time machine slow in 10.7.5

I did that yesturday and now my index is still loading. It says 15 hours remain. How do i delete its cache?

This has become quite the debacle for me. I noticed TM was running slow after the 10.7.5 update the other day. However, I did not attribute the slow-down to the update. Instead, I decided to format my external drive and back the whole thing up again.

What a mistake!

For the last several days, I have tried unsuccessfully to backup using TM. First of all, it estimates the entire backup will take 3-4 days. It's 390gb of data. 3-4 days??? Really?

For the last several days, I've been getting an error because TM didn't want to copy one of my files over and it would stop backing up after 12 hours or so. Unfortuately, TM doesn't pick up where it left off. It has to start over. After many failed attempts and many new partitions and erased backup drives (yes, two different drives), it has been backing up for over 24 hours now. However, it has ONLY backed up 90 of 390gb with 3-4 days left to go. This is ridiculous. I work from home and I have no other backup solution in place. I would be devastated losing my data. Obviously, starting over from scratch was a mistake on my part but TM should not take this long.

Does anyone have a suggestion for me?

Update:

I seem to be having luck disabling Spotlight and then backing up again at normal speed.

Please use the following Terminal command to disable Spotlight:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

To re-enable Spotlight (presumably after Apple resolves this issue), use the command:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

If you absolutely rely on Spotlight, consider downloading and using Alfred instead. It works great!

Agapoulas wrote:

I can confirm, I have the same problem.

Actually, time machine does back-up with a speed of 10 KB per hour.

I hope they fix it soon, cause if I lose the data, I am switching to PCs instantly.

That's a great idea, Windows machines never lose data, do they?

Thanks Bruno321, this definitely worked for me.

Spotlight is the problem. No question about it. I disabled it in the Terminal using this:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

Once that was done, Time Machine was blazing again.

To enable Spotlight when you're ready, use the Terminal again and the following line:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

I was stuck in a loop (trying to delete old backups and Repair using Disc Utility) that seems to have trashed my LaCie 1TB external hard drive. Great Lion update, Apple. Maybe 10.7.6 will fix this. Because Mountain Lion users are also complaining bitterly about Time Machine integration ludicrously slow backup speeds.

This evening, I performed the following to try and resolve this (with Spotlight disabled);

1. used Onyx to reset the Spotlight cache
2. deleted the Spotlight cache folder
3. rebooted the machine
4. re-enabled Spotligh
5. OS X starting Spotlight - 5 mins to calculate; 18 mins, 48 mins, 1 hr, 4 hrs, 7 hrs, 18 hrs
6. attempted a backup using Time Machine - no difference so stopped the backup
7. disabled Spotlight
8. perform backup - worked perfectly, back to normal performance

Spotlight will be left in the 'disabled' state.

Very poor job by Apple over this!

Updating the OSX Lion Combo Pack worked like a charm! Thank you!!

Can someone please spell out the exact step by step instructions for using Terminal to disable Spotlight?

After updating to OS 10.7.. Time Machine gave me a 4 day estimate to backup 207GB so, thinking it was my external drive, I reformatted the external and tried again. When that didn't work I figured the external was corrupt so yesterday bought a new one but got the same result. TM is now frozen at 25GB of 207GB.

Thanks for the tip on disabling Spotlight but I am not a developer and I'm unfamiliar with using Terminal. When I tried entering the script in Terminal I was prompted for a password but couldn't see where to enter it.

P.S. This latest update has also disabled my Samsung printer and there is no updated print driver avaialble from either Apple or Samsung.

Bakerchief,

Use Spotlight or Finder to find Terminal. Open it.

Type the following:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

It will prompt you for your password. Type your password and hit Return.

Spotlight should be disabled. Try running Time Machine again.

Can someone please spell out the exact step by step instructions for using Terminal to disable Spotlight?

The launchctl unload and load commands are one way.

Another way leaves the service running, but turns it off and on. (Might want to turn it back on after making your TM backup.)

From Terminal:

sudo mdutil -s /Volumes/*

just displays the current indexing status of all volumes.

sudo mdutil -a -i off

turns spotlight indexing off for all volumes (-a is all - otherwise you can specify volumes if you have multiple disks/partitions). TM should be able to run at normal speed then. Then:

sudo mdutil -a -i on

after your TM backup completes, turns indexing back on, such as it is in 10.7.5

Other threads (and the mdutil man page) have info about how to delete the spotlight database info via mdutil or physically removing .Spotlight-V100 folders ... but starting fresh did not improve this 10.7.5 problem for me at all, so won't repeat it.

For those who are a bit nervous around Terminal commands, the Spotless shareware app is handy for turning Spotlight off and on with the click of a button.

http://www.fixamacsoftware.com/software/spot4/

Txs Bruno. Did as instructed but had to reboot. Started TM again and was alarmed when eta was 74,312 days - 203 YEARS!! However, it seemed to settle down quickly and I am now at the 3 hour mark. Funny though, the back up size has gone down from the original 207GB when I was running spotlight, to 181GB. Does spotlight eat up all of that memory?