Time Machine preparing WAY too many items

I am having the same issue. I just looked at what were the largest files on my computer, like Music and Movies, some backup folders and in the Options choice exluded them. Don't know yet if it will make any difference but, like you, would like to hear solution. Now takes an hour or more to back up every time.

Verify your internal HD, and Repair your backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

If that doesn't help, your installation of OSX may be damaged. Try downloading and installing the "combo" update, per Installing the ''combo'' update and/or Reinstalling OSX.

If still no help, try installing a fresh version of OSX (that won't disturb anything else), per the same article.

Very strange. 😟

Sounds like OSX, not something with a 3rd-party app. Save the "nuclear option" for a while. 😉

You might try reinstalling OSX again, but install the 10.6.7 combo, not 10.6.8.

MacVal wrote:

Strange indeed. I reinstalled again from the CD then tried the 10.6.7 combo update. Time Machine appears to be working properly now. I had been using 10.6.8 since it was released, so I find it odd that this would begin happening after all this time.

Certainly does seem odd.

I haven’t made any serious changes to my system lately, although I did install Apple Remote Desktop just before the problem started. Could just be a coincidence.

Might be a clue. You might want to wait a while, to be sure it's really gone from 10.6.7, then reinstall that.

Although it is working under 10.6.7, it still makes me nervous to just leave it as is. There must be something corrupt that is still in my system, somewhere outside the OS, that is conflicting with 10.6.8.

Seems incredibly unlikely to affect Time Machine, but it could be something went wrong with the Remote Desktop install, and/or the combination with 10.6.8.

Very odd. 😟

Let's go back to basics, just to be sure I haven't missed anything:

You have a MacBook Pro, with a single internal HD with a single partition, right?

Your TM volume has the GUID partition map scheme and a single Mac OS Extended (journalled) or Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, journalled) partition?

Are any externals connected (other than the TM volume) when doing backups?

Any anti-virus software (running or not)?

MacVal wrote:

. . .

When I reinstalled my software I didn't drag any of the old preference files back over either, just in case something was corrupted. And everything I installed software-wise has been running on 10.6.8 forever with no issues. The only exceptions were Apple Remote Desktop, which I did not reinstall this time, and a new generation of Plex media server I've been trying out, which I recently upgraded to from an older version.

In theory, a incompatible or faulty kernel extension could cause this, but it's highly doubtful.

I assume there is no way that any my documents could cause strange system behaviour?

Never say never, but highly unlikely.

At times both before and after this rebuild when I've been playing around with TM preferences (selecting the drive, setting which folders to exclude) my CPU will run very high (can't recall the % exactly) and my fans will kick into high gear. Obviously this is not normal, especially with nothing else running at the time. Something is clearly messing with TM.

Ah, yes, very suspicious. I don't recall seeing this before.

Perhaps the preference file (where all that is kept) is damaged. Try a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

If that doesn't help:

Are you running any 3rd-party disk/directory monitoring apps, such as the Directory Protection feature of Tech Tools?

Does that happen with other pages in System Preferences?

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.

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.

Message was edited by: Pondini

I have 3 Macs, all running 10.6.8 that appear to back up way too many files with TM (between 10,000 and 60,000 every backup). Each machine reached 10.6.8 by a different route; each machine backs up to a different drive (one is an FW400, one is an FW800, and the last is a Time Capsule); one machine is an MBP, one is an iMac, and the last is a Mini. None of them had this problem until very recently. On my MBP, I've had to disable TM because it runs endlessly, slowing down the machine and running down the battery, and I'm going to have to turn it off on the other ones because neither of them is new enough to run TM without slowing down. I went to the Apple Store genius with my MBP and was told that I should file a bug report with Apple. I had been running TM on all these machines without problems (or usage) for years. I am inclined to think that there's something wrong with TM in 10.6.8. (I have not installed the newest update yet, because all the computers run PPC programs.)

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.

This sounds similar to the problem I'm having (which is why I'm here looking for answers). Pondini's website does seem to have some helpful stuff WRT to Time Machine (I was there before I came here), but still not resolved.

Just in case my situation jogs any other thoughts....

My hard drive failed and I installed a brand new WD Scorpio Blue 500 GB in my 2008 era MacBook (first aluminum unibody before they got called MacBook Pros -- if that matters). The old drive was 160 GB. The Apple Store Genius bar installed Snow Leopard for me (It was what I'd been using without issue before, but I'm temporarily travelling away from my original install disks -- not available). I came back to my sister's place and did a restore from my TM backup -- the first time I've really used TM in the past year. Once the restore was done, I fired up the internet and let software update run and install. I went through two cycles as there were new updates that didn't show up in the first cycle. After completing a restart cycle where their were no new updates, I opened Time Machine and pointed to my existing complete backup. It started to run, but I noticed it taking an inordinately long period of time. I left it connected overnight, only this morning noticing that it's taking about 45 minutes to run a backup cycle (only to start the next one 10 minutes later, it seems). I went into TM and stopped it from doing further backups (deselected the drive -- icon in menu bar went gray), and then I did a verify on the TM drive as Pondini recommends. No issues -- OK. Turned TM back on and pointed at the original backup, and it's again taking ridiculous amounts of time to run. This never happened before my onboard hard drive failure.

In this new era of long backups, this seems to be typical of what I see:

First: "Preparing 67,234 items..." (I think it says "items". I'm presently in another backup and didn't write down exactly what it said at the time, but the "Preparing 67,XXX" was there.)

Later, I see something like this (this *IS* exact):

"Backing Up 39 KB of 588.4 MB"

Now it's 20 minutes since I checked the line above, and I'm now at:

"Backing Up 1.3 MB of 588.4 MB"

I can't do a complete reinstall until I get back home in a couple weeks to use my install disks (or go back to the Apple Store's Genius Bar -- they'd love that!), but I don't think that's the problem anyway based on what I'm reading elsewhere. I've done nothing that changes the files that should take anywhere beyong a minute (if that) to backup.

I'll check back later.....