time machine 'stuck' on indexing backup

Question

Level 1

6 points

time machine 'stuck' on indexing backup

time machine is backing up and 'stuck' on 'indexing backup' which is taking forever and shows no progress at all. i can hear the external working away, but the progress bar shows nothing being done... how long does this usually take?

thanks!

macbook pro, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Jan 13, 2010 11:00 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 13, 2010 11:17 AM in response to scrappx

Its totally dependent upon the number of changes on your machine - are you running any applications which are altering the disc contents while it is trying to index ?

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Answer 2

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jan 13, 2010 11:25 AM in response to scrappx

scrappx wrote:
time machine is backing up and 'stuck' on 'indexing backup' which is taking forever and shows no progress at all. i can hear the external working away, but the progress bar shows nothing being done... how long does this usually take?

Start with #A1 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum. Copy and post the messages from the TM Buddy widget here.

Also tell us about your setup, especially the destination for your backups, and whether this is your first Time Machine backup to that destination.

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Answer 3

scrappx Author

Level 1

6 points

Jan 13, 2010 12:25 PM in response to Pondini

my first backup was 01/10/10 and latest backup was last night- 10/12/10 at 10pm. destination is to external lacie 1tb connected to time capsule (opted for this route as time capsule takes too long) over wireless. haven't had problems with any backups until now. the backup shows being a little less than 40gb total- so not too bad if i have to start a new one.

thanks for the help...

-----TIME WIDGET BUDDY START-----
Starting standard backup
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://vivienhh@ourMOVIES1000.local/LaCie1000
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://vivienhh@ourMOVIES1000.local/LaCie1000
Disk image /Volumes/LaCie1000-1/vivienhh’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 587.5 MB requested (including padding), 269.32 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Indexer unavailable (200)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101

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Answer 4

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jan 13, 2010 12:39 PM in response to scrappx

scrappx wrote:
my first backup was 01/10/10 and latest backup was last night- 10/12/10 at 10pm. destination is to external lacie 1tb connected to time capsule (opted for this route as time capsule takes too long) over wireless.

Backing-up to a USB drive connected to a TC shouldn't be any faster than backing-up to the TC itself. Some folks say it's actually a bit slower.

the backup shows being a little less than 40gb total

Huh? Where do you see that?

No pre-backup thinning needed: 587.5 MB requested (including padding),

That means TM estimates about 490 mb, before it adds 20% padding.

Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)

These indicate a problem with the drive, or difficulty communicating with it.

Try all the things in #D2 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

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Answer 5

suebee14

Level 1

0 points

Jan 14, 2010 8:09 PM in response to scrappx

I have the identical problem. Indexing backup is stuck.

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Answer 6

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jan 14, 2010 8:18 PM in response to suebee14

Hi, and welcome to the forums.

If you have the identical problem, then please take the identical advice.

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Answer 7

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,179 points

Jan 15, 2010 7:57 AM in response to Pondini

Pondini wrote:

Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)

These indicate a problem with the drive, or difficulty communicating with it.

Precisely.

For example, there's a bug of sorts with network backups to a Time Capsule that triggers this behavior if TM backups are being done via AirPort and the AirPort transfer rate drops too low. 😟

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Answer 8

scrappx Author

Level 1

6 points

Jan 20, 2010 7:23 AM in response to scrappx

the problem to this problem is that the drive was not mounting when doing a backup and was stuck indexing...

thanks for the posts and reference to the that page, will definitely come in handy!

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Answer 9

Apr 10, 2010 10:42 PM in response to scrappx

Iam having similar issues:

Starting standard backup
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Leif%20@Leif. afpovertcp.tcp.local/Data
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Leif%20@Leif. afpovertcp.tcp.local/Data
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Disk image /Volumes/Data/Leif .sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 305.04 GB requested (including padding), 922.56 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!
Copied 0 files (0 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Backup canceled.
Ejected Time Machine disk image.
Ejected Time Machine network volume.

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Answer 10

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Apr 11, 2010 7:33 AM in response to leifunderhill

What is the destination for your backups?

It's clearly on a network -- Time Capsule, Mac Server, shared drive on another Mac, or ??

Is this new (your first backup to this location), or had it been working before?

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Answer 11

LAM09

Level 1

17 points

May 25, 2010 8:11 PM in response to Pondini

Thanks for the Buddy widget advice. I am having the same "waiting for index to be ready" problem, but I don't see a solution in this discussion. Am I missing something or is the question not answerable at this time? Or should I call Apple?

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Answer 12

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

May 25, 2010 9:10 PM in response to LAM09

LAM09 wrote:
Thanks for the Buddy widget advice. I am having the same "waiting for index to be ready" problem, but I don't see a solution in this discussion.

An earlier post has a link to #D2 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). It contains a number of possible solutions, and the thread is marked "answered."

Have you tried all that apply to your setup?

Have you tried repairing your backups, per #A5 there?

What is the destination for your backups? If it's an external HD, details please (USB/Firewire; how it's connected; etc.).

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Answer 13

May 26, 2010 3:43 AM in response to Pondini

Just wanted to weigh in on this one because of the similarity of my problem. I didn't see in this thread how the HD was connected. I've had similar "hang" issues with my Iomega 1.5TB drive. http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11561294#11561294 I changed the partition format, which didn't solve the problem. In the end, I reluctantly switched to USB connection, and the problem is completely fixed. I'm convinced that the problem has to do with Firewire 800 and sleep, because TM would work fine on a busy day of computer use, but generally hang in the morning after the iMac had slept. Console log would show messages indicating that the computer was waiting for the HD. My problem is 'solved' because TM is working for me, but I'm still ticked that I can't use the faster FW hookup. That's why I spent months shopping for this particular HD.

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Answer 14

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

May 26, 2010 7:50 AM in response to RedFish61

RedFish61 wrote:
. . .. I'm convinced that the problem has to do with Firewire 800 and sleep, because TM would work fine on a busy day of computer use, but generally hang in the morning after the iMac had slept. Console log would show messages indicating that the computer was waiting for the HD. My problem is 'solved' because TM is working for me, but I'm still ticked that I can't use the faster FW hookup. That's why I spent months shopping for this particular HD.

That's not a general problem; many folks back up via F/W 800 drives without a problem. Your difficulty may have to do with the particular drive you have, or even the software/firmware that came with it. Most external HDs come with their own sleep or "spin down" mode; some can be changed, deleted, or disabled, others can't. Some will respond to the +Put the hard disk(s) to sleep . . .+ setting in +System Preferences > Energy Saver,+ others won't.

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Answer 15

dmader

Level 1

0 points

Jun 10, 2010 5:14 AM in response to scrappx

Dear all,

my problem isn't really the indexing, but the last message from Time Machine Buddy is "Waiting for index to be ready (101)", so I put the message here.

My real problem: My backup size is approx. 5GB which I try to save on (empty, just formatted) 120 GB harddrive. Time Machine starts the backup as usual by counting up X in it's context menu (X / 5 GB). But when X reaches 5GB, both sides are moving up equally until the disk size is exceeded. Then I get the error "Not enough space".

Backups have worked perfectly until last week the plug of the external HD slipped out during backup, and now there seems to be a corrupted file anywhere.

Already deleted Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine... (or however it's called), but this seems to be not enough.

Help, anyone?

Thanks a lot,
Daniel

***********Output of Buddy ************
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup/Backups.backupdb
Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
Backup content size: 139.3 GB excluded items size: 134.9 GB for volume Macintosh HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 5.28 GB requested (including padding), 111.26 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)

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