Q: time machine very slow with mountain lion

I just want to throw in one additional option for people still having problems, if you have Carbonite installed, "pause" it.  I was getting horribly slow backup speeds (estimated 12 days for 300GB) on a FW800 wired drive.  I tried "sudo tmdiagnose" and no help.  I paused Carbonite on a whim, and BAM! with 5GB backed up so far, estimated time for remainder is 6 hours.

If you don't have Carbonite, check for other applications that might be constantly crawling your drive, like other backup or antivirus software.

Resolved for $20 by installing Server.

To recap, my backup drive is connected to a MacMini via FireWire 800. The Mac Mini is connected to the network via ethernet.

If my laptops connected to my network via WifFi, no problem.

If they connected via Ethernet - grindingly slow, or failed.

No amount of terminal commands, cache cleaning, or countless hours of other fiddling could fix this. I believe it is a genuine bug in Mountain Lion for some people.

Irked me to pay bucks to fix a bug, but on the other hand, it's insanely cheap for server software and now I get to educate myself about how it works. And heaven only knows when Apple will get around to fixing it. If not very widespread it could be awhile.

For 1st time user, it's not even scary. The Mini continues to operate as it did before, and I control it using regular old screen sharing.

On first run, there are a few questions, Admin ID, Apple ID, if you have both ethernet and aiport on I suppose you have to pick which one. Then it grinds away for a few minutes configuring itself. The admin window is kind of iTunes looking. Go down to Time Machine, pick your backup disk, and switch it on. That was it on the server side.

On the client, open TM prefs, select disk, and you'll have a new option "Backups". Select that one. I went ahead and told it to forget my prior backups, it seemed the simplest way to go.

Then, 67 GB backed up in less than 30 minutes over ethernet. Finally!

Problem solved! Installed OS X Server from App Store! It's now as fast as it used to be!

Hope this helpes you guys!

Regards

Stewart

Update: This seems to have solved by re-indexing the iMac. Time Machine is now running with all my apps still installed and other hard drives attached.

10.8.1 made things worse

APPLE DO SOMETHING!!!!!

If share this in case that someone find this useful to solve the problem:

Last login: Sat Sep  1 19:33:52 on ttys000

MacBook-Pro-de-Carlos-F-Suarez-Doriga:~ cfsdoriga$ sudo tmdiagnose

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss

or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your

typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

Password:

This diagnostic tool generates files that allow Apple to investigate issues with your computer and help Apple to improve its products. The generated files may contain some of your personal information, which may include, but not be limited to, the serial number or similar unique number for your device, your user name, or your computer name. The information is used by Apple in accordance with its privacy policy (www.apple.com/privacy) and is not shared with any third party. By enabling this diagnostic tool and sending a copy of the generated files to Apple, you are consenting to Apple’s use of the content of such files.

Press 'Enter' to continue.

2012-09-01 21:24:35.274 tmdiagnose[15914:2203] Executing '/usr/sbin/spindump -notarget 15 -file /tmp/MacBook Pro de Carlos F. Suarez Doriga.tmdiagnostic/System State 21.24.35/spindump.txt'

2012-09-01 21:24:37.279 tmdiagnose[15914:1c03] Executing '/usr/bin/fs_usage -w'

2012-09-01 21:25:05.276 tmdiagnose[15914:3503] system state capture appears stalled, moving on...

2012-09-01 21:25:05.276 tmdiagnose[15914:3503] Executing '/usr/bin/top -l 10'

2012-09-01 21:25:16.323 tmdiagnose[15914:4203] Sampling 'backupd'

2012-09-01 21:25:16.452 tmdiagnose[15914:4203] Sampling 'mtmd'

2012-09-01 21:25:16.518 tmdiagnose[15914:4203] Sampling 'mtmfs'

2012-09-01 21:25:16.583 tmdiagnose[15914:4203] Sampling 'Finder'

2012-09-01 21:25:46.733 tmdiagnose[15914:4203] Executing '/bin/ls -la /Volumes/'

2012-09-01 21:25:46.799 tmdiagnose[15914:4203] Executing '/bin/df -H'

2012-09-01 21:25:46.864 tmdiagnose[15914:4203] Executing '/sbin/mount'

2012-09-01 21:25:46.929 tmdiagnose[15914:4203] Executing '/usr/sbin/diskutil list'

2012-09-01 21:25:47.059 tmdiagnose[15914:4203] Executing '/usr/sbin/diskutil cs list'

2012-09-01 21:25:47.124 tmdiagnose[15914:4203] Executing '/bin/bash -c /usr/sbin/diskutil list | /usr/bin/awk '/disk/ {system("/usr/sbin/diskutil info "$NF); print "*********************"}''

2012-09-01 21:25:54.240 tmdiagnose[15914:4203] Executing '/usr/bin/hdiutil info'

2012-09-01 21:25:54.434 tmdiagnose[15914:4203] Executing '/bin/bash -c /usr/sbin/lsof | /usr/bin/grep -F -e "backupd" -e "Spotlight-V" -e "mtmd" -e "mtmfs" -e "sparsebundle" -e "tmutil" -e "Locum" -e "SIZE/OFF"'

2012-09-01 21:26:26.510 tmdiagnose[15914:1c03] Executing '/usr/sbin/netstat -aW -p tcp'

2012-09-01 21:26:31.474 tmdiagnose[15914:4203] Executing '/usr/sbin/ioreg -ls -w 0'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.247 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'backupd'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.369 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'mtmd'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.370 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'mtmfs'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.370 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'mds'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.370 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'Locum'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.370 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'diskimages-helper'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.371 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'newfs_hfs'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.371 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'NetAuthSysAgent'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.371 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'Finder'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.371 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'Locum'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.372 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'System Preferences'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.372 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'NetAuthSysAgent'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.372 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'SystemUIServer'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.372 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'iPhoto'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.438 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'MailTimeMachineHelper'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.439 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'Address Book'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.439 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering system diagnostic logs for 'Contacts'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.439 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering recent user diagnostic logs for 'Finder'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.494 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering recent user diagnostic logs for 'Locum'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.559 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering recent user diagnostic logs for 'System Preferences'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.592 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering recent user diagnostic logs for 'NetAuthSysAgent'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.623 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering recent user diagnostic logs for 'SystemUIServer'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.652 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering recent user diagnostic logs for 'iPhoto'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.681 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering recent user diagnostic logs for 'MailTimeMachineHelper'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.708 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering recent user diagnostic logs for 'Address Book'

2012-09-01 21:26:32.738 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering recent user diagnostic logs for 'Contacts'

2012-09-01 21:26:33.164 tmdiagnose[15914:1c03] Executing '/usr/sbin/system_profiler -xml SPParallelATADataType SPAirPortDataType SPBluetoothDataType SPDiagnosticsDataType SPEthernetDataType SPFibreChannelDataType SPFireWireDataType SPFirewallDataType SPHardwareDataType SPHardwareRAIDDataType SPNetworkLocationDataType SPManagedClientDataType SPMemoryDataType SPNetworkDataType SPPowerDataType SPSerialATADataType SPSoftwareDataType SPUSBDataType'

2012-09-01 21:26:39.515 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Gathering host information...

2012-09-01 21:26:39.517 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Executing '/bin/ls -Ulae@ /Library/Keychains/System.keychain'

2012-09-01 21:26:39.582 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Executing '/usr/bin/security list -d user'

2012-09-01 21:26:39.647 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Executing '/usr/bin/security list -d system'

2012-09-01 21:26:39.713 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Executing '/usr/bin/security list -d common'

2012-09-01 21:26:39.777 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Executing '/usr/bin/darwinup list'

2012-09-01 21:26:39.843 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Harvesting Time Machine configuration details...

2012-09-01 21:26:39.843 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Executing '/bin/bash -c /bin/launchctl list | /usr/bin/grep -e 'PID' -e 'com.apple.mtm' -e 'com.apple.backup' -e 'com.apple.TMLaunchAgent''

2012-09-01 21:26:39.972 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Executing '/usr/bin/tmutil destinationinfo'

2012-09-01 21:26:40.101 tmdiagnose[15914:3503] Making backup disk available

2012-09-01 21:26:41.158 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Building classic Time Machine snapshot skeletons...

2012-09-01 21:26:41.158 tmdiagnose[15914:510b] Making backup disk available

2012-09-01 21:26:41.159 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Building Mobile Time Machine overlay snapshot skeletons...

2012-09-01 21:26:41.159 tmdiagnose[15914:5207] Building Mobile Time Machine delta store snapshot skeletons...

2012-09-01 21:26:41.260 tmdiagnose[15914:510b] Gathering information about reachable AirPort devices

2012-09-01 21:27:11.263 tmdiagnose[15914:510b] unable to locate any Bonjour services within 30 seconds

2012-09-01 21:27:11.267 tmdiagnose[15914:510b] Executing '/usr/bin/mddiagnose -h'

2012-09-01 21:27:11.332 tmdiagnose[15914:510b] Executing '/usr/bin/mddiagnose -w -n -f /tmp/MacBook Pro de Carlos F. Suarez Doriga.tmdiagnostic'

2012-09-01 21:27:11.453 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/sw_vers'...

2012-09-01 21:27:11.651 mddiagnose[15970:707] Getting system version...

2012-09-01 21:27:11.653 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/arch'...

2012-09-01 21:27:11.721 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/what /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mds'...

2012-09-01 21:27:11.789 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/what /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Metadata'...

2012-09-01 21:27:11.857 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/top -l 2 -s 2'...

2012-09-01 21:27:16.120 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/bin/df -H'...

2012-09-01 21:27:16.189 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/bin/ls -la /Volumes/'...

2012-09-01 21:27:16.259 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/sbin/mount'...

2012-09-01 21:27:16.327 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/vmmap -resident -w mds'...

2012-09-01 21:27:37.106 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/heap mds'...

2012-09-01 21:27:40.214 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/local/bin/ddt mds'...

2012-09-01 21:27:43.557 mddiagnose[15970:707] Sampling 'mds'...

2012-09-01 21:27:54.080 mddiagnose[15970:707] Spindumping 'mds'...

2012-09-01 21:28:01.734 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/find /Volumes/Time Capsule/Backups.backupdb/.Spotlight-V100 ( -type d -and ( ! -name Cache -or -prune ) ) ! -name Cache -exec echo  ; -print -execdir ls -l {} ;'...

2012-09-01 21:28:01.802 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/find /Volumes/Time Capsule/Backups.backupdb/.Spotlight-V100 -name *.plist -exec echo ; -print -exec echo ; -exec /bin/cat {} ;'...

2012-09-01 21:28:01.870 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/find /.MobileBackups/.Spotlight-V100 ( -type d -and ( ! -name Cache -or -prune ) ) ! -name Cache -exec echo  ; -print -execdir ls -l {} ;'...

2012-09-01 21:28:01.939 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/find /.MobileBackups/.Spotlight-V100 -name *.plist -exec echo ; -print -exec echo ; -exec /bin/cat {} ;'...

2012-09-01 21:28:02.008 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/find //.Spotlight-V100 ( -type d -and ( ! -name Cache -or -prune ) ) ! -name Cache -exec echo  ; -print -execdir ls -l {} ;'...

2012-09-01 21:28:03.348 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/find //.Spotlight-V100 -name *.plist -exec echo ; -print -exec echo ; -exec /bin/cat {} ;'...

2012-09-01 21:28:46.930 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/find /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/.Spotlight-V100 ( -type d -and ( ! -name Cache -or -prune ) ) ! -name Cache -exec echo  ; -print -execdir ls -l {} ;'...

2012-09-01 21:28:46.998 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/find /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/.Spotlight-V100 -name *.plist -exec echo ; -print -exec echo ; -exec /bin/cat {} ;'...

2012-09-01 21:28:47.070 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/find /Volumes/Time Capsule/.Spotlight-V100 ( -type d -and ( ! -name Cache -or -prune ) ) ! -name Cache -exec echo  ; -print -execdir ls -l {} ;'...

2012-09-01 21:28:55.203 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/find /Volumes/Time Capsule/.Spotlight-V100 -name *.plist -exec echo ; -print -exec echo ; -exec /bin/cat {} ;'...

2012-09-01 21:28:55.651 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/find / -name .metadata_never_index -maxdepth 1'...

2012-09-01 21:28:55.783 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/find /Volumes -name .metadata_never_index -maxdepth 2'...

2012-09-01 21:28:56.043 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/find / -name .metadata_never_index_unless_rootfs -maxdepth 1'...

2012-09-01 21:28:56.111 mddiagnose[15970:707] Executing '/usr/bin/find /Volumes -name .metadata_never_index_unless_rootfs -maxdepth 2'...

2012-09-01 21:28:56.179 mddiagnose[15970:707] Getting crash logs for 'mds'...

2012-09-01 21:28:56.181 mddiagnose[15970:707] Getting crash logs for 'mdworker'...

2012-09-01 21:28:56.313 mddiagnose[15970:707] Spotlight diagnostic written in /tmp/MacBook Pro de Carlos F. Suarez Doriga.tmdiagnostic/MacBook Pro de Carlos F. Suarez Doriga.mdsdiagnostic

2012-09-01 21:28:56.338 tmdiagnose[15914:510b] Executing '/usr/sbin/spindump -notarget 15 -file /tmp/MacBook Pro de Carlos F. Suarez Doriga.tmdiagnostic/System State 21.28.56/spindump.txt'

2012-09-01 21:28:58.338 tmdiagnose[15914:3507] Executing '/usr/bin/fs_usage -w'

2012-09-01 21:29:15.796 tmdiagnose[15914:3507] Executing '/usr/bin/top -l 10'

2012-09-01 21:29:26.727 tmdiagnose[15914:1503] Executing '/bin/chmod -R a=rwx /tmp/MacBook Pro de Carlos F. Suarez Doriga.tmdiagnostic'

*** Time Machine diagnostic written to: /tmp/MacBook Pro de Carlos F. Suarez Doriga.tmdiagnostic.zip

OS X Server didn't solve the problem and 20 bucks went away!!!!

cfsdoriga wrote:

 

OS X Server didn't solve the problem and 20 bucks went away!!!!

try removing the volume from your time machine settings on the client, then turn on the time machine service on the server, then re-add the volume on the client. that's what fixed it for me.

OS X Server not only it didn't solve the problem, but it also made me lost the control of the Mac. I just can't access my files and the finder keekps panicking every five seconds.

Tomorrow, I'll ask Apple for a refund.

I already formatted and reinstall ML. Not sure yet if TM works smoothly. I tell u tomorrow, but its seems to me that at least the first BU it's as slow as before.

If this continue, I'll go back to Lion

Thanks god, I was also backing up using crash plan+, because I have to format my TM.

This worked for me!. 10.8.1 did not work, but then forcing my Wi-Fi to use the 2.4GHz got things working again. Maybe not the best speed I have had but at least Time Machine finds my Time Cap and start sending data at a reasonable rate.

I had it backing up OK to a shared drive on another Mac, by using a direct IP address rather than the AFP name. Well, soon after I installed 10.8.1, the verification of that backed failed and it said it had to create a new one from scratch.

So that's what I'm doing now.

cfsdoriga wrote:

 

10.8.1 made things worse

I was close to trying the 20 dollar App store server solution until I read your post.

I have external FW800 1 TB drive.

Tried everything, permissions repair, disk warrior rebuild, and even ML re-install from Restore disk.

I used Cocktail to stop Spotlight indexing as that also seemed to hung up (have a feeling that this is part of the problem).

Nothing helped.

For what it is worth, I finally used the terminal command for TM diagnostics below, did a reboot and it worked.  My 430 GB backup went from an estimated 29 (some times it would say 130 days!!)  to 3 hours and it is going well now.

1) Launch Terminal.app (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)

2) Enter the command text below exactly followed by the Return key on the Terminal command line:

sudo tmdiagnose

3) Enter your admin password when prompted and wait for all of the tmdiagnose processes to finish.

It will ask you whether the file can be used by Apple, but I am not sure that it is actually sent. It may be something that Apple support might request to sort out problem, but it does seem to have a reset effect on the TM backup process. Have not looked thru log to see if it removes plist etc.. No matter it worked and I am happy.

4). Restart

Good luck

I think there may be a more widespread problem with ML and TIme Machine . Having many redundant backups and a fresh clone copy of my main drive gave me some courage in 'trying' some things. I can tell you that nothing worked. I did eliminate applications I was no longer using but used high CPU time (found a copy of Power Chute from like 2007 that was using a LOT of CPU time - how that made it thru fresh installs baffles me). Spring cleaning was good I think anyway. Finally tried the 'sudo' diagnostic command in terminal and all was well. Would I recommend all this to someone with no other backup? - no way. But in the absence of any fix from Apple, people become desparate. Whatever, use alternate backup before experimenting on TM fixes, or wait a bit until Apple release 8.2.

The one (and only, so far) thing that apparently worked for me is to actually shut off the "automatic" feature in TM.  Seems weird, but backing up manually seems to go MUCH faster.

sudo tmdiagnose did it! Weird. But a relief.