# Speed up Time Machine backup

By default Time Machine is running in the background, just using enough resources to run and allowing you to use your computer. This is fine most of time – but sometimes we gladly offer more resources so that init or big backup goes faster. You can do this by changing the “do-I-have-to-limit-myself” setting with the terminal like so:

sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0

when the backup is done you can change back to the default:

sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=1

A reboot also resets this variable to its default “on” setting