10.5: One possible cause of huge Time Machine backups

Jul 16, '09 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

I have been using a Time Capsule for a substantial amount of time now, without major issue. But recently, I started to annoyed by huge, repeated hourly backups. For example, Time Machine would backup 1.6GB, although it seemed I hadn't done major file modifications since previous backup. And, more noticeably, a second, huge 1.6GB to 1.7GB backup would follow immediately, without even the hour delay between the two.

I started to scrutinize the Console log, with no hints to the cause of the repeated huge backups. Actually, I couldn't find any hint, because I filtered console logs using the search field with "backup" string. I accidently ran into the solution when I forgot filtering.

Although I am no console expert, I could read repeated references to the TechTool Protection tool, whch reminded me I had installed it recently. In the TechTool Protection System Preferences panel, I deactivated all protection functions, and my Time Capsule backups were back to reasonnable sizes.

[robg adds: It's the Directory Backup feature of TechTool Protection that causes these huge Time Machine backups. If you'd like to keep using that feature, you can add the folder that contains those backups (it's somewhere in your user's folder) to the list of Time Machine exclusions.]

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