Q: Time Machine backup very slow in Lion

I see the same symptoms, but my backup even starts-up when automatic back-up is turned-off. I think Apple is very lacks, ignoring this severe bug for nearly 3 months now. This is page 20 now of this forum discussion so it must have attracted the attention of the Apples, unles they don't look at the fora.

clanger9 wrote:

 

One week later and - right on cue - Time Machine is back to its perpetual indexing trick.

 

It appears that Time Machine in Lion schedules a complete re-index of the full backup set every seven days. If so, this is insane. Can anyone confirm this behaviour?

 

Seems about right.

But I think that's not the only problem. I've switched to wired lan now (because over wi-fi it's unusable), and backups take between 4 minutes (fastest ever for my system) up to 60 minutes, even though my usage of the computer during the week doesn't really vary. It should always take about 4 minutes as long as I don't install updates or sync my devices.

When it takes more than 15 minutes, it doesn't do anything special and my computer is not busy doing other things. It's just being slow.

The same problem for me:

<code>

Sep 23 23:53:48 WaveMotion com.apple.backupd[220]: 21.25 GB required (including padding), 462.46 GB available

Sep 23 23:53:48 WaveMotion com.apple.backupd[220]: Waiting for index to be ready (101)

Sep 24 00:16:43 WaveMotion com.apple.backupd[220]: Copied 384041 files (17.0 GB) from volume HD.

Sep 24 00:18:08 WaveMotion com.apple.backupd[220]: 427.6 MB required (including padding), 444.93 GB available

Sep 24 00:20:21 WaveMotion com.apple.backupd[220]: Copied 93189 files (631 KB) from volume HD.

Sep 24 00:23:39 WaveMotion com.apple.backupd[220]: Starting post-backup thinning

Sep 24 00:23:39 WaveMotion com.apple.backupd[220]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist

Sep 24 00:23:39 WaveMotion com.apple.backupd[220]: Backup completed successfully.

Sep 24 00:24:12 WaveMotion com.apple.backupd[220]: Starting standard backup

Sep 24 00:24:12 WaveMotion com.apple.backupd[220]: Backing up to: /Volumes/TREKSTOR500G/Backups.backupdb

Sep 24 00:25:42 WaveMotion com.apple.backupd[220]: 429.3 MB required (including padding), 447.31 GB available

Sep 24 00:27:05 WaveMotion com.apple.backupd[220]: Copied 77078 files (40 KB) from volume HD.

Sep 24 00:27:05 WaveMotion com.apple.backupd[220]: Backup canceled.

</code>

First backup with my new Mba with usb disk: no problems

Second backup: after ten minutes canceled by me...

I tried with 2 different disk

oh ****

my new mba....

The volume 4A6B04C3-2CC1-4F7C-ACE1-03297767B187 was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.

Error: Storage system verify or repair failed.

Resolved with a repair disk and reload....but time machine problem persist..

Anybody that is having this problem with Lion should check out the tmdiagnose terminal command and submit the output in a bug report

bugreport.apple.com

To be able to do this, you need Apple Developer status.

10.7.2 deals with Time Machine and Spotlight (among other things), and the release is imminent. At this point I would simply wait and see.

I hope so!

One thing....my iMac (snow Leopard upgraded with lion) works fine with TM

iMac:

661.1 MB required (including padding), 183.12 GB available

Copied 3015 files (14 KB) from volume HD.

Backup completed successfully.

MBA:

Waiting for index to be ready (101)

411.9 MB required (including padding), 447.51 GB available

Copied 93340 files (2.2 MB) from volume HD.

Backup completed successfully

Hey Guys...resolved!!!!!

My Time machine is very fast now!

i resolved with:

restart

shift+alt and esc

restart

alt+command+P+R and wait 3 startup sounds

restart

command+R
disk utility

repair disk permission

quit disk utility

utilities
terminal

resetpassword

reset home folder permission

What does restarting with shift-option/alt-escape do? I've never heard of that, and couldn't find any reference to it when I looked just now.

I don't know/remember....I was on phone with Apple support...

shift is a safe boot, so i would assume that shift + option-esc would be some derivative of a safe boot.

i am experiencing the extremely slow Time Machine bacups with a 15" macbook - 1.5 MB takes well over 20 minutes.  system was working perfect prior to Lion.

This slowness was still present when starting a brand new Time Machine fw800 drive, deleting Spotlight indices, repairing permission, etc. Coincidentally, deleting the indices and having Spotlight re-index solved the forever "Preparing..." stage that was hapening prior.

Rumor has it that 10.7.2 has an acutal fix for Time Machine. I am hoping this is true.

I stopped using WiFi and have been connected to my Time Capsule over LAN for the past few weeks, and the problem has disappeared for me. Reliable and fast backups again.