Time Machine backups are HUGE

[Killerbob]

After upgrading to Catalina long ago, I reset my Time Machine, and created a new backup. I backup onto two different medias; a proper Time Capsule, as well as an SSD disk connected to my Mac Pro. This works fine.

Except lately I have noticed that the Time Machine backups are really really big. Almost every time they amount to 10-15-20GB, and they take a long time at the "Cleaning Up" stage of the backup. Obviously the backups are much faster to my SSD than they are to my Time Capsule, but why are they so big?

 

[chabig]

why are they so big?

You obviously have some big files that change often.

 

[Killerbob]

That’s the thing - I do not. Just this morning I had a 15GB backup twice (once for the SSD and once for the TC), immediately followed by an 18GB backup twice.

There is something funky going on.

 

[Fishrrman]

STOP using TM and try either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper instead.

Your backups will go MUCH easier, and the size of the backups WILL NOT increase (because they'll be "the same size" as your source drive).

 

[tehabe]

How big the TM image on the time capsule? could be a bug in time machine, that it is doing a backup of things twice even though it isn't needed or it is resetting the backup device. I think I had that a few times. You should also take a look, what is actually being backuped.

 

[deviant]

STOP using TM and try either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper instead.

Your backups will go MUCH easier, and the size of the backups WILL NOT increase (because they'll be "the same size" as your source drive).

you do realize these are COMPLETELY different ways to backup?

 

[Killerbob]

I did a complete reset of both backup medias, and my Mac Pro just finished the 1st backup onto each one. I’ll report back if it made a difference.

As to why I use TM - it works, and it is super easy to restore from. I use CCC for a number of things, amongst them a backup of my user profile... every day.

 

[HDFan]

Almost every time they amount to 10-15-20GB,

Does the size of the TM backup on the backup media actually increase by that number? When running backups I often see very large numbers, but my backup size doesn't change proportionally. I assume that the running number is the things TM thinks might need backup.

 

[Killerbob]

Remember that Time Machine stores the backups for every hour, day, week, and eventually month, and hence the size of the backups grow every day. I don't remember how many it actually keeps, but at least a bit.

However, I gave up trying to find a fix, reformatted the Time Capsule and my SSD, and started from scratch.

 

[mikecwest]

After upgrading to Catalina long ago, I reset my Time Machine, and created a new backup. I backup onto two different medias; a proper Time Capsule, as well as an SSD disk connected to my Mac Pro. This works fine.

Except lately I have noticed that the Time Machine backups are really really big. Almost every time they amount to 10-15-20GB, and they take a long time at the "Cleaning Up" stage of the backup. Obviously the backups are much faster to my SSD than they are to my Time Capsule, but why are they so big?

Do you use Parallels, VMWare Fusion or something similar? If so, you should exclude your VMs from Time Machine Backups....the VM Changes often, each time you use it. It will desire to make incremental backups of that large file...Unless you really need something backed up incrementally in your VM, you are better off manually backing up a "fresh" virtual machine that can replaced if something runs amok.

 

[Killerbob]

I do use Parallels, but off my BootCamp installation, so no big VM files anywhere.

I have excluded my LightRoom files, as well as my Outlook files...

 

[Killerbob]

For what it is worth - after resetting TM, formatting the SSD and my TC, backups have been small and fast.