Massive TM Backups

[sawxray]

I have one folder with about 20 GB that I am encrypting. I have set TM to ignore this folder, and am using the Espionage backups.

Unfortunately, each TM backup is now on the order of 30 to 40 GB, where they were under 1 GB before.

Is there something I need to change? Is each backup a single file, that with a single change gets backed up in entirety?

I will run out of storage space in a week with this sort of issue.

Thanks!

[greg]

Hi sawxray,

We're going to introduce a little feature in the next update to give you the option of preventing TM from backing up encrypted folders at all, and you can use that on large folders, so that should fix this problem. For the future we're working on making TM backups as seamless and efficient as possible with Espionage.

Cheers,
Greg

[sawxray]

Greg-

Thank you for the response. Could I clarify a few issues?

Are the backups supposed to be this large? I am now backing up 40 to 60 GB per day, which just won't work, even with a large RAID NAS.

Are the backups stored in their entirety by TM, even with a small internal change?

Will there be a different option in the future? Preventing TM from backing up folders means no backup at all, unless I am mistaken. I won't be able to live with that, but I must be mistaken.

Is there something different that other people are doing, that I am missing?

Thanks!

[greg]

What you can do to prevent large backups is ensure that when Time Machine runs, all of your folders (or the largest of them), are in the same locked state as they were when the previous backup happened. This is explained in the Tips forum for optimizing Espionage's backups.

If you don't want to do that, then the next version should allow you to disable backups completely for a specified folder, and then you can use Espionage's built-in backups to back it up.

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

[sawxray]

OK-I followed the instructions carefully in the link you provided. It turns out that only one of these files is visible at a time in the TM preferences > options window. If the folder is locked, the folder itself shows up in this 'Excluded' folder. If the folder is unlocked, the .sparsebundle file shows up in the "Excluded" window. I hope that is the intended behavior.

My next TM backup started, and is trying to back up over 21 GB again. I started and stopped TM, both with the folder locked and unlocked, and either way it is trying to backup over 20 GB.

I would like to know what to try next.

Also, I am backing up to IDrive, an online backup, just in case there is a theft or fire at my home that destroys both my NAS and my computer. Advice on setting up to avoid these massive backups?

Thanks!

[greg]

OK-I followed the instructions carefully in the link you provided. It turns out that only one of these files is visible at a time in the TM preferences > options window. If the folder is locked, the folder itself shows up in this 'Excluded' folder. If the folder is unlocked, the .sparsebundle file shows up in the "Excluded" window. I hope that is the intended behavior.

Yes, they only appear in the list when they exist.

My next TM backup started, and is trying to back up over 21 GB again. I started and stopped TM, both with the folder locked and unlocked, and either way it is trying to backup over 20 GB.

Let it finish backing up, afterward, so long as you have both items in the list (the disk image and the folder), TM shouldn't backup any of that data again.

Also, I am backing up to IDrive, an online backup, just in case there is a theft or fire at my home that destroys both my NAS and my computer. Advice on setting up to avoid these massive backups?

The advice is the same: just make sure to only run the backup when all of the folders are in the same locked or unlocked state as they were previously, and then if your backup program does differential-backups, only the changes will be sent. Also, make sure you're using sparsebundles and not sparseimages, you can change the encryption if needed from within Espionage.

P.S. The next version of Espionage is going to be able to add folders to the TM ignorelist from within Espionage so you won't have to manually do it. :-)

[greg]

Espionage will now handle this for you in 2.8:

http://www.taoeffect.com/blog/2010/06/e ... smartmove/

[sawxray]

I want to check to make sure I have this correct-

I have to make sure, for each and every encrypted folder or archive, that I change each one of them to the same state when I know TM is going to do a backup?

If so, am I the only one that sees this is highly unpractical? I have to keep an eye on my TM schedule and rush to close every item I was using before TM starts, EVERY hour?

I am sure I must be missing something. This doesn't make sense to me.

Also, my RAID array with 1.8 TB capacity is now down to an available 85 GB. This just doesn't make sense to me, honestly.

[greg]

Did you read the link I posted?

I have to make sure, for each and every encrypted folder or archive, that I change each one of them to the same state when I know TM is going to do a backup?

No. 2.8 handles this for you.

[kettysimpson]

What you can do to prevent large backups is ensure that when Time Machine runs, all of your folders (or the largest of them), are in the same locked state as they were when the previous backup happened. This is explained in the Tips forum for optimizing Espionage's backups.If you don't want to do that, then the next version should allow you to disable backups completely for a specified folder, and then you can use Espionage's built-in backups to back it up.


If you want to prevent the large backups than ensure that whenever you creating the backup and the time machine runs, the largest of the folder from your backup, must be in the same state and also must be locked as they were in the previous backup happened.