Time Machine backing up 80GB every hour

Question

Level 1

4 points

Time Machine backing up 80GB every hour

Hi, everyone.

I decided to post this question after hours trying to find a solution and fix my "problem". I found this very interesting page but it couldn't help me: http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html

Here's my problem: instead of just creating backups of what's recently changed, Time Machine is creating huge backup files. I know that because every hour Time Machine starts backing up around 80GB. Because of that, after a very short amount of time, older backups end up being deleted to free space for newer ones.

This started happening after installing a Transcend JetDrive Lite 330 on my MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015). By the way, there are almost 80GB stored in that new drive. It looks like Time Machine won't backup only what's changed on that drive or everything keeps changing for no reason and Time Machine is only doing its job.

Is there any way to stop/fix this? Excluding this drive from TM backups is unfortunately out of question because I need the files stored in it to be backed up.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on Jul 8, 2016 9:39 AM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Jul 8, 2016 1:41 PM in response to Hodric

If you remove the Transcend drive temporarily, does Time Machine work as expected? Does the drive hold large files that change often?

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Answer 2

Hodric Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 8, 2016 1:55 PM in response to Linc Davis

Exactly! It works flawlessly, only backing up what's changed. Based on the logs, Time Machine always "thinks" everything stored in JetDrive is new.

No, I don't keep huge files in that drive, just my iTunes music library (which used to be stored in my main drive). The folder is big but the files themselves are small, and Time Machine used to backup only new files every hour when my library was on my Mac.

If an external drive which is backed up by TM gets ejected/unmounted and then inserted/mounted again, would TM think this drive is new? Because Transcend JetDrive disconnects itself when the computer goes to sleep and reconnects when the computer is awake in order to save battery life. Wouldn't TM be supposed to identify that the recently reconnected drive and all the files stored in it as previously backed up?

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Jul 8, 2016 2:35 PM in response to Hodric

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.

Please launch the Console application in any one 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 and start typing the name.

The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages

from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."

Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of an abnormal backup. Now

CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD

so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. 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 to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

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

The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.

Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

When you post the log extract, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

If you have an account on Pastebin, please don't select Private from the Paste Exposure menu on the page, because then no one but you will be able to see it.

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Answer 4

Hodric Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 8, 2016 3:10 PM in response to Linc Davis

Ok. Before pasting thousands of selected lines, I tried selecting only what was related to backups. Sorry if it doesn't help, just let me know and I'll post everything from the beginning to end of the backup (I cancelled it because of the huge size again).

I also selected a few lines that caught my attention, but I don't know what they mean:

08/07/16 13:31:02,651 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Starting manual backup

08/07/16 13:31:02,661 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Backups

08/07/16 13:31:05,117 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Checking for runtime corruption on /dev/disk4s2

08/07/16 13:31:09,623 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Disk image /Volumes/Backups/MacBook Pro de Rodrigo.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backups do Time Machine

08/07/16 13:31:09,864 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Backups

08/07/16 13:31:11,642 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Disk image already attached: /Volumes/Backups/MacBook Pro de Rodrigo.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35 (Resource temporarily unavailable)

08/07/16 13:31:13,000 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Disk image /Volumes/Backups/MacBook Pro de Rodrigo.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backups do Time Machine

08/07/16 13:31:14,100 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Backing up to /dev/disk5s2: /Volumes/Backups do Time Machine/Backups.backupdb

08/07/16 13:31:17,707 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Forcing deep traversal on source: "JetDrive Lite" (device: /dev/disk2s2 mount: '/Volumes/JetDrive Lite' fsUUID: 119BCEDA-B1AD-35E9-B7C1-5BD7C101C7D5 eventDBUUID: 9AD5C79E-FE8A-4357-89B5-3E924CBF9759)

08/07/16 13:31:18,206 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Deep event scan at path:/Volumes/JetDrive Lite reason:must scan subdirs|require scan|

08/07/16 13:31:18,206 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Running event scan

08/07/16 13:31:18,206 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Finished scan

08/07/16 13:31:18,206 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Saved event cache at /Volumes/Backups do Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/MacBook Pro de Rodrigo/2016-07-08-133117.inProgress/A0C647F2-735E-4E3C-B21E-06EEFE764408/.119B CEDA-B1AD-35E9-B7C1-5BD7C101C7D5.eventdb

08/07/16 13:31:18,206 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Not using file event preflight for JetDrive Lite

08/07/16 13:31:18,838 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Will copy (72,86 GB) from JetDrive Lite

08/07/16 13:31:21,767 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Will copy (29,6 MB) from Macintosh HD

08/07/16 13:31:21,768 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Found 12544 files (72,89 GB) needing backup

08/07/16 13:31:23,311 com.apple.backupd[5177]: 88,35 GB required (including padding), 69,57 GB available

08/07/16 13:31:23,314 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backups do Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/MacBook Pro de Rodrigo/2016-07-08-133117.inProgress/35D87E52-C9D2-416B-A6F8-C94C872A52CA containing 12 KB; 69,57 GB now available, 88,35 GB required

08/07/16 13:31:23,315 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Removed 1 expired backups so far, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room

08/07/16 13:31:44,148 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backups do Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/MacBook Pro de Rodrigo/2016-07-07-020416 containing 60,1 MB; 69,63 GB now available, 88,35 GB required

08/07/16 13:31:44,148 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Removed 2 expired backups so far, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room

08/07/16 13:31:51,048 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backups do Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/MacBook Pro de Rodrigo/2016-07-07-142318 containing 1 MB; 69,63 GB now available, 88,35 GB required

08/07/16 13:31:51,048 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Removed 3 expired backups so far, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room

08/07/16 13:32:37,395 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backups do Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/MacBook Pro de Rodrigo/2016-07-07-182846 containing 72,94 GB; 142,56 GB now available, 88,35 GB required

08/07/16 13:32:37,396 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Deleted 4 backups containing 73 GB total; 142,56 GB now available, 88,35 GB required

08/07/16 13:32:37,396 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Backup date range was shortened: oldest backup is now 7 de jul de 2016

08/07/16 13:48:31,293 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Copied 1166 items (4,87 GB) from volume JetDrive Lite. Linked 0.

08/07/16 13:48:32,736 com.apple.backupd[5177]: Backup canceled.

Thanks for being helpful and sorry again if I wasn't, despite the fact I wanted to.

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Answer 5

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Jul 8, 2016 3:31 PM in response to Hodric

Please launch the Disk Utility application and select the icon of the Trascend drive in the list on the left. Select the drive, not the volume icon(s) nested beneath it.

At the bottom of the window is some information about the drive, including the Partition Map type. if the type is anything other than GUID Partition Map, what is it?

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Answer 6

Hodric Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 8, 2016 3:37 PM in response to Linc Davis

Well, it's already GUID. I selected it myself when formatting the drive:

Should I reformat it? Should I change the partition map type?

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Answer 7

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Jul 8, 2016 3:44 PM in response to Hodric

The drive is malfunctioning. If possible, exchange it or (preferably) return it for a refund and use something else.

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Answer 8

Hodric Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 8, 2016 4:03 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks for your answer. Based on you expertise, why do you say that? In technical terms, what is wrong?

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Answer 9

Hodric Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 8, 2016 4:30 PM in response to Linc Davis

Couldn't this behavior have anything to do with the fact that there is a Transcend app constantly running and monitoring my drive, disconnecting it when the computer goes to sleep and reconnecting when the computer wakes up?

http://www.transcend-info.com/Support/Software-181/

I don't understand logs but I could provide them to you in case you want me to.

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Answer 10

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Jul 8, 2016 6:40 PM in response to Hodric

Every HFS volume has an event database that Time Machine uses to determine whether files have changed since the last backup. That database is corrupt on the volume in question here, so it's being ignored. If you like, you can try erasing the volume and restoring the files from a backup, but I have no reason to think that will do any lasting good. I'm biased by the fact that I know of other Transcend drives that have been defective. It's not a product I would ever use. Good luck.

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