Time Machine extremely slow on Mavericks ?

Like Justinjms15, I uninstalled and everything is almost back to normal.

I still believe that there are some issues with Mavericks vs ML though because there seems to be people who are experiencing issues who don't have Norton AV 12.6 installed.

Also, everytime my TM connects, Mavericks does not recognize the drive as the TM drive so I have to go to TM preferences and relink the drive. A pain, but atleast once it is connected it backs up quickly.

Actually the incident happened before Mavericks. I moved from a Mac Pro to a Mac Mini to downsize a bit. Both systems were running ML. It was the first time I used the migration assistant. Everything seemed to have copied over fine but when time machine kicked in it had issues. It would take a long time to calculate and then it would keep moving the goal posts...backing up x of y...it would keep incrementing y. It reminded me of the dog chasing it's tail. I blitzed the backup and tried several things. It wasn't until I reindexed Spotlight that the backup went back to normal. I held off upgrading to Mavericks on the Mac Mini but finally committed this weekend. Everything went fine even with Norton running though Norton itself may be experiencing issues. No corruption that I'm aware of. Time machine did start off slow but considering the OS was updated, it had a lot of files to sort through. Everything is running as expected for me. I also have a Macbook Retina Pro and I don't think it had any problems on the upgrade which is one of the reasons I committed to the update. I'm using Guardian Maximus mini's on firewire 800 ports on both machines with the AC adapter plugged in. I noticed on my Mac Mini that the firewire port was powering down the maximus mini. I must have reached the same conclusion on my Macbook Pro because the AC adapter is used on it's maximus mini drive. Both systems have their time machine drives backed up with AC connections. I wonder if that's causing the corruption of the time machine drives.

I'll just add my problem to the list: I'm backing up almost 2TB to a 4TB Firewire 800 external drive, and like the others, Time Machine was going incredibly slow after installing Mavericks. I'm not using any antivirus software. I have since reindexed Spotlight, and tried to clean up anything that would cause trouble. Since that restart, about 3 hours ago, I have backed up a whopping 734MB, so Time Machine should be finished in time for the Summer Olympics. I don't want to reformat and start fresh, since I'd lose my old backups, but is that the only choice? Does that have a good probability of working?

Thanks.

Hello,

For everyone who doesn't face this problem with Norton Idle scan disabled or Norton Virus Protection turned off, can you please run LiveUpdate until no more updates and restart the computer. Hopefully, the problem should be fixed after you restart the computer.

Let me know the result!

Thanks!

Vineeth

Norton Support

Ok, I've done the update and restarted the computer and then turned Idle Scan back on. Is there some way to test this out without waiting for an Idle Scan?

By the way, in looking at Norton AntiVirus/History:Updates the only thing updated today has been AntiVirus Signatures. No software updates listed.

After Mavericks install, it took 4 days to back up 10% of my HDD. Got a new external drive, formatted and it was slower. Then did the reindexing trick with Spotlight. Turned Time Machine off. Spotlight running for 2 days still says "Estimating index time."

So far, the only solution I have not heard is "You need to reinstall Windows." Oops, wrong OS. I mean reinstall Mavericks.

It has been over 12 hours since I did the Norton AntiVirus Update and turned Idle Scan back ON. My Time Machine backups are running very fast and fine, and I have not seen any Spotlight indexing happening. I am very satisfied!

Hello newcastlelmj,

Glad to know that the problem has been fixed!

I am awaiting response from other users to see whether the update has completely fixed the problem with Norton Idle scan and Time machine.

Thanks!

Vineeth

Norton Support

Hello Vineeth,

Was there an update issued for NAV? I have forced several connections, ut havenot received an update. Please advise.

Thank You

NortonSupport wrote:

Hello,

For everyone who doesn't face this problem with Norton Idle scan disabled or Norton Virus Protection turned off, can you please run LiveUpdate until no more updates and restart the computer. Hopefully, the problem should be fixed after you restart the computer.

Let me know the result!

Thanks!

Vineeth

Norton Support

Hello DCIFRTHS,

Sorry to hear that! The update is available for NAV as well. Can you please try running LiveUpdate again and see if you receive the update?

Thanks!

Vineeth

Norton Support

Norton: After weeks of trying everything, some uinknown combination finally worked a couple of weeks ago, so Time Machine has been normal since. I tried Live Update this morning, and it told me that I was already updated. Your Norton page is not very informative, so I don't know if it was automatically updated or not. I turned Idle Scan on this morning. The next Time Machine ran well. The hard disk in the iMac is running non-stop again, where it has not since I disabled Idle Scan. Clearly, Idel Scan is running whether I'm idle or not. I recommend that idle scan goes to sleep when the user is useing the computer, but it doesn't. I'll let this forum know what happened when it runs all day while I'm at work.

Clearly and obviously, Mavericks and Time Machine have a problem. What that is, is still unknown. I don't know what caused it; I don't know what fixed it. But I will not "upgrade" the other two Macs we have to Mavericks until and if this problem is fully understood and resolved. In my opinion, and in hindsight, Mavericks does not provide me with anything that Mountain Lion didn't have already, and has been a problem since upgrading. Even if the problem isn't Apple's, it should be investigated, and there is no evidence that it is. Norton, on the other hand, has investigated, has responded here, and has acted -- and I do appreciate that! Thank you, Vineeth.

Update coming at the end of the day.

Vineeth,

I have tried several times, and I just tried again with no update downlaoding. What is the current version and build number?

Also, I see no mention of this update on the Symantec forums. Can you please tell me what changes were made to the latest version you refer to?

Thanks!

NortonSupport wrote:

Hello DCIFRTHS,

Sorry to hear that! The update is available for NAV as well. Can you please try running LiveUpdate again and see if you receive the update?

Thanks!

Vineeth

Norton Support

I have been having the same issue with Mavericks and Norton Internet Security 5 v 12.6 (26). Once, I disabled both Virus Protection and Idle-time Scan, the backup was able to complete in a timely fashion. I could select "Back Up Now" in Time Machine after a just completed backup and the backup would quickly complete without any delays. Only a few files required updating so the short backup time would not be unexpected with a properly functioning Time Machine. I tried this Back Up Now experiment three times with no Time Machine issues. Then, I turned on Virus Protection but kept Idle-time Scan disabled, rebooted the iMac, and then I selected "Back Up Now" This time, the long back-up delays were once again observed. Spotlight is back to indexing the computer once again. I then stopped the backup and turned off Virus Protection. Spotlight continues to index. My first guess is that the file that is associated with Spotlight is getting corrupted or deleted in association with running Time Machine and Norton Internet Security at the same time.

I have experienced the slow backups on both my iMac and Macbook with Mavericks installed. This was not an issue with Mountain Lion. So clearly, there is an incompatibality between Mavericks and Norton Internet Security.

See the following form for discussion about this significant issue:

https://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-for-Mac/NAV-Mac-v12-6-creating-a-Baziilio n-small-files-WHICH-THEN-HAVE/td-p/1039065

My backups have become normal when I disabled Idle-time Scan. I could issue successive Back Up Now commands without any Time Machine delay issues. However, when I rebooted my computer, the delay resumed with Idle-time Scan still disabled. During these tests, Virus Protection was enabled. Spotlight is not indexing during this delay as indicated by clicking on the Spotlight icon. I then disabled Virus Protection and started antoher Back Up Now. Time Machine has been stuck in the mode of preparing the backup for about ten minutes now with no Spotlight indexing going on. I suspect that it is going to have to go through a long backup once again. I will then enable Virus Protection while keeping Idle-time Scan disabled without rebooting to see what happens.