 855.94 GB Disk used: 504.58 GB
              Destinations:
                        MyBook [Local] (Last used)
                        Total size: 931.19 GB
                        Total number of backups: 54
                        Oldest backup: 2013-05-11 07:49:57 +0000
                        Last backup: 2013-12-13 05:03:16 +0000
                        Size of backup disk: Too small
                                  Backup size 931.19 GB < (Disk used 504.58 GB X 3)
    I see there are 54 backups. Is this the reason? I don't need the old
    backups - the last few would be sufficient.
    How can I delete the old ones to free space?
              Time Machine details may not be accurate.
              All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
    Top Processes by CPU:
                   2%          EtreCheck
                   1%          WindowServer
                   0%          ps
                   0%          Flux
                   0%          Brightness
    Top Processes by Memory:
              913 MB          WebProcess
              238 MB          Safari
              176 MB          Finder
              160 MB          Pages
              127 MB          mds
    Virtual Memory Statistics:
              664 MB          Free RAM
              1.88 GB          Active RAM
              750 MB          Inactive RAM
              754 MB          Wired RAM
              21.23 GB          Page-ins
              11.92 GB          Page-outs

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