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slow time machine backup

Hello,


I have the newest version of iMac and I want to make an time machine backup on my external USB 3.0 harddrive. But the transfer rate is very very slow. The system shows an backup-time of about 100 days (!!!!!) to save 450 GB. What's going on? The harddrive is also really new and works normally if I use it as a normal harddrive (also with other Macs)... Who can help me????

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Jun 2, 2013 6:17 AM

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43 replies

Jun 2, 2013 10:10 AM in response to 123xyz123xyz

The first backup is normally quite slow, and the estimates of time remaining can be wildly inaccurate. If it doesn't seem to be getting anywhere after a couple of hours, do as follows.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.

Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select

View Show Log List

from the menu bar.


Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.

If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the search box.

If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.

When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.

Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.


Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Nov 6, 2013 7:52 PM in response to 123xyz123xyz

I get the feeling there's several reasons for this to happen. I've read lots of posts about this, and different solutions worked for different people.


At first, I blamed the USB interface to the disk (and I was reading posts about slow USB). I almost bought a LightningBolt-to-Firewire adapter. I tried changing my USB cable from a USB 1 to a USB 2.0 cable, no change. Tried resetting param ram, and a few other magical incantations I read about. It kept on giving more wild estimates of how long it would take - 2500 days was the biggest one, and no backing up was getting done.


What worked for me was getting rid of my virus software, BitDefender. I have installed that on three different machines and on each, it caused some horrid problem (different in each case) and I had to remove it, and the problem was fixed. Just wish I could get some of my bits defended someday. :-)


Time Machine is now doing the first backup; it's about 1/4 way thru and it's saying about 41 minutes left. That's more like it.


These time estmates go crazy cuz of the way it calculates it - take the time elapsed so far, divide by the bytes copied so far (which might be really tiny), multiply it by how many bytes are left to go (which might be really large). So, if the first 512k took a long time because of some fixed overhead, its initial estimates will think the rest will take a long long time. If it backs up a little, then hangs and never gets any more data copied, the time estimate will climb absurdly. Don't trust those estimates until it's gone through like 5% or 10% of correct operation.

Dec 31, 2013 9:47 AM in response to 123xyz123xyz

I had a similar problem. I was able to increase my throughput to 40-60 mb/s by making the following changes:


1. Disbabled Norton Antivirus

2. Disabled Norton Safe Surfing ** (Right-Click the Norton Icon in the System Bar | Click on Norton Identity | Click on Disable Safe Surfing)

3. Disabled Norton File Guard ** (Right-Click the Norton Icon in the System Bar | Click on Norton Identity | Click on Disable File Guard)

4. Removed the external hard drive from Spotlight (Under System Preferences | Spotlight | Privacy Tab | Drag the external hard drive to "Prevent Spotlight from searching these locations".


I believe all of these helped increase backup throughput speed but a drastic increase occurred when File Guard and Safe Surfing were disabled.

Jan 17, 2014 6:06 AM in response to 123xyz123xyz

I am also experiencing extremely slow bu with my brand new MBA/10.9.1 + USB or Thunderbolt to ethernet adapter and a time capsule. I configured the time capsule through airport and it looks fine: the green lamp is shining continuously. Still it does not work if both, MBA + time capsule are connected to the LAN.


BUT - if you directly connect the MBA through the thunderbolt2ethernet adapter and a patch cable into the time capsule, everything runs smootly and very fast.


Obviously this calls for manual backups since if you connect the gear directly you can't connect to the LAN at the same time. So this solution does not allow for permanent time machine running in the background unless you also have available a WLAN access.

slow time machine backup

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