Q: Time Machine backup very slow in Lion

Had this issue on my iMac.  Just got off the phone with AppleCare and found a solution.  I set this machine up using transfer utility to move all my applications and user settings from my MacBook Air.  Used to have Parallels on the Air.  Apparently Parallels creats a virtual Eathernet adapter during setup.  This second Eathernet adapter was transfered to my iMac during setup.

So, for others experiencing this issue...suggest you look at network settings.  If there is an extra eathernet adapter (mine was called Eathernet wc2), disable it.  I did so and now backup is proceeding as expected.  Prior, it was moving ~1MB/hr and estimated 29,000+ days to complete a ~200GB initial backup.

jake_MBAir_AppleTV_iPhone wrote: So, for others experiencing this issue...suggest you look at network settings.  If there is an extra eathernet adapter (mine was called Eathernet wc2), disable it.

No extra ethernet here...

Still incredibly slow...

I have this problem, but since i have mac 10.8.2 i am unable to download the Supplemental update for 10.7.5

This is the Lion forum, so of course the 10.7.5 supplemental update isn't going to work for you. 

See #D2 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting;  it has a number of possible causes and fixes.

If nothing there helps, you should probably post a new thread in the Mountain Lion forum.

I installed the supplemental update for 10.7.5 OVER Mountain Lion just fine.

William Donelson wrote:

 

I installed the supplemental update for 10.7.5 OVER Mountain Lion just fine.

Coud you be thinking of the 10.8.2 supplemental at http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1600?

I just downloaded the 10.7.5 supplemental onto my Mac running Mountain Lion, and when trying to install it, got this:

This is a monster thread - 32 pages over a year on an essential service that should be a ~P1 feature at Apple.  Backup that runs at <2MB/sec over 1Gbit/sec ethernet is a serious issue. Just to confirm that 10.8.2 at the end of 2012 shows the same bahavior. I have 3 i7 16GB memory Macs on the same OS level doing the same TM 2MB/sec. At the same time my alternative backup Mini that does not run OSX anymore but Fedora 16 Linux with ext4 filesystem takes rsync backups of the same 10.8.2 Macs over ssh on ~50MB/sec.

Yeah, it seems that this problem isn't going to be addressed by Apple.  Does anybody have suggestions for a good backup solution to replace TimeMachine?  I want to be able to plug my external back up in for daily backups and be done with it in a short time.  TimeMachine has me lingering over the computer just waiting for what should be a quick update.

Thanks

See the green box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #27.

Have you tried the things in #D2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting?  Many folks with slow Time Machine backups find a fix there.

Message was edited by: Pondini

Try this!

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1599?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

This fixed it for me. You can even run this in 10.8.x as well.

Keep reposting this.

The OSX 10.8.2 over local USB connected SATA drive is working quite well. The 10.8.2 is a big improvement in local USB operation reliability. In previous OSX releases like 10.[67].x even the TM startup was an issue.

Still in 10.8.2 the over the ethernet backup speed is too slow - 2MB/sec would translate in a week of continuous backup for a standard disk that is shipped with Macs.

My alternative for over the network backup is rsync over ssh to linux running jobs from cron. The target disk is LVM2 that supports snapshots that are created also from cron jobs. In this way I just maintain directory for each Mac on the LAN and run incremental rsyncs. I keep two weeks of snapshots and expire older ones - kind of DIY NetApp. Unfortunately this is only for geeks and it is a project in itself while this should be plug-and-work directly from Apple.

I have a Mid-2010 27" iMac running Lion 10.7.5 backing up about 650GB to a reformatted HP 1TB external drive and the backup dialog is estimating 400+ days.

It's been running now for about 16 hours and I only have 975MB backed up. Anybody else think that's a little excessive? Is there something I should do or should have done to speed this up? Thank you!

If you haven't installed the 10.7.5 Supplemental Update, try that first.  (If you're not sure, it's build 11G63.)

Otherwise, have you tried the things in #D2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting?  Many folks with slow Time Machine backups find a fix there.

Thanks Pondini--

The update states that it is for build 11G56 and not necessary for build 11G63 (which is what I have). Do you think that it'll hurt to install it anyway? In the mean time, I'll check out your other suggetion. Thanks again for your help!

jlj123456 wrote:

 

Thanks Pondini--

The update states that it is for build 11G56 and not necessary for build 11G63 (which is what I have). Do you think that it'll hurt to install it anyway?

Won't help, because you already have it -- it's the only difference between 11G56 and 11G63..