I've been running NOBU for over a year now and never had time to dig into this problem until now. Every time it does a backup (and it was on automatic), it seems to scan and backup everything. It takes 3-5 hours to do a backup every day and believe me, we don't change anywhere near that many files on one computer. The backup is 21 GB so I can see why it would take that long if it's transferring that much data. It seems like it never resets the "backed up" flag. I also can't figure out the system for determining when to do an automatic backup. It finished one around 7 am this morning and by 5:00 pm was doing another one (and only email and internet were used during the intervening time).
The computer is Windows Vista Home Premium, 32-bit with all updates. NOBU should be up to date (it's set for automatic updating).
Any ideas on where to look? I've got it backing up all my photos and music as well as data files but those don't change much (do explain the large backup though). I'm going to double check my file settings and make sure I'm not backing up temporary internet files (shouldn't be unless I made a mistake).
I've finally changed the backups to daily (night time) and to "slow" speed so that it doesn't completely swamp the computer and our home's internet connection (wireless internet) while doing a backup.
Update, it was set to do a daily backup starting between midnight and 6 am. It showed the backup as scheduled to start at 3 am. I don't know what time it actually started but it was running when I got up at 6:30 and is still going (42%) at 9:15. I do have it set to lowest priority but if not, my entire computer grinds to a halt and since it refuses to do backups overnight (why not start at midnight, why start at 3 am), this is the only way to keep it usable.
I checked the backup settings and as far as I can tell, I'm not backing up temporary internet files (or videos). All other options are backed up.
For reference NOBU uses delta block technology which does a file level comparison instead of relying on the archive flag set in Windows. NOBU also transmits a catalog file, basically the guide of what's being backed up, during the backup process. It doesn't count towards your storage at all though. There is a likelihood it has grown exponentially and is causing the long backup times. The only way I can verify it is if you can send me a private message with the following:
The email address you use to login to the service.
A link to this thread and brief description so I know what this is pertaining.
Once I get those details I can have the engineering team take a look at the account and see if my thought is correct or not. The only other possibility is its picking up content elsewhere but you stated you have checked that already.
Keep in mind it does check common locations for file types so if you have documents selected for example and use your desktop to drop and remove files it can also be adding and removing files.
After Wesley looked into my backups, it's not backing up everything. It' just that it's competing for system resources and slow upload speeds and not winning. I've made some adjustments and at this point seem to have a workable solution.
I've switched from automatic backups to daily backups. I use the Night setting which is supposed to run between midnight and 6 am but always wants to start at 3 am for some reason. I also changed my Norton Internet Security full system scan from running at 3 am as well (which resulted in major competition for resources) and that now runs at midnight so it's out of the way before the backup starts. Since the backup is now running overnight, I set it back to fast to use as many resources as it can grab (no-one else is using them anyway). It seems to be able to complete the scan and backup in about 2 hours now and that's liveable as it's finished by 5:30 am or earlier and I'm not up that early.
I would like to be able to set a specific start time for the daily backup (much like Norton Internet Security does) so it would be easier to schedule various resource-intensive utilities away from each other but that's a wish for a future enhancement.