OS X Mountain Lion: If Time Machine is slow
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When you first set up Time Machine and perform an initial backup, every item on your computer is backed up. This may take some time. Subsequent backups are faster because Time Machine backs up only items that have been added, removed, or changed.
To speed up Time Machine, try any of these suggestions.
- The first time you use Time Machine, set it up in the evening so that the initial backup can be done overnight.
- If your backup disk is a Time Capsule, leave your computer in the same room as the Time Capsule for the initial backup, or use an Ethernet cable to connect your computer to one of the Ethernet ports on the Time Capsule.
- Virus scanning software can make Time Machine backups very slow. If you use Norton AntiVirus or a similar product, try turning it off during backups.
Last Modified: Sep 4, 2015