Is it normal for a MacBook Air backup to a 2TB LaCie drive to take 4–6 hours?

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Level 1

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Is it normal for a MacBook Air backup to a 2TB LaCie drive to take 4–6 hours?

I have a Lacie external drive, and back up my Air Book at least 6 times per year. Each time it takes 4- 6 hours to complete the job. Is this normal? Should I look into purchasing another external drive? The Lacie is 2 TB and after several years of using, it still has room for 600GB.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: It takes hours to back-up my Air Book, with 500 GB. Should it be shorter?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Aug 29, 2025 08:53 AM

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Answer 1

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KiltedTim

Level 10

220,386 points

Aug 29, 2025 09:09 AM in response to RichRob64

If you're backing up that infrequently, yes. That's normal assuming you're using Time Machine.

Once a backup is complete, Time Machine does incremental backups, only transferring what's changed. It was designed to be used pretty much continuously. You should really be plugging in your Time Machine drive whenever you're at your 'home base' and leaving it plugged in to ensure things stay up to date. Realizing you can't conveniently take an external drive with you everywhere you go and have it plugged in, I'd say you should at least plug it in and let it back up weekly if not more often.

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