macos tib file size
Using Acronis True Image 2021 on a Mac running Catalina, 551 GB on an SSD has a tib backup file size of 2.53 TB. Why is the tib file almost five times larger than the data?
Hi Steve,
My wife has a MacBook Pro. She uses it infrequently, and I look at the macOS version ATI even less often. The Mac ATI has fewer features than Windows ATI, and the UI is a bit different too, which makes it harder for me to use since my computer is a Windows 10 laptop.
The macOS backup consists of a single tib file currently 2.5 TB in size and a tb.metadata file 600 MB in size. We back up to a QNAP NAS configured in RAID 10 with Linux EXT4 file system. When I look at the backup activity, I see a full backup on 1/4/19. Every backup since then has been incremental. I did a backup on 9/13/20 before I swapped out the system SSD with 250 GB capacity for an SSD with 1 TB capacity. Then I copied her photos from an external hard drive to the new SSD. My wife didn't like having to plug in the external disk to access her photos. The next backup was yesterday, and the incremental was 552 GB in size. There are around 20 incremental backups in total.
It looks like the Mac version stores all backups in a single file, whereas the Windows version stores new backups in new files. I don't like the Mac approach since it is harder to manage the older backups.
Anyways, you questions help me answer my own question. I think that I'll delete the entire backup file and start fresh. Thanks for your reply.
Kevin
Kevin, the Mac ATI has always used the same single file plus incrementals consolidated as far as I understand, so the change of SSD to a larger drive plus inclusion of the photos data etc, would go a long way to explaining why the size has grown so large. Starting with a fresh backup does sound like the best way to get back to a good baseline again!
The Mac app is more limited than the Windows app for the Clean up function. The Mac app has settings for maximum number of versions and a cap on age. The Windows app lists the specific versions available and allows the user to selectively delete versions. The Mac app limitations and the storage format with all backups in a single monolithic file make the Mac app harder to use.
Acronis needs to clearly explain why the Mac version has less functionality and hides information from the user.
Kevin Wu wrote:The Mac app is more limited than the Windows app for the Clean up function. The Mac app has settings for maximum number of versions and a cap on age. The Windows app lists the specific versions available and allows the user to selectively delete versions. The Mac app limitations and the storage format with all backups in a single monolithic file make the Mac app harder to use.
Acronis needs to clearly explain why the Mac version has less functionality and hides information from the user.
I can only recommend that you submit Feedback to Acronis on your concerns over the differences between ATI on Windows and MacOS.
Thanks Steve. I have opened a ticket for the issue. It won't be resolved anytime soon. I am the sole Windows user in a household of Macs, and I need a better backup solution for those Macs.
Kevin Wu wrote:The Mac app is more limited than the Windows app for the Clean up function. The Mac app has settings for maximum number of versions and a cap on age. The Windows app lists the specific versions available and allows the user to selectively delete versions. The Mac app limitations and the storage format with all backups in a single monolithic file make the Mac app harder to use.
Dear Kevin,
registered your feedback as a feature request in our internal system TI-210907 Mac: implement Cleanup wizard. Thank you!
Actually, this issue is bigger than a simple feedback request. I have the same issue. I have version set to 1 on my backup yet the TIBX file grows and grows and grows. You can see from the activity log that the space is being cleaned up. However, future backups do not reuse the space. I have had a ticket opened up about this problem since October. I keep getting a response back that it's not a problem with Acronis. Its a problem with my destination not being a file system that supports sparse files. Which is not true. I have used several files systems all of which support sparse files including the native file system of macOS (HPFS). Other products that rely on sparse files to manage dispose (Parallels Desktop) do not have an issue.
Its funny that support tells me they have never heard of this issue when this thread plainly shows that its a problem. It doesn't look like this bug will be fixed anytime soon. Time to find another product.
Hi Frank,
I opened a ticket in September to request that the features in the Windows version of ATI be implemented in the macOS version of ATI. The customer support team committed to bringing the request to the development team. I don't know if the development team is proceeding with that large change, and if they do, I'm guessing that a release would take at least a year.
Thanks for your answer. I'm actually not taking for an enhancement. I'm just asking for what is already there to work. Under the Mac software, you can set the number of versions to keep. When you do, if a version drops off, the backup cleans up the space in the tibx file. The log file indicates this. The problem is, the space that is cleaned up is never reused. So you end up with a backup process that eventually fills up all the space on your NAS making the backup software unusable in the long term. I have been going back in forth with support for almost four months with log files and very detailed instructions how to reproduce the issue. And the responses I get is "We have never heard of this before" (which is strange since you admit reporting it), to this is what will happen if you are using an exFAT file system. Well, excuse me, I never mentioned using an exFAT system. I specially said this occurs on APFS and btrfs both of which support sparse files.
At any rate, this software is unusable at this point. I don't know why anyone would buy this with this drastic of a bug.
Without new features in the macOS ATI software, I think your only workaround is to delete the single backup file and start a new backup. I did that when the backup file had grown to over 2.5 TB.
The Windows ATI is vastly better and usable. I am the only Windows user in a household of Macs.
Thanks for the recommendation. But, like I said, I am not really asking for a new feature. I am asking for the software to work as documented. And yes, you can delete your backup and start a new one periodically to free up the space. However, when you do so, you lose the retention you have accumulated. Thats not really a solution. The real solution is for the software to work as documented. This is not a new feature request. The cleanup setting states, "This setting helps you save your storage space by auto-deleting the obsolete backup versions." The is in fact not happening and thus the software is not behaving as documented.
If you are looking for a backup solution, and you are comfortable with command-line interface, consider the Python script rdiff-backup: https://rdiff-backup.net/
When I worked at Apple in 2007-2011, engineers were responsible for maintaining their own computers (except where only system administrators had privileged access to some resources such as static IP addresses). I used rdiff-backup to backup a MacBook Pro on a large partition of a Windows 7 desktop.
For best results, do not run rdiff-backup when the file system is the active system storage. You can install macOS on a USB stick, boot from the stick, and run rdiff-backup to backup the usual file system.