Time machine restore VERY slow on new M1 MacBook Air?

[Tomb01]

So we had our computers stolen from our cars, learned that the new Thief technology is a simple bluetooth/RF device that can sense electronics in your car so hiding them does not accomplish anything. Aargh.

Got her new M1 MacBook Air, and are restoring it from our Time Capsule backup, but it is extremely slow. File restored count is updating, but it ran overnight, and still shows 23 hours remaining. I know that the estimate is always just that, an estimate, but with previous restores it took an hour or two, never a day or two. Hoping this is not an issue and it is just slow, but... We're on an AC connection at 5ghz, so the network is fast. (buying an external SSD for her to manually connect for future backups, her system only has 512GB of disk so a 1TB fast SSD is only in the neighborhood of $100)

Any ideas on why it might be so slow to restore? Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[rm5]

So we had our computers stolen from our cars, learned that the new Thief technology is a simple bluetooth/RF device that can sense electronics in your car so hiding them does not accomplish anything. Aargh.

Got her new M1 MacBook Air, and are restoring it from our Time Capsule backup, but it is extremely slow. File restored count is updating, but it ran overnight, and still shows 23 hours remaining. I know that the estimate is always just that, an estimate, but with previous restores it took an hour or two, never a day or two. Hoping this is not an issue and it is just slow, but... We're on an AC connection at 5ghz, so the network is fast. (buying an external SSD for her to manually connect for future backups, her system only has 512GB of disk so a 1TB fast SSD is only in the neighborhood of $100)

Any ideas on why it might be so slow to restore? Thanks for any thoughts.

A Time Machine restore should NOT take more than an hour, so clearly you're having major problems.

Here's what I can think of off the top of my head:

1. Is the MacBook connected to the Time Capsule with ETHERNET? You will have a much faster restore using Ethernet rather than over WiFi, even if the connection is 5GHz.

2. Also, I know that TCs have hard drive issues sometimes where the Seagate (I think) drive that's inside there fails spontaneously.

3. Are you using Migration Assistant or are you using the Recovery "Restore From Time Machine" feature? I think the "proper" way to do it is to use Migration Assistant.

4. You could also try restarting the TC and the MacBook.

Unfortunately I don't have a TC (I back up to external drives) so I can't test anything Time Capsule-related.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tomb01]

That's sort of what we had expected, a few hours at the most. Would not be surprised for it to be a hard drive issue, and have already ordered an SSD for her to switch to. We are using the new machine process, and setup invoked the restore. Wireless, yes, but the MacBook Air has never been connected physically to a network, not sure I could even find the old USB -Ethernet adapter we used to have. It is still transferring files, just slowly, so am a bit reluctant to interrupt it just yet. We are being patient, and hopeful... At some point may give up and restart everything...

 

[Yodabeesh]

I think that wireless could probably be an issue.

TBH, I would probably buy a 1 TB external HDD or SSD (or use one that might be lying around the house... for some reason I have a proliferation) and do a clean Time Machine back-up via USB of the old Mac. (Completely cut the TC out of the equation.) Then do the MBA setup using the external HDD (probs need a USB-A -> Thunderbolt adapter). Keep the HDD, and set a reminder on her calendar to plug it into the MBA overnight to do a TM sync

 

[Tomb01]

Finally completed after about 48 hours restoring. Seems to be done, and working. Have done a restore previously to the machine that was stolen, and it took about 45 minutes, same network. Strange. A 1TB external SSD will arrive today and will set it up for her backups. Just not quite as convenient as the automatic Time Machine backup to the Time Capsule.

Still puzzled about the situation, but it is what it is, and all's well that ends well.

 

[DJLC]

Finally completed after about 48 hours restoring. Seems to be done, and working. Have done a restore previously to the machine that was stolen, and it took about 45 minutes, same network. Strange. A 1TB external SSD will arrive today and will set it up for her backups. Just not quite as convenient as the automatic Time Machine backup to the Time Capsule.

Still puzzled about the situation, but it is what it is, and all's well that ends well.

Personally, based on your description and my experience with mechanical hard drives here lately, I'd opine that the drive in your Time Capsule is probably showing signs of degradation due to age. I'd look into swapping that out with an internal SSD if you want to keep using your Time Capsule. Or retire it now before you wind up in a bind.

 

[Tomb01]

Good suggestion DJLC about swapping out the drive. Will investigate that. In the near term, have purchased an external SSD for her to use. thanks.