Time Machine doing HUGE hourly backups

TM seems to be doing gigantic backups every hour -- copying 2-4 GB worth of data each time. Now clearly I'm not modifying that much data on an hourly basis. Is there any way I can monitor which files are being copied?
My naive expectation is that in TM Preferences, under the progress bar, there would be a little disclosure triangle that, when clicked, tells you the name of the file currently being copied. Of course no such thing exists. Is there any way of knowing what the heck is going on?

Time Machine will back up data if anything has changed. Even the slightest change to permissions will force a new backup. For example: I defragged my hard drive recently. Since I optimized the metadata table and moved the files around, TM thought I had new versions and prompted doubled my sparsebundle size overnight. It did not bother to compare filenames or sizes (and I do not think iDefrag changes the "modified" date), but some some puny little flag somewhere had been changed so it backed the file up again. I really do like TM, but the more I use it, the more I can see that it really is not "smart" with respect to incremental backups.
Anyway, that might be something for you to investigate. I'm willing to bet tat even if you change the name of a directory then change it right back, TM will backup it up fresh. Time Machine has a ways to go yet. Hopefully Apple will release a "2.0" version in the near future that will address many of the irregularities that seem to plague the program.

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I am using 10.9.1 on a 21.5" iMac. I am backing up using Time Machine. The hourly backups are over kill. How do get TM to backup daily?

I am using 10.9.1 on a 21.5" iMac. I am backing up using Time Machine. The hourly backups are over kill. How do get TM to backup daily, only?

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for details.

Time Machine Does Excessive Full Backups

Time Machine used to just backup changed material on a hourly basis. It seems that recently every time I look at the progress indicator it is trying to do a full backup of my entire hard drive. Any ideas why?

Have you recently done a restore?
I have the same problem. I did a full restore, and TM did a full backup afterwards. This is a "documented feature". Then it did skims every hour. However, if I reboot, it does a full backup the first time after the reboot. It's done 5 full backups (50 GB each) in the past 5 days. I can't afford to shut down my Mac until I figure this out. I only have 170GB of free space on my Time Machine drive.
Is there any way to see how big each backup is, and delete un-needed ones?
I'd really like to figure out what causes this problem, before Time Machine starts deleting old stuff I want backed up to make room for all these wasteful new backups.

Time machine not consolidating hourly backups

For some reason my time machine isn't consolidating backups at the end of the day/week/month. On my time machine drive, I currently have hourly backups going back over 2 months.
As you may imagine, this eats up a lot of storage.
Does anyone have any ideas what might be causing this?

That's odd. Mine go away after 24 hours like clockwork.
As VA2020 says, it's probably not a significant space problem, but worth investigating, especially after that long a time.
I'd suggest downloading the Time Machine Buddy widget, which extracts TM's messages from your logs and displays them in a little window. Check your last few backups, especially for messages about "thinning".
As an example, here's my most recent set, showing routine deletion of an hourly:
*Starting standard backup*
*Backing up to: /Volumes/TmBackups/Backups.backupdb*
*No pre-backup thinning needed: 133.2 MB requested (including padding), 175.83 GB available*
*Copied 492 files (2.7 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.*
*Starting post-backup thinning*
*Deleted backup /Volumes/TmBackups/Backups.backupdb/JPs.G5.iMac/2009-01-19-191145: 175.83 GB now available*
*Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed*
*Backup completed successfully.*
If yours look hinky (pardon the technical term), especially any sort of failure message, or not being able to delete old backups, copy and post them here (be careful to get all the messages, as they often overflow the little window).
One question: have you used any of the 3rd part apps or postings about modifying TM's preference file to alter the backup schedule?

Time machine does not recognize backups

I need to do a restore because after a logic board replacement my apps are not showing as registered, in other words they are all asking for serial numbers. I would like to see if I can use time machine to restore these apps. I don't want to do a full restore using the OS X install CD because it says it erases the contents of the volume. I'm assuming that means teh system and apps will be restored but I'll lose my files.
I can;t get time machine to recognize backups and I found this...
Symptoms
In the Mac OS X 10.5 Time Machine "time travel" window, past backups may not appear if your computer name includes certain characters.
Products Affected
Resolution
Check your computer name in Sharing preferences. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from following set and is not blank (no matter which Mac OS X language version you are using):
0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
so I changed my computer name accordingly but the backup folder in Backups.backupdb still has the old name with a character not allowed. Nothing I do to change priveleges allows me to rename the folder!
Advice needed! Thanks!

It is not a simple matter of the computer name. A simple rename of the backup doesn't do it. It my be necessary but its not the obstacle.
The MAC address of the old board is in the Extended Attributes (EAs -"invisible" metadata) for the old board backups and the MAC address of the new board is in its EAs. If they MAC address in the EA doesn't match the MAC address of the machine that Time Machine is trying to backup it won't do it and it will start a new backup. That certainly appears to be the situation you face.
You can see this by a simple check in terminal. Below is a sample I have two machines name Juvenal and Pliny. The xattr command with the -l option lists all the extended attributes of a file. For the backups of my systems it returns a value that is, in fact, the MAC address of that machine. If the MAC address of the target and source don't match Time Machine won't do the backup and will start a newbackup'
~ $xattr -l /Volumes/Backup\ of\ Juvenal/Backups.backupdb/Juvenal
com.apple.backupd.BackupMachineAddress:
0000 30 30 3A 31 64 3A 34 66 3A 34 61 3A 66 31 3A 64 00:1d:4f:1a:f4:d6
0010 36 00
~ $xattr -l /Volumes/Backup\ of\ Pliny/Backups.backupdb/Pliny
com.apple.backupd.BackupMachineAddress:
0000 30 30 3A 31 62 3A 36 33 3A 33 66 3A 66 64 3A 37 00:1b:63:3f:fd:76
0010 36 00
The actual path to your backups will depend on your configuration and whether or not the backup is on a locally attached drive or not. Mine - in the example above - are on a TC and the results occur after opening the sparse bundles.
The solution I pointed you do is trying to deal with this and change it so the MAC addresses match.
I agree this is a known problem and warrant an official fix which should not be complicated.

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

Time machine does not restore backup

After my iMac crashed, it prompted me to restore from my Time Machine. I started doing it, but about 20% and 4-5 hours later, I got a message saying 'Cannot find any connected Time Machines' . And I could actually see the connected volume of Time machine on the Desktop!
Please help, 700Gb of Data are at stake!!
Thanks,
GL

What is the backup device?

Time Machine does not complete backup to Time Capsule

Within the past few days my iMac will not complete a backup to my Time Capsule. The two other computers connected to the Time Capsule appear to be backing up but they size of the backup is smaller. The Time Machine starts but then stops after 10 or so minutes. Also, the size of the to backup is ver large, and I have not added that much to my files since the last complete backup.
Here is what I tried:
1. Deleting the com/apple/Timecapsule.plist file and restarting the Time Capsule.
2. turning off WIFI and connecting to an ethernet cable
3. Verifying the disk (when connected to with the ethernet cable)
Nothing worked although Deleting the com/apple/Timecapsule.plist file and restarting the Time Capsule it got about 50% through before crapping out.
Appreciate any ideas.
Thanks

What OS is the computer running? Expect issues with Yosemite.. it is just not that reliable.
How much space does it require and how much is available on the TC?
What speed is the backup doing? If it is super slow it can trip out.
You did the right things, using ethernet and verifying the old backup.. But if you upgraded to Yosemite (upgraded??) then I strongly recommend you start a completely new backup.
Did you load the widget so you can actually check the log info.. to find out why TM stopped??
A1 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
It is hard to fix issues when you don't even know what the issue is.

Time Machine starts new "hourly" backup in under an hour

My last backup was completed at 9:44. Time Machine just started a new backup at 10:27! It now says completed at 10:31, next scheduled at 11:25 (still under an hour) Per Genius advice, I just reinstalled Snow Leopard which at least help the backup time drop down to about 3-5 minutes. It used to take 30 minutes to backup 50mb. But even after the reinstall, I am seeing Time Machine kick in under an hour between backups!?!

the next backup time is determined by the start time of the previous backup, not by the finish time. and there are always small variations anyway as the launchd (the mechanism that schedules periodic tasks) doesn't check on them every second. what you see is quite normal.

HT201250 Time Machine not keeping hourly backups.

My Time Machine backups don't seem to be working correctly. It doesn't appear to be keeping hourly backups. When I enter Time Machine and look at the backup from just one hour ago, the newest file is from several weeks ago, not one hour ago.
Same thing with monthly backups. At a certain point, the backup history skips several months.
I've scoured the internet but can't seem to find anyone else with this problem or a solution.

That's odd. Mine go away after 24 hours like clockwork.
As VA2020 says, it's probably not a significant space problem, but worth investigating, especially after that long a time.
I'd suggest downloading the Time Machine Buddy widget, which extracts TM's messages from your logs and displays them in a little window. Check your last few backups, especially for messages about "thinning".
As an example, here's my most recent set, showing routine deletion of an hourly:
*Starting standard backup*
*Backing up to: /Volumes/TmBackups/Backups.backupdb*
*No pre-backup thinning needed: 133.2 MB requested (including padding), 175.83 GB available*
*Copied 492 files (2.7 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.*
*Starting post-backup thinning*
*Deleted backup /Volumes/TmBackups/Backups.backupdb/JPs.G5.iMac/2009-01-19-191145: 175.83 GB now available*
*Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed*
*Backup completed successfully.*
If yours look hinky (pardon the technical term), especially any sort of failure message, or not being able to delete old backups, copy and post them here (be careful to get all the messages, as they often overflow the little window).
One question: have you used any of the 3rd part apps or postings about modifying TM's preference file to alter the backup schedule?

Time Machine not making hourly backups since Mavericks upgrade

Recently upgraded to Mavericks from Lion 10.7.5 (took 14 hr.). Since then, when I enter Time Machine (without being connected to my external backup drive) I get a notification "your time machine backup disc can not be found". The only options given are to "set up time machine" (which I have done) or "cancel". My previous backups to my external hard drive are shown in the back ground but can not be opened and there are no hourly or weekly backups shown.

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.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

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 does not recognize backup disk after Yosemite

I have this issue in both macs I own, a 2010 MBP, and a 2012 Mac mini. After I upgraded to yosemite, Time Machine will not find my backup disk. I have been using the same network attached storage drive for 4 years for time machine backups. I has worked fine with all the macs I've owned until now. I can see the disk in Finder, I can go to disk utility and mount the Time Machine disk, but when I go to Time Machine preferences and try to select the list, the disk is not listed there, even though is mounted.
Any ideas?
Thanks!

A third-party NAS is unsuitable for use with Time Machine, especially if it's your only backup. I know this isn't the answer you want. I know Time Machine accepted the NAS as a backup destination. I know that the manufacturer says the device will work with Time Machine, and I also know that it usually seems to work. Except when you try to restore, and find that you can't.
Apple has published a specification for network devices that work with Time Machine. None of the third-party NAS vendors, as far as I know, meets that specification. They all use the incomplete, obsolete Netatalk implementation of Apple Filing Protocol.
If you want network backup, use as the destination either an Apple Time Capsule or an external storage device connected to another Mac or to an 802.11ac AirPort base station. Only the 802.11ac base stations support Time Machine, not any older model.
Otherwise, don't use Time Machine at all. There are other ways to back up, though none of them is anywhere near as efficient or as well integrated with OS X. I don't have a specific recommendation.
If you're determined to keep using the NAS with Time Machine, your only recourse for any problems that result is to the manufacturer (which will blame Apple, or you, or anyone but itself.)

Time Machine does not see backups

Hello, I have started to use time machine but it only shows today and now. I can see all of the backups on the time machine drive but nothing shows up when I open time machine. I have seen the problem with the hostname but my hostname is Machintosh, so that should not be a problem. My machine is a 1.25ghz mac mini using an external drive for booting.
Thanks in advance for any help

Are you absolutely positive that your computer name in System Preferences > Sharing has been changed as Bob suggested? Fixing the computer name has, so far, seemed to fix any problems that people have posted about not being able to see their Time Machine backups. This is from the KB article about your issue:
Mac OS X 10.5: Time Machine backups are not visible
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306928
Check your computer name in Sharing preferences. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from following set and is not blank (no matter which Mac OS X language version you are using):
0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Time Machine does a full backup after a full restore

Hi,
To test Time Machine (as you should always do with any backup system) I decided to do a full restore of one of my Macs. This went fine (after figuring out how to mount my remote backup disk).
However I noticed that when the restored machine did its first scheduled Time Machine backup after being restored it did what pretty much amounted to a full backup (taking ages).
I believe Time Machine should be clever enough to know that the restored files are the same as the backed up ones, and there is no need to copy new versions.
Cheers, Ed.

Indeed not unexpected, however it would be easy to fix this in the future by linking the restore into the existing baseline (given that it is a direct copy of it) as it writes the files.
It is worth mentioning because if you have a smallish backup disk (I don't) then writing the second baseline may flush out a number of your older weekly backups that you would rather have retained. It will also eventually mean that you will always have those two baselines and therefore restrict the number of valid backups that you can keep.
Cheers, Ed.

Time Machine doing HUGE hourly backups

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