Q: Why is my Time Machine backup so slow?

John Kitchen wrote:

 

 

Here is the log.  I am deeply suspicious of the log, since the amount of data backed up from SSD and HDD is identical.  Twice.  See the bold numbers below.

 

 

Well at least figured out how to quote :-)

For what is worth, here is my log. As you see the same thing happens in mine.

Nothing similar to ". . . node requires deep traversal," in my whole system.log

Jul  1 20:24:38 raul_imac com.apple.backupd[826]: Starting standard backup

Jul  1 20:24:44 raul_imac com.apple.backupd[826]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup New (D2 1TB)/Backups.backupdb

Jul  1 20:25:09 raul_imac com.apple.backupd[826]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Jul  1 20:29:21 raul_imac com.apple.backupd[826]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 7.36 GB requested (including padding), 594.05 GB available

Jul  1 20:46:25 raul_imac com.apple.backupd[826]: Copied 481930 files (4.6 GB) from volume Mac SSD.

Jul  1 20:48:16 raul_imac com.apple.backupd[826]: Copied 590896 files (4.6 GB) from volume Mac HD Datos.

Jul  1 20:52:33 raul_imac com.apple.backupd[826]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 2.56 GB requested (including padding), 588.81 GB available

Jul  1 21:07:26 raul_imac com.apple.backupd[826]: Copied 481764 files (2.1 GB) from volume Mac SSD.

Jul  1 21:09:12 raul_imac com.apple.backupd[826]: Copied 590730 files (2.1 GB) from volume Mac HD Datos.

Jul  1 21:23:06 raul_imac com.apple.backupd[826]: Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup source disk!

Jul  1 21:23:07 raul_imac com.apple.backupd[826]: Backup deletion was canceled by user

Jul  1 21:23:07 raul_imac com.apple.backupd[826]: Starting post-backup thinning

Jul  1 21:23:07 raul_imac com.apple.backupd[826]: Backup completed successfully.

BTW, I never canceled a backup deletion.

It took one hour for something my old Core 2 Duo iMac used to take minutes. And yes, I am suspicious too.

I canceled one backup (again) in the middle of the writing and also I am repairing my HDD (which I have never done). Who knows... I'll try again then...

EDITED: I did cancel the backup since I started repairing the backup disk, so that triggered that message.

Pondini wrote:

 

That's an "expired" backup.  Time Machine doesn't keep all backups until space runs out; it "thins" them according to the schedule on the TM Prefs panel.  It keeps all for 24 hours, then one per day for a month, then one per week as long as there's room.

 

The one it deleted was over 24 hours old: 2011-06-29-074504

:facepalm:  Of course.  I keep hoping stupidity is curable, then I come out with some really dumb thinking like my prior post.  Thanks, James!

John

John Kitchen wrote:

. . .

:facepalm:  Of course.  I keep hoping stupidity is curable, then I come out with some really dumb thinking like my prior post.

Hey, welcome to the club . . . I'm a charter member! 

NewBartleby wrote:

. . .

(stupid newbie question: how do you copy a portion of the post you are replying to? I mean, to cite... nothing I tried worked... this is surely not my day!)

Two ways; copy the whole thing (by clicking the quote icon in the toolbar), then delete what you don't want.

Select and copy the section you want, then select the copied text and click the quote icon.

What if I just erase the external disk and start clean? Will it have the same effect than the deep thing?

The iMac is brand new so I just have a couple of days of backups. I'd prefer to keep them but if by reformatting the disk can solve this....

Thanks!

That should be a complete "start over."

TomRadfahrer wrote:

 

Erasing the external disk (the backup destination) has no positive effect. I tried it two times and it does not work. It is not the external disk, which is corrupt! It is the internal SSD (the backup source)!

 

 

Well I don't know what else to do... I repaired the SSD twice from a DVD boot.

I'll try a re-index of Spotlight (I've seen that this, oddly, solved other TM problems) on Monday. If this fails...

Should I report this to Apple? How?

Thanks!

I have reported my situation to Apple.  Here in the U.S., it can be done by calling a toll free number, but I prefer the option on Apple's support website, where I identify my previously registered product, describe the problem in text, and have them call me on the phone number of my choice.

That method is quicker and gets more rapidly to the people who have the appropriate skills.

May be different on Apple Spain's website of course.

The Apple rep was very knowledgeable and had me run software called "Capture Data" which collected log information for the technical people, which I emailed back.  May take several days to hear back, but I'm in no real hurry.  I'd prefer they have time to look at it and get a considered diagnosis.

I would definitely report it to Apple.

John Kitchen wrote:

. . .

The Apple rep was very knowledgeable and had me run software called "Capture Data"

You were fortunate to get to that one -- some are, shall we say, less expert. 

I would definitely report it to Apple.

Yes.  And by all means, report back.  If there's a fix, please give us the details, so others may benefit.

Pondini wrote:

 

John Kitchen wrote:

. . .

The Apple rep was very knowledgeable and had me run software called "Capture Data"

You were fortunate to get to that one -- some are, shall we say, less expert. 

 

 

I would definitely report it to Apple.

Yes.  And by all means, report back.  If there's a fix, please give us the details, so others may benefit.

I think the reason I got to this guy was in part because I explained what had been happening, and I explained the steps I had taken to diagnose and attempt repair and they exactly matched what the first level support person would have me do.

And guess how I learned what to do?  In part from this community!  So thanks!!

The next level support person confirmed that the actions I had taken were correct, such as

Repair on source and target partitions

Start a whole new Time Machine backup to an erased partition (not cleaned out via Finder)

Reviewing the system.log with the widget or Console etc

He said that I had done everything that he would normally walk me through, so had me run Capture Data and send the results to him.  He said he might come back and ask me to run it again while Time Machine was "Finishing backup..." or "Cleaning up...", so I offered to do this anyway, and he accepted that offer.  I have since sent both these Capture Data sets.

This person suggested that there may be an association of my TM issues with the 10.6.8 upgrade, and told me that the engineering people are very interested in identifying things that get broken in new releases, so my data will get quick attention.

And I know that things shouldn't get broken when a new release comes out, but this is complex stuff, and with all the testing resources that money can buy, some bugs will always slip through to be caught by us masses in the real world.  Several decades in this industry repeatedly taught me that!

I will certainly let you know what the outcome is when it happens.  Probably some time next week.

Until then, have fun.

Apparently the problem went away.

What I did: repaired disk/permissions from SSD (from a DVD boot), repaired HDD disk, erased TM external harddisk, repaired external harddisk (just in case), boot from SSD.

First backup (full) took less than three hours (as expected), first and second incremental took about five minutes. Still should be a bit faster, but these times are totally acceptable (before, it took about one hour for each incremental).

The only suspicious thing was that the disk utility found some wrong permissions on the SSD. Everything else was OK.

So far I am happy, I will report again if the incremental backup times start growing again. Hopefully not.

Thanks to you all! Still very interested in what Apple has to say about this. I found many others with similar problems in other forums.

Regards from Barcelona.

NewBartleby wrote:

. . .

What I did: repaired disk/permissions from SSD (from a DVD boot),

You need to do that again, but using Disk Utility on your Mac, not while booted from anohther source.  This is because it uses information stored on your Mac about your installed apps.  See About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature for details.

first and second incremental took about five minutes. Still should be a bit faster,

Look at the size of the backups.  If they seem too large, see #D4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for some common culprits and ways to determine exactly what's getting backed-up.

If the size seems reasonable, but they still seem too slow, see #D2 there, especially the green box.

Pondini wrote:

What I did: repaired disk/permissions from SSD (from a DVD boot),

You need to do that again, but using Disk Utility on your Mac, not while booted from anohther source.  This is because it uses information stored on your Mac about your installed apps.  See About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature for details.

Ok, I did it again. Told me:

ACL found but not expected on "private/var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd".

Repaired "private/var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd".

Should I be concerned?

Pondini wrote:

Look at the size of the backups.  If they seem too large, see #D4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for some common culprits and ways to determine exactly what's getting backed-up.

 

If the size seems reasonable, but they still seem too slow, see #D2 there, especially the green box.

They seem perfectly normal. I just think that they could be A BIT faster than my previous iMac considering this has an SSD, but I am being stupid since the main difference for the incremental backup was a lot of photos and movies I placed in the hard disk. :-)

Hey, Pondini, great work! Thank so much for the troubleshooting guide you compiled and all your help.

Regards