Speed Up Time machines First back up

Why it was backing from 0 to 232 GB, that specific folder. And how can I actually check one folder is now in my external drive with time machine?

Why, does it go now, with say 12 GB of 15 GB done and then the next minute it is 13 GB out of 18 GB; ***??

iCloud goes nowhere near being fast to duplicate I have a life to live for **** sake!

I've finally tried this while in progress of a recent backup.

I generally would want to back up weekly but it takes forever so I almost always do so every month.

Recent months back I needed files I had deleted between backups. I also had an event that was apples fault and caused all my data to be lost including some old files such as Adobe. Anyway, today was no exception with over 30 Gigs of data to back up in 30 days, it was showing 4 hours and holding. After almost 45 minutes it was barely at almost 5 Gigs, I tried this command at at first it did nothing - I then reversed it and it went even slower, then I made the command again, closed all apps, opened a cache optimizer and ran it and within a couple minutes I could see it speeding up dramatically -- at first it was 1 Gig in 35 second, then it was 10 Gigs in a a couple minutes... Long and short it finished up over 25 Gigs in 15-16 minutes.

Speed up Time Machine Backups

1. close all apps
2. clear cache with app cache cleaner
3. go to Terminal
4. sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=1
5. Enter time machine or start it from the icon
6. After finished in Terminal enter
7. sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0
8. Done.

as I said (see above):

Time Machine's Biggest "claim-to-fame" is that it is the backup that "gets done" -- slowly, in the background, without interrupting your foreground work.

If you are leaving your Backups for weekly or monthly, you will likely be better served by a different backup method.

Hello

So far as I am backing up 233 Gb, over 24 hours only have I managed to backup 40 Gb.

I guess it is because it is such a huge amount that is taking so long?

Also iCloud is doing the same at slower pace with 216 Gb.

Any tips to go faster or this is all normal?

Cheers,

F

MacOS maintains a list of folders that have changed recently, called the File System Event Store. there are two cases:

case a) If you previously backed up today or yesterday, the File System Event Store is fresh and exactly what is needed. ONLY the folders listed there have any changes. Backup can proceed at a steady pace, as no additional scanning of files is required.

case b) If you have deferred backup for several days, The File System Event Store is stale, and is not adequate to determine what has changed. So Time Machine loses it advantage over other methods and must now perform what is called a "deep traversal". It must look at the modified dates of EVERY file on your Mac, and compare that to the last copy on the existing Backup. This phase itself takes all afternoon, and is done BEFORE any files start to be copied.

What may be happening is that by putting off ANY activity of Time Machine for more than about a day, you are causing your next backup to take far, far longer than necessary.

When I first thought about using Time machine, I was convinced it would be too onerous, and would interfere. I did some research and found there were Utilities that could defer the backup for a few hours or more. Once i knew that, I was willing to give it a try, knowing I could change the backup interval if needed.

It was never too onerous. I never looked back. I never looked up those Utilities. Running Time Machine takes almost nothing out of your Mac, and does not substantially interfere with your work. (Provided you let it work often enough.)

Speed up Time Machine Backups

close all apps BEST OPTION

Then

clear cache (but not required)

go to Terminal

sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0

While backing up - DO NOT use the computer

After finished go back in Terminal enter

sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=1

Which resets the best normal performance to the computer

If you are talking to this NAS over Wi-Fi, or your Ethernet is not running at Gigabit speeds, you are making a big mistake.

The best place for your backups is on a Directly-connected drive. NAS is a separate computer, connected to your Mac, and may have problems doing a Full Restore from these Time Machine Backups.

Read the details in the Pink box on this page written by the late James Pond:

2. What can Time Machine back up, and where can it put it’s backups?

.

This seems a valid solution to your problem and I see it doing no harm, I would do it the following way.

1. Do the terminal command at the end of the day
2. Start the initial Time Machine backup
3. Leave it running over night
4. Assuming it has finished successfully reboot the following morning which will undo this command

I would totally agree that doing at least the initial i.e. big Time Machine backup over WiFi is a very bad thing to try. Even if normally you use WiFi do the first one via Gigabit Ethernet. I would even turn off WiFi temporarily on your Mac.

You can try the command during your current backup, I believe it should still take effect. You can also stop the current backup, do the command and then start the backup again. The resumed backup should carry on from the point it reached although this way it will first have to redo the analysing phase.

One thing I remember is that anti-virus software can cause Time Machine to be much, much slower. This is because Time Machine accesses each file multiple times and each time a file is accessed it can trigger a virus scan of that file. It maybe such software is smarter these days but I remember Sophos used to cause a massive slow down of Time Machine.

Time Machine's Biggest "claim-to-fame" is that it is the backup that "gets done" -- slowly, in the background, without interrupting your foreground work. I do not see this temporary priority change for the first Backup as any sort of an issue, provided, as John Lockwood suggests, you undo it at the end of the initial full backup. (The author of that article says the change is temporary, and a Restart removes it.)

If you are going to always run it at higher priority, Time Machine will get in your way. In that case, you may be better served by a different backup method, BUT: as always, the best backup method is the one that actually gets done. Having the perfect backup method, but that method is so onerous that the latest backup is a month old, does not help anybody.

Another interesting feature: If you give Time Machine a second drive, it will automatically do every-other backup to every-other drive, creating two independent Backup sets on two different drives.

To run at Gigabit speeds, all your Ethernet cable must have all 8 wires present. When I find cables with only four wires connected, I cut the ends off them, so that i don't fool myself later.

Network Utility.app (should be in the Utilities folder) can tell you the actual link speed of your Ethernet interface.

I'm using a Synology NAS (Disk station 1511+) connected through a GB switch. My iMac have a SSD disk. Without the hack the backup can take several hours. With the sustained transfer speed is 3,7 Mo/s or 0,222 Go/min which is OK.