Time Machine Back up is too slow

I just bought a WD 1 TB hard drive for my Macbook Pro. I put files on but for some reason the Time Machine's first back up is taking forever for only 54 gbs. Is this normal? It took me just a few minutes to put in the 25 gb of itunes data on it but the Time Machine back up is so slow. Plus the encryption is very slow too.

Hi there Balhabib,
I would recommend taking a look at the troubleshooting steps found in the article below.
Time Machine: Troubleshooting backup issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3275
-Griff W.

Similar Messages

  • Time Machine back-up disk too small

    Recently I had to restore my system from a Time Machine back-up, all seemed to work fine. Now I have a situation where time machine gives me an error when I attempt a back up, saying there's not enough free space on the back-up drive. The drive I'm backing up is max 500megs, the external BU drive is a TB. I fixed all the prefs but it seems as though Time machine is not deleting old files from my BU drive to make room for new ones. Any ideas?

    OrangePanda wrote:
    Hi, I have the same problem.
    My backup drive (G-Tech Q 500Gb) has 465Gb of space and my Pro has only 434Gb,
    Your backup drive is much too small. To work well (and keep a reasonable number of backups for you), TM usually needs roughly 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing-up. See item #1 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
    yet when I tried to update it says I still need 63Gb of space??? I downloaded the Time Machine buddy recommended here, the message said that some old copies were deleted but still need 64Gb, only had 40Gb.
    Did I miss something? should I just wipe my G-Tech and try again?
    Short-term, probably. Without the actual messages, we can only speculate, but most likely you've made a lot of changes or for some other reason TM is trying to back-up about 54 gb (the 64 includes about 20% extra for workspace). Copy and post the TM Buddy messages here and we can be sure.
    Long-term, you need a bigger drive.

  • Time machine back up is very slow and now has restarted

    Just bought a new 500gb G Drive at the Apple Store to use on my MBP. Got home, connected the drive and launched Time Machine. Said the back would take 10 days . I figured, OK that's slow but at least it will get done. Checked the MBP this AM and now -- after saying there was 2 days left to complete the back up of about 90 gb remaining - it has apparently restarted and now shows only 2gb as backed up.
    I ran "sudo tmdiagnose" because I read on one of the other boards here that it would successfully have TM backup at normal speed ... but it did not work.
    Help please...

    If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an 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. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. 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 (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
    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.

  • Time Machine Back-up Taking Too much Space

    I have only been a Mac owner for a little over three months.
    I set up Time Machine with an external hard drive three months ago. My Mac hard drive has used 64.16 GB of space out of 249 GB. Ny external drive (300 GB) however was full and deleting on its own in just 10 weeks. Three days ago I erased everything on the external drive and started over. After the first full back up, 50.61 GB of space was taken. Now three days later it is up to 102.54 GB. What am I doing wrong, or what do I need to do to correct.
    This is a 'home use only' computer and daily changes are minimal.
    Thanks for any feedback.
    Roger

    Hi mahlquist,
    I have exactly the same problem on three macs running SL. Sometimes it simply wants to backup the whole drive instead of creating an incremental backup. The worst thing is that it deletes old backups first (when there is not enough space for an additional complete backup) without asking you if you want it to do that. So, the best solution is to deactivate the automatic backup in TM and start it manually only. Watch at the TM window, see what it is doing when the backup starts. When it starts to delete old backups, cancel the backup, restart your Mac and then try again. In most cases, TM then works again and creates incremental backups. Another bug is that sometimes it backups even folders that are in the list of excluded folders. I didn't manage to break TM of doing that. So I decided for a reinstall of SL on the machine that was affected.
    This is one of the most annoying bugs in SL. TM is nearly unusable in SL. I also tried a complete wipe and install of SL to make sure that it wasn't the upgrade from Leopard that causes the broken TM. But this didn't solve the problem. In general, there are lots of bugs in SL. In the meantime, I would say that SL is one of the most annoying versions of OS X that Apple has ever released. Lots of bugs in such a manner are really new to me as a Mac user for many years.

  • Time machine back up taking too long

    Why is time machine taking so long to back up?  I just downladed the update and it's still dragging

    You are entitled to 90 day telephone support from Apple. Try contacting them.
    Apple Support Contact
    Apple Support contact - Telephone

  • Time Machine backing up way too many files

    A little while ago I noticed Time Machine was taking forever to perform its hourly backups on my work computer (MacBook Pro, 10.6.8). I downloaded TimeTracker and Time Machine Buddy, and compared TM's performance between my work and home Macs. Let me lay out my observations and the problem for you:
    - Regular backups routinely take 20-30 minutes on the work computer; sometimes longer; they usually take about 1 minute at home.
    - My wife works at home so both Macs are used about the same amount during the day.
    - According to TimeTracker, these normal backups basically have the same makeup on both Macs. Around 40-60 MBs of data, and the biggest single file tends to be something in a web browser "Application Support" folder, e.g. Firefox's places.sqlite file at 40 megs.
    - When I noticed this, I even excluded that browser file from TM. Didn't have an effect.
    - The biggest difference between the two Macs that I can glean from Time Machine Buddy is the sheer number of files being prepared and copied. At home, it's a few thousand, maybe 3-4. At work, more like 100,000. In fact, all of my overnight backups were identical: 60,744 files copied (14 KB) followed by 28,176 files copied (9 KB). So, it's clearly not linked to the size (data-wise) of the backup. (Again, this was less data after I excluded that FF folder. I've since re-instated it.)
    - I don't see anything in the TM Buddy log about a "deep traversal."
    - Can't imagine it's an external HDD issue since (I assume) all the TM preparations should be happening on the Mac side, but for what it's worth, this started with one drive (USB 2.0) that I then restored to a larger partition of another drive (FW 800), and the issue persists.
    I've seen lots of other threads about endless TM backups and regularly copying mountains of data, but hadn't come across anything that seemed to match my peculiar situation.
    Thanks for your help!

    GFIVE wrote:
    Same problem here!
    There is a new "me too" feature in Apple Support Communities. Check the bottom of the initial post:
    I will however upgrade to Lion in a few days. I'm hoping this will fix this annoying problem.
    Be very, very careful with that strategy. Installing an operating system update to a system already exhibiting flakiness is usually a bad idea.
    I suggest a good backup using a cloning tool such as Carbon Copy Cloner. Time Machine is best for backups, but if you know you are going to need a backup, a clone is a good thing to have.
    Once you have that backup, erase your hard drive, install Lion, reinstall the latest version of your applications, and then migrate over only your documents.

  • Time machine back up external too?

    Will the TM back up my external drive as well as internal? I have all my music and pictures on an external drive currently. Will TM back up the external drive that contains all my music and picture files provided the external is always plugged in and "on" throught the USB port on the imac. (I will have a seperate External drive for TM) Thanks.

    kroes wrote:
    It reads Master Boot record and Fat 32 (MS-DOS).
    I have been using this for two years with my macbook with no problems and have it hooked into my imac with no problems but it seems to be formatted with windows? How could it even write or read files? What do I need to do to format it GUID? Do I have to wipe the drive? What do I do with all my photos and music that is already on the drive?
    I thought I'd read that TM would only back-up Mac OS Extended partitions on GUID or APM drives (even though OSX can read FAT32 partitions on MBR drives), but now I can't find that documented anywhere, so I'm not sure. (I don't do Windoze.)
    Perhaps Kappy or V.K. (the "gurus" of such things) will clarify this.

  • I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine

    I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine
    and if it yes i want to know if i have 1TB hard disk to use the 500gb for time machine and the other 500gb for normal use

    thank you very much because i am considering to buy the porsche design hard disk 1TB and i want to have it for normal use and for time machine is a pitty to give 1TB for back up only again thanks and i know seperate the back and the working jobs are better but the i have to have 2 hardisks and i want only 1

  • Time Machine Backing up too much data (fixed, I think)

    About a month ago, I upgraded my Mac Pro from Leopard to Snow Leopard, and in so doing hooked up new external drive for TM backups.
    First backup was large, bit slow, and expected.
    All backups after that were fairly slow, which I took initially to be partially related to doing recent OS upgrade.
    Within last week or so, I started to notice that my backups seemed to be much larger than expected. I went down about 350 GB on the backup drive in a matter 2 to 3 weeks, while adding at most 10 GB of data in that time.
    Well today, I discovered the issue via the (freel) app Time Tracker, which showed 10+ GB of data for each backup was coming from TechTool Protection (in Application Support). I went into TM and did a 'delete all' for this backup, and it restored a good 350 GB back to my TM drive.
    As I typed this, I initiated a TM backup, that is now 10 MB, which seems normal and expected.
    I still feel like a relative novice when it comes to the fine details of using TM, but glad I found this solution.
    Definitely have to give shout out to Pondini for pointing me to Time Tracker and for the umpteen other tips I've received from reading the Pondini.org site.
    As I marked this as a question, I would say there are 2 items for me that are still outstanding:
    1 - the backup of 10 MB is slow - still showing under 100 KB. As I'm used to this from last few weeks, not a big deal, but I'm up for any pointers from anyone who thinks this can be fixed or ought to be fixed.
    2 - I'm still curious about exclusions, especially within a 10.6 OS environment. I've excluded items that make sense, either cause I have them backed up elsewhere (i.e. iTunes Library) or because I didn't see the need (i.e. Apple Loops in Library/Audio folder). The ones that perhaps make less sense to exclude, but I'm currently not backing up are:
    - Applications folder (did initial TM backup and then excluded)
    - DropBox folder
    - Library/Caches
    - Library/Mail Downloads
    - Public folder and Users/Shared folder
    If you feel these ought to be included, let me know. And if you feel there is anything else to exclude, I'm up for hearing that.
    Thanks.

    incidently it seems that time machine backs up everything the first time and only uses the exclusion list on subsequent times

  • Time machine back-up abysmally slow

    I have reformatted my back-up disk and started a new Time Machine full back-up. The job has been running for FOUR DAYS and is presently 15.28GB of 298.8GB. It is still saying "Calculating time remaining." On the same machine, Time Machine was never a sprinter but certainly wasn't a snail.
    It also slows my entire iMac down, especially since I foolishly upgraded to Mavericks (now everything's slow).
    Very annoyed. Apple should come out and admit that the Time Machine/Mavericks process is a failure as it is not commercially acceptable to use such a slow system for back-ups. I'm switching to a separate system, but will let this one run so I can see how long it will actually take.
    Tried restart, safe mode, then restart normally - no effect on speed.
    Any tips - apart from binning the system?
    Dave

    Find the Console app - it is in your Utilities folder and looks like this
    You can find it by selecting Utilities from the Finder's Go menu.
    Open Console.
    If the log list column on the left is not already displayed, show the log list by selecting Show Log List from Console's View menu.
    Locate system.log in the list and select it. Many date and time-stamped entries will appear, hundreds of them, and you must find the entries relevant to your Mac's problem.
    To do that type the words backupd in the Filter field at the upper right of the Console window. That will cause all log entries to be hidden, except for the entries containing those words.
    Copy and paste those log entries in a reply. If hundreds of the same repetitive messages appear, please edit them before posting.
    Most of the entries will be cryptic but will contain information you might consider personal such as your Mac's name. If you do not want that information to appear, delete or obscure it when posting your reply. Leave enough information so that the entries can be deciphered.
    ... No virus software but CleanMyMac is installed -
    Get rid of it.
    Good luck with that because its uninstallation instructions are ineffective, contrary to MacPaw's recently posted update. They didn't work prior to that update either. Lacking any explanation from the developer, one is left to unproductive speculation that won't help you fix what's wrong. Whether CMM is the sole cause of your difficulties or merely a contributing factor is unknown, but its presence can only complicate matters.
    Like most ill-conceived "cleaning" programs, "CleanMyMac" is trash capable of corrupting a Mac to the point that erasing it completely is the only practicable means of recovery.
    Follow the applicable recovery procedure below:
    If you have a backup that you created prior to using CleanMyMac, now is the time to use it. For Time Machine, boot OS X Recovery, and at the Mac OS X Utilities screen, choose Restore from Time Machine Backup. Choose a date preceding the installation of CleanMyMac.
    If you do not have a backup that predates the use of CleanMyMac, create one now. To do that read Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac.
    The recovery procedure will require that you erase the Mac using OS X Recovery, and then create a new user whose contents will be empty. You will then be able to use Setup Assistant to migrate your essential documents including photos, music, work products and other essential files.
    When doing so, select only your previous User account and do not select "Applications", "Computer and Network Settings" or "Other files and folders". De-select those choices.
    Subsequent to using Setup Assistant, you will need to reinstall the essential software you may require, once again remembering to install software only from their original sources, and omitting all non-essential software
    "Essential software" is defined to specifically exclude all so-called "cleaning", "optimizing", and "anti-virus" utilities - anything that does not directly relate to the ability to use your Mac for the work or entertainment needs you presumably bought it to accomplish.
    To erase and install Mavericks read: OS X Mavericks: Erase and reinstall OS X
    To migrate your essential documents read: OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mavericks and follow the procedure under Time Machine or other disk migration.
    Other problems may exist but those concerns will be rendered moot by erasing your system, which must be accomplished.

  • HT1338 Time Machine Back-Up Slow

    Time Machine Back-Up takes 4+ days to do initial back-up.  I am hard wired connected to my time capsule have erased the disk and reinitiated a brand new back-up.  I am trying to back up about 960 G and it takes anywhere between 4-7 days.  That would be OK but after 1-2 days the iMac loses connectivity to the Time Capsule and I have to start over again.  I have tried everything including a complete reinstall of the Montain Lion Operatin System but nothing seems to help.  This problem first happened after the Mountian Lion upgrade before that Time Machine worked flawlessly.   

    Hey aarthur2060,
    Thanks for the question. I understand you are experiencing issues with Time Machine. The following resources may help to resolve your issue:
    OS X Mountain Lion: If Time Machine is slow
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11172
    Time Machine: Troubleshooting backup issues
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3275
    Thanks,
    Matt M.

  • Time machine back up very slow

    Hi folks:  I'm running my mac book pro (new this year) with 10.7.5 and found tonight that my time machine back up (for 20gb) is taking FOREVER.  Any suggestions?
    thanks.

    Install the 10.7.5 update, which address the very S-L-O-W TIme Machine backups that 10.7.5 introduced. If it doesn't download via Software Update, you can download it from here.
    You'll still be at 10.7.5 after the update. The only thing that changes is the build number, which should be 11G63 after the update.

  • Can I use my time capsule for time machine back ups and as an external storage device?

    I have a time capsule and have set it up so that my time machine back ups are saved on it, but I would also like to use it as an external hard drive. Is this possible?
    I know nothing about computers so please tell me in very basic terms. thankyou!

    By external hard disk we usually mean one plugged into the computer by USB or Firewire or Thunderbolt.
    None of those works on the TC.. it is plugged in by ethernet or use wireless connection.. that means it is a network drive.. not an external drive. The difference might not mean much to you.. but it is totally different to the computer. In the former case the computer has full control of the disk. In the case of the network drive, the disk is controlled by the TC firmware and the files are stored and accessed by network. This has large implications.
    So here is my standard response.
    Store files on the TC.
    This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
    The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
    Major issues.
    1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
    2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
    3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no control. In fact the TC is so lacking in controls for even the router side.. that you cannot do more than the most basic of setups.
    The following are controls on the hard disk side.
    Reformat it. You can name the share. You can do a full archive of the whole disk. This will go at a speed of aprox. 30-50GB/Hr so calculate how long an archive of a full 2TB will take.
    4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!
              Even apple btw say don’t do it.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168 Although mostly about FAT32           it adds network drives.
    5. iTunes can constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
    6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
    7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
    Read pondini for some work arounds.
    Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html

  • Just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented.  is it wise to do this or should i not??

    just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented.  is it wise to do this or should i not??

    Let's hope a couple things: that you have bootable clones of your drives also; that the backup drive for TimeMachine has over 3x capacity of the data you plan and are storing. I would also switch TM backup drives so you have a 2nd.
    Fragmented free space affecting performance happens when the drive is too full which may mean there isn't enough free space for a full backup set.
    1.5TB for backing up 500GB, while WD Green 3TB is $140 and WD Black 1.5TB is, about the same price.
    I'd be worried about the integrity and directory, and whether you can afford to lose that drive. Defragging is also a very slow operation. the ideal: to just clone a drive, or start over with another drive and wait. cloning TM volumes has not been done or has it? SuperDuper hoped to but I don't think they or Bombich's CCC made it there.
    Trouble with highly fragged is when free space gets to 20% normally, 1/3 or so though for TM volumes, and finding where and a chunk of space for the file being written. Does TM use large spare image files of like 2GB?
    Best would be to ask in the TimeMachine section Snow Leopard
    https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard?view= discussions#/?tagSet=1009
    where there are some good FAQ and tutorials, and people that know the ins-and-outs and shortcomings.

  • Defrag Time Machine Back Up Drive??

    getwellroad 
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 6, 2011 9:50 AM 
    i previously posted this question, but I mistakenly clicked my own comment as the correct answer. i think this makes the thread appear to be finished; so, because i'm still not completely sure what to do, i have attempted to copy and paste the discussion here:Sorry.
    Just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented.  is it wise to do this or should i not??
    Grant Bennet-AlderWest of Boston, USALevel 7 (27,805 points)
    If your backups take a few seconds longer, so what. I say leave it alone.Beige G3, G4/867, G4/dual 1.25 MDD, MacPro'09 w cheap SSD, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier, and 9.2, 10.5 and Server - LW IIg, LW 4/600, ATalk ImageWriter L
    The hatterLevel 8 (42,475 points)
    Let's hope a couple things: that you have bootable clones of your drives also; that the backup drive for TimeMachine has over 3x capacity of the data you plan and are storing. I would also switch TM backup drives so you have a 2nd. Fragmented free space affecting performance happens when the drive is too full which may mean there isn't enough free space for a full backup set. 1.5TB for backing up 500GB, while WD Green 3TB is $140 and WD Black 1.5TB is, about the same price. I'd be worried about the integrity and directory, and whether you can afford to lose that drive. Defragging is also a very slow operation. the ideal: to just clone a drive, or start over with another drive and wait. cloning TM volumes has not been done or has it? SuperDuper hoped to but I don't think they or Bombich's CCC made it there. Trouble with highly fragged is when free space gets to 20% normally, 1/3 or so though for TM volumes, and finding where and a chunk of space for the file being written. Does TM use large spare image files of like 2GB? Best would be to ask in the TimeMachine section Snow Leopardhttps://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard?view= discussions#/?tagSet=1009where there are some good FAQ and tutorials, and people that know the ins-and-outs and shortcomings.
    getwellroad
    my boot drive is my internal hardrive which is a 250 GB drive.  The drive i am using for TM is 500GB, but you are saying that is really too small.  TM, as i understand it, creates a copy of everything, and then subsequent backups record any changes that were made since the last backup.    and what do you mean "bootable clones"  and do you mean for my internal hard drive AND each of the 3 external hard drives that i have?  i'm using one of the three for backup using TM, and i am storing movie files on the other 2.  i work at a church, and we use many short films that we purchase online.  i then import that file into iMovie to give my volunteers a consistent second and a half of black before the clip and 4 seconds of black at the end of the clip. This provides smoother transitions, i've found, than trying to use most of the clips in their original form.  i then have been filing these away in folders on the other 2 hard drives.   Regarding the TM drive. Drive Genius is telling me that "the used space on the volume 02 [that's the name of the drive] is 25% fragmented (59.14% of total space).
    btw, Time Machine keeps:hourly backups for the past 24 hoursdaily backups for the past monthweekly backups for all previous monthsand the oldest backups are deleted when your disk becomes full.
    Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), LaCie d2 Quadra 500GB external driv 

    1st)  A fragmented drive is not evil.  It will not hurt anything.  At worse it might slow down reading a file.  However, as has been pointed out by others in this thread, who cares as this is a backup device, not a device you are going to be reading a lot.
    2nd)  The time you spend defragmenting the drive will far exceed the time you will save when writing new data to the drive.
    3rd)  Defragmentation will just increase your energy consumption, as all the reading/writing needed to move the files around in order to defragment it, will cause the drive to consume more energy than if it was just sitting idle waiting for the next hourly Time Machine backup.
    4th)  Defragmentation (if done frequently) may shorten the life of your drive.  Not mentioned in "3rd" above is that the extra energy used translates into heat, plus you are moving the read/write heads back and forth all of which affect the drives mechanical and electrical components.
    NOTE:  There are situations where having a defragmented drive is useful, but mostly it has to do with needing to stream media at a high rate of speed, and fragmented files can affect that.  However, a backup drive being used for incremental Time Machine backups is not in that category, and most home Mac usage does not need a defragmented file system either.

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