Time Capsule gets stuck at "Preparing Backup..." every time.

It will/might get worse:
Mine worked beautifully for 6 months...
i think as a person moves files around it trips up its locating of them as it tries to keep just locations straight.... TiMe and extreem heat prevail in "Preparing..." and so much processor power is being utilized for the searching and backing up that the internet won't even load for Mac Mail or Safari...
it just stops.."server not responding"..<BuLL..... computer is too busy with TC/TM to process what the DSL is trying to deliver...
anyway that is what seems to be happening..
i'M truckin' by wired now--i give up.
CoMe oN Apple--Help us!!!

Jeffrey,

Consider these factors regarding an extended period of "Preparing...":

*Recent Crash or Other Major System Event* (Deep Traversal)
The reasons for this process are described in an article by George Schreyer. “During the preparation step it checks the FSEvents log for consistency. If it determines that something isn't quite right it has to rescan the whole disk. This can take quite awhile. A full rescan is always triggered by a crash, an unplanned shut down event or by booting from some other bootable disk between backups…. After a crash, Time Machine must scan the whole disk to determine what it has to do because it cannot trust the information that it left behind. Connected via an Ethernet connection, this phase would typically take 20 minutes on an older PowerBook. Being connected wirelessly stretches this phase out to over 3 hours.” [http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html]

According to the following KB article it can sometimes take a very long time if Time Machine begins this “deep traversal” and has to compare data inventories. This may apply to your situation, particularly if many Gigs of data are involved. ( http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1516)

*Software Updates*
Installing new software, upgrading existing software, or updating Mac OS X system software can created major changes in the structure of your directories. Time Machine will backup every file that has changed since the installation.

*Anti-Virus Software*
Running anti-virus software can interfere with the backup process. Either disable it altogether, or try the suggestion outlined here, “If you use third-party anti-virus scanning software and have issues, make sure your Time Machine back up folder (Backups.backupdb on the Time Machine disk) is excluded from virus scanning.” ( http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1516)

*Stalled .inProgress Files:*
It may be that the previous backup attempt was ungracefully interrupted leaving remains that Time Machine can’t deal with.

Open your Time Machine drive.
Open the folder labeled “Backups,backupdb”.
Now open the folder containing backups of the computer in question.
Are there any “.inProgress” files there. Delete them.

(For Time Capsule Users)
Select the TC in the SideBar of the Finder window.
Click "Connect as...". Enter your TCs password.
Double click the blue folder that appears in the finder window. The sparsebundle should now be visible.
Double click the sparsebundle and then click “Skip” in the checksum message.
Once “Backup of (Users Computer)” mounts in the Sidebar, click on it and open the “.backupdb” folder. Now open the folder containing backups of the computer in question.
Are there any “.inProgress” files there. Delete them.
Unmount the sparsebundle, then unmount the TC, and try backing up again.

Let us know if any of the suggestions above helped.

Glenn,

The last option did helped solved my problem. After i deleted the .Inprogress file, my backup worked. Thanks.

i am so """"stuck in preparing...""" and sick of it-- AND really computer "illiterate" -- but this explanation to Jeffery ''''sounds ''' really logical as far as my reasoning takes me..i'm going to try all the above .. say a prayer for mE.... (( thanks,Glenn -in advance for trying to help))

hi there

pleased to report that I followed the following and now my TC has backed up today, will let you know if it works in an hours time tho...

cheers

+Stalled .inProgress Files:+
+It may be that the previous backup attempt was ungracefully interrupted leaving remains that Time Machine can’t deal with.+

+Open your Time Machine drive.+
+Open the folder labeled “Backups,backupdb”.+
+Now open the folder containing backups of the computer in question.+
+Are there any “.inProgress” files there. Delete them.+

Jeffrey,

Try this:

Launch Disk Utility.
Drag the disk image onto the pane of DU on the left.
Highlight the disk image and click "Verify".
Now walk away for awhile, this may take some time.
Later, if it reports errors with the disk image you should be able to repair them by clicking "Repair".

Let us know if this helps.

Cheers!

This worked for me, Thanks !

Gines,

What were you encountering, and which procedure worked for you?

Thanks, this will help with future troubleshooting.

Glenn

Same problem, stuck at "Preparing Backup". I erased the inProgress file, hooked my computer to the TC using ethernet and after about 1 hr, it started backing up.

I can't get past the initial backup due to this problem. And looking in the Console Log I found that I am getting the following three messages every 30 second. Any suggestions?

9/23/08 8:49:39 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3193] Waiting for index to be ready (909 > 0)
9/23/08 8:49:39 PM mds[32] (/Volumes/Backup of Intel iMac/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/96F5E99E-5723-45DF-A835-F0C95FECBC64)(Erro r) IndexCI in CIMetaInfoSync:sync err: 22
9/23/08 8:49:39 PM mds[32] (/Volumes/Backup of Intel iMac/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/96F5E99E-5723-45DF-A835-F0C95FECBC64)(Erro r) IndexCI in CIMetaInfoCreate:Tried to create index when index already existed /Volumes/Backup of Intel iMac/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/96F5E99E-5723-45DF-A835-F0C95FECBC64

Background:
1) Just updated to 10.5.5 and iTunes 8.0.
2) 1 TB Time Capsule used as an Airport Base Station for a couple of months. Just activated it as my home router. (Before updating the above software.)
3) After updating the software I turned on File Sharing for the TC disk.
4) Initiated TM from a Standard Account. Stopped it after over 20 hours of "Preparing". The Console Log had the above messages throughout.
5) Stopped TM and erased the TC disk using Airport Utility. (Only had one 8KB file.)
6) Exempted TC from my virus detector.
7) Restarted TM from Administrator account. An hour latter it is still preparing with the same three repeating messages.

aresee, consider this. I this has helped others experiencing similar Spotlight problems.

*Spotlight Keeps Indexing Backup Drive*
Go to System Prefs --> Spotlight --> Privacy Tab.
Drag your Time Machine disk into the window. It should now be among the items to exclude form indexing.
Now quit System Prefs.
Reopen System Prefs and remove ("-") the Time Machine disk from the window.

This should clear out Spotlights cache. Naturally, Spotlight should begin indexing again (maybe even for a few hours depending on how much data there is), but it should eventually stop.

Let us know if this helped.

Cheers!

Stalled .inProgress Files:
It may be that the previous backup attempt was ungracefully interrupted leaving remains that Time Machine can’t deal with.

Open your Time Machine drive.
Open the folder labeled “Backups,backupdb”.
Now open the folder containing backups of the computer in question.
Are there any “.inProgress” files there. Delete them.
+
i also deleted a duplicate dated folder with different numbers but same date and "latest backup" folder..
i'm on my second backup now it is "finishing up"
here's hoping.....

Tried that, no joy. But I did this while TM was still running. So I may have not done it right. I am erasing TC right now (with 7 pass erase) and will try again tomorrow.

When I restarted it was with a clean drive (simple erase). So the .inProgress file was deleted before the second attempt.

Now this may not mean anything but I noticed that when I was running TM from my Admin account TC showed up as locked folders on my Standard account. Permissions denied access to everyone. Nor was I able to change this in my Admin account. I thought that I could use TC both as a NAS and a backup drive. Was I wrong?

Unfortunately you were.

*Using a Time Machine Hard Disk (or Time Capsule) for Other Files*
Here is Apples’ line on this: “Time Machine works best if you use your backup disk only for Time Machine backups. If you keep files on your backup disk, Time Machine won’t back up those files, and the space available for Time Machine backups will be reduced.” [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/11430.html]

So basically, what you want to do is "unsupported". But that hasn't stopped others from successfully partitioning external hard disks and storing data on other partitions. As long as the Time Machine backup has its' own partition, you should be OK.

However, this is not an option for Time Capsule users as there is not an easy way of partitioning the Time Capsules’ internal had disk without elaborate effort. In this case, use the Time Capsule hard disk solely for Time Machine backups. Then attach an additional hard disk to the Time Capsules USB port and store additional files there. This added disk will still be available to all Macs that can access the Time Capsule. (Note though, that any USB disks attached to the USB port of the Time Capsule can not then be backed up to the Time Capsule via Time Machine. Time Machine will only backup your Macs internal hard disk or any external hard disks physically attached to the Mac. Time Machine can not backup one remote device to another remote device.)

Hope this clarifies things.

Cheers!