How to Dramatically Speed Up Your Time Machine Backups
Time Machine, the built-in backup tool in macOS, makes it easy to keep your Mac backed up. It runs automatically in the background, keeping hourly, daily, and weekly versions of your files. You can restore everything from a single lost file to your entire drive if disaster strikes. It‘s a critical part of protecting your data.
But as convenient as Time Machine is, it‘s not always the fastest backup option – especially for the initial backup. Copying hundreds of gigabytes of data to an external drive takes time. A MacBook Pro with a 512GB SSD could take 6-8 hours for a full backup! Subsequent incremental backups are faster, but Time Machine still has a reputation for being slow.
This leaves many Mac users frustrated when they need to backup quickly, whether preparing for a repair or just wanting their data protected ASAP. Waiting 4+ hours for a backup to finish is simply impractical in many situations. You have better things to do with your time!
Fortunately, there are ways to dramatically speed up your Time Machine backups. With a few optimizations and the right hardware, you can slash backup times and get on with your day. I‘ve seen some users report speed boosts of 4-10x after making these changes!
In this guide, I‘ll walk you through three ways to accelerate Time Machine and share some tips for keeping your backups running smoothly. These techniques can save you hours of waiting whether you‘re backing up for the first time or running your regularly scheduled backup. Let‘s dive in!
Time Machine Backup Speed Comparison
To understand why Time Machine backups can be slow, we first need to look at how much data a typical backup involves. The table below shows estimated backup times for various drive sizes:
| Backup Size | 5400 RPM HDD | SSD |
|---|---|---|
| 256 GB | 3-4 hours | 0.5-1 hours |
| 512 GB | 6-8 hours | 1-2 hours |
| 1 TB | 12-16 hours | 2-3 hours |
As you can see, backing up to a traditional spinning hard drive is significantly slower than using an SSD. And the more data you have, the longer the backup takes. No one wants to wait 16+ hours for a backup to finish!
Internet speeds can also be a bottleneck for networked backups. Time Machine supports backing up to network drives, but most home Wi-Fi connections will throttle speeds to under 50 Mbps. Don‘t expect quick backups unless you have Gigabit Ethernet.
The good news is, with a few adjustments, these backup times can be greatly reduced. I‘ve personally cut 4+ hours off a 512GB MacBook Pro backup using these tips. Let‘s look at them now.
Tip 1: Slim Down Your Backup
The first step in speeding up Time Machine is reducing how much data needs to be backed up in the first place. The less data Time Machine has to copy, the faster it will finish.
Start by cleaning up your drive:
- Uninstall applications you no longer use
- Delete out-of-date file archives and disk images
- Move large media files to an external drive
- Empty the Trash and clear out your Downloads folder
Getting rid of digital clutter can easily free up tens of gigabytes of space. But we can do better…
Exclude Large Files & Folders
Time Machine allows you to exclude specific files and folders from your backup. This is useful for large assets that either don‘t need backing up or that are already backed up somewhere else.
Some common items to exclude:
- iPhone/iPad backups (stored in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup)
- Your Photos Library if synced with iCloud Photos
- Windows Boot Camp partitions
- External drives
- Virtual machines (Parallels, VMWare)
To add exclusions:
- Open System Preferences > Time Machine
- Click Options
- Click the + button to add folders to exclude
- Click Save
I also recommend enabling the option to warn about low disk space. This prevents Time Machine from filling up your entire backup drive.
Be selective about what you exclude – you don‘t want to accidentally skip important files you may need later. But cutting out even a few large items can make a big difference in backup times.
Use the Manage Storage Tools
macOS Big Sur introduced some helpful new storage management features. Open the Apple menu > About This Mac > Storage and click the Manage button. Here you‘ll find several options for freeing up disk space:
- Store in iCloud: Automatically offload rarely used files to iCloud, while still showing them in Finder
- Optimize Storage: Remove watched TV shows/movies and only keep recent email attachments
- Empty Trash Automatically: Delete trashed items after 30 days
- Reduce Clutter: Review large files, unused apps, and other content to delete
Using these built-in tools, I was able to clear out over 100GB of disposable files from my MacBook Pro. That cuts my backup time in half before Time Machine even starts!
Third-party utilities like DaisyDisk, OmniDiskSweeper, and CleanMyMac X can also help identify large files and "space hogs" ripe for deletion. They offer more granular control than Apple‘s built in tools.
Between judicious use of exclusions and cleaning out unneeded files, most users can drastically reduce the size of their backup set. This has the biggest impact on speeding up Time Machine.
Tip 2: Upgrade to a Faster Backup Drive
The type of external drive you use for Time Machine has a huge impact on performance. Spinning hard drives are cheap and capacious, but SSD speeds blow them away:
| Drive Type | Read Speed | Write Speed |
|---|---|---|
| 5400 RPM HDD | 80-100 MB/s | 50-60 MB/s |
| 7200 RPM HDD | 120-150 MB/s | 80-100 MB/s |
| SATA SSD | 500-550 MB/s | 400-500 MB/s |
| NVMe SSD | 2000-3500 MB/s | 1500-3000 MB/s |
(Source: Macworld External Drive Buying Guide)
As you can see, the write speeds of even a SATA SSD are 8x faster than a 5400RPM hard drive. Upgrading to an SSD can drop a 6-hour backup to under 1 hour. Using a high-end NVMe drive could cut that to just 15-20 minutes!
Rolling your own Time Machine drive using an external enclosure with a NVMe SSD will provide the best performance. But you‘ll pay a premium for that speed – a 1TB NVMe drive costs 3-4x more than the equivalent hard drive.
What About Network Drives?
You can also use a network attached storage (NAS) device for your Time Machine backups. Many popular models from Synology, QNAP, and Netgear are Time Machine compatible. Using a NAS is convenient since you don‘t have to plug in a drive. It can also backup multiple Macs.
However, even with a wired Gigabit Ethernet connection, most affordable NAS boxes will top out at around 100-120 MB/s. The fastest SSD models might reach 500 MB/s. But in real world use, Time Machine NAS speeds are often much slower – in the 20-80 MB/s range.
Since there are often questions on how fast Time Machine backups to a NAS actually are, I‘ve done some measurements on my M1 MacBook Air backing up about 250 GB to a Synology DS220+. That Synology has SSDs and 2 GB RAM. And yet, the average speed was only about 30 MB/s.
— Howard Oakley (@howardnoakley) January 13, 2021
Unless you have a higher-end NAS or upgrade the drives, you likely won‘t see a big speed boost compared to a directly attached hard drive. Network drives are best used for convenience rather than speed.
Tip 3: Give Time Machine More System Resources
By default, macOS intentionally slows down background processes like Time Machine to ensure the system stays responsive. This energy-saving technique is called "App Nap."
If you‘re using your Mac for processor-intensive tasks like video/photo editing or gaming, that‘s helpful – you want your apps to have priority over backups. But if you need your backup finished ASAP, you can temporarily disable App Nap to let Time Machine run faster.
Here‘s how:
- Quit all applications other than Finder
- Open Terminal (in Applications > Utilities)
- Paste in the following command and press Return:
sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0 - Enter your admin password if prompted
Time Machine will now run without any throttling! Be aware this will slow down any other apps you use during the backup and consume more battery. Only use this when speed is critical.
When your backup finishes, re-enable throttling with this Terminal command:
sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=1
You can also prevent App Nap for individual applications. Open the app, then choose File > Get Info. Check the box next to "Prevent App Nap." Note that this won‘t bypass the low priority I/O used by Time Machine though.
So how much time does disabling throttling actually save? It depends on your Mac‘s CPU and disk speed, but improvements of 10-50% are commonly reported. On my M1 MacBook Air, backups consistently take 20-25% less time with throttling disabled.
Some users claim even larger speed boosts:
If you‘re still using Time Machine and it feels slow, try disabling macOS disk throttling to speed it up!
In Terminal:
sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0That made the estimate drop from 12+ hours to 4 hours for me 🤯
— Tyler Hall (@tylerhall) April 30, 2020
Your mileage may vary, but this trick is worth a shot if you‘re in a hurry. Just remember to revert the change when you‘re done. You probably don‘t want your Mac running unthrottled all the time.
Bonus Tips: Other Ways to Speed Up Time Machine
In addition to the big three tips above, here are a few other things you can do to keep your Time Machine backups running quickly:
- Turn off Spotlight indexing for your backup drive. Open System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy and add your Time Machine drive. This prevents Spotlight from scanning the drive during backups.
- Disable Power Nap. This feature lets your Mac perform certain tasks while asleep. That‘s handy, but it can slow down Time Machine. Turn it off in System Preferences > Battery > Power Adapter.
- Consider using a wired connection. If you‘re backing up over Wi-Fi, connect your Mac to the drive or NAS with a USB or Ethernet cable instead.
- Periodically "thin" snapshots. Time Machine automatically does this, but you can run it manually in Terminal:
tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 10000000000 4 - Restart your Mac and the backup drive before starting a backup. This clears out temporary files and gives both devices a fresh start.
What About Other Backup Solutions?
Time Machine isn‘t the only option for backing up your Mac. Third-party apps like Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper!, ChronoSync, and Backblaze bring unique features and customization options. Some users find these faster and more reliable.
However, Time Machine‘s deep integration with macOS and set-it-and-forget-it nature make it the best choice for most people. And with a few speed tweaks, it‘s fast enough for all but the most time-sensitive backup needs.
For the absolute fastest backups, look into disk imaging apps like Carbon Copy Cloner. These can create a bootable clone of your hard drive, often much faster than Time Machine‘s file-based approach. But they don‘t offer versioned backups or snapshots. Ideally, use both for a complete backup strategy.
The Importance of Backup Testing
No matter what backup solution you choose, be sure to periodically test your backups to ensure they‘re working properly. The worst time to discover a problem is when you‘re trying to recover from data loss.
At least once a month, pick a few random files and folders and restore them from your Time Machine drive. Restore an entire disk image too. If everything works, you can be confident your backups are in good shape.
Also double-check that Time Machine is backing up your most important files. It‘s easy to accidentally exclude a critical folder. Compare your hard drive and the latest Time Machine snapshot to verify nothing is missing.
Finally, consider keeping a backup of your backup. Use Time Machine to a local drive and also back up to a cloud service like Backblaze. That protects you against theft, fire, or other catastrophic events.
Slow Backups Be Gone!
Time Machine remains the easiest way for most Mac users to keep their data backed up. But waiting hours for backups to finish isn‘t acceptable. By slimming down your backup set, using a faster drive, and dedicating system resources, you can dramatically speed up Time Machine.
Don‘t settle for slow backups any longer. With a few simple optimizations, you can ensure your data is protected without wasting hours of your time.
Now over to you – what are your favorite tips for speeding up Time Machine? Share them with me on Twitter and let‘s discuss!