Time Machine Getting Slower ... and sloowweerr ... and sllooowwe...?
I’m having a few issues with Time Machine. I’ve noticed that backups seem to be getting progressively slower. Details are:
System: 17” 1.25Ghz iMac – PowerPC – 10.5.8
Data: Around 140GB total data over two hard drives:
1st Drive: Internal hard disk
2nd Drive: Smartdisk CrossFire External Firewire 400 Hard Drive
Time Machine Drive: LaCie d2 Quadra Firewire 400 Hard Drive
Time Taken for Incremental backup: Between 6 and 13 minutes, usually around 10 minutes.
I’ve tried all the usual things – permissions repair on all drives, deleting the V100 spotlight file on the TM drive in order to rebuild the spotlight database, I’ve tried copying files directly to the TM dive to check the firewire connection and it’s lightening fast.
A few days ago I even resorted to re-initializing my entire TM drive, zeroing it out and starting again completely.
At first this improved things slightly. Before I started again, my backups were taking 20 minutes plus, but afterwards it went down to between 6 and 8 minutes, but now it’s slowly creeping up again.
In terms of data, all I’m doing is checking emails and using the web and maybe the odd word processing. I haven’t done any heavy video editing for ages and don’t download music or movies so there aren’t massive amounts of data flying about. Backup sizes are often as low as1.5 megabytes.
Before I started having these problems, I’m sure a standard incremental backup would take little more than one minute and often even less than that.
So what can I do to fix this? The system really grinds when TM is backing up which is fine if it’s for one minute but a real pain if it’s spending 15 or 20 percent of the time churning though backups.
Any help or advice gratefully received.
Another backup report:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/LC 5 Time Machine/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 151.7 MB requested (including padding), 77.57 GB available
Copied 5 files (0 bytes) from volume CrossFire 2 Movies Photos.
Copied 6016 files (17.3 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 137.2 MB requested (including padding), 77.54 GB available
Copied 5 files (0 bytes) from volume CrossFire 2 Movies Photos.
Copied 6016 files (4.8 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Backup completed successfully.
No problems reported, yet it took 21 minutes to complete!
Something's wrong, surely.
Stuff I've tried:
Repair/verify permissions on all drives;
Safe Boot;
Clear out caches and tidy up using Onyx;
Run Daily, Weekly and Monthly scripts;
Erase TM partition, zero out completely and start again;
Force spotlight database rebuilds on all drives;
Delete com.apple.TimeMachine.plist from top level Library/preferences folder;
Tell TM to ignore .dropbox file;
Copied a 1gb file to the TM drive manually to check FireWire 400 data transfer. It took around one minute 20 seconds which seems ok to me;
Told my antivirus VirusBarrier X6 (which I've been using without issues for years) to ignore the TM drive.
I'm at a loss. Something must be wrong, but I'm completely out of ammo.
Thoughts?
Advice?
Anyone?
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I have a mid2009 MacBook Pro running Mavericks for which I have been using a USB WD HD for Time Machine. I'd like to get a wireless HD and start a new Time Machine backup for this Mac and retire the 5 year old WD drive. Can I start over?
no archive/ backup is perfect, HD clones can be set to make incremental additions, same as time machine however, though they are more time involved in doing so.
See the + and - of all data backup/ archives below and "spread it around".... or the "dont put your eggs all in one basket" philosophy.
Peace
Data Storage Platforms; their Drawbacks & Advantages
#1. Time Machine / Time Capsule
Drawbacks:
1. Time Machine is not bootable, if your internal drive fails, you cannot access files or boot from TM directly from the dead computer.
2. Time machine is controlled by complex software, and while you can delve into the TM backup database for specific file(s) extraction, this is not ideal or desirable.
3. Time machine can and does have the potential for many error codes in which data corruption can occur and your important backup files may not be saved correctly, at all, or even damaged. This extra link of failure in placing software between your data and its recovery is a point of risk and failure. A HD clone is not subject to these errors.
4. Time machine mirrors your internal HD, in which cases of data corruption, this corruption can immediately spread to the backup as the two are linked. TM is perpetually connected (or often) to your computer, and corruption spread to corruption, without isolation, which TM lacks (usually), migrating errors or corruption is either automatic or extremely easy to unwittingly do.
5. Time Machine does not keep endless copies of changed or deleted data, and you are often not notified when it deletes them; likewise you may accidently delete files off your computer and this accident is mirrored on TM.
6. Restoring from TM is quite time intensive.
7. TM is a backup and not a data archive, and therefore by definition a low-level security of vital/important data.
8. TM working premise is a “black box” backup of OS, APPS, settings, and vital data that nearly 100% of users never verify until an emergency hits or their computers internal SSD or HD that is corrupt or dead and this is an extremely bad working premise on vital data.
9. Given that data created and stored is growing exponentially, the fact that TM operates as a “store-it-all” backup nexus makes TM inherently incapable to easily backup massive amounts of data, nor is doing so a good idea.
10. TM working premise is a backup of a users system and active working data, and NOT massive amounts of static data, yet most users never take this into consideration, making TM a high-risk locus of data “bloat”.
11. In the case of Time Capsule, wifi data storage is a less than ideal premise given possible wireless data corruption.
12. TM like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
13. *Level-1 security of your vital data.
Advantages:
1. TM is very easy to use either in automatic mode or in 1-click backups.
2. TM is a perfect novice level simplex backup single-layer security save against internal HD failure or corruption.
3. TM can easily provide a seamless no-gap policy of active data that is often not easily capable in HD clones or HD archives (only if the user is lazy is making data saves).
#2. HD archives
Drawbacks:
1. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
2. Unless the user ritually copies working active data to HD external archives, then there is a time-gap of potential missing data; as such users must be proactive in archiving data that is being worked on or recently saved or created.
Advantages:
1. Fills the gap left in a week or 2-week-old HD clone, as an example.
2. Simplex no-software data storage that is isolated and autonomous from the computer (in most cases).
3. HD archives are the best idealized storage source for storing huge and multi-terabytes of data.
4. Best-idealized 1st platform redundancy for data protection.
5. *Perfect primary tier and level-2 security of your vital data.
#3. HD clones (see below for full advantages / drawbacks)
Drawbacks:
1. HD clones can be incrementally updated to hourly or daily, however this is time consuming and HD clones are, often, a week or more old, in which case data between today and the most fresh HD clone can and would be lost (however this gap is filled by use of HD archives listed above or by a TM backup).
2. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
Advantages:
1. HD clones are the best, quickest way to get back to 100% full operation in mere seconds.
2. Once a HD clone is created, the creation software (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper) is no longer needed whatsoever, and unlike TM, which requires complex software for its operational transference of data, a HD clone is its own bootable entity.
3. HD clones are unconnected and isolated from recent corruption.
4. HD clones allow a “portable copy” of your computer that you can likewise connect to another same Mac and have all your APPS and data at hand, which is extremely useful.
5. Rather than, as many users do, thinking of a HD clone as a “complimentary backup” to the use of TM, a HD clone is superior to TM both in ease of returning to 100% quickly, and its autonomous nature; while each has its place, TM can and does fill the gap in, say, a 2 week old clone. As an analogy, the HD clone itself is the brick wall of protection, whereas TM can be thought of as the mortar, which will fill any cracks in data on a week, 2-week, or 1-month old HD clone.
6. Best-idealized 2nd platform redundancy for data protection, and 1st level for system restore of your computers internal HD. (Time machine being 2nd level for system restore of the computer’s internal HD).
7. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
HD cloning software options:
1. SuperDuper HD cloning software APP (free)
2. Carbon Copy Cloner APP (will copy the recovery partition as well)
3. Disk utility HD bootable clone.
#4. Online archives
Drawbacks:
1. Subject to server failure or due to non-payment of your hosting account, it can be suspended.
2. Subject, due to lack of security on your part, to being attacked and hacked/erased.
Advantages:
1. In case of house fire, etc. your data is safe.
2. In travels, and propagating files to friends and likewise, a mere link by email is all that is needed and no large media needs to be sent across the net.
3. Online archives are the perfect and best-idealized 3rd platform redundancy for data protection.
4. Supremely useful in data isolation from backups and local archives in being online and offsite for long-distance security in isolation.
5. *Level-1.5 security of your vital data.
#5. DVD professional archival media
Drawbacks:
1. DVD single-layer disks are limited to 4.7Gigabytes of data.
2. DVD media are, given rough handling, prone to scratches and light-degradation if not stored correctly.
Advantages:
1. Archival DVD professional blank media is rated for in excess of 100+ years.
2. DVD is not subject to mechanical breakdown.
3. DVD archival media is not subject to ferromagnetic degradation.
4. DVD archival media correctly sleeved and stored is currently a supreme storage method of archiving vital data.
5. DVD media is once written and therefore free of data corruption if the write is correct.
6. DVD media is the perfect ideal for “freezing” and isolating old copies of data for reference in case newer generations of data become corrupted and an older copy is needed to revert to.
7. Best-idealized 4th platform redundancy for data protection.
8. *Level-3 (highest) security of your vital data.
[*Level-4 data security under development as once-written metallic plates and synthetic sapphire and likewise ultra-long-term data storage]
#6. Cloud based storage
Drawbacks:
1. Cloud storage can only be quasi-possessed.
2. No genuine true security and privacy of data.
3. Should never be considered for vital data storage or especially long-term.
4. *Level-0 security of your vital data.
Advantages:
1. Quick, easy and cheap storage location for simplex files for transfer to keep on hand and yet off the computer.
2. Easy source for small-file data sharing. -
my time machine will not back up and i get this message: /Volumes/Data/Kathy P’s MacBook.sparsebundle” is already in use....i have tried multiple fixes but still unable to back up
If you have tried the fixes in Pondini's Time Machine Troublshooting, specifically #C12 and nothing helps, then it is time to let one of the genius types at an Apple Store take a look.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
If you cannot take the Time Capsule to an Apple Store, contact Apple Support directly.
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/ -
Time Machine WIFI slows down and Fine after I unplug it?
My Time Machine WIFI slows down to an absolute crawl and then after I unplug it and plug it back in, it's back to normal. Can someone help me?
My Time Machine WIFI slows down to an absolute crawl and then after I unplug it and plug it back in, it's back to normal.
This is a classic case of the effects of wireless interference from other networks around you. See the link at the bottom for more information about this.
It might first help to understand why things improve when you unplug the Time Capsule and then power it back up. When you do this, the Time Capsule will scan to find the best available wireless channels to use at the time.
Unfortunately, other wireless routers are doing the same thing all the time, so after a few hours or a day or two, the channel(s) that the Time Capsule was using become overcrowded and the wireless slows down to a crawl. Cordless phones can also create interference issues for a wireless network as well as any number of other electronic devices.
Unless you can convince other users around you to turn off their wireless routers, there is not much that you are going to be able to do to come up with a permanent fix. For now, locate the Time Capsule as far away from any outside walls in your home as possible and use the 5 GHz band for as many connections as you can.
A friend of mine who recently moved into a new apartment complex has the same problem. He has to restart his wireless router at least twice a day, sometimes more on the weekends. Too many wireless networks.....not enough channels.
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth: Potential sources of wireless interference - Apple Support -
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? -
Hi, I just had an issue with a photoshop document, my mac book temporarily crashed the screen glitches and deleted some vital layers I had constructed (took half a day) I thought I could correct it and saved it a few times in a panic and now i really need to go back to the save I made a day ago, my time machine is not set up and I just realised my files haven't been automatically uploading to cc is there anyway I can go back a day in saves?
Trevor.Dennis wrote:
So you don't have anything like Shadow Protect running in the background?
Video editing software only needs to save the steps taken to achieve the edit, and references the actual video files from the hard drive. So the saved files are only tiny, and it takes very little drive space to auto save to incrementing file names. Obviously, Photoshop files can be huge by comparison, so the only way to save with a different file name is to do it manually.
I think most regular posters to this forum make a point of updating the file name of a large project every hour or so, and as a direct response to reading so many horror stories like your own. The worst story I remember was from a poster whose computer had crashed half way through saving a large PSD file. After several response, questions and answers, it turned out he was using a laptop with a failing battery. He told us that he could see the battery was getting low, but left it and left it before finally hitting Ctrl s and running off to find the laptop's power lead. When he got back the laptop had run out of power and shut down, and his PSD file was lost forever. He may have been a prime candidate to a computing Darwin Award, but his stupidity still did the rest of us a service so we could learn from his mistake.
Ouch.
My digital audio workstation works on the same principle; it creates a backup save just in case things go wrong (which--knock on wood--hasn't happened to me) and only references audio/MIDI files that are related to the project.
My advice is to always, always back up sensitive documents. There are lots of ways of doing this, from manually to automatically. (e.g., A lot of higher-end routers let you connect external storage via USB so you can run backup software that detects any changes to a monitored folder over a network and then backs up any changed/updated documents to the connected storage. I prefer to do it myself manually, though.) -
I restored Pages from Time Machine to my MacBook Pro and I cannot open it. How can I open it?
I restored Pages from Time Machine to my MacBook Pro and I cannot open it. How can I open it?
You don't get all files you need from Time Machine. Do a reinstallation and updates from you iWork disc or if you bought from AppStore install from AppStore but then you have to uninstall first.
-
My Time Machine Strategy for both iMac and MacBook...
1) Get 1TB external drive, format as HFS+ (including the Gizmodo hint about reformatting Fat32 drives properly by setting GUID Partition table)
2) Attach external drive to MacBook directly-run Time Machine overnight for initial full backup
3) Attach external drive to iMac directly-run Time Machine overnight for initial full backup
4) Attach external drive to my Mac Mini (running Leopard)-don't run Time Machine
5) Point the iMac and MacBook to the networked drive for future incremental Time Machine backups, by mounting the external drive permanently attached now to the Mac Mini as a shared drive.
This way, I get the tedious original backup thru direct connection-native Firewire speeds, then rely on the networked wired (iMac) and networked wireless (MacBook) connections for the incremental backups (which, given our usage, isn't that major on an hourly or daily basis)
Anyone tried something like this successfully?If you have tried the fixes in Pondini's Time Machine Troublshooting, specifically #C12 and nothing helps, then it is time to let one of the genius types at an Apple Store take a look.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
If you cannot take the Time Capsule to an Apple Store, contact Apple Support directly.
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/ -
I am unable to create a new folder on either of my auxillary disk drives. I can access the files and folders that were there when I transferred one of the drives from a PC. Time machine uses one for backup and I want to use the other to store photos which are large files. An help would be appreciated.
Thanks for the reply. If I reformat the drive will I be able to access the files on it from the MAC. I do not share the drive with a PC. The files were originally created on a PC which I no longer use. I do want to continue to access the files put there by the PC. I would like to not have to copy them over to the MAC hard drive just to use them. The second aux drive is new and works fine because it was formatted by the MAC. I can drag and drop files there and work with just as if they were on the internal drive.
-
My time machine does not back up and giving me this error message: The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data-1/Amiel’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use. Pls help.
Make sure that there are no other Macs backing up at the present time.
Pull the power cord from the back of the Time Capsule
Count to ten
Plug the power cord back in
This will "fix" things about 98% of the time. Post back if you are in the unlucky 2% category. -
My Time Machine is not backing up and gives me this error report:
The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Valarie'siMac.sparsbundle" is already in use
Time Machine could not complete backup
Can anyone help me?Look at the discussion on the following forum:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3882138?start=0&tstart=0
The responses given there may help. -
Will I have to awnser my security questions every time I get an app? And if so how do I get rid of them?
If you forgot them:
From a Kappy post
The Three Best Alternatives for Security Questions and Rescue Mail
1. Use Apple's Express Lane.
Go to https://expresslane.apple.com ; click 'See all products and services' at the
bottom of the page. In the next page click 'More Products and Services, then
'Apple ID'. In the next page select 'Other Apple ID Topics' then 'Forgotten Apple
ID security questions' and click 'Continue'. Please be patient waiting for the return
phone call. It will come in time depending on how heavily the servers are being hit.
2. Call Apple Support in your country: Customer Service: Contact Apple support.
3. Rescue email address and how to reset Apple ID security questions.
A substitute for using the security questions is to use 2-step verification:
Two-step verification FAQ Get answers to frequently asked questions about two-step verification for Apple ID. -
Time machine only copies User Info and Users (Applications, Library, and System are missing) from my quad core Mac Pro. 45 Gb of 162 Gb are missing. Any one having success with time machine copying all folders using Mavericks?
What do I need to do differently?The late, great Pondini was investigating that issue before he passed away.
See here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5125969
I think there might be information there on how to reset Time Machine to do a full backup. I think you basically have to reset it and start over. -
The window that opens when I click on the Time Machine icon is Finder (devices) and when I close this Time Machine also closes.
You will need to be much more specific about what you problem is. That is how TM works. That is how you find things to restore from TM, by using a Finder window so that you can browse through the Mac's hierarchy of folders and files.
Why are you double posting this? -
every time i get on my computer and click on imessage and facetime a little box pops up saying an internal messages error occurred or an internal facetime error occurred....but my question is how do i get it to stop doing this or how to stop it.
For what it's worth, you posted this in 2011, and here in 2014 I am still having this same issue. Over the last two days, I have had to unlock my apple account 8 times. I didn't get any new devices. I haven't initiated a password reset. I didn't forget my password. I set up two factor authentication and have been able to do the unlocking with the key and using a code sent to one of my devices.
That all works.
It's this having to unlock my account every time I go to use any of my devices. And I have many: iMac, iPad, iPad2, iPad mini, iPhone 5s, iPod touch (daughter), and my old iPhone 4 being used as an ipod touch now. They are all synced, and all was working just fine.
I have initiated an incident with Apple (again) but I know they are just going to suggest I change my Apple ID. It's a simple one, and one that I am sure others think is theirs. I don't want to change it. I shouldn't have to. Apple should be able to tell me who is trying to use it, or at least from where.
Thanks for listening,
Melissa
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