Time Machine copies all files but carries on copying

I've noticed that my external time machine disk seems to be active all the time (access light is flashing) and in the log for backupd I keep seeing messages like this:
Nov 1 20:14:45 mymac com.apple.backupd[701]: Starting standard backup
Nov 1 20:14:45 mymac com.apple.backupd[701]: Backing up to: /Volumes/mymac-tm/Backups.backupdb
Nov 1 20:17:40 mymac com.apple.backupd[701]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 2.96 GB requested (including padding), 288.81 GB available
Nov 1 21:14:55 mymac com.apple.backupd[701]: Copied *135.6 MB* of *2.5 GB*, 166703 of *166703 items*
Nov 1 21:51:12 mymac com.apple.backupd[701]: Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!
Despite running for over an hour it claims it copied a small amount of data (135.6 MB) but at the time reports it had copied all 166703 items.
What's going on? Anyone seen this as well?
Cheers
Michael

Thanks Pondini - I did check your site but none of the scenarios described in D2 were applicable to me. And I also went through all the suggestions at the bottom of the page before I posted my question.
However, shortly after I opened this thread it sorted itself out and I found these messages in the log:
Nov 4 21:45:33 mymac com.apple.backupd[2679]: Starting standard backup
Nov 4 21:45:33 mymac com.apple.backupd[2679]: Backing up to: /Volumes/tm/Backups.backupdb
Nov 4 21:45:44 mymac com.apple.backupd[2679]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 100.0 MB requested (including padding), 284.78 GB available
Nov 4 21:45:44 mymac com.apple.backupd[2679]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Nov 4 21:46:27 mymac com.apple.backupd[2679]: Copied 893 files (5.7 MB) from volume mymac_hd.
Nov 4 21:46:27 mymac com.apple.backupd[2679]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 100.0 MB requested (including padding), 284.78 GB available
Nov 4 21:46:57 mymac com.apple.backupd[2679]: Copied 31 files (93 bytes) from volume mymac_hd.
Nov 4 21:47:24 mymac com.apple.backupd[2679]: Starting post-backup thinning
Nov 4 21:47:32 mymac com.apple.backupd[2679]: Deleted backup /Volumes/tm/Backups.backupdb/mymac/2010-10-23-183912: 284.90 GB now available
Nov 4 21:47:36 mymac com.apple.backupd[2679]: Deleted backup /Volumes/tm/Backups.backupdb/mymac/2010-10-23-173906: 284.91 GB now available
Nov 4 21:47:55 mymac com.apple.backupd[2679]: Deleted backup /Volumes/tm/Backups.backupdb/mymac/2010-10-23-163921: 284.92 GB now available
Nov 4 21:48:15 mymac com.apple.backupd[2679]: Deleted backup /Volumes/tm/Backups.backupdb/mymac/2010-10-23-153958: 285.18 GB now available
Nov 4 21:48:19 mymac com.apple.backupd[2679]: Deleted backup /Volumes/tm/Backups.backupdb/mymac/2010-10-23-144004: 285.20 GB now available
Nov 4 21:48:19 mymac com.apple.backupd[2679]: Post-back up thinning complete: 5 expired backups removed
Nov 4 21:48:19 mymac com.apple.backupd[2679]: Backup completed successfully.
Now backups are completing within 1 or 2 minutes.
Cheers
Michael

Similar Messages

Time Machine copies all files, but keeps growing during back up

Hi there!
I just bought a new internal HD for my MacBook, because the old one is full. Now I hooked my external HD to my MacBook and selected this HD for backing up in TM. It said at the beginning that it would back up ±150 GB. When it got there after backupping a whole day, it kept on growing! 150GB became 160GB and is now even 175GB! I really don't get this, it doesn't really seem to be needing a coffeebreak soon, so I don't know how long this will go on. Is this a common issue?
My internal HD isn't even 175GB large, so this is why it's extra 'weird'.
Thanks a lot in advance!!

I'm sorry if I've been unclear! I am a computer n00b...
Anyway, the current internal drive is indeed 160GB, I bought a 500GB to replace it.
I used an external HD to back up the old one, so I could replace the internal HD and restore my system as it was.
But I didn't know I needed 320GB of free space in order to make a back up of the 160GB drive.
EDIT
When TM didn't stop at 145 (aprox. the data I have on my drive), even though it said it was finished, I didn't know what was going on (still don't). So I think I must get myself a new external also? Isn't there other software for this?
Message was edited by: RobinZ.
Message was edited by: RobinZ.

HT4889 Apple Store changed hard disc - created user account ("User"). I ran migration assistant / time machine. All files migrated but on "User" I can't open them. Help!

I changed my Seagate 1 Tb hard disc under the Apple Exchange Program.I received the iMac and the Apple Store created a new account on my iMac ("User"). I connected the Time Machine and ran the migration assistant. All files etc. have migrated. I can see the Macintosh HD and my old user account but am not allowed to open them. How can I get back to my old settings etc.?

what is the message that you get when you try to open a file?
1. You can try to change the permissions to see if they will allow you to write to the file(s).
2. Naviagte to your Home folder Macintosh HD-->Users-->Username and press command+i to get info and on the bottom of the screen click on the lock and unlock the security check, remove your current username and then re-add it and next to the minus symbol click and select apply to enclosed folders

Time Machine backs up files, but will not Restore within programs like iCal

Time Machine is working great as a basic backup utility to my external HD. However, I cannot, for the life of me get the restore function to work from within a specific Apple program like iCal or Mail. Every time I click iCal or Mail THEN Time Machine, the 'galaxy' view reverts to the Desktop folder.
This is fine for individual files/folders, but where's the built-in restore feature?

I called Apple today, but the support agent didn't seem to know whether or not Time Machine can open with cascading iCal windows. He had me navigate to a folder under my username where the calendars are located....problem is that all the iCal events and Calendars are encoded so it's difficult to find which events you need to restore and stuff. Basically for me, it's SO much easier to go to
File->Back up iCal. Time machine works good for documents...but Apple really screwed up here.

Help!Traded baseline retina for mid-level. Used time machine to restore files but now time machine ridiculously slow. WHY??

I recently traded my basline macbook pro with retina dipslay for the mid level to gain a bigger SSD. I used my time machine backup on my Lacie Porsche Design 2TB external hard drive. It worked seamlessly and new computer is up and running perfectly. BUT now my time machine backups are painfully slow. Like 5KB per 30 minutes slow! When i ran my first initial backup it took about 45 minutes to do a full backup of about 110GB (on my baseline retina display with the exact same Lacie External drive) ... Now time machine wants to do the same thing (a full new backup because its a new computer) but it is so slow it is pretty well not doing anything at all. HELP! Is it the external drive or the computer or something i am doing wrong??

See Pondoni's tip - Backup is slow or seems "hung" - maybe it will be of some assitance.
Clinton

Time Machine backup failed - files can't be copied disk appears to be read

Error: <<<<<Time Machine could not complete the back - Files can't be copied onto backup disk because it appears to be read only.>>>>
I originally setup a Seagate GoFlex 1TB USB drive as my backup disk, wiped the drive and set it up as a MAC OS extended. Ran for a few days and then the error appeared - error above. Ran disk utility and verify disk - no issues found. The only way I found to resolve (temporarily) was to eject the drive, power off and reconnect. Eventually I decided the switch drives, swap the Seagate GoFlex 1TB with the WD Mybook 500GB (setup WD as MAC OS Extended), no issues till today, same error appeared..
Has anybody seen this problem, any ideas how to resolve the issue.

Hello,
http://pondini.org/TM/C6.html

Time Machine will not let me restore from backups after June, 2013. I can see the files on the external hard drive but Time Machine skips all of them and goes back to June, 2013. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is?

Time Machine will not let me restore from backups after June, 2013. I can see the files on the external hard drive but Time Machine skips all of them and goes back to June, 2013. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is?

rtilghman wrote:
telling me to buy a new router is NOT a solution.
And why not? Apple is selling these things like BigMacs. They can't make enough of them. You've been suffering since May because you refuse to get a decent router.
Can you imagine if a company that makes a refrigerator told me that I needed to upgrade my electrical system to rectify a problem with their device? What kind of response IS that?!?!
What if the problem with their device is that it requires a new-fangled "grounded" outlet and your circa 1890 house doesn't have grounded outlets. Would you refuse to purchase a $ 25 adapter on principle?

HT201250 If time machine puts all of my photos onto my external hard drive using time machine, can I then delete the photos from my computer put view them again from the external hard drive? Basically, can I free up space on my mac but not lose years of p

If time machine puts all of my photos onto my external hard drive using time machine, can I then delete the photos from my computer but view them again from the external hard drive? Basically, can I free up space on my mac but not lose years of photos?

To add to Niel's comment bear in mind that if you have a backup copy on an external HD and later delete the orignals on your Mac HD you will then only have one copy - so no backup.
If the pictures are precious you should have at least two copies, and ideally another copy kept off site,

Time machine is turned off but my startup disk keeps filling up with backup files on a hidden volume.

My Time Machine is turned off but my system startup drive keeps filling up with backup files in a hidden volume. How can I stop this? When Time Machine was turned on, the destination was set to an external drive. I was completely confused about what was happening until I used Houdini to reveal the hidden volume. I have no idea how it got created or why it keeps filling up with no backup application running to my knowledge. Thanks.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
Download this, or a similar tool if you prefer:
OmniDiskSweeper - Products - The Omni Group
Boot in safe mode. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
During startup, you will see "Safe Boot" on the login screen, which appears even if you normally log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Safe mode is slower than normal, and some things won’t work at all, possibly including wireless networking.
Does your boot volume continue to fill up? Use the above tool to explore the volume and find out where the space is going.

HT201250 How do I restore photos from Time Machine? All of my photos have been imported within iPhoto and therefore are exported to Time Machine via an iPhoto file. I can't figure out how to break individual photo files out of the iPhoto file. Any idea

How do I restore photos from Time Machine? All of my photos have been imported within iPhoto and therefore are exported to Time Machine via an iPhoto file. I can't figure out how to break individual photo files out of the iPhoto file. Any ideas?

You might post this query on the iPhoto forum and perhaps someone there can provide an answer.
I tried this on my MBP and it seems that you have to restore the entire iPhoto Library. What I did was put the current library in a separate folder on the desktop and then I restored the library from a prior date. If you were to do that, you then could extract the desired photos and then delete the restored library. Then place the current library back to the original location and import the desired photos.
Not tidy but it seems it will work.
Ciao.

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down eliminate

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down menu with the gear box symbol to eliminate

I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots. Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
See Pondini's page for more explanation: What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.
The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library. Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots.

I was trying to back up my mac by using my external hard drive. Without realizing it, time machine erased all my backups from my other computers. Is there any way to recover these files? I can't even get the external hard drive to work on my pc.

I was trying to use my external hard drive to back up my mac computer. It had files on it from my pc computer. Time machine erased all my existing files. (I thought it was only going to erase the duplicate files and rewrite them). Is there anyway to recover these files from my external hard drive. My mac has renamed the hard drive time maching and it will no longer show up on my pc. What can I do?

Yes, the Old Master file has a folder for each year where I find all photos from that specific year. I am attaching a screen shot of the file.
In the meantime i have managed to download all photos (it did not download any video files though in mpg, avi, 3gp, m4v,mp4 and mov format) to a new iphoto library. Unfortunately the photos are quite mixed and often doubled up. I ma considering to purchase iphoto library which checks all duplicates in iphoto. this will save me a lot of time. What do you think?

Deleting Time Machine Back-up Files - HELP!

I tried to delete a time machine back-up file from my external drive (to clear space), I dragged it into the trash ... when I tried to empty trash it looked like there were 1000s of files being deleted. That scared me so I stopped the trash from emptying. Now I can't get the file out of the trash. I try to drag it out and it just copies. So two questions: 1) how do I get this file out of the trash? 2) how do I delete all of these back-up files - well, I don't need to delete all of them but there are so many? Do I really need all of these time machine back-ups? If I do delete them - what am I actually deleting? Are they just copies of my harddrive or is it a problem to delete them (when I look in the file that is in my trash it seems like it is my whole system ...). Sorry for all of the questions but I am in a bit of a panic. Also, I did try to delete the files by going into time machine, clicking on the gear icon, selecting a file and clicking on delete, nothing happened. Any thoughts, suggestions, advice most welcome!

wcaroliner wrote:
So two questions: 1) how do I get this file out of the trash?
See #E6 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
2) how do I delete all of these back-up files - well, I don't need to delete all of them but there are so many? Do I really need all of these time machine back-ups? If I do delete them - what am I actually deleting? Are they just copies of my harddrive or is it a problem to delete them (when I look in the file that is in my trash it seems like it is my whole system
You shouldn't have to delete old backups. Time Machine will do that automatically when it needs space for new ones, unless you have the +Warn when old backups are deleted+ box checked in +Time Machine Preferences > Options.+ Just remove the check.
If you have other data on your Time Machine drive, in the same partition, that's not a good idea. It needs to be moved elsewhere, so Time Machine has it's own, exclusive space. See #3 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
The backups have a complex and somewhat unusual structure; there's a bit of "smoke and mirrors" going on there, where it appears that every backup is a full copy of your system, and it is, in a way, but isn't in another. Seems contradictory, I know. See [How Time Machine works its Magic|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Works.html] for an explanation.
I did try to delete the files by going into time machine, clicking on the gear icon, selecting a file and clicking on delete, nothing happened.
You should have gotten a confirmation prompt, then one for your Admin password. If you didn't, the backups may be damaged/corrupted. Repair them, per #A5 in Troubleshooting.

I replaced my hard drive and used time machine to boot from but it installedthe unrepaired disk permissions of the faulty previous drive would this cause problems on my new drive?

I replaced my hard drive on macbook pro and used time machine to boot from but it also installed the unrepaired disk permmissions of the other drive, would this cause problems to my new drive?

Can you remember what the permissions problem was that you had before? You may need to reinstall OS X from scratch and not reinstall anything from your Time Machine backups. To be on the safe side you should reinstall all third-party applications from scratch, as well. Then only restore from your backup your document/data files.

How does Time Machine handle alias files on the backup volume?

I have been trying to find some info on how Time Machine handles alias files on the backup volume, but can't find anything on that topic. Neither here in this discussion or at the Apple support pages.
My concern is if an alias file on the backup volume is backed up »as is«, or if it is resolved and the original file is backed up? The last would be most annoying as this will make the size of the backup much larger.
Even though I do not know of folders having been renamed (which will cause that folder and all its content to be backed up again) Time Machine often backs up a surprisingly large amount of data, so I suspect that alias files could be resolved.
Any info on this will be appreciated.

Alias files are NOT followed, AFAIK.
For more info on how TM works, see this ars technica review.
Good luck!
Message was edited by: joshz

Time Machine copies all files but carries on copying

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for