Scanning MacBook Pro taking hours!

[gbtrevor]

Yet another problem with V15, after the 1103 errors and other issues that seem to be, on the most part, sorted. I find that my MacBook is taking hours to back up, if it manages to complete at all.

It used to back up in around 2 hours, now after two hours it is still scanning the user folder, it zooms up to about 100GB then scanning slows down.

It may well be something got altered in Retrospect with all the 'solutions' I tried with the initial errors, but I do not have time to research this so posting this hoping someone may just possibly maybe have the answer.

I am about to throw in the  towel and find something else to do my backing up, I have wasted way too much time on the initial errors caused on upgrading to v15, and now this!

Cheers

Trevor

[Scillonian]

This could be a hardware problem. Personally I would check that the hard disk in the MacBook is healthy. From what you describe this would be indicative to me, if this was a Windows laptop, that the hard disk was failing.

Firstly I would check the SMART data from the disk to see if there is anything untoward going on. (Not being a macOS user I don't know what utilities there are available for macOS to read the SMART data.) If you are not familiar with interpreting SMART data post the results here and I look over them.

I've encountered enough failing hard disk to know that under normal day-to-day usage they appear fine but once something like Retrospect starts to use the disk intensively the problems start.

[gbtrevor]

I hear what you are saying, but it was not a problem before the v15 update, also the MacBook is only just over 2 years old, not had a lot of use and came with a SSD!

I am not sure on checking SMART data on the Mac, but will research it just in case (Have AppleCare on it so covered by warranty if needed).

[gbtrevor]

Just checked Apple's Disk Utility and under SMART for the SSD (original Apple fitted SSD) is says 'not supported'!

[Scillonian]

Is this SSD a replaceable one with a SATA, mSATA, or M.2 connection or is it soldered to the motherboard? The fact that Apple's Disk Utility says that SMART is not supported on the SSD would lead me to believe it is one that is soldered to the system board.

Do you have easy access to an Apple Store? As you have warranty cover a thorough health check at the Apple Store would eleminate hardware as a problem.

[Lennart_T]

Since you just upgraded to a new version, you should be able to get support from Retrospect. 

https://www.retrospect.com/en/support/edition

(This is mainly a user-to-user forum.)

[gbtrevor]

@Scillonian: Apparently it is 'PCIe-based onboard SSD', from a bit of quick research I think it is not soldered on but a Flash board with mini PCIe type connector.

 

@ Lennart_T: Yeah, have one in centre of town, but a pain to get to and do not want to make special journey and otherwise would mean carry  around £3k worth of laptop while shopping!

I do not think it is hardware though, as I said only happened after the v15 debacle, I back up 3 folders, Applications, Application Support and the user folder and only the user folder has the issue.

Anyway, thanks for all you input, I was hoping this was a simple setting I had messed up with the other v15 issues. But I am giving up on this and going to back-up to a USB drive using Time Machine, I will continue with Retrospect on out PCs until it is out of date (ie not bothering to pay to upgrade any more). Being self employed I do not have the luxury of time to mess around researching and trying to get it working when I have other options (Time Machine).

Thanks again.

Trevor

[Lennart_T]

6 hours ago, gbtrevor said:

@ Lennart_T: Yeah, have one in centre of town, but a pain to get to and do not want to make special journey and otherwise would mean carry  around £3k worth of laptop while shopping!

 

I didn't think that Retrospect have any shops or support centers, only Apple.

 

[gbtrevor]

I thought we were referring to an Apple Store (never heard of Retrospect having any retail store!!)

I did email Retrospct and got a swift reply, but before I saw the email...….

for a last ditch attempt, I removed my Mac Backup script and the Backup Set (and any other reference to it) I could find in Retrospect and created a new Backup Set and script and all appears to be well again, it is taking a little longer, but then it is backing up afresh. Once finished will run again to see how quickly an incremental backup runs.

 

Thanks for your input guys ?

Trevor

[gbtrevor]

Just posting to close this topic off and maybe help someone who may be reading this with the same issue,

The new backup set / script done the trick.

The initial back up did take several hours  as I forgot to exclude some large files I did not need to back up, but once completed subsequent incremental updates work fine and the scanning issue (taking hours) has gone.