time machine slow in 10.7.5

Thanks, I did. After having read more than 30 pages, it became very frustrating. At that point all the postings and solutions offered seemed to offer work arounds - some I'd tried with not avail. Kept on reading and came the URL for a potential fix. It's downloading ... let's hope it fixes the problem.

Pondi ... it's not ATTITUDE, it's more of a frustration. Working on a slow system, searching for a fix ... becomes overwhelming. This is an issue that has been ongoing for quite some time. And it took Apple too long (my perspective) to provide a solution and fix. If Apple is to continue to provide Superior Products and Services, the Customer Value needs to become a differentiator. No hard feelings.

Yes, I understand it's frustrating (try beta testing!).

But no app, no OS, no hardware is perfect. That includes Apple.

But Apple consistently gets the highest marks in consumer surveys . . . by very high margins.

By the way, the fix was released October 5 -- and was immediately posted in several threads here. The App Store (or Software Update) should have shown it to you shortly thereafter.

Cool, thanks. Guess next time I will start at the end of the post and work my way backwards. I started with Apple back w/ the Apple II, and through the years have worked with other operating systems. Still give Apple products higher marks.

I've installed the 10.7.5 build 11G63 and my TM is still very slow, has almost stopped. It starts being being quite fast and then, when it is almost finished, slows down. Before I installed 11G63 it was even worse, it stopped near the end and did not start again.

Can it be true that I have to start from the beginning after having stopped the back up?

Henrik Simonsen wrote:

I've installed the 10.7.5 build 11G63 and my TM is still very slow, has almost stopped. It starts being being quite fast and then, when it is almost finished, slows down. Before I installed 11G63 it was even worse, it stopped near the end and did not start again.

Depending on why it stopped, it may not restart automatically. If it failed, there should have been a message. If you missed or forgot it, see #C2 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Without that message (and perhaps the detailed messages from the Time Machine Buddy widget mentioned in #C2), we can't tell. It may be a problem with a file, some sort of interference, a failing drive, directory problem, etc.

If #C2 doesn't lead you to a solution, post back with all the messages, plus details of your setup -- what kind of Mac you have, how much data is on it, what you're backing-up to (external HD, Time Capsule, NAS, etc.), how large it is, whether there's other data on it and, if so, how much.

For general slowness, you might also want to review #D2 in the above link.

Can it be true that I have to start from the beginning after having stopped the back up?

Usually not. Time Machine leaves the partial backup on the destination (but doesn't show it in the browser), so it can "recover" it on the next backup. The next one does take a while, and seems to be running very slowly while it does that. Sometimes, however, you do have to erase the destination and start over.

thank's for the quick answer and link!

I'll look into it later but I can see now that my question regarding starting from the beginning of a session after I have stopped TM is no longer a problem. It starts where it was stopped. But still, very slow.

While you guys are celebrating, I'm stuck here with OS 10.8.2 and a Time Machine update that's currently estimated at over 2,000 days. And yes, the problem seems to be Spotlight, because things started to move faster when I disabled it. Downloading the update linked to in this forum was no help, because it won't install onto 10.8. No messages in Time Machine buddy, and no error messages. So sorry, Apple, but the problem is not fixed yet.

Hi RocketRiter

Post your question over at the OS X Mountain Lion forum, because this problem was caused by a specific Lion update that has been conclusively addressed. The remedy does not apply to your Mac.

The cause of your difficulties is unrelated to this one. I suspect you need to start with the basics to diagnose what could be wrong.

Hi Pondini,

I have paged through this forum and your guide on TimeMachine trying to understand why timemachine takes ages (4 hrs) to do hourly incremental backups. I have tried all the suggested fixes but unfortunately none worked out.

The oddness is that I cannot see any error whatsoever, trouble still as I cannot have a proper hourly incremental backup, but basically one every 4 hrs.

Could you please have a look at the below?

Here some details of my configuration + tm console logs:

- MacMini Server

- 10.7.5 (11G63) ( supplemental upgrade didn't address the issue)

- 2Ghz i7

- 16GB ddr 3 1333Mhz

- Backup to external hd ( l4cie thunderbolt - 1TB 7200 RPM)

Nov 23 00:40:22 bwserver com.apple.backupd[23974]: 4.27 GB required (including padding), 247.03 GB available

Nov 23 01:09:40 bwserver com.apple.backupd[23974]: Copied 454.2 MB of 1.2 GB, 287505 of 287505 items

Nov 23 01:48:18 bwserver com.apple.backupd[23974]: Copied 604699 files (1.1 GB) from volume datastore.

Nov 23 01:54:04 bwserver com.apple.backupd[23974]: Copied 607561 files (1.2 GB) from volume Server HD.

Nov 23 02:16:45 bwserver com.apple.backupd[23974]: 4.67 GB required (including padding), 244.54 GB available

Nov 23 02:54:05 bwserver com.apple.backupd[23974]: Copied 764.6 MB of 764.6 MB, 417958 of 417958 items

Nov 23 03:01:34 bwserver com.apple.backupd[23974]: Copied 468945 files (829.7 MB) from volume datastore.

Nov 23 03:02:06 bwserver com.apple.backupd[23974]: Copied 471325 files (835.2 MB) from volume Server HD.

Nov 23 03:31:51 bwserver com.apple.backupd[23974]: Starting post-backup thinning

Nov 23 04:36:38 bwserver com.apple.backupd[23974]: Deleted /Volumes/tmbackups/Backups.backupdb/bwserver/2012-11-20-121028 (1.41 GB)

Nov 23 04:36:38 bwserver com.apple.backupd[23974]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed

Nov 23 04:36:39 bwserver com.apple.backupd[23974]: Backup completed successfully.

Nov 23 05:09:15 bwserver com.apple.backupd[33814]: Starting standard backup

Nov 23 05:09:15 bwserver com.apple.backupd[33814]: Backing up to: /Volumes/tmbackups/Backups.backupdb

Nov 23 05:34:41 bwserver com.apple.backupd[33814]: 6.04 GB required (including padding), 245.86 GB available

Nov 23 06:09:40 bwserver com.apple.backupd[33814]: Copied 600.0 MB of 1.8 GB, 408869 of 408869 items

Nov 23 06:30:34 bwserver com.apple.backupd[33814]: Copied 612935 files (1.8 GB) from volume datastore.

Nov 23 06:31:16 bwserver com.apple.backupd[33814]: Copied 614309 files (2.3 GB) from volume Server HD.

Nov 23 06:45:07 bwserver com.apple.backupd[33814]: 5.24 GB required (including padding), 243.52 GB available

Nov 23 07:10:30 bwserver com.apple.backupd[33814]: Copied 337949 files (594.6 MB) from volume datastore.

Nov 23 07:11:03 bwserver com.apple.backupd[33814]: Copied 338800 files (1.0 GB) from volume Server HD.

Nov 23 07:28:32 bwserver com.apple.backupd[33814]: Starting post-backup thinning

Nov 23 08:06:50 bwserver com.apple.backupd[33814]: Deleted /Volumes/tmbackups/Backups.backupdb/bwserver/2012-11-20-071612 (939.3 MB)

Nov 23 08:06:50 bwserver com.apple.backupd[33814]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed

Nov 23 08:06:51 bwserver com.apple.backupd[33814]: Backup completed successfully.

Nov 23 08:09:16 bwserver com.apple.backupd[37917]: Starting standard backup

Nov 23 08:09:16 bwserver com.apple.backupd[37917]: Backing up to: /Volumes/tmbackups/Backups.backupdb

Nov 23 08:31:51 bwserver com.apple.backupd[37917]: 4.93 GB required (including padding), 244.45 GB available

Nov 23 09:09:42 bwserver com.apple.backupd[37917]: Copied 560.8 MB of 906.8 MB, 395923 of 395923 items

Nov 23 09:30:02 bwserver com.apple.backupd[37917]: Copied 559295 files (1001.3 MB) from volume datastore.

Nov 23 09:30:39 bwserver com.apple.backupd[37917]: Copied 560505 files (1002.9 MB) from volume Server HD.

Nov 23 10:00:36 bwserver com.apple.backupd[37917]: 5.15 GB required (including padding), 243.46 GB available

Nov 23 10:30:40 bwserver com.apple.backupd[37917]: Copied 525.8 MB of 1.1 GB, 311347 of 311347 items

Nov 23 11:03:16 bwserver com.apple.backupd[37917]: Copied 658318 files (1.2 GB) from volume datastore.

Nov 23 11:03:46 bwserver com.apple.backupd[37917]: Copied 659301 files (1.2 GB) from volume Server HD.

Nov 23 11:44:37 bwserver com.apple.backupd[37917]: Starting post-backup thinning

note : at 12:35 still on: Nov 23 11:44:37 bwserver com.apple.backupd[37917]: Starting post-backup thinning

Hi,

I'm not familiar with the server product; Time Machine should be largely the same as on the client version, but I've never tested it.

And I don't have a Thunderbolt drive; of course, it should be much faster than USB or FireWire, but I've not tested it.

Is the Thunderbolt drive dedicated exclusively to Time Machine backups of the server, or is there other data on it?

Is anything else on the Thunderbolt channel, besides the LaCie?

Do you have access to a USB or FireWire drive you could try temporarily -- that would either rule out or suggest a problem with the LaCie or Thunderbolt channel.

Have you worked your way through the green box in #D2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting? That's a lot, I know, but many things can be involved.

I'm in exactly this situation. I just got a brand new iMac i7 (late 2012 edition),

and got a La Cie RAID thunderbolt backup, configured it as a RAID 1 (3TB).

I'm running Mountain Lion, 10.8.2, installed with the machine.

I used Migration Assistant to bring over my old files.

I enabled Time Machine backups on the new La Cie,

and it's been almost 24 hours and Time Machine has only

backed up about 4Gb of 200Gb. At this rate it's going to

take over a month to finish backing up.

Because my (not cheap) backup drive is brand new (it all is)

I have to wonder if it's in my new hardware, or thunderbolt or what.

However, Spotlight is still indexing and my suspicion is some kind of

deadlocking going on between the two.

Cyberspace Travel wrote:

. . .

However, Spotlight is still indexing and my suspicion is some kind of

deadlocking going on between the two.

Yes, absolutely. Lots of folks have seen that. 😟

That may not be the whole story, but it's at least a major part or it. I'd cancel the backup, and let Spotlight finish doing it's thing.

EDIT: It's rarely that bad, however, so something else may be wrong.

When you start the next one, it will take a while -- it will have to "catch up" with the cancelled one. But if it's also extremely slow, see the green box in #D2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting

Message was edited by: Pondini

Thanks for the suggestion. I resolved it on my Mountain Lion 10.8.2 system,

without any command line hacks (since that can complicates support if

one needs resort to it later).

I realized my first priority was backups, with Spotlight indexing behind that.

After reading various forums, it seemed likely that Spotlight was thwarting

Time Machine, not the other way around. So here's what I did:

1. Went to Energy Saver preference panel and disabled automatic power off

of system (and disk drives), until such time as the issue was resolved.

2. Stopped Time Machine (since it hadn't accomplished much more

than 4Gb in 24 hours),

3. Removed Time Machine backup disk as Time Machine's backup target drive,

effectively disabling backups (in the time machine dialog, I didn't physically

remove any drives).

4. Dragged system disk into the privacy column, in Spotlight Preferences,

under System Preferences, which terminated Spotlight's indexing efforts

almost immediately.

5. Booted system in failsafe mode, ran disk utility, fixed permissions

and repaired system disk, though it reported no errors.

6. Rebooted Mountain Lion 10.8.2, normal mode

7. Set Time Machine backup disk again.

8. Time Machine steadily backed up and completed 200Gb in 2 hours,

never pausing for any noticeable amount of time.

9. When Time Machine completed, I went back to Spotlight Preference pane,

and removed the system disk from the privacy list.

10. Spotlight started indexing, reporting a 20 minute completion estimate, within

a few minutes of starting. (When it was in the stuck mode, previously, it kept

promising an estimate, but never arrived at one).

11.Spotlight completed on time and both Spotlight and Time Machine

have been working flawlessly ever since.

I suspect what got me into trouble was that I used Migration Assistant

to bring over another system. But there was a conflict with new and old

user names, and so I wound up renaming accounts and having to chown -R

my home directory (I'm a unixy guy). While I was doing that, spotlight

was probably indexing and got confused by the way things were changing

around beneath it.

Message was edited by: Cyberspace Travel