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.

Similar Messages

Time machine backup is very slow after migration to Mountain Lion

After I migrated to mountain lion, Time machine backup is very slow. Time machine preference says there is no previous back up although I had Time machine on before migration. It did not help verymuch to connect an ethernet cable between my timecapsule and my Macbook Pro
Here are the screenshots I see:
Should I erase the previous backup made on Lion before backing up on Mountain lion? in this case how do I transfer the Lion backup file on another disk just in case something goes wrong before I have a good backup under Mountain Lion? just like any other file?

After further reading on the forum, the problem was solved: I used the possibility to back up on a second disk (in the preferences Time Machine choose a disk and save on both disks) to make a back up on another usb disk, and then erased the old .sparsebundle file on my Time Capsule. I have then re defined time capsule as the back up disk and then the backup was muuuuuch faster (one night instead of less than 1 giga after 3 days.....)

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.

Time machine file transfer very slow during OSX 10.7 re-install

I am using a macbook pro, and was running 10.7. (not sure exact version, and cannot look now, but should have been up to date) I tried the free upgrade to Mavericks, but it failed and said I had a disk error. At this point I could not boot back to 10.7 so I booted with apple-R. I tried to do a repair from disk utility but that failed so I erased my hard drive. Then I proceeded with an install of 10.7, which proceeded fine. I got to a point where it asked about transferring files, (forget the exact wording) and I said to use my time machine backup (from right before I tried the upgrade - backup was 80GB) and I started that. It has been 16 hours and it still has not finished. The external hard drive (Lacie) clicks / whirs, and I see signs of very slow progress... (seems to be at about 80% now judging by the progress bar) but it can go hours without any noticeable change. The "time remaining" information is variable -- going up and down -- and is clearly not correct-- has said 1.5 to 2.5 hours for the last 12 hours
Any ideas? should I just wait a few more days   should I abort and restart the file transfer (if so, what is the best way to do this?)
I cannot provide details on the computer since it is still busily restoring (I hope), but it is roughly 3-4 years old, lots of free space on hard drive (>100GB),

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.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of an 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.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Time machine back up very slowly in Lion

I'm using time machine in a combination with a Drobo.
updated from snowleopard to lion, everything oke
tried to make a other TM update but this is going very slowly on firewire 800.
i have got a answer from Drobo and
the Payload on Firewire is only 800MB speed [max payload 1024].
This should normally on 4096.
what could be the problem
tried also a new firewire cable
ruud

If you updated from 10.6 to 10.7, over 250,000 Mac OS X files have changed. All of these will need to be backed up. This WILL take a while.
It does not seem like anything is broken.

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.

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.

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.

Working from Logic files on old Time Machine back up

Hi there.
Apologies if this is a bit a newbie question, I'm not new to apple, but new to using Time Machine in these circumstances.
This is my issue. I have a 2.0ghz Dual core 500GB hd iMac in my semi pro music studio. I back up to a 1TB hd using Time Machine. The iMac was beginning to get very slow I guessed because it was 470 gb full, so I made sure the back up was completed, then I did a complete fresh install of Snow Leopard (up from Leopard).
All good so far.
Now, everything back up and running, reinstalled Logic Studio, all plug ins etc etc, but I wanted to keep the computer fairly clear of files etc, so I was hoping to be able to work from the timemachine files. Now I guess I shouldn't use the same external hd with time machine now because it will start backing up the new almost empty Snow Leopard version. But here's the issue. I open a Logic Session from the back up and it all works, plays, I can make edits to the midi, audio, but as soon as I want to save I get a series of spool and permissions error messages. It seems to work if I save the file to my desktop and work from there though. But then I don't have this saved on an HD...
Does any one have any suggestions here?
Would it work if I bought a new hd, plugged them both into a USB hub, imported tracks I want to use from the old hd and time back up using time machine to a new hd?
To add another spin to the issue, I am also using a 15" i7 Quad MacBookPro. I want to use this in place of the iMac however I already have a USB input shortage (3 on my iMac version) and use a 2nd monitor. My macbook has the thunderbolt port... Does anyone know of any hubs using Thuderbolt?

Lloyd Elis wrote:
How do i delete & reformat my time machine external back up drive & start reusing it again as a time machine back up facility??
Welcome to Leopard Forums:
If you repartition your drive it's quick and works fine.
Using disk utility, create two partitions on the drive and then repartition into a single partition.
When creating two partitions, be sure to overrun the existing data. You should get a warning about losing all data, which is what you want.
Leave everything else alone.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

Just installed new Time Capsule, wifi now very slow, what amI doing wrong?

Just installed new Time Capsule, wifi now very slow, what am I doing wrong?

It's possible the reason it seems so slow, is that a backup might be in progress - and since it's the first backup everything on the disk is something that Time Machine is backing up and is being transferred across the WiFi at the same time as you're trying to use your Internet. So you're competing with Time Machine data flying across your WiFi along with your internet stuff. So if this is indeed what is happening (look at Time Machine to see if a backup is in progress), either pause the backup to a more convienent time or live with the slowness till the backup is done this first time, and after that you probably will not notice the "competition" on your WiFi. I like to schedule the Time Machine backups to late at night rather than once an hour (the default), but that schedule should be whatever you feel most comfortable with.
There is a handy free utility called "TimeMachine Editor" that you can get from http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/ that lets you create your own customized backup schedule. You can create several schedules to fit your working conditions. I've used it for several years with never a problem. I don't have anything to do with the company - just a happy user.
Good luck...

How do I copy old Time Machine back-up data onto my new (second) back up drive?

I recently bought a second back-up drive for use with my MacBook Pro (running 10.9.4).
I'm successfully backing up my computer to both drives on a regular basis using Time Machine. (a Seagate drive and a Western Digital drive respectively)
I was wondering if there's an easy way to add the old back-up files from the old drive to the new drive as well. That is to say, I wish I had all the data that precedes my new back-up drive on BOTH drives. There's plenty of space on the new drive.
Again, I'm already running Time Machine successfully to both drives, is it perhaps as easy as connecting both drives to my computer and copying the older dated back-up files over to the newer drive within the Backups.backupdb folder for my profile?
Thanks for any help!

Although the documentation says you can copy Time Machine backups in the Finder, it's very slow and sometimes doesn't work at all.
This technique will only work if the volume you're copying to is the same size, or larger than, the one you're copying from.
First, open the Time Machine preference pane and click the Options button. You may have to unlock the settings first by clicking the padlock icon in the lower left corner of the window. Authenticate as an administrator.
Delete the volume you're going to copy from the list of backup destinations. Then turn Time Machine OFF.
Launch Disk Utility, open the built-in help, and search for the term "Duplicate." Follow the instructions. All existing data on the destination volume will be erased.
If the volume you're copying was encrypted by Time Machine, you may have to unlock it first. Click the Unlock button in the toolbar of the Disk Utility window.
Turn Time Machine back ON and select the new volume as a backup destination. You can also continue to use the old volume, if you wish. The two will be alternated when both are available.
CAUTION: If the volume you're copying is corrupt, as shown by Repair Disk or Verify Disk in Disk Utility, then that corruption will be copied to the new drive. Don't copy data from a corrupt volume on a malfunctioning drive. Put the drive aside and don't use it until you're sure you'll no longer need the data. Then securely erase it and take it to a recycling center. Do the same if the Restore operation fails with "disk errors."

My external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive. Same thing has happened with Final Cut Express.

My new LaCie external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive.
The same thing happened recently between Final Cut Express and my other LaCie external hard drive used as the Scratch disk. It fixed itself.
I've run out of ideas. Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

have you done some searches on FCPx and time machine? Is there a known issue with using a TM drive with FCPx? dunno but ...wait...I'll take 60 sec for you cause I'm just that kind of guy.... google...." fcpx time machine problem" Frist page link
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/fcpx-bug-best-practices-for-using-external-hard- drives-and-final-cut-pro-x/
You cannot have time machine backups on your hard drive if you intend to use it in FCPX.
booya!

Time machine back-up stuck on "cleaning up" before actually showing back-up progress

On my MacBook Pro running latest Snow Leopard, after replacing the internal HD and restoring the data from the Time Machine back-up apparently seamlessly, when starting back-up again to the the same external disk connected to another mac on the network, this happened. Almost 12 hours now. There is activity on the external back-up disk as the LED light is blinking and I can hear it work.
The message in Time Machine Preferences pane is "cleaning up" which usually shows at the end of the back-up but this time it is before any progres has shown.
I have Time Machine Buddy widget installed and this is what it says, again for the last 12 hours or so:
Starting standard backup
Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TM WD Book-1
Failed to attach to image: /Volumes/TM WD Book-1/Vladskibook.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35
Disk image /Volumes/TM WD Book-1/Vladskibook.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|
Should I just wait patiently or perform a repair of the back-up disk or do a full reset of Time Machine?
If I should wait, can I use my mac without affecting this process?
Thanks

Yellowvan wrote:
Hi Pondini,
Yes, I bought DiskWarrior 4.1.1 - it came up with this report:
" DiskWarrior has successfully built a new optimized directory for the disk named "Untitled."
The new directory is ready to replace the original directory."
Did you let it do that? If not, nothing was changed!
The drive is still under guarantee - can they really fail this quickly?
Sure, a few drives from any production run will be D.O.A, and a few others will fail very quickly, as with nearly any manufactured product.
But you don't know yet whether the drive is bad. If you didn't let DW replace the directory, run it again and do so.
If it's still troublesome, try the other things in my last post before deciding it's the drive.

Time machine back up very slow

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