Time Machine is backing up enormous amounts of data

Question

Time Machine is backing up enormous amounts of data

Since my upgrade from 10.6.8 to 10.8.0 (and at the same time from Aperture 3.2.4 to 3.3.2) Time Machine is backing up enormous amounts of data. With normal use (Google Chrome, Aperture) every hour about 100-200 Mb are being backed up. This was not the case before the upgrades. I excluded all caches from all programs and the Aperture libraries from being backed up. Does anyone know what is being backed up, or how to find out what is being backed up?

Koen

Aperture 3, OS X Mountain Lion, Aperture 3.3.2

Posted on Aug 9, 2012 3:06 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

hpr3

Level 5

5,748 points

Aug 9, 2012 3:15 PM in response to Koen van Dijken

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4055

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Answer 2

etresoft

Level 8

46,086 points

Aug 9, 2012 3:17 PM in response to Koen van Dijken

What's "enormous"?

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Answer 3

Aug 9, 2012 3:20 PM in response to etresoft

'Enormous' is 100-300 Mb's of data being pumped to my Time Capsule.

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Answer 4

Aug 9, 2012 3:22 PM in response to hpr3

Tomorrow I will take a look at the tools described in the All About Time Machine docs.

Thnx

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Answer 5

etresoft

Level 8

46,086 points

Aug 9, 2012 4:48 PM in response to Koen van Dijken

Enormous would be 100-300 Gb. What you are describing sounds normal.

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Answer 6

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Aug 9, 2012 4:52 PM in response to Koen van Dijken

Koen van Dijken wrote:

. . .

every hour about 100-200 Mb are being backed up.

That's not enormous. But see #A2 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for a couple of apps that will show exactly what's getting backed-up.

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Answer 7

Aug 10, 2012 7:12 AM in response to Koen van Dijken

It happened to be updates of two virus scanners, an update of Google Chrome, and a backup of my GMail account which I opened in Apple Mail.

Also I found several files which were in .trash and originally in a folder which are excluded from the Time Machine backup. Strange, but I have not been able to reproduce this yet.

Thanks all for your helpfull answers.

Koen

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Answer 8

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Aug 10, 2012 8:37 AM in response to Koen van Dijken

Koen van Dijken wrote:

It happened to be updates of two virus scanners

You do not need two virus scanners (many Mac users don't use any). They'll slow your system, they may stumble over each other, and cause all sorts of trouble. They're notorious for interfering with Time Machine backups -- and on occasion, corrupting them!

Your best bet is to use only the free ClamXav product -- it's as good as any of the expensive ones, and among the least intrusive. SeeThomas Reed's Mac Malware Guide.

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Answer 9

etresoft

Level 8

46,086 points

Aug 10, 2012 9:00 AM in response to Pondini

Pondini wrote:

Your best bet is to use only the free ClamXav product

Or none at all. Mountain Lion already includes a built-in malware scanner.

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