macOS Sonoma 14.6, Time Machine re-backing up entire Photos Library frequently

I store my Photos Library on an external 2TB Thunderbolt SSD. I did so following Apple's instructions here: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support. When using Time Machine to backup my Mac Studio Time Machine often re-backs up my entire Photos Library of 945GB of photos and everything else in the Pictures folder (another 500GB). Why is Time Machine doing this? I also have "Ignore ownership on this volume" checked on as mentioned in the Apple Support document.

Why is Time Machine re-backing up everything seemingly on a regular basis?

Mac Studio, macOS 14.6

Posted on Aug 7, 2024 11:26 AM

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Top-ranking reply

Barney-15E

Level 10

118,890 points

Posted on Oct 27, 2024 11:09 AM

You should remove the Adware you installed. I'm pretty sure EtreCheck can help with that. But, I doubt that is your problem.

The most likely problems are caused by all of the junk ware you have installed to "maintain" your Mac. macOS doesn't need any maintenance and any software that purports to do so will just wreck the system.

Everything that purports to clean, optimize, protect, monitor, or otherwise maintain your Mac will only serve to cause problems, perhaps the one you are currently experiencing with Time Machine.

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Oct 28, 2024 7:58 PM in response to muguy

I know Time Machine should be doing incremental backups, but when Time Machine backs up 860+ Gigabytes of my 968.75GB Photos Library that's almost backing up my Photos Library all over again.

Dec 21, 2024 7:13 AM in response to Ken Shimabukuro

Right this moment Time Machine is back to backing up 811.54GB+. I thought it had been fixed, but alas it hasn't.

Dec 21, 2024 7:26 AM in response to Ken Shimabukuro

Time Machine has now backed up 830.70GB, 88.2%, "About 1 hour remaining".

Feb 18, 2025 7:43 AM in response to Ken Shimabukuro

Currently Time Machine says "22.1% done - About 20 hours remaining, 2.41GB copied". Let's see what EtreCheck Pro says again...

Mar 31, 2025 11:13 AM in response to Ken Shimabukuro

Removed Google updater now Time Machine is back to normal. Backups ranging from 300MB to 1.85GB taking only 3 to 7 minutes to complete. Whew!!

macOS Sonoma 14.6, Time Machine re-backing up entire Photos Library frequently

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macOS Sonoma 14.6, Time Machine re-backing up entire Photos Library frequently