Time machine and external hard drive

What device is the TM backing up to??

Are you trying to backup and store the backups on the same WD passport drive.. that will be slow.

If you are using a Time Capsule how is it connected??

Sorry for slow response but it is not clear where the problem is..

Did it just start with the new WD passport? I have seen lots of complaints about it being a very slow drive.

Someone in a different forum said that the problem is that TM has to be used with an OSX that is Lion or above, but I have Yosemite, so isn't that above Lion?

One of he upsides of a user-to-user support forum is that you can get feedback from users who can actually help solve your issue. But, one of the downsides is that information which is just not correct at all sometimes appears from folks who do not know what they talking about.

Time Machine can be used with any version of OS X starting with Leopard (10.5.x), so the information that you mentioned above is from someone who simply does not know what they were talking about.

TM not saving ALL my files has been an issues for months

By default, Time Machine saves all of the data on your Mac....unless.....you have specifically excluded files or folders from your backups. Can you give us a few examples of files and folders that are not being backed up?

If you open System Preferences (gear icon on the dock) and then open Time Machine and click on Options, the window will display any files that are being excluded from your backups. Do you see any files there? If yes, what are they?

When doing a backup, Time Machine says it's backing up 33GB to 195GB

Click on the Time Machine "clock" icon up at the top of your Mac's screen

Click Back Up Now

Now click on the Time Machine icon again

Click on Open Time Machine Preferences and watch the progress

You will see "Preparing backup" for awhile, then the message will change to show how much data is being backed up. Wait a few seconds, then post the exact message that see at that time.

And, were you able to run the short "test" that we requested?

When doing a backup, Time Machine says it's backing up 33GB to 195GB

Click on the Time Machine "clock" icon up at the top of your Mac's screen

Click Back Up Now

Now click on the Time Machine icon again

Click on Open Time Machine Preferences and watch the progress

You will see "Preparing backup" for awhile, then the message will change to show how much data is being backed up. Wait a few seconds, then post the exact message that see at that time.

Not so fast, please.

3.45 GB is a huge amount of data. That much data should not be being backed up unless you have made a lot of changes since the last back up.

Once the current backup is done, don't do anything else for a minute or two and then go ahead and click Back Up Now again and watch the progress again. The next backup should quite small 3-10 MB or so, although it could be more depending on what other processes your Mac is running at the time.

Report when you can.

OK, thanks. Unfortunately, problem not solved.

So, the question is what application or applications you have that are backing up everything in their database on every backup. Microsoft and Adobe applications will do this. Do you have something like Microsoft Office on your Mac....or some image applications like PhotoShop or Lightroom?

Any special software that you have installed on the Mac that is not offered by Apple?

The file structure of Office is such that the entire User database which contains all email files will be backed up each time Time Machine runs. That is not an Apple issue....it is an issue with the way that Office database works. That file could easily be 3-4 GB by itself for most users. So, that would be one file to Exclude from backups and backup manually every few days.

I don't have a Mac running Office handy today to be able find out where the database files are located. So, it may take me a day or two before I can tell you where the database file is located.

Against my better judgement, I am going to try working from memory here, since it now appears that I will not have access to a Mac with Office installed on the computer for some time.

On your Mac......

Open Macintosh HD

Open Documents

Open Microsoft User Data

Open Office 2008 Indentities

See if a folder named Main Identity is there. If it is, right-click on the folder and click on Get Info

A window will open to the left is of the screen. Look for the Size. What is the size of that folder?