After restore, Time Machine backs up many files every time

After my root drive failed and I restored from a Time Machine backup, Time Machine now writes hundreds of thousands of files every backup -- though they only take up a few hundred megabytes.  The backups take hours and backupd is usually using >50% of a CPU.  Typical log messages are below.  Interestingly, TM did *not* do a full backup after the system restore.  I have already reindexed the drives that are being backed up, and the behavior didn't change.
11/8/11 4:00:14 AM    com.apple.backupd[24091]    Backing up to: /Volumes/Everett-Backup-B/Backups.backupdb
11/8/11 4:08:45 AM    com.apple.backupd[24091]    No pre-backup thinning needed: 324.1 MB requested (including padding), 625.30 GB available
11/8/11 4:46:32 AM    com.apple.backupd[24091]    Copied 829445 files (107.6 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
11/8/11 4:47:36 AM    com.apple.backupd[24091]    Copied 829628 files (107.6 MB) from volume Synk_Archive.
11/8/11 4:58:44 AM    com.apple.backupd[24091]    No pre-backup thinning needed: 438.9 MB requested (including padding), 625.09 GB available
11/8/11 5:33:22 AM    com.apple.backupd[24091]    Copied 645053 files (188.8 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
11/8/11 5:34:37 AM    com.apple.backupd[24091]    Copied 645236 files (188.8 MB) from volume Synk_Archive.
11/8/11 6:47:08 AM    com.apple.backupd[24091]    Starting post-backup thinning
11/8/11 7:38:15 AM    com.apple.backupd[24091]    Deleted backup /Volumes/Everett-Backup-B/Backups.backupdb/Everett/2011-11-06-042921: 625.23 GB now available
11/8/11 7:38:15 AM    com.apple.backupd[24091]    Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
11/8/11 7:38:17 AM    com.apple.backupd[24091]    Backup completed successfully.
11/8/11 8:00:14 AM    com.apple.backupd[25929]    Starting standard backup
11/8/11 8:00:14 AM    com.apple.backupd[25929]    Backing up to: /Volumes/Everett-Backup-B/Backups.backupdb
11/8/11 8:05:58 AM    com.apple.backupd[25929]    No pre-backup thinning needed: 367.5 MB requested (including padding), 625.23 GB available
11/8/11 8:44:43 AM    com.apple.backupd[25929]    Copied 829446 files (103.9 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
11/8/11 8:45:48 AM    com.apple.backupd[25929]    Copied 829629 files (103.9 MB) from volume Synk_Archive.
11/8/11 8:56:54 AM    com.apple.backupd[25929]    No pre-backup thinning needed: 457.7 MB requested (including padding), 625.05 GB available
11/8/11 9:33:47 AM    com.apple.backupd[25929]    Copied 645053 files (189.2 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
11/8/11 9:34:53 AM    com.apple.backupd[25929]    Copied 645236 files (189.2 MB) from volume Synk_Archive.
11/8/11 10:34:28 AM    com.apple.backupd[25929]    Starting post-backup thinning
11/8/11 11:27:07 AM    com.apple.backupd[25929]    Deleted backup /Volumes/Everett-Backup-B/Backups.backupdb/Everett/2011-11-07-053347: 625.20 GB now available
11/8/11 11:27:07 AM    com.apple.backupd[25929]    Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
11/8/11 11:27:09 AM    com.apple.backupd[25929]    Backup completed successfully.

The external drive does not seem to be the problem.  I've tried the following:
- Deleted the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file and reconfigured TM.
- Do Time Machine backups on another disk.  After initial full backup, the same behavior persisted.
- Exclude the external drive ("Synk_Archive" in the logs above) from TM backup.  The behavior persisted.
- Unmount the external drive.  The behavior persisted.
- Exclude Macintosh HD from TM backup.  TM behaved normally and only backed up a few files per run!
- Repaired disk permissions on Macintosh HD.  The behavior persisted.
So, there is something about Macintosh HD that is fooling TM into thinking there have been a million files changed every hour.  Wiping and restoring my hard drive would be a desperate last resort and might not even solve the problem (since the trouble began right after replacing and restoring this drive).  Anyone have another suggestion?

Similar Messages

  • Time Machine backs up too much every time?

    I have just setup Time Machine to backup my 3 internal drives into a Raid 0 array (1.14 TB). After the initial backup was completed, I have noticed that it eats up about 80 GB every time the incremental runs. I have allowed it to run without running any applications in between backups and with nothing running other than the default processes. When looking at the Console output something very strange shows up. It seems like two backups happen (I assume this from the duplicated "Copied XXX Files" entries". One with the right (or at least reasonable for a system that has basically not changed) amount of data backed up and one with this strange 80GB volume. You can also see that it is spread out on all the drives. This is the console output:
    12/20/07 6:28:19 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[823] Backup requested by automatic scheduler
    12/20/07 6:28:19 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[823] Starting standard backup
    12/20/07 6:28:27 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[823] Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup Drive/Backups.backupdb
    12/20/07 6:28:28 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[823] No pre-backup thinning needed: 105.3 MB requested (including padding), 418.81 GB available
    12/20/07 6:38:58 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[823] Copied 11 files (27.2 GB) from volume Music Movies Pics.
    12/20/07 6:39:02 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[823] Copied 140 files (27.2 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    12/20/07 6:40:24 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[823] Copied 174 files (30.7 GB) from volume Documents.
    12/20/07 6:40:24 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[823] No pre-backup thinning needed: 105.2 MB requested (including padding), 388.06 GB available
    12/20/07 6:40:26 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[823] Copied 11 files (0 bytes) from volume Music Movies Pics.
    12/20/07 6:40:30 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[823] Copied 152 files (179 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
    12/20/07 6:40:32 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[823] Copied 186 files (179 bytes) from volume Documents.
    12/20/07 6:40:33 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[823] Starting post-backup thinning
    12/20/07 6:40:33 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[823] No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
    12/20/07 6:40:33 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[823] Backup completed successfully.
    Also when I look at the logs in the Time Machine drive (the ones called .Backup.log) only the entries with the small volume show up. Any ideas would be appreciated. I was very hopeful about Time Machine but at this rate, no amount of storage would be enough.

    I will try to update this post as I find out more information on what is going on with TM. Latest news it that apparently TM is "forgetting" that it backed up some files and is simply doing it over and over. Previously I had this:
    12/20/07 10:56:36 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1591] Copied 11 files (27.2 GB) from volume Music Movies Pics.
    12/20/07 10:56:39 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1591] Copied 16 files (27.2 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    12/20/07 11:20:03 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1591] Copied 99 files (42.7 GB) from volume Documents.
    By looking into the "inProgress" package I could see that it was copying a bunch of files I had not touched in a long time. One of them was a 27 GB Super duper image. So I removed the file and next backup I got this:
    12/21/07 8:29:20 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[2121] Copied 10 files (15 KB) from volume Music Movies Pics.
    12/21/07 8:29:34 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[2121] Copied 293 files (4.4 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    12/21/07 8:35:11 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[2121] Copied 327 files (3.6 GB) from volume Documents.
    So removing that file not only seems to have cleaned up most of the backup coming from "Documents" (where the file resided) but also cleaned up "Macintosh HD". Other than cleaning up file by file I have not really found other ways to fix this.

  • After Time Machine backs up my file vault files (after logging out), when I next log into the user account it beachballs permanently during log in.

    After Time Machine backs up my file vault files (after logging out), when I next log into the user account it beachballs permanently during log in.  The backup was successful, as I had to restore after this issue last time.  Hard resetting doesn't resolve the issue.  Is there a Time Machine setting that I should be aware of?
    I have 2011 13" MBP, 10.6.8 and use an external hard drive connected via USB for my Time Machine backups.
    Thanks

    I was able to get it to work.  Thanks for your help.  It's unfortunate the two applications do not work well together.  This is what I did:
    1) Safe boot and logged into the affected user (since the whole issue damaged the account's system settings).
    2) Turned off File Vault in System Preferences. I needed to make some space on the hard drive first since apparently the total free space on the hard drive has to equal or exceed the amount of data currently in the file vault.  I deleted some files and moved others to the Admin account.  This whole process took awhile.
    3) Finally, just restarted and logged in.  The next time machine backup seems to be a significant backup, I assume because it's backing up the user account in a different way now that File Vault is turned off.
    Thanks again!

  • Time machine backs up 32K files even when nothing changed.

    I just received a brand new OSX Lion Server (Mac Mini). I also installed an external USB HD for backup.
    Unfortunately, each Time Machine back-up eats up about 1.9GB and backs up 32K files, even if nothing changed (e.g. I leave it on over night).
    Below is the log, which I received with time machine buddy (a widget). 
    Starting standard backup
    Backing up to: /Volumes/backup/Backups.backupdb
    Waiting for index to be ready (101)
    1.93 GB required (including padding), 363.27 GB available
    Copied 326275 files (64.7 MB) from volume Server HD.
    1.91 GB required (including padding), 363.10 GB available
    Copied 326402 files (16.8 MB) from volume Server HD.
    Starting post-backup thinning
    No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
    Backup completed successfully.
    In this case, there were small changes, so 17 or 65MB sounds about right. What bugs me is that the backup took 2 hours(!) and required 1.91 GB. As every backup is longer than the hourly interval, in the current setup, if I switch on TM it is continuously backing up all day all night.
    I have already erased the backup disk twice and have also tried to delete the .inProgress file. After such a restart, the first backup is big and real fast, and then it is just as slow as ever.
    Does anybody have any idea what it could be? Any help would be appreciated.
    Thanks,

    Use either of these to see what it is actually being backed up?
    http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/A2.html
    regards,
    Colin R.

  • Time Machine backs up everything all the time

    Time Machine is backing up every file all the time. This is a recent development.
    Don't know if this is related but I installed 10.6 on an external HD recently. I was told there wasn't room on the time machine disk so i turned off time machine. I used that boot disk for a week and then switched back to the 10.5.8 drive. After that but I can't be sure the exact date is correlated I noticed the Time Machine backup.

    trinko wrote:
    I figured out how much is being backed up by looking at the size of the files on the time machine disk in the finder and with omnidisksweeper.
    Those won't show an accurate picture. Time Machine uses an unusual and complex structure, involving multiple hard links (sort of like aliases) at both the file and folder level. The files that were the same at the time of each backup will be counted +*in each backup,+* although they were only backed-up once; the total will exceed the total amount of space used on the disk.
    For some reason on Mar 6 Time machine did a new full backup--650GB. Then it said it couldn't do any incremental backups because there wasn't enough free space--the drive had about 300GB free but Time Machine said it needed another 302GB which makes me think it wanted to do another full backup.
    Yes, that's possible. Some of the common causes are listed in #D3 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
    When TM decided it needed to do a full backup, it likely deleted all but the last one, trying to make enough room. Unfortunately, your logs for March 6 are probably gone by now, so we can't figure out exactly what happened then, much less why.
    I then excluded all but 100G of files. Time machine did a full backup of that 100G and then on the next days backup it also did a full backup. Files that hadn't been touched were copied based on looking in the Finder and omnidisksweeper said the files were taking the full amount of space as well.
    Again, that's not necessarily so. Click here to download the TimeTracker app. It shows most of the files saved by TM for each backup (excluding some hidden/system files, etc.). Some prefer the BackupLoupe application.
    Either one should clarify whether everything is really being backed-up each time. Take a look at the subsequent backups from after you excluded all but 100 GB, and post back with your findings.

  • Time machine makes a full backup every time

    I had a 1tb external drive that I was using for Time Machine backups. Fine. No problem. But it got filled up.
    I bought a new external drive - 1Tb. Iwas surprised that within a couple of wweeks, it was filled up.
    I bought a new 2Tb drive.
    Now as I observe what it's doing, it appears ot meaking a FULL BACKUP of my entire hard drive over and over again. I though it was only supposed to do incremental backups? This is nuts! At this rate my 2Tb drive will be filled up in no time. And becasue it's continually backing up many Gb of data it makes the machine run slowly. It is driviing me crazy!!! How do I stop this behaviour? Why is it making a full backup every time? I can't see any preferences to change this. Help!

    Thanks but I think maybe I didn't explain the problem clearly
    My understanding is that Time Machine backs up only the fiels that have changed each time it does a backup. Thi sis how it USED to work. So each hourly backup would take a few minutes, usually, and a 1TB drive lasted well over a year.
    Now it seems to be making a FULL backup of the COMPLETE internal drive EVERY HOUR! So it is currently backing up 135Gb of data and my Time Machine drive is almost half full,, even though I only installed it two days ago!
    When it gets to the point where it needs to start deleting old backups, I would get a new drive and start afresh, saving the old one for reference. I can't buuy a new backup drive every week!
    How do I get it to behave like it used to?

  • Time Machine backing up huge files

    Hello
    I have a MacBook Pro (and a mini and air in my house) I initially backed up all my machines to the time capsule the MacBook Pro seems to want to regularly back up around 116GB which is about the size of the original back up. Given that my understanding is that it is only changes that are backed up I am perplexed at why this macbook is trying to back up such a large volume of data again. Any suggestions would be welcome. Just to say it is running 10.6.8 the Mini is running the same version and the Air is Lion.
    Regards
    Paul

    Hi Bob
    Thanks for the link after launching time tracker, I am getting this message The file “Data” couldn’t be opened because you don’t have permission to view it. To view or change permissions, select the item in the Finder and choose File > Get Info.
    All the users have read and some write I assume time tracker is being blocked somehow from 'seeing' the file Data do you have any thoughts on how time tracker can 'see' the file
    Regards
    Paul

  • Time Machine back-ups of files in an external HD drive connected to the Mac?

    I usually use Time Machine for automatic back-ups of all the content in my Mac, into a Time Capsule device.
    I intend now to transfer my heavier files (domestic video files for example) to a new external Hard Drive, in order to release storage espace in the Mac itself. But I want to keep the automatic back-up feature that I have already for my Mac content, also for the files that will be transferred to the external drive. I do not want to take the risk of loss of these external files without having a back-support for recovering in case of damages.
    The question is: How can I configure the Time Machine to make automatically the back-up of the external drive content into the Time Capsule, in the same automatic way than the rest of files in the Mac? Is that possible for such an external drive?
    Thanks in advance for your support and best regards,
    Alejandro

    External drives are automatically added to the TM exclusion list. To back them up, all you have to do is remove them from that list in the TM preference pane. Click Options.

  • Deleting old Time Machine Back ups, locked files wont delete?

    Will unlocking them help-if so how do you unlock? I can open with Text edit but due to years of caution when not knowing what I'm doing causes more problems I ask before doing things-grin (Suppose it shouldn't matter since all I want to do is trash them????)
    The file in particular is the boot file boot.efi. Trash basket is still full presumable until I can delete. 

    See > Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions 12. Should I delete old backups? If so, How?
    of the > Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions

  • I am restoring from time machine back up... estimated time: 26 hours!

    why, oh god why, or whoever sees this question is it taking so long. am restoring my "Macintosh HD" from a time machine backup. I went through the whole deal, it detected how much needed to be restored, I selected which volume I wanted restored and from which backup, i clicked restore, and now its taking 26 hours. (went down to 22 hours in 1 hour from 26 though, some hope)
    I have a 500gb seagate USB 2.0 7200 RPM HDD. (80 gigs about being restored)
    is this normal? did I funk up? should I retry cause this is just fuged?
    HELP

    Give it some time. The number of hours calculated depends on the current transfer rate, so when that picks up it could drop the wait time. For me a ~40GB restore took ~3 hours from a FireWire drive.

  • Time Machine Backs Up 30-39G every day ??? Using too much Space on the TC

    I installed the TC about 2 weeks ago. The first backup went as plan and took all night. But the problem (I think) is that incremental backups take place during the day but every day at the end of the day the TM does a 30 to 39G backup and is using up all the space on the TC. I am sure I am not adding 30 something G every day. Can someone tell me how to setup the TM to not use all the space. I got the TC 500G 2 weeks ago and is down to 219G of free space. I think that is not right.
    Please help
    Thanks

    That should do it. Time Machine will backup an active VM each hour if there are changes (i.e. VM is running). That amounts to 2GB+ per hour depending on the size of your VM.
    To recovery that space, you need to delete the file (and all versions) from the backup. Open Finder and go to your VM folder. Click on the Time Machine icon on the Dock. Click on that file and click the Gears button. You will be given the option of +Delete All Backups of -----+. All instances of this file will be delete from TM.
    To backup your VM, occasionally drag and drop the VM folder to a folder on your backup drive. TM will not touch this.
    For Fusion user, go to settings and set up a shared folder outside of the VM. Fusion will then access and save to this folder. Corruption of the VM will not affect these documents. As well, TM will back up this folder as long as you have not excluded it.
    Good luck!

  • Time Machine doing a full backup every time it runs

    My Time Machine seems to be doing a full backup every time it runs on the hour. The backup size is about 19GB. Shouldn't hourly and daily backups be much smaller after you run Time Machine for the first time?
    I remember a while back, my hourly backups were a couple of minutes.....now they are 30 minutes.
    John

    Hi Steve,
    http://pondini.org/TM/12.html
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3687285?start=0&tstart=0
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

  • Why does my preference pane for Time Machine on my Mac unlock every time I open it?

    Hi,
    My MacBook Pro is a 2012 model, running on Mac OS X 10.8.3 Mountain Lion.
    It is running on an OCZ Agility 4 SSD (which runs the TRIM command using the 'TRIM enabler' hack.) and has 16GB of RAM, powered by a 2.5Ghz dual core Intel Ivy Bridge Core i5.
    I back up my Mac using Time Machine to a 500GB WD "My Passport" drive formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), with a GUID partition map.
    Every time I lock the preference pane for Time Machine in the System Preferences, the next time I open it, it is unlocked.
    Is this a bug with OS X Mountain Lion, or could it be a hardware problem?
    Does this happen to anyone else?
    Thanks.

    From the menu bar, select
     ▹ System Preferences... ▹ Security & Privacy ▹ General
    If there's a closed padlock icon in the lower left corner of the preference pane, click it and authenticate to unlock the settings. Enter your login password when prompted.
    Click the Advanced button and check the box marked
    Require an administrator password to access locked preferences
    in the sheet that drops down. Then click OK.

  • Time machine does a full backup every time I reconnect my portable drive to my macbook pro

    How do I stop time machine from doing a full backup every time I disconnect & reconnect my backup portable drive to my macbook pro. It doesn't recognize the old backups.

    Hi Steve,
    http://pondini.org/TM/12.html
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3687285?start=0&tstart=0
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

  • Time Machine backing up huge files after opening wmv file in QuickTime

    Good evening to everyone;
    I have noticed that after I open wmv file (or any file that needs conversion) in QuickTime; the next TM back up backs up 10+ GB to my Time Capsule. Can anyone pls explain to me where can I find this big file so I can exclude it from the back ups?
    And maybe why are they even created?
    Not sure if it is relevant but I also have Perian 1.1 and Flip4mac latest version installed, which lets me open all kinds of files in QuickTime.
    Thanx a ton

    Might be that the Quicktime cache is hiding the data. In the Users>Libraray>Caches>Quicktime>Downloads, you'll probably see a pile of items. I've never gotten rid of all of them, but you can give it a try. Post back if you find anything interesting out.

Maybe you are looking for