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  1. #1
    DF VIP Member iBozz's Avatar
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    Help Time Machine constantly backing up to Time capsule

    I'm running Snow Leopard on an i7 iMac and using Time Machine to back-up wirelessly to a 2TB Time Capsule.

    The layout of my system and location of the devices means that Ethenet connection between the iMac and Time Capsule isn't a realistic option.

    Time Machine is supposed to carry out an incremental back-up every hour, but many backups take far longer then an hour so it is almost constantly backing up.

    In addition, although my iMac runs 24/7 and never goes in to sleep mode, the only User owned process (as far as I know, at least) that runs 24/7 is Folding@Home for which I use v7.1.52

    I would expect, therefor, that the number of files and their size backed up every "hour" would be minimal, and yet the backup currently in progress amounts to 84.13GB!!!!!

    My 2TB Time Capsule is already over half full!

    I know older files are deleted when there is no space, but my iMac's HD currently shows a usage of 669.52GB so these apparently over large back-ups are really taking up a hell of a lot of space each!

    I have excluded the HD/Library/Cache and ~/Library/Cache folders, the Parallels Windoze environment file and the Application Support/Sophos folder as I did wonder if they changed frequently and thus might affect the number of changed files, but it has made little or no noticeable difference.

    So, what on earth is going on - and how can I find out just which files are being backed up in these massive transfers and why?

    Many thanks in advance.



    The log for the current (unfinished) backup shows ...

    Starting standard backup
    Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Roy@Sue.local/Data
    Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Roy@Sue.local/Data
    QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
    Disk image /Volumes/Data/Roy’s iMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
    Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 96.67 GB requested (including padding), 780.99 GB available
    Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
    ...

    A sample of previous backups follows in case that helps someone pinpoint just what data is being backed-up and why!

    Starting standard backup
    Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Roy@Sue.local/Data
    Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Roy@Sue.local/Data
    QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
    Disk image /Volumes/Data-1/Roy’s iMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
    Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 96.55 GB requested (including padding), 815.53 GB available
    Copied 27.4 GB of 78.3 GB, 2791 of 2791 items
    Copied 57.9 GB of 78.3 GB, 2791 of 2791 items
    Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
    Copied 43652 files (78.3 GB) from volume Grumpy.
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 4.62 GB requested (including padding), 815.53 GB available
    Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Data-1
    Failed to attach to image: /Volumes/Data-1/Roy’s iMac.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35
    Disk image /Volumes/Data-1/Roy’s iMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
    Copied 33595 files (1.7 GB) from volume Grumpy.
    Starting post-backup thinning
    No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
    Backup completed successfully.
    Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    Ejected Time Machine network volume.






    Starting standard backup
    Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Roy@Sue.local/Data
    Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Roy@Sue.local/Data
    QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
    Disk image /Volumes/Data/Roy’s iMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
    Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 3.43 GB requested (including padding), 803.53 GB available
    Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
    Copied 43697 files (684.0 MB) from volume Grumpy.
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 12.83 GB requested (including padding), 802.85 GB available
    Copied 33647 files (8.5 GB) from volume Grumpy.
    Starting post-backup thinning
    Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Roy’s iMac/2012-07-26-163359: 794.38 GB now available
    Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
    Backup completed successfully.
    Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    Ejected Time Machine network volume.



    Starting standard backup
    Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Roy@Sue.local/Data
    Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Roy@Sue.local/Data
    QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
    Disk image /Volumes/Data-1/Roy’s iMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
    Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 14.01 GB requested (including padding), 815.54 GB available
    Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
    Copied 43065 files (9.5 GB) from volume Grumpy.
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 2.79 GB requested (including padding), 815.53 GB available
    Copied 33031 files (141.2 MB) from volume Grumpy.
    Starting post-backup thinning
    Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Roy’s iMac/2012-07-25-041750: 815.53 GB now available
    Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
    Backup completed successfully.
    Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    Ejected Time Machine network volume.

  2. #2
    DF VIP Member
    blaggard's Avatar
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    Default Re: Time Machine constantly backing up to Time capsule

    Surely Apple tech support will be best for this?
    If at first you don't succeed.....redefine success. . . .


  3. #3
    DF VIP Member iBozz's Avatar
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    Default Re: Time Machine constantly backing up to Time capsule

    They are on my list if I can't resolve it first, but I thought I'd try these august forums first.

    They will probaly suggest a full reformat and restore, something I would prefer to avoid if there's a "simple" cause and/or solution.

  4. #4
    DF VIP Member
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    Default Re: Time Machine constantly backing up to Time capsule

    Really, try tech support first, Apple are top at customer support.
    If at first you don't succeed.....redefine success. . . .


  5. #5
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    Default Re: Time Machine constantly backing up to Time capsule

    if it is failing to backup in the hour and then adding files to the list to back them up as well that could explain the file size. The same file coud be there 30 or 40 times waiting to be backed up.

    You can exclude directories from the backup. Might be worth removing loads of stuff to get the backup started and then add them in slowly.

    Another option, not sure if it can be done is to plug it in by USB to do the first backup then switching to wireless.....

    Thanks to crashtestmac

    iBozz (30th July 2012)  


  6. #6
    DF VIP Member bcuk's Avatar
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    Default Re: Time Machine constantly backing up to Time capsule

    Does the folding package use a database file? Time machine would see a changed database file as new every time it looks at it and would attempt to back it up. Try excluding that (or any other large db file, office?)

    2 Thanks given to bcuk

    blaggard (30th July 2012),  iBozz (30th July 2012)  


  7. #7
    DF VIP Member
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    Default Re: Time Machine constantly backing up to Time capsule

    Quote Originally Posted by bcuk View Post
    Does the folding package use a database file? Time machine would see a changed database file as new every time it looks at it and would attempt to back it up. Try excluding that (or any other large db file, office?)
    That's worth investigating. . .
    If at first you don't succeed.....redefine success. . . .

    Thanks to blaggard

    iBozz (30th July 2012)  


  8. #8
    DF VIP Member iBozz's Avatar
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    Default Re: Time Machine constantly backing up to Time capsule

    Thanks for all the replies and apologies for the tardy recognition thereof.

    I have downloaded BackupLoupe, some honourware ($5.00) which monitors backups so you can see precisely what files have changed each time.

    I also came across an excellent site, Pondini, on TM/TC troubleshooting which gave some pointers.

    I now know what is (or I now hope was) causing the grief although I have yet to work out exactly why.

    The problem was cased by two (out of seven) sparse disk image dmgs allegedly changing (one of around 8GB and the other around 75GB) so TM backed up the whole dmgs again each time.

    One of those is usually mounted on the Desktop and used by the application Change Desktop and although my assumption is that that applications loads jpgs into RAM and doesn't modify the actual files, I suppose TM could conceivably see that as a change.

    The other dmg, however, is rarely mounted and contains some infrequently used archive material so quite why TM sees that one (as opposed the other five which don't change either) as changed is, currently, beyond me. The create and modify dates shown in Get Info give no clue as to why a "change" was seen.

    I have now excluded all seven dmgs from the back-up and will see what happens to them over the next few days.

    There is clearly something else odd, as backups still appear to be taking a fair while, but at least they are no longer transferring such huge amounts of data.

    Mind you, as I have nothing against which I can compare the time it takes, being new to TM/TC, I may be worrying unnecessarily.

    Thanks for the advice so far, Chaps and Chapesses.

    Incidentally, Folding@Home, mentioned above, does not appear to be causing any problem as it's files are relatively small - at least BackupLoupe isn't showing any great change in that folder so I can live with that.

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