On 07/03/14 10:04, David Wall wrote: > > A pg_dump backup -- with most of the data stored as large objects -- > takes about 5 hours. If those large objects are 'files' that are already compressed (e.g. most image files and pdf's) you are spending a lot of time trying to compress the compressed data ... and failing. Try setting the compression factor to an intermediate value, or even zero (i.e. no dump compression). For example, to get the 'low hanging fruit' compressed: $ pg_dump -Z1 -Fc ... IIRC, the default value of '-Z' is 6. As usual your choice will be a run-time vs file-size trade-off so try several values for '-Z' and see what works best for you. HTH, Bosco.