On 2017-04-19, at 9:20 AM, Dinse, Gregg (NIH/NIEHS) [C] <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Michael, > > Thanks for your input. > > I realize that most people probably think 970 MB is nothing, but my entire > system is only 279 GB and only 86 GB is being considered for backup. > > I hate to admit it, but my Time Machine drive is only 320 GB. This has not > been a problem in the past, since the original backup only took about 86 GB > and subsequent backups were fairly small (before Outlook). If I backup a GB > each hour, that's about 25 GB per day, which would exhaust my 320 GB drive > before too long. > > I realize that I could simply buy a larger drive, but it just seems > inefficient to backup the entire Outlook database every time a single new > email is added. Yea. Now imagine if your email database was GB's worth. There's a reason Apple moved to "one file == one message", and put the attachments in different files (I think it's one file == one attachment, so now one message can be many files) when they introduced a whole-file based backup system. It wouldn't be so bad if your backup only stored differences or otherwise compacted historical changes; a git-based backup probably would not see this problem on a text file. Now, 320 GB? One day is 25 GB. One week is 25+7 = 32 GB. So yes, it will cut down your backup history, but I don't think it will cut as much as you think. ... I'm probably about 5 times that (1.4 TB) and growing :-) > > Gregg > > -----Original Message----- > From: Michael <[email protected]> > Date: Wednesday, April 19, 2017 at 11:37 AM > To: "Dinse, Gregg (NIH/NIEHS) [C]" <[email protected]> > Cc: MacOSX-Talk Talk <[email protected]>, "@lbutlr" > <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: why are Time Machine backups so large lately? > > 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. >> > > --- Entertaining minecraft videos http://YouTube.com/keybounce _______________________________________________ MacOSX-talk mailing list [email protected] http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-talk
