On 2017-04-19, at 7:58 AM, Dinse, Gregg (NIH/NIEHS) [C] <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Thanks for responding.
>
> It seems that you agree that there is some file that Outlook keeps updating,
> which then repeatedly gets backed up by Time Machine. This file is not as
> large as the Parallels file, but it's large enough to be a nuisance. I just
> got to work and Time Machine is trying to backup 970 MB of something (also,
> it says it will take 7 hours -- I don't know why it's so slow). I was not
> even at work doing anything and it still found nearly a GB to backup. Maybe
> that sounds small, but if it does this every hour, it won't take long to fill
> my backup drive.
970 MB is nothing. For me, Firefox routinely triggers several hundred GB, and
at least once a day Backblaze triggers a 1.2 GB backup.
Time Machine stores at most 24 + 1/day of those backups. So even if it is
backing up a GB every time, you wind up with 24 GB + 1 GB/day up to a month,
then that's about 55 GB, and then it's 1 GB per week.
Even if your backup drive is only 1 TB, we're talking about 5% after a month.
Now, 7 hours? ... That's a problem. Is that all the time, or once that one long
backup ran, did future backups go at a normal time?
> I looked in ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/ and in ~/Library/Application
> Support/, but neither was anywhere near 970 MB. The first folder was 289 MB
> and the second folder was 198 MB (for all apps, not just Outlook or
> Microsoft). So, neither seems to explain the 970 MB.
>
> Any other suggestions? Is there an easy way to get a list of files, ordered
> by file size, so that I can see which files are largest? Back in the NeXT
> days, I think there was a program called Dark Forest, or something like that.
You want "Grand Perspective".
In particular, try to find an older version that was made specifically for Time
Machine ("Time Machine Perspective", I think it was called), that stopped
looking at duplicated files/directories. This let it look at a TM backup and
only show you what had changed.
>> Currently I only backup part of my main system drive. I exclude
>> /Applications, /Library, and System Files and Applications. Essentially I
>> just backup my user files.
GAD, NO.
If you must exclude system files, then click the button that excludes what
Apple ships.
I would give 75% odds that you have important stuff in /Library that was put
there by programs you installed, and you probably have something in
/Applications that you would have a problem replacing.
And frankly, being able to boot from a TM drive in an emergency is a good thing.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Gregg
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "@lbutlr" <[email protected]>
> Date: Wednesday, April 19, 2017 at 7:23 AM
> To: MacOSX-Talk Talk <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: why are Time Machine backups so large lately?
>
> On 2017-04-18 (09:00 MDT), "Dinse, Gregg (NIH/NIEHS) [C]"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have been using Time Machine for many years, but lately the backups seem
>> to be much larger than usual (i.e., hundreds of MB rather than just a few
>> MB), even when I have not done anything.
>>
>> This problem
>
> I wouldn’t say it’s a problem.
>
>> 1. We were forced to switch to Outlook (I had always used Apple Mail before).
>
> That would explain it right there.
>
>> 2. Citrix was installed, so that I could access my work email in Outlook
>> from home.
>>
>> Is there some large file
>
> Large? No. Large if you are thinking floppies? Yes.
>
>> (e.g., a database) associated with Outlook that keeps getting updated and
>> thus backed up again and again?
>
> Yes.
>
>> If so, what is it called and where is it located?
>
> It used to be in ~/Documents/Outlook but that was years ago. It *SHOULD* be
> in ~/Library/Application Support/
>
>> This reminds me of the time when I used Parallels, which kept the virtual
>> Windows machine in a large file and every time something changed in Windows,
>> even something small, the entire large Parallels file would get backed up
>> again in Time Machine. Eventually I excluded that file from my backups.
>
> By difference between a tens-of-gigabytes file and a db that is a couple
> hundred megs.
>
>> Currently I only backup part of my main system drive. I exclude
>> /Applications, /Library, and System Files and Applications. Essentially I
>> just backup my user files.
>
> Backing up Library and System is pretty much a one-time event and makes it
> much easier to restore your computer.
>
>
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