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Time Machine stuck on preparing backup

My Time Machine is stuck on preparing backup for both my Western Digital external drives. This is a recent issue and I don't know it's related to the recent IOS update to Big Sur. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


I've erased one of my backup drives in hopes that starting fresh would help, but so far no luck.

iMac 21.5″, macOS 11.0

Posted on Dec 7, 2020 8:18 AM

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Posted on Dec 7, 2020 10:14 AM

Hours is ok following a macOS upgrade, even a day perhaps, for each backup drive. Subsequent backups should take about as long as they always have though.


Don't interrupt it unless you want to wait for hours again.

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Time Machine stuck on preparing backup

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