I've followed all the recommendations I could find, but I still can't get a Time Machine backup (stuck on preparing backup). I'm concerned about upgrading to Big Sur without a full backup so don't know what to do. Any thoughts?
Thanks all. In the end it was just patience. I walked away, went to bed, and it had completed the backup by the time I got up this morning. I do think that I would have been better off with a USBC drive so I didn’t need to use a dongle (dang these computers without multiple ports).
I had already made sure there was sufficient space, that I’d turned off Dropbox and Adobe CreativeCloud and Google drive before reaching out for help.
After creating a bootable disk of Catalina I was able to upgrade to Big Sur and am moving on.
Thanks all. In the end it was just patience. I walked away, went to bed, and it had completed the backup by the time I got up this morning. I do think that I would have been better off with a USBC drive so I didn’t need to use a dongle (dang these computers without multiple ports).
I had already made sure there was sufficient space, that I’d turned off Dropbox and Adobe CreativeCloud and Google drive before reaching out for help.
After creating a bootable disk of Catalina I was able to upgrade to Big Sur and am moving on.
Also how much free space do you have on your boot drive? If there's not enough space for local snapshots TM can't backup.
“ make sure that your backup disk is connected directly to your Mac, not through a USB hub or other device.”
I’ll buy a new external drive that connects by USB-C and see if that works. Thank you.
Good to hear. I have three slogans:
"A watched backup never completes."
"A watched update never completes."
"A watched Migration Assistant never completes."
I have learned to allow LOTS of time for these things. And if possible, find something else to do and not watch the "progress," which is sometimes inaccurately reported.
"Preparing" can take hours if it is a first backup in a long time and you are backing up a lot of data.
Very good and if eventually going the Big Sur UpGrade route - be sure the check all the requirements Before attempting. Worthwhile reading a Tip - How to upgrade to Big Sur
Catalina Time Machine won't run but want to upgrade to Big Sur
