Time Machine preparing WAY too many items

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

If that doesn't help, try installing the "combo" update, per Installing the ''combo'' update and/or Reinstalling OSX. If still no help, try a fresh version of OSX (once you have access to your Install disc), per the same article.

MacVal wrote:

. . .

Does it happen in a different user account (if you don't have one, create one via System Prefs > Accounts). You'll have to unlock the panel to make changes from a non-Admin account.

Tough to be definitive on that one as it is very intermittent and i can't force it to happen. I've played around with the TM preferences countless times while trying to figure this out, but the CPU thing has only happened twice, once before the rebuild and once after.

If none of that provides any light, a clue may be lurking in your logs. See the tan box in OSX Log Files to locate your system.log, then the blue box to decipher it. Use the technique in the Monitoring the log ... section to see if any messages appear while you're using the TM Prefs window. If they do, copy and post them (or, if there are a lot of them, a reasonable portion) here.

I did a search for “backup” in the system log and found nothing, so I expanded the search. This is everything containing "backup" starting from 12-02-02, the day I did the reinstall:

That's not the same thing. None of those messages are coming from System Preferences, and they stretch over several hours.

If you're saying nothing odd happened while you were using TM prefs, then we don't have any clues. If it happens again, note the exact time and see what's in the log for that period (but don't filter for anything).

And if it's intermittent, none of this accounts for the huge number of files reported.

Sorry, I'm out of ideas. 😟

I'll let you know if any brainstorms occur; and please post back if you find anything interesting.

Hi,

I have a quit similar problem. A backup takes a lot of time and there are lots of items backed up:

14:26:30 ... Backing up to: /Volumes/TM/Backups.backupdb

14:28:38 ... No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.02 GB requested (including padding), 224.48 GB available

14:37:37 ... Copied 34303 files (89.0 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.

14:39:52 ... No pre-backup thinning needed: 1012.7 MB requested (including padding), 224.36 GB available

14:47:03 ... Copied 13994 files (66.0 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.

14:50:32 ... Starting post-backup thinning

14:53:35 ... Deleted backup ...

14:53:35 ... Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed

14:53:36 ... Backup completed successfully.

I tried all of Pondini’s troubleshooting, but nothing helps.

I also ran this procedure

This seemed hopefull, because at the first backup this was shown in the logs:

...Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD

...Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|

and the backup didn’t take long. Also the following backups seemed to be normal. But after a few days the problem returns. It’s interesting, that each following backup copies more files and takes a bit longer although the quantity of data doesn’t grow.

If I check the backups with BackupLoupe.app I don’t see these many files which were supposedly copied.

The problem occurs on my white macbook from 2008 and also on my macbook pro from 2009. On both runs 10.6.8. and nearly the same applications.

Pondini wrote:

I can understand how you'd think that, but it's not a general problem. Lots of folks (the vast majority) run Time Machine on 10.6.8 without that problem, so it's something else.

Since it's happening on all 3 of your Macs, I'd suspect a 3rd-party app or kernel extension, if you have the same one(s) on all 3.

If you haven't yet, try the things in my previous post.

And/or, yes, report it to Apple. See Reporting a Problem to Apple.

I appreciate your taking the time to try to help people and for all the information posted on your site. However, I think that this is a general problem. Just on this thread several people have reported this issue, and no one can fix it. Apple is supposed to write software that works every time, not some of the time or most of the time, or least software that can be made to work every time. I did report the problem to Apple, and I have tried some of the repair procedures, but all to no avail. When I have time, I'll investigate more.

One of my three computers is similar to sjackson1997's report. I installed a new HD in my early 2008 MBP and installed 10.6.3, updated to 10.6.8. I used Migration Assistant from the old HD to bring over applications and files. I had to create a new full TM backup because of a recent logic board replacement in my MBP. And now 55,000 files get backed up when I let TM run.

David Horowitz wrote:

. . .

I appreciate your taking the time to try to help people and for all the information posted on your site. However, I think that this is a general problem. Just on this thread several people have reported this issue, and no one can fix it.

Yes, a number of people are having similar symptoms. There may be a single cause, or more than one. But whatever it is doesn't affect a large number, much less a majority, of folks. That's what I mean by it's not a "general problem."

I do a lot of testing, including beta testing, and I've only been able to replicate a problem similar to this once, and it's been fixed.

Apple is supposed to write software that works every time, not some of the time or most of the time, or least software that can be made to work every time.

There is no such software in today's world. I've been involved with computers for 50+ years, and have yet to find perfect software (including the stuff I wrote 😉). Even in the early days, when all software and hardware came from the same vendor, the more complex things got, the more problems would arise. Today, when the OS is several orders of magnitude more complex, and you can connect pretty much any hardware and install not only apps but kernel extensions that modify the OS, there are even more opportunities for things to go wrong. Apple's stuff generally works very well, but none of it is perfect.

I did report the problem to Apple, and I have tried some of the repair procedures, but all to no avail. When I have time, I'll investigate more.

Good. That, and others doing the same, plus Apple, Developer, and user testing, should help Apple "home in" on the cause (or causes) and fix it (or them).

Yes, the first backup(s) after replacing a drive can be slow, as (depending on how the data was put back) the Spotlight index probably has to be rebuilt. That slows down everything, especially Time Machine backups.

Once that's done, however, performance should improve.

Searching this forum for wd scorpio produces a few threads showing various performance problems with them, but it's not clear there's a general problem with them, either.

You'd think if there was a problem with the internal HD, Time Machine wouldn't be the only process affected. But of course, you never know.

Same problem.

Each backup is changing 7,500 or so items, updating 7.5GB, even if I back up 1 second after a normally scheduled backup (i.e., nothing has changed).

I've also noticed the size of each backup gets incrementally bigger as time goes on, even if I do the 1 second later backup after a regurally scheduled one - for example, a few days ago it was 5,500 or so items, updating 5.0GB, and now 7,500 or so items, updating 7.5GB.

This has to do with 10.6.8, I'm certain, as this never happened before and ....

Anyway, this is occuring on multiple computers (iMacs and MBP's) all configured differently, and none with any funky 3rd party apps, so it is not machine or hardware specific.

Is there a way to report this to Apple and let them read this whole thread?

pcbjr wrote:

Same problem.

Each backup is changing 7,500 or so items, updating 7.5GB, even if I back up 1 second after a normally scheduled backup (i.e., nothing has changed).

Wait a minute . . . Last I heard from you, in your thread, this was fixed.

Is there a way to report this to Apple and let them read this whole thread?

Reading threads won't help. They need much more detailed information.

Call AppleCare. They'll have you do a bunch of things, have you send logs, etc., and possibly send you a data collection app to run and return data to them.

That problem of taking hours to back up one computer was fixed in my particular instance in the thread you link to and in which you tremendously helped me with - and many, many kudos to you for that; however, this problem is different and seemingly not related! :~(

I'm finding the specific problem addressed in this thread on several Macs now (larger and larger backups even with no new data or changes between backups), whereas a few weeks ago my particular back-up problem was relegated to one iMac with a new internal hard drive, and the basic solution was to reinstall the OS, delete a couple .plists and relaunch finder.

That repair sequence you guided me through on the prior issue (and which I tried on one iMac before joing this discussion) has not stopped this incessant (and wholly different) back-up of more and more files and more and more GB's as time goes on (and this does not happen on a machine that is still 10.6.7 ?????).

I'll call Apple Care, but this seems systemic to 10.6.8 or perhaps a security update, and I'd like to get Apple alerted on a more global level than just calling a tech.

pcbjr wrote:

That problem of taking hours to back up one computer was fixed in my particular instance in the thread you link to and in which you tremendously helped me with - and many, many kudos to you for that; however, this problem is different and seemingly not related! :~(

Ah, ok, they seemed similar.

l call Apple Care, but this seems systemic to 10.6.8 or perhaps a security update, and I'd like to get Apple alerted on a more global level than just calling a tech.

There's much more to AppleCare than the initial contact. For most calls, of course, they'll have a fix, and that's the end of it.

If not, they'll escalate, first within AppleCare. If the actual AppleCare folks can't fix it, they'll pass it to Engineering. You may or may not then have direct contact with Engineering. They're the ones who figure out what's going on and why, and once they manage to replicate the problem (often rather difficult, of course), they can follow up.

Unfortunately, that's where the direct contact ends. They don't tell AppleCare (or you) what they found, much less when (or if) it will be fixed.

But it's the surest way to get them working on it. Been there, done that. 😉

Again, Pondidni, many thanks, and I'll take up directly with AppleCare.

If I get a solution, I'll post back so that maybe someone else can also benefit ....

BUT - in the meantime, if anyone else is experienceing like difficulties and finds a solution, please post so we can all benefit!

MacVal wrote:

Interesting... I just noticed 2 striking commonalities between my situation and that of both sjackson1997 and David Horowitz who have reported the same problem. All 3 of us recently installed new internal hard drives into a 2008 MacBook Pro. Mine is a WD Scorpio Black 750 GB, installed in an early 2008 (last of the non-unibody) MacBook Pro. sjackson1997 used a WD Scorpio Blue 500 GB, in a late 2008 MacBook Pro (a unibody though). David Horowitz doesn't mention a HD brand, but it was also installed into an early 2008 MacBook Pro. Perhaps there's a clue in there somewhere...

SJ1997 has a late 2008 MBP (unibody, he wrote); I have an early 2008 MBP. I used a Hitachi drive, if that's any help. In any case, I have the same problem on my Mac Mini and iMac, which don't have new HD's. On my iMac, everything was working correctly under 10.5. Then I installed 10.6.3 (from a different install disk than I used for my MBP), updated to 10.6.8. Everything seemed to be OK, but TM won't stop. That pathway is different than I used for my MBP, where 10.6.3 was installed on a blank HD, files & applications & everything else were brought over with Migration Assistant, and the OS was updated to 10.6.8 using Software Update. That, in turn, is different from my Mac Mini, which has been running 10.6.8 for quite a while. I had not noticed a problem, but now, with nothing new installed, I get TM backups like this:

Feb 9 00:50:25 David-Horowitzs-Mac-Mini com.apple.backupd[19488]: Starting standard backup

Feb 9 00:50:25 David-Horowitzs-Mac-Mini com.apple.backupd[19488]: Backing up to: /Volumes/DSH TM Backup Drive/Backups.backupdb

Feb 9 00:52:08 David-Horowitzs-Mac-Mini com.apple.backupd[19488]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 2.58 GB requested (including padding), 840.27 GB available

Feb 9 00:57:41 David-Horowitzs-Mac-Mini com.apple.backupd[19488]: Copied 152009 files (2.6 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.

Feb 9 00:58:46 David-Horowitzs-Mac-Mini com.apple.backupd[19488]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 2.58 GB requested (including padding), 840.26 GB available

Feb 9 01:00:45 David-Horowitzs-Mac-Mini com.apple.backupd[19488]: Copied 46596 files (1.7 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.

Feb 9 01:02:26 David-Horowitzs-Mac-Mini com.apple.backupd[19488]: Starting post-backup thinning

Feb 9 01:05:27 David-Horowitzs-Mac-Mini com.apple.backupd[19488]: Deleted backup /Volumes/DSH TM Backup Drive/Backups.backupdb/David Horowitz’s Mac Mini/2012-02-07-014057: 840.26 GB now available

Feb 9 01:05:27 David-Horowitzs-Mac-Mini com.apple.backupd[19488]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed

Feb 9 01:05:28 David-Horowitzs-Mac-Mini com.apple.backupd[19488]: Backup completed successfully.