Solution for time machine backup stuck on Big Sur

#apple #timemachine #backup #bigsur

Backups are important, but should they take infinite amount of time?

My last backup was in 2018, and since then I didn't backup my Macbook as it didn't complete at all. I have a patience of 0 it seems.

Googling all possible solutions, I found this interesting article https://medium.com/macoclock/time-machine-backups-too-slow-5ed1e5e347a4

Following the article we can do
sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0 to speed up the backup, by removing limits on background jobs such as timemachine backups.
And after backup we have to revert the settings to sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=1

Now, I followed the command sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0 to increase the speed of background job done on the backup, but I am still stuck, so let's investigate the source. But according to article, I have to run this sudo fs_usage -w |grep -i backupd |grep -i fsctl to find the source of problem, but it doesn't print anything on the terminal. Maybe sudo fs_usage -w | grep -i backupd works?

Yes, it works. I see, now that timemachine is trying to figure out .cocopods directory, which has bazillion files. I don't need them, so I excluded them from the backup, and voila, I can now backup my whole machine in an hour