Hungry Time Machine

i have Time Machine, enabled on my mac in manual mode. Each day, i making a backup by clicking "Backup Now". Each time, a few Gb are used, to do the backup.

The question is - Why so much ? Each day i change a few text files, and maybe, add several Pages documents, while don't touching anything else.

This is no more, than 10-15 Mb.

I know, that TimeMachine does not calculates differences between current and previous version of the file in question, but backs the entire file up.

What can be changed in my system so dramatically, forcing Time Machine to eat 2-3 Gb each time ?

Solution 1:

It don't exactly know how Time Machine decides if a file needs to be backed up. But i noticed this problem. I gave TimeTracker a try (which i found via google, this post explains how it works.

I found out that Steam updated some installed games very often, so they got backed up everyday. It's also a good idea to exclude Virtual Machines and other BIG files that get changed on a regular basis. Another big factor are long logfiles that don't get rotated, my Mail folder, and other stuff you usually don't bother with.

Hint: I'm using a Time Capsule. IIRC i had to unmount it to make TimeTracker recognize my TC. The article states, that you have to mount your Time Machine backup image (it's located on the TC's Network Volume). I think you need to find out for yourself if you have a TC.

Solution 2:

Do you have a VM/virtual hard disk on your system? Or a TrueCrypt vault? Any time you touch one file within either one, that whole container will get backed up.