Time Machine slow to backup files after System Update to Mac OS X 10.7.3

I downloaded and successfully installed the latest update to Mac OS X Lion (10.7.3) a couple of days ago, and since then I have been having problems backing up my files using Time Machine.
My external hard drive is connected via USB, and I have tried replacing the cables but this has no effect. I have tried restarting the laptop several times, unplugging the hard drive and pretty much anything else I can think off, but it still takes a long time to back up.
For example, I left it running for half an hour - when I came back it had only backed up 1KB! It would usually have completed an entire backup in this time.
I have been patient and waited several hours and tried backing up several times.
Any suggestions would be greatly apprectiated.
Thank you.

Try the things in the green box in #D2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

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Time machine deletes old backups with new system drive

So I decided it was time to get a larger system drive. After I finished migrating to the new drive, I plugged in my Time Machine backup drive, and now it's deleting all my old backups! What gives? Shouldn't Time Machine keep doing incremental backups the way it always has? Nothing has changed except the drive -- the files are still the same. I had backups going back to 2011, so it's a bit unsettling to see this happen.

Digijohn wrote:
So I decided it was time to get a larger system drive. After I finished migrating to the new drive,
On Snow Leopard, that's what usually happens.
On Lion and later, depending on exactly how you put your data back, it usually doesn't -- TM changes the backups so they look like they were made from the new drive. And there's a way to do that manually.
But on Snow Leopard, there's nothing you can do. Note that you can still see and restore from the remaining old backups, via the procedure in #E3 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Time Machine won't back up after system restore

I just restored my system after a failure, and now Time Machine won't back up my hard drive. It gets about 40 out of 90 Gigabytes done, and then gives me an error message that just says that there was an error while backing up, and doesn't give any other information. I ran a Verify Disk with Disk Utility, and there is nothing wrong with the backup drive, and there is more than 200 Gigabytes of space left on that drive.
Thank You.

zhoffmanster wrote:
Ok, so here's the thing: I tried backing up again today, and it worked just fine. Before, what would happen is a message would pop saying "an error has occurred during backup" (or something close to that). The point is, the message didn't give any detail.
No, the point is, you seem to have ignored this:
See the Time Machine - Troubleshooting post at the top of this forum.

Time machine all recent backups missing after reboot

I accidentally deleted an important file on my mac, and when i opened time machine, i discovered that my it couldn't be found wirelessly. The green light was still on the front of the device but my mac couldn't locate it.
I'm not sure exactly how long it has been since timecapsule made a backup, but i have a clear memory of it working about 3 months ago.
I rebooted it and now its running, and has backed up.
My problem is when i go into the "star wars screen" to view past backups, the only backups are from today and then next most recent are from July 2012 when i first bought the time capsule, everything else in between has disappeared. It definitely had 2013 backups.
Are the backups from 2013 still there and can't be seen, or have they been deleted permanently?

I presume then you upgraded to Mavericks?
It has a nasty habit of doing this.
If not on Mavericks please tell me what OS you are on.
Did you search by Finder.. after mounting the sparsebundle.. ie do not use Time Machine directly.
I know this is silly question .. but if you deleted the file is it in Trash??
If you deleted from Trash an immediate recovery is possible at times.. you will need to purchase a recovery software unless your are good with the CLI.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4070374
If it is deleted weeks ago then recovery is unlikely as the area of the drive will have been written over.

Time Machine fails to backup files migrated from Windows

Hi there - I have a really annoying issue whereby I have a machine with a TC on the LAN which fails to backup.
The scenario is thus - Mac Snow Leopard server which has files migrated from an old Windows server to one specific disk. This is where all the data resides so this is the only volume I actually really need to back up.
However I keep getting the message that Time machine could not write to the device after a certain period of time with the classically unhelpful:-
Console log mumbles on about what I suspect is the path/length of path or filenames which I understand. Question is - how do I get round this? There are thousands of files in here so I cannot ask the users to go around renaming the files and shortening the folder names (to be honest it doesnt seem that they are too long to me in any case).
The files are shared using both AFP and SMB as a standard Sharepoint and the users on both Mac and PC have no problems at all accessing them, hence my confusion as to why TM has a problem with the file/folder names.
Chocolate biscuit (or equivalent for those on detox) for anyone who can throw me a bone here.
Cheers and thanks in advance,
Si

Not really sure if this is what you mean about Outlook database, but the correct answer may be in this thread's last post:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3356959?start=0&tstart=0
Basically the same information you can find here:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macoffice2011-macoutlook/help-my-ma in-identity-hosed-restore-from-time/a9992719-3ae0-479d-bf0a-7c8279653ffa
"The first time that you open Outlook after restoring a Time Machine backup, Outlook rebuilds its database to accommodate the restored items. If you have a very large database, rebuilding the database might take a long time."
Hope this helps.

Time machine created new backup file

After migration, time machine created a new data file in time capsule. How do i instruct it to access the original? Thanks!

I ejected the USB drive and turned it off, erased the Timemachine.plist file from the shared directory and then turned back on the USB drive. I then went into Timemachine and turned the program back on. Timemachine then started a count down sequence and then automatically started the scheduled backups. The problem is fixed.

Time machine says the backup file is too big but...

Hi. My time machine back up stopped working. It tells me that the back up file is too large. I have a WD external 500GB Mybook. I am trying to back up my 500GB MacBook. "Get Info" on the MacBook indicates that there is 153GB on disk. "Get Info" on the Mybook indicates that there is 278.8 GB available. However, when I attempt to run backup in Time Machine I get the following message: "This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 378.4 GB but only 278.8 GB are avalable..."
Why is Time Machine telling me that the backup file is 378.4GB when my MacBook shows that I only have 153GB on disk? If I only have 153GB on disk, 278.8GB of free space in the backup volume should be sufficient for me to back up right? What am I missing here?

Same problem here, found any solution yet guys?

Time Machine backing up huge files after opening wmv file in QuickTime

Good evening to everyone;
I have noticed that after I open wmv file (or any file that needs conversion) in QuickTime; the next TM back up backs up 10+ GB to my Time Capsule. Can anyone pls explain to me where can I find this big file so I can exclude it from the back ups?
And maybe why are they even created?
Not sure if it is relevant but I also have Perian 1.1 and Flip4mac latest version installed, which lets me open all kinds of files in QuickTime.
Thanx a ton

Might be that the Quicktime cache is hiding the data. In the Users>Libraray>Caches>Quicktime>Downloads, you'll probably see a pile of items. I've never gotten rid of all of them, but you can give it a try. Post back if you find anything interesting out.

Time Machine forces a Full backup (173GB) after System restore.

Hi,
Just restored my system from the latest backup in Time Capsule. Now Time Machine want to backup the whole disk again (173GB) although the changes between the current status and the latest backup should be minimal.
Is this the normal behavior?, I would rather avoid the full back up if there any way to do it.
These are the logs. First it says that the "Event Store UUIDs don't match". I'm not sure this is really normal, because I didn't swap hard drives or anything so I assume that the Event Store UUIDs should match.
Then it says that the size of the backup is 173.86 GB.
[October10] [October 10] 10:37:18 AM com.apple.backupd[1196] Starting standard backup
[October10] [October 10] 10:37:35 AM com.apple.backupd[1196] Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Time Capsule
[October10] [October 10] 10:37:45 AM com.apple.backupd[1196] Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/Rubén Laguna Macías’s MacBook Pro_001ff3524896.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Rubén Laguna Macías’s MacBook Pro
[October10] [October 10] 10:37:45 AM com.apple.backupd[1196] Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Rubén Laguna Macías’s MacBook Pro/Backups.backupdb
[October10] [October 10] 10:37:57 AM com.apple.backupd[1196] Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
[October10] [October 10] 10:38:00 AM com.apple.backupd[1196] Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|
[October10] [October 10] 11:32:39 AM com.apple.backupd[1196] No pre-backup thinning needed: 173.86 GB requested (including padding), 380.26 GB available
[October10] [October 10] 11:37:57 AM com.apple.backupd[1196] Copied 83.6 MB of 143.7 GB, 3581 of 285647 items
[October10] [October 10] 12:57:59 PM com.apple.backupd[1196] Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
[October10] [October 10] 12:58:24 PM com.apple.backupd[1196] Copied 95.2 MB of 143.7 GB, 101822 of 285647 items
[October10] [October 10] 1:58:30 PM com.apple.backupd[1196] Copied 8.9 GB of 143.7 GB, 289125 of 289125 items
[October10] [October 10] 2:02:32 PM com.apple.backupd[1196] Copied 291414 files (8.9 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
[October10] [October 10] 2:03:26 PM com.apple.backupd[1196] No pre-backup thinning needed: 2.22 GB requested (including padding), 371.79 GB available
[October10] [October 10] 2:07:38 PM com.apple.backupd[1196] Copied 3601 files (626.5 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.

Matthew Connolly3 wrote:
Same problem here. Same machine. Restored from TM drive back to computer - worked fine doing incremental backups immediately after the restore, but now 2 days later, it wants to do a full backup and has gone and deleted all the older incrementals
Not quite the same problem, as your full backup wasn't the first one after a full restore. Whether it's related or not is anybody's guess.
Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. Navigate to the backup in question, then copy and post all the messages here. They may contain a clue.
Also see #D3 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum for the main known reasons TM will do a full backup.

I baught Seagate Backup plus 2T hard drive to use as my Backup time machine. But its not working when i connect to time machine its not coping files, it keep saying preparing files. Can someone help me please...

i baught Seagate Backup plus 2T hard drive to use as my Backup time machine. But its not working. when i connect to time machine its not coping files, it keep saying preparing files. Can someone help me please...

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. You must hold down the shift key twice: once when you turn on the computer, and again when you log in.
Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a Fusion Drive or a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually login 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.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

HT1338 Purchased a used macbook pro with Mountain Lion. My old Mac runs Snow Leopard is backed up to Time machine. How do I register the operating system to me and how do I use Time Machine to move my files to the new used computer?

Purchased a used macbook pro with Mountain Lion. My old Mac runs Snow Leopard is backed up to Time machine. How do I register the operating system to me and how do I use Time Machine to move my files to the new used computer?

If you look at the User Tips tab, you will find a write up on just this subject:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4053
The subject of buying/selling a Mac is quite complicated. Here is a guide to the steps involved. It is from the Seller's point of view, but easily read the other way too:
SELLING A MAC A
Internet Recovery, and Transferability of OS & iLife Apps
Selling an Old Mac:
• When selling an old Mac, the only OS that is legally transferable is the one that came preinstalled when the Mac was new. Selling a Mac with an upgraded OS isn't doing the new owner any favors. Attempting to do so will only result in headaches since the upgraded OS can't be registered by the new owner. If a clean install becomes necessary, they won't be able to do so and will be forced to install the original OS via Internet Recovery. Best to simply erase the drive and revert back to the original OS prior to selling any Mac.
• Additionally, upgrading the OS on a Mac you intend to sell means that you are leaving personally identifiable information on the Mac since the only way to upgrade the OS involves using your own AppleID to download the upgrade from the App Store. So there will be traces of your info and user account left behind. Again, best to erase the drive and revert to the original OS via Internet Recovery.
Internet Recovery:
• In the event that the OS has been upgraded to a newer version (i.e. Lion to Mountain Lion), Internet Recovery will offer the version of the OS that originally came with the Mac. So while booting to the Recovery Disk will show Mountain Lion as available for reinstall since that is the current version running, Internet Recovery, on the other hand, will only show Lion available since that was the OS shipped with that particular Mac.
• Though the Mac came with a particular version of Mac OS X, it appears that, when Internet Recovery is invoked, the most recent update of that version may be applied. (i.e. if the Mac originally came with 10.7.3, Internet Recovery may install a more recent update like 10.7.5)
iLife Apps:
• When the App Store is launched for the first time it will report that the iLife apps are available for the user to Accept under the Purchases section. The user will be required to enter their AppleID during the Acceptance process. From that point on the iLife apps will be tied to the AppleID used to Accept them. The user will be allowed to download the apps to other Macs they own if they wish using the same AppleID used to Accept them.
• Once Accepted on the new Mac, the iLife apps can not be transferred to any future owner when the Mac is sold. Attempting to use an AppleID after the apps have already been accepted using a different AppleID will result in the App Store reporting "These apps were already assigned to another Apple ID".
• It appears, however, that the iLife Apps do not automatically go to the first owner of the Mac. It's quite possible that the original owner, either by choice or neglect, never Accepted the iLife apps in the App Store. As a result, a future owner of the Mac may be able to successfully Accept the apps and retain them for themselves using their own AppleID. Bottom Line: Whoever Accepts the iLife apps first gets to keep them.
SELLING A MAC B
Follow these instructions step by step to prepare a Mac for sale:
Step One - Back up your data:
A. If you have any Virtual PCs shut them down. They cannot be in their "fast saved" state. They must be shut down from inside Windows.
B. Clone to an external drive using using Carbon Copy Cloner.
1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Select the Source volume from the Select a source drop down menu on the left side.
3. Select the Destination volume from the Select a destination drop down menu on the right
side.
4. Click on the Clone button. If you are prompted about creating a clone of the Recovery HD be
sure to opt for that.
Destination means a freshly erased external backup drive. Source means the internal
startup drive.
Step Two - Prepare the machine for the new buyer:
1. De-authorize the computer in iTunes! De-authorize both iTunes and Audible accounts.
2, Remove any Open Firmware passwords or Firmware passwords.
3. Turn the brightness full up and volume nearly so.
4. Turn off File Vault, if enabled.
5. Disable iCloud, if enabled: See.What to do with iCloud before selling your computer
Step Three - Install a fresh OS:
A. Snow Leopard and earlier versions of OS X
1. Insert the original OS X install CD/DVD that came with your computer.
2. Restart the computer while holding down the C key to boot from the CD/DVD.
3. Select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu; repartition and reformat the internal hard drive.
Optionally, click on the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass.
4. Install OS X.
5. Upon completion DO NOT restart the computer.
6. Shutdown the computer.
B. Lion and Mountain Lion (if pre-installed on the computer at purchase*)
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because
it is three times faster than wireless.
1. Restart the computer while holding down the COMMAND and R keys until the Mac OS X
Utilities window appears.
2. Select Disk Utility from the Mac OS X Utilities window and click on the Continue button.
3. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the left side list. Click
on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
4. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on the Security button
and set the Zero Data option to one-pass.
5. Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
6. Quit DU and return to the Mac OS X Utilities window.
7. Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
8. Upon completion shutdown the computer.
*If your computer came with Lion or Mountain Lion pre-installed then you are entitled to transfer your license once. If you purchased Lion or Mountain Lion from the App Store then you cannot transfer your license to another party. In the case of the latter you should install the original version of OS X that came with your computer. You need to repartition the hard drive as well as reformat it; this will assure that the Recovery HD partition is removed. See Step Three above. You may verify these requirements by reviewing your OS X Software License.

After 10.8.3 update, time machine rebackups all the files in the home

Yesterday evening I have updated my MacBook Pro'11 from 10.8.2 to 10.8.3
Next time machine backup works for the whole night and now I can see that it rebackups the whole home user folder. It shows all the files in my home directory have been changed somehow. As a result, a huge amount of backup history is dropped on the time machine backup drive.
Is it okay? Why TM thinks my 350 GB of personal files have been changed after system update?

Ok, I didn't go in and check every file on the iMac last night when it did a full backup so will take your word for it. Doing this once with the new install seems reasonable to me, and with the large external drives I use is not a problem...well, except for the noise the drives make for such a long time will writing the backup
I am just happy knowing there is a good base for rebuilding the internal drive if I need it.

I use Time Machine with an external hard disc which has worked perfectly for some years. Recently Time Machine has aborted backups if the screen saver starts when back-up is in progress. I use a Maxtor OneTouch4 back-up system. Any ideas?

I use Time Machine with an external hard disc which has worked perfectly for some years. Recently Time Machine has aborted backups if the screen saver starts when back-up is in progress. I use a Maxtor OneTouch4 back-up system. Any ideas?
Has Apple recently up-dated my OS (Lion) such that every time the screen saver starts it disables Time Machine. I have to switch-off the computer and re-start in order to undertake a back-up. I have now switched of all screen savers.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. 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).
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually 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.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem(s)?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)

After Time Machine backs up my file vault files (after logging out), when I next log into the user account it beachballs permanently during log in.

After Time Machine backs up my file vault files (after logging out), when I next log into the user account it beachballs permanently during log in. The backup was successful, as I had to restore after this issue last time. Hard resetting doesn't resolve the issue. Is there a Time Machine setting that I should be aware of?
I have 2011 13" MBP, 10.6.8 and use an external hard drive connected via USB for my Time Machine backups.
Thanks

I was able to get it to work. Thanks for your help. It's unfortunate the two applications do not work well together. This is what I did:
1) Safe boot and logged into the affected user (since the whole issue damaged the account's system settings).
2) Turned off File Vault in System Preferences. I needed to make some space on the hard drive first since apparently the total free space on the hard drive has to equal or exceed the amount of data currently in the file vault. I deleted some files and moved others to the Admin account. This whole process took awhile.
3) Finally, just restarted and logged in. The next time machine backup seems to be a significant backup, I assume because it's backing up the user account in a different way now that File Vault is turned off.
Thanks again!

Time Machine does not backup all of my files

Hi,
If I compare my Dropbox folder to what Time Machine backups there are differences which means that Time Machine does not backup all files:
diff <(cd "/Users/phil/Dropbox" && ls -R | sort) <(cd "/Volumes/TimeMachineBackup/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/phil/Dropbox" && ls -R | sort)
There are also differences if I compare my user folder to the Time Machine Backup:
diff <(cd "/Users/phil/" && ls -R | sort) <(cd "/Volumes/TimeMachineBackup/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/phil/" && ls -R | sort)
I did not exclude the folders affected from the Time Machine backup.
I have verified this behaviour on other computers as well.
Does anybody else have this kind of problem?
Philipp

These commands solved the problem for now:
1) Stop the Dropbox desktop application (if needed)
- Click on the Dropbox icon.
- Choose Quit/Stop/Exit
2) Open your Terminal app (Located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
3) Copy and paste the following lines into the Terminal, one at a time, and press RETURN after each one. PLEASE make sure you copy and paste these commands (don't type them by hand), as getting them wrong could cause some harm. You'll be prompted for your computer user's password (not your Dropbox password) after entering the first command. Keep in mind that the password field in the terminal will remain blank as you type your password. After you type it, just press ENTER.
sudo chflags -R nouchg ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-master
sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"
sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-master
sudo chmod -RN ~/.dropbox ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox-master
chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-master

Time Machine slow to backup files after System Update to Mac OS X 10.7.3

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