time machine slow in 10.7.5

thanks it worked, especially thanks for the tip with Houdini as I couldnt find the hidden files before!

I just want to confirm that Dr.Moe's solution of deleting all the folders in /var/folders/ and then rebooting worked for me. You have to reveal hidden files/folders before doing so, which I did by using the freeware app Onyx.

None of the other suggestions in this thread worked for me. However, turning Spotlight off did allow me to use Time Machine at normal speed, but I lost Spotlight functionality in the process. I turned Spotlight back on, then followed Dr.Moe's procedure (delete the folders in /var/folders/, reboot) and I was back to normal. Spotlight indexed my drive in about an hour (as opposed to 7+ days!) and Time Machine appears to be backing up as quickly as it did before the 10.7.5 update.

Hopefully this works for others as well. Thanks to Dr.Moe for posting this solution. Now, can anyone explain why that worked?

It didn't work for me.

I have tried all of the solutions here, including the one that told me to erase my Time Machine drive so that I can no longer restore to the previous verison. So the accepted answer for me is to accept responsibility for agreeing to proceed with the upgrade. Meanwhile, I have turned off Time Machine and I will just wait for the next version which will hopefully fix this issue.

This worked for me also. Deleting all folders in /var/folders/* and then rebooting fixed the problem. Since my upgrade to 10.7.5, my Spotlight indexing has been predicting to take weeks of time. So then I narrowed (via Privacy) the indexed areas to my email and my personal account, but even so, the indexing was predicted to take 3 days+.

But after I deleted the above folders, not only did my Mac boot up just fine, the initial Spotlight indexing was done in 8 minutes. Then I added back in in the balance of my drives, internal and external. Spotlight now shows 58 minutes to complete indexing on them. All this is normal. This indexing also completed without problem, and my Time Machine backups run just fine too.

Great suggestion!

Deleting /var/folders fixed the issue for me.

regdul wrote:

Deleting /var/folders fixed the issue for me.

No, not for me. I have deleted all folders but TM ist still very slow while spotlight ist running.

Does anyone know what the data in /var/folders/ is?

OMG will this thread ever end. Tried to stop email notifcations but im still getting them

metalman213 wrote:

OMG will this thread ever end. Tried to stop email notifcations but im still getting them

Go to Your Stuff>Preferences>Email Notifications and set this one to No

I did, all are checked. LOL I dont mind, just crabby today!!!

I think we should start another discussion on this problem with notifications hahaha

metalman213 wrote:

I think we should start another discussion on this problem with notifications hahaha

You sir are a masochist 🙂

dont think so