OS X V10.6 Snow Leopard :: Time Machine Says "preparing" But Never Backs Up
Mar 26, 2012
I have been using Time Machine on a MacBook Pro for months to back up to a LaCie back up drive. All worked fine until January--since then, when TM is scheduled to back up, I get a "preparing" message that can run for hours, and eventually (though not always) I get an error message. I typically back up through a wireless network (TM creates a Sparsebundle) but I also tried connecting my laptop directly to the back up drive and that doesn't work either. As far as I can tell, there is nothing wrong with the laptop's hard drive--and there is plenty of room on the back up drive for all the content. MacBook is running OS X 10.5.8.
Info:iMac Intel duo 20-inch, Mac OS X (10.5.6), Also own iMac G5 1.33 Ghz and iBook G4 laptop
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Apr 30, 2012
I have a Macbook Pro and a Macbook with Snowleopard 10.6.8 installed on both. I back up both laptops on a single Western Digital External Hardrive configured for two partitions so that each laptop has their own Time Machine back up volume. This external drive is connected directly to my Macbook Pro via Firewire 800 where the first partition is reserved for its time machine back up. Therefore, my regular Macbook connects to the second partition over the local area network since I turned on file sharing for this drive. When I click and view the Macbook Pro's partition, it shows a folder called Backups.backupdb which obviously has the time machine backup contents for this laptop.Â
When I click on and view the second partition for my regular Macbook which connects to it via the local area network, it shows some kind of dmg file called "John's Macbook.sparsebundle". When I click on the file, it mounts and shows the folder Backup.backupdb which has this laptop's time machine backup contents. Why is the Macbook pro partition showing a folder where the Macbook partition shows some kind of dmg file?Â
I also noticed that I can't see the time machine backup for the Macbook if I try restoring from a fresh install of Snowleopard (going through the initial setup of using the OS where it asks if you want to restore from a time machine backup). It only shows the Macbook Pro as an availble restore option. The only way I can see the time machine back up as a restore option for the Macbook, I have to boot from the snowleopard DVD, click on Utilities from the top menu, and click on Restore System from backup.Â
Info:
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 2.0ghz, 4GB Ram
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Jun 21, 2012
Time Machine no longer backs up. I keep getting this message (This backup is too large for the backup volume) though I have excluded and deleted a huge number of documents, photos, etc
Info:
MacBook
Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
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Jun 21, 2012
None of the issues discussed in the apple support page on this issue seem to apply to me (except one below regarding not completing the 'prepare for backup'). It still takes way too much time (a night is not enough) to prepare for time machine backup, even though there was a backup recently, and it is not a one-time event but a recurring problem, and there are no big changes to my files or disks.And of course because most days it does not complete the backup before I have to leave to work, the condition on 'not interrupting the backup' cannot be respected. This looks like plain poor design.The only thing that helps is to connect my laptop directly to the Time Machine by Ethernet but it is very inconvenient.
Info:
MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
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May 11, 2009
I was just wondering if there's a way to reduce the frequency of time machine backups.
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Jan 12, 2009
upgraded to Leopard a couple of weeks ago, tried to get Time Machine working with my external hard drive, and was happy initially with the results.
But on further inspection, time machine is backing up my entire computer every hour. How can i stop this to only back up what has changed.
Also, i want to make my external Hard Drive the main disc where everything goes, not just use it as a back up. How can i do this? I tried to do this with my iTunes library but now if i download a new track it immediately saves onto my computer hard drive.
Also, the songs i already had on my laptop are backed up onto my time machine, but they aren't in the same folder as the other stuff which i uploaded after moving the iTunes folder onto my Hard drive, they are still with the backed up stuff.
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May 26, 2010
I've let it completely finish multiple times and in the morning it was backup only a few megs but I'll suspend go to work and when I get back home it starts up again backing up 76GB. What's going on, obviously somethings wrong, what should I do?
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Apr 16, 2012
I have a iMac G5 (PPC chip) running OS 10.5.8 (256 GB HD). Hooked up to the computer is a Time Machine wireless router/backup drive (500GB). The computer HD is currently using 112 GB and the Time Machine has backed up 310 GB.Â
The problem is that every hour the Time Machine starts backing up and doesn't finish for anywhere from 35 to 45 minutes, then starts again the next hour. This is getting to the point where system performance is getting very slow. Even if there has been very little activity, the backup happens and the computer slows to a crawl Is this normal? I would hope that minor changes created during an hour would result in a very quick backup, but evidently this is not the case.
Info:
iMac G5, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
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Jun 14, 2009
I want to know because when I restore the Time Machine backup to a new Mac, I want the Safari Favorites/History of my old mac restored.
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Oct 8, 2009
I loaded windows on a separate drive yesterday and ever since my time machine has been backing up around 1.2 GB every time. I had to leave my computer on while I was on campus today and 5 or 6 backups in a row were for ~1.2 GB. I noticed just now that it started at about 36 MB which made sense but then shot up to 1.2 GB. What could be going on here? Has anyone had a similar experience?
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May 13, 2012
Every time I back up to my external drive Time Machine automatically backs up the whole hard drive which is very time consuming. This happens every time I back up. It's supposed to only add new files, not do the whole thing. Haven't changed user name or any of the things mentioned in other discussions that will cause this. Does some setting need to be changed?
Info:
MacBook (13-inch Late 2009), Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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May 28, 2012
Time Machine has been working flawlessly for over a year. But now something strange is happening. TM reflects changes on my 256G SSD internal drive but not my internal 1TB ATA drive. I have an iMac i7 2011. I have an external 2TB WD drive that I backup to and it's nowhere near at capacity. My 1TB ATA, under TM, shows me a state that's a few weeks old and no changes I make are backed up, even when I perform a manual backup.Â
I've checked the console log. There's nothing out of the ordinary:Â 28/05/12 8:29:18 PMcom.apple.backupd[2535]Starting standard backup28/05/12 8:29:18 PMcom.apple.backupd[2535]Backing up to: /Volumes/My Book/Backups.backupdb28/05/12 8:29:19 PMcom.apple.backupd[2535]No pre-backup thinning needed: 835.7 MB requested (including padding), 1.62 TB available28/05/12 8:29:23 PMcom.apple.backupd[2535]Copied 383 files (75 KB) from volume iMac-HD-SSD-256GB.28/05/12 8:29:24 PMcom.apple.backupd[2535]Copied 388 files (75 KB) from volume iMac-HD-ATA-1TB.28/05/12 8:29:25 PMcom.apple.backupd[2535]Starting post-backup thinning28/05/12 8:29:25 PMcom.apple.backupd[2535]No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist28/05/12 8:29:25 PMcom.apple.backupd[2535]Backup completed successfully.Â
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Jan 26, 2009
Watch out in Time Machine after you install and upgrade your iPhoto '09 library. My Time Machine just did a fresh backup of it....all 40GB of it! Basically it gave me the same Node require deep traversal on just the iPhoto Library....so I'm guessing it had something to do with the upgrade.
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Mar 9, 2009
I'm trying to do a back up in Time Machine. It's been going for like an hour and it still says "Preparing Backup."
I haven't changed my files around much and it really should only have a couple of kb worth of new data to back up.
My last successful backup was yesterday. It's done this a few times since then. I tried to stop the back up and restart it to no avail.
I also went into my backups folder and deleted the "in progress" backup then tried to backup again and it's still not working.
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Jan 28, 2009
I use Firewire 800, and my external has 80GB free on it. Both it and my iMac's drives are 320GB. What's with the extended period of preparation, going on 15 minutes now, maybe longer. Backup still didn't begin, this never used to happen me before. I only backed up 2 days ago?
Also, why when I click the Time Machine menubar item to open Time Machine prefs does the DVD (iLife '09) in my optical drive make a noise as if it's being accessed? It spins up a little too. Seems very odd, and it's not a coincidence, it happens exactly when I try to open Time Machine prefs from its menubar item. I could do it 5 times in succession and the optical drive would make the same accessing noise each time, on cue
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Feb 11, 2008
When I backup Time Machine it's just stuck on Preparing. I've tried stopping it then starting again. I've also tried dismounting the drive then remounting then backing up
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Aug 5, 2009
It just says "Preparing Backup..." It stays like this forever until I stop it and I tried re-connecting the hard drive. Why won't this work? I tried re-starting...
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May 14, 2012
Running the latest Lion software 10.7.4 ..Time machine is looping " preparing backup' ...using Time Capsule 500 gb storage...2 MBP back up to this system..one Snow Leopard and the one Lion. Â
Time machine is showing 30 MB available... problem appears to be that the old backups are not being deleted no storage is available and it fails to create any additional new backups.. Problem occured in March and I needed to erase the entire backup disk and start over to clear the issue.. It went successfully..now the same prob 3 months later.Â
My backup is about 181 gb the other is about 100 gb.. why this may be occurring? Obviously the root cause issue was not resolved by deleting the entire disk..Â
Info:
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Dec 6, 2014
Am I understanding correctly (from reading some other discussions here) that there are issues with Time Machine back ups and Yosemite, and that it's not just me having these problems? Since I upgrade I am having major issues with wifi connection being dropped and my Time Machine hasn't performed a back up in 19 days. It looks as though it will but stalls at "preparing back up". When it finally stops I get an error message saying it can't find the disc. I've restored the Time Machine to factory settings and started over more than once but still get the same message. Am I doing something wrong or is this an Apple issue?
Info:
MacBook Pro
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Aug 8, 2009
I just updated to 10.5.8 and my Time Machine will not backup. It is stuck at "Preparing Backup". I tried rebooting and it did not work.
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Jun 17, 2012
I plan to 'clean up' my Time Machine/Time capsule completely, whereby I want to make it impossible for third parties to recover all or part of these old backups.After I have accompished this I want to start from scratch backing up my Mac.
Info:
iMac 27" i7, Mac OS X (10.6.6)
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Jun 3, 2012
I cannot seem to set up Time Machine using Time Capsule on my MacBook Pro. Evidently when I initially set up AirPort Extreme, I failed to select it as the backup disc.
Info:AirPort Extreme 802.11n (4th Gen), Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Sep 2, 2008
When I open Time machine in my system preferences it says "preparing" is this normal? Is it really backing up?
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May 19, 2012
I recently moved and backed up an imac I left behind as well as my macbook using Time Machine. Everything was fine until Feb 27 when I was hit by a car and spent the next several weeks away from the computer. When I did get the laptop back, I didn't have the backup drive. Until a few days ago. So I reconnect and the backup starts with no problem until it finally tells me that I am out of space on the drive. I decided that I should just dump the imac time machine folder since I had a duplicate on another drive. That was much more complicated than I expected but I finally reclaimed a lot of space. The problem is that now when I connect time machine, it just says preparing backup. I can enter time machine and see my last date before the accident, even going back into last year. But it won't back up any more. Â
I've looked at the forums and on one suggestion deleted the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file after disconnecting the drive and then reconnecting everything but to no avail. Here is the message on the Time Machine Widget buddy
Starting standard backup
Backup requested by user
Backing up to: /Volumes/2TB BB/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|Â
My first thought would be that the backup I trashed was the one for the macbook and not the imac but the last saved dates would all be wrong and it wouldn't explain my ability to enter time machine and look back at my computer's history. Anyway, At this point I really want to just have a complete back up that I can use to wipe my drive and reinstall everything.
Info:
MacBook (13-inch Late 2006), Mac OS X (10.5.8)
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Mar 17, 2012
I was using a 1TB drive for Time Machine; I've now upped it to a 3TB drive. The new drive is an exact copy of the old one. But when I try to do a Time Machine backup, it's been stuck in "Preparing Backup..." for over 12 hours.
Info:
Mac OS X (10.7.3), 2.5 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
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Mar 4, 2012
Just under a month ago my time capsule ran out of space. My understanding is that when that happens time machine starts deleting old backups, that is certainly what it has done in the past.This time it just has not deleted anything. I deleted several of the older backups via the time machine interface and still it isn't backing up The log is just full of
01/03/2012 23:14:53.613 com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Is there anyway to fix this problem without just wiping out all my backups,why time machine isn't automatically deleting older backups as it is suppose to?
Info:
Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7)
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Apr 19, 2009
possible to back up all your data with Time Machine on Leopard and then install Snow Leopard and use Time Machine to restore all of your pictures/movies/music and the like?
I'm going to assume it's a no go since Time Machine is capable of a full system backup -- it may just turn your system back into Leopard?
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Jun 14, 2009
I am a little new to Time Machine, so I was wondering if anyone could answer this? I am currently using Time Machine to backup my Mac. I am running Leopard and I want to move to Snow Leopard when it comes out. When i get Snow Leopard, I will perform a reformat on my hard drive so its a nice fresh install. My question is what options will I get when I get when I go to install it as I have Time Machine? I'll be honest and say I'll be happy to just copy across my iTunes, iPhoto, contacts and calender over to Snow Leopard and not worry about anything else (stuff like downloading Firefox takes seconds and isn't a problem). Is this an option? Can i just install Snow Leopard totally fresh, then connect the Time Machine drive and copy the iTunes (etc etc) folders/files/docments over to my fresh install?
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Sep 8, 2009
I just tried and everything seems non-responsive or on a 2 minute delay. I use Time Capsule and Time Machine and things are just not acceptable at this speed.
Also, I don't think the archives are right. I used to have a ton of things on my desktop - most of which I cleaned recently by moving or deleting the files.
However, going back a few months in Time Machine, the only files that show up in my desktop folder/view are the ones that are on my desktop today. All the older, moved or deleted files no longer show up in Time Machine.
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Feb 18, 2010
I have a Apple Time Capsule which is used as a Time Machine Backup Facility and also a Wireless Hub for File Sharing and Internet Connection. I've been using Leopard for a couple of years without any significant problems. The other day, I installed Snow Leopard and suddenly, I'm facing a number of different problems and errors regarding backups to the Time Machine with the Time Capsule.
First, I was facing problems with a Case Sensitive error and now that I have ejected the Time Capsule, the Disk Utility has come up with a different name altogether and now I have the added problem of disk space on the time capsule. I know I could re-format and start over but that would defeat the whole point of my backups. The Time Machine/Capsule should re-write over the old backups when making space for new ones but its just giving me an error about not enough disk space.
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